The Chicago Cubs went digging into Texas Rangers free agent outfielders again. This time, coming up with Marlon Byrd. He can’t be any worse than the 1 year, Milton Bradley Experiment. At least he comes cheaper and gets to continue working with the same hitting coach that seemingly turned around his career within the last 3 seasons ago, Rudy Jaramillo.
A quick look at his stats with Texas:
Marlon Byrd
| Year | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 377 | 1364 | 196 | 402 | 88 | 14 | 40 | 212 | .295 |
| 2007 | 109 | 414 | 60 | 127 | 17 | 8 | 10 | 70 | .307 |
| 2008 | 122 | 403 | 70 | 120 | 28 | 4 | 10 | 53 | .298 |
| 2009 | 146 | 547 | 66 | 155 | 43 | 2 | 20 | 89 | .283 |
The Cubs outfield seems to be set with Alfonso Soriano in Left field, Marlon Byrd in Center field and Kosuke Fukodome in Right field. The 4th and 5th outfielders will probably be Reed Johnson and either Tyler Colvin or Sam Fuld, save for any future trades or signings.
Again, save for any future trades/signings, the infield will be Derek Lee at 1st Base, Jeff Baker at 2nd Base, Ryan Theriot at Shortstop and Aramis Ramirez at 3rd Base.
Geovanny Soto will catch and have the opportunity to prove that 2009 was just a sophomore slump and return to his 2008 form.
Now to think about the pitching staff and see what they have in store for us. Maybe in another post.
Spring Training can’t come soon enough.
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- With Bradley Out, Cubs Bring In Byrd (nytimes.com)
- Cubs agree with Byrd on three-year contract (cbssports.com)
- Happy New Year: Cubs Sign Marlon Byrd (bleacherreport.com)
Byrd is a nice pick up and reasonably priced. Carlos Zambrano needs to go. Drop him in the Mets lap and see if they throw anything back.
Zambrano is definitely overpriced for what he has given us so far. Of the $32.75 million he’s made to this point on his current contract, his only shining moments have been the no-hitter against the Astros in late 2008 and beating up the Gatorade cooler this past season.
I love his fire, but if he can’t harness it, the Cubs are just wasting $53 million or more for the rest of his deal. For that kind of money he needs to be approaching 20 wins every season AND be in the Cy Young running, and giving the Gatorade coolers a break. It’s that same bulky contract that will probably keep him from being traded, unless Isiah Thomas becomes a baseball GM, that is.