We'll Huff And We'll Puff...

If the Cubs do manage to trade for Aubrey Huff, get ready for these sorts of groaners.

I don't normally do this sort of thing, so I figured I'd get my obligatory one out of the way now.

Speaking of huffing and puffing, Phil Rogers weighed in on the Huff trade possibility today:

To pry Huff away, general manager Jim Hendry would probably have to send the Devil Rays one of his two best prospects, first baseman Brian Dopirak and outfielder Ryan Harvey—who are both from the Tampa area—and a truckload of pitching. Call it two or three from a list that excludes only the four primary starters.

It's possible Tampa Bay wouldn't do a deal without Carlos Zambrano being in it. If that's the case, there probably won't be a trade. But if the Rays will do it for Dopirak or Harvey and two or three other pitchers from a list including Kyle Farnsworth, Sergio Mitre, Jon Leicester, Angel Guzman, Renyel Pinto, Billy Petrick and Bobby Brownlie, then Hendry should do it.

OK, take this with about 1,000 grains of salt. Usually Rogers is idly speculating, much as the rest of us do.

This time I hope he's on to something. Dopirak is a major talent -- but he is only 20 years old and has not played above A ball. He's three or four years away, and I am not worried about the 2008 or 2009 Cubs, I want to win NOW.

Aubrey Huff isn't the one missing piece, but he would at least partially replace the offense lost with Sosa and Alou no longer in the lineup.

If he could be acquired for, say, Farnsworth, Dopirak and one of the other pitchers mentioned, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

My feeling is that Jim Hendry is trying to work out some sort of deal so that a major acquisition -- apart from Jerry Hairston, Jr. -- can be announced when the Sosa deal is made official, which could be Wednesday or Thursday. The article linked right there also says the Cubs are "close" to signing a deal with Jeromy Burnitz, and that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing IF another power hitting outfielder can be acquired.

Also today, I have, thanks to Kasey Ignarski, a mostly-complete list of 2005 Cub spring camp uniform numbers:

 1-Jose Macias 
 2-Gene Clines (coach) 
 4-Jason Dubois 
 5-Nomar Garciaparra 
 7-Todd Walker 
 8-Michael Barrett 
 9-Henry Blanco 
11-Cody Ransom (nonroster) 
12-Dusty Baker (manager) 
13-Neifi Perez 
15-Sonny Jackson (coach) 
16-Aramis Ramirez 
17-Calvin Murray 
19-Angel Echevarria (nonroster) 
20-Corey Patterson 
22-Mark Prior 
25-Derrek Lee 
27-David Kelton 
28-Todd Hollandsworth 
29-Danny Klassen (nonroster) 
31-Greg Maddux 
32-LaTroy Hawkins 
33-Glendon Rusch 
34-Kerry Wood 
35-Chris Speier (coach) 
36-Gary Matthews (coach) 
37-Mike Remlinger 
38-Carlos Zambrano 
39-Dick Pole (coach) 
40-Todd Wellemeyer 
41-Larry Rothschild (coach) 
43-Mike Wuertz 
44-Kyle Farnsworth 
45-Stephen Randolph 
46-Ryan Dempster 
48-Joe Borowski 
49-Jimmy Anderson (nonroster) 
50-Will Ohman 
51-Jon Leicester 
52-Sergio Mitre 
53-Geovany Soto 
54-Renyel Pinto 
57-Eddie Oropesa (nonroster) 
59-Juan Lopez (coach) 
60-Carlos Vasquez 
61-Peter Bergeron (nonroster) 
62-Richard Lewis 
64-John Koronka 
65-Rene Reyes (nonroster) 
66-Adam Greenberg (nonroster) 
67-Angel Guzman 
68-Ronny Cedeno 
71-Russ Rohlicek 
72-Raul Valdez (nonroster) 
74-Jose Reyes (nonroster) 
76-Jermaine Van Buren( nonroster) 
88-Casey Kopitzke (nonroster) 
??-Chad Fox (nonroster) 
??-Scott Williamson (nonroster) 
??-Jerry Hairston Jr. (soon!)