Sorry misread.  

Actually I wouldn't be surprised if he changes teams but not cities.

How do we really know Prior wants out?  All we have is speculation.

Perhaps he just wants to see what's out there first before making a commitment.  Perhaps he's not so sure the Cubs want him.

I really hope he comes back strong for whoever as long as he's not in our division especially in the American League because of all the stuff that's gone on here in this city.

But why does that clearly mean he wants out?

Maybe he just wants to see what's out there.

How do we even know that's what really was offered.  That's media speculation.

he is a workman like corner nibbler who has a above average FB, slider and probably good arm for a lower rotation slot.

valuable on the ledger sheets.

he is smart and if the Cubs can get value this year for him that make us a contender they have four other pitchers who have the same abilities with more experience.

He can play CF platoon with Pie...play other OF's in a pinch and knows how to play off the bench.

... Fukudome is going to need to rest, too.

If you go with 12 pitchers and 2 catchers, that leaves you with 11 guys.  7 of them will play most days, so that leaves you with 4 others...

Those four will likely be DeRosa (if we land a speedster), Ward, and two of Cedeno/Murton/Pagan/Fuld/mystery OF (barring trades)

about is avg. what i saw was an awesome player coming through at the right times. his energy is 2nd to none. i remember at least 4 games in where he kept a inning alive with a base hit and the cubs rallied for 1 or more runs. i saw a game winning homerun. a game changing homerun. i saw him get himself into scoring position many many times. i saw him make several fabulous defensive plays. theriot plays like a man that has no future in the game meaning he is playing for his job day in and day out. i'm not one bit ashamed to call him our opening day starter and furthermore in my mind we need not worry about the ss position.

in 1968 or 1916, a .266 batting average would be pretty close to "awesome."

But yeah, I know what you mean.

I mean, I'm going to have a hard time absolutely ruling out any improvement whatsoever from him. There's a large enough luck component to batting average that it's a possibility, although not one I'd really want to run out there and gamble on.

But do I think there is a chance for a true-talent improvement from him? Not really. Theriot's skill set is pretty much based on two things: plate discipline and baserunning skill. (For years Baseball America called him the best baserunning prospect in the Cubs organization.) I don't see that there's any real room for improvement in those skillsets; certainly as he gets older he's not going to get faster out there on the basepaths.

He's just not driving the ball particularly well when he makes contact, which results in a lot of ground balls that he has to beat out for base hits. He relies an awful lot on his speed to leg out those grounders, and that speed wears down as the season goes on. If he doesn't have his speed, he has very little in the way to fall down on -- it's amazing for a guy who is as patient and as good with taking walks as he is to not get on base that much, because he's not hitting the ball well enough to get hits as often as you'd like. And his power is an afterthought at best.

I like him as a bench player; he can come in and play good defense in the middle infield, he can pinch-run, he can give you a good at-bat as a pinch hitter and he's not a total zero as an occasional fill-in. But I really think he's overexposed as an everyday player, and that he is by far the biggest offensive liablity on the Cubs as currently composed. Almost every national baseball writer who talks about the subject (the most recent article that comes to mind is Keith Law) says the Cubs lack a "first division" shortstop to really put them over the top. Theriot isn't that guy.

Kenny Lofton is temptation. If Felix Pie gets off to a rough start, and we have Lofton on the bench, it will be an invitation for every sports columnist in town to start writing "Why not Lofton" columns that say things like, "Lofton's a proven winner, a veteran of over 20 teams. He knows how to get it done. Could he really be any worse than Pie, the unproven rookie?"

The fact of the matter is, young players tend to play better when they don't constantly have to look over their shoulder to make sure they're playing well enough to keep the 41-year-old vampire outfielders on the bench.

Signing Kenny Lofton sets Felix Pie up for failure, sends a message that he's expected to fail, and provides a tailor-made reason to abandon the project if he shows the first hint of weakness.

It's things like signing Lofton as "insurance" that keep this franchise from developing a home grown position player since, what Mark Grace?