Should we bring back our juiced OF?

The title is intentionall misleading... i'm not talking about Sammy Sosa. I'm talking about Matt Lawton. Read on for the reasoning...

I, like most other cubs fans, would like to see the Cubs sign two top of the order hitters this offseason. Hopefully, the Cubs will sign Rafael Furcal and take care of one of those slots. Either way, they should fill one of those slots through an OF acquisition. The other options that have been discussed at BCB for top of the order OFs are Kenny Lofton, Juan Pierre, Milton Bradley and Joey Gathright. For comparisons's sake, here are some career statistincs for the 4 of them and Lawton, without names attached to the stat lines (BA/OBP/SLG/SB%)

OF A: .299/.373/.425/79.3
OF B: .271/.316/.322/81.2
OF C: .267/.368/.418/71.4
OF D: .305/.355/.375/73.6
OF E: .269/.350/.426/65.9

Looking at these statitics alone, it appears that OF A gets on base the best, OF B is the best basestealer but has by far lowest OBP, and OF E has the most power and is the worst basestealer. OFs B and D show a dearth of power, and player B should be avoided at all costs, as his high SB% is sure to cement his low OBP at the top of any lineup Dusty has control over. OFs A and C are the two best all-around offensive players with OF A being the best. The next best on-base rate, and in my opionion, the next best all-around offensive player, is OF C. He gets on base at a great clip, hits for decent power, and is a much better base stealer than the next best player, OF E. Furthermore, since he has the lowest career average, he is likely to be undervalued as a lead-off hitter due to the overestimated importance of this statistic. If OF C were unavailable, i would pursue OF E, but only if we secured a "prototypical lead off hitter" elsewhere, as his low SB% will likely prevent him from leading off on a Dusty Baker lineup card. Player D would be a serviceable option, but he would be my fourth choice, ahead of only option B, which should be looked at as a last resort.

Here are the OF identities:
OF A: Kenny Lofton
OF B: Joey Gathright
OF C: Matt Lawton
OF D: Juan Pierre
OF E: Milton Bradley

As i said above, based on career offensive statistics, Lofton is the best option. However, his age (38) is a concern to me. He hasn't played more than 110 games since 2001, and i think we'd have to put him into a platoon with a right-handed hitter to get good value out of him. If we end up trading for Kevin Mench, and want to go with a Mench/Lofton platoon, i'm extremely happy. However, this scenario is unlikely, since i doubt we'll acquire Mench, Lofton, and yet another veteran OF (Pie could be the other OF, but he won't be up until after the All-star break, and he's also a lefty so he couldn't be platooned with Lofton). If we don't sign Lofton, it, it appears that Lawton might be the best option. I think he would come cheap - a contract similar to what we'll end up paying Pierre or Bradley would probably convince him to come here, and we wouldn't have to give up any players to acquire him. Yes, i know he hit poorly in his short stint with the Cubs, posting #'s of .244/.289/.308/100%(1-for-1 in SBs), and i also know he is suspended for the first 10 games of next season. However, he tends to hit extremely well before the All-Star break, posting pre All-star break splits of .279/.376/.445/68.2% over his career. After the All-star break we'll hopefully need him less after Pie gets called up. One other note against Latwon is actually one in favor of Bradley: Bradley has performed consistently above his career line the last 3 years, posting a line of .290/.379/.463/66.7% over that span - well above the line posted by any of the options. I only want Bradley if we can get Furcal, as Bradley probably won't leadoff for Dusty and we'd still be without a leadoff hitter. And even then he has more serious baggage than Lawton does - he has had a maligned history that has been much discussed on BCB, just look at the diary posted below this one, for example.

There seem to be questions with all these OFs: Can Lofton produce for a full season despite his age? Can Gathright learn plate discipline? Accordingly, do we want to risk finding out if our young lead-off CF can learn plate discipline? Again? Can Lawton stay off the juice and overcome his annual late-season swoon? Can Pierre ever hit anything other than a seeing-eye single? Can Bradley overcome his emotional baggage and not be a threat to clubhouse chemistry (not to mention his playing time)?

The point is that the questions surrounding Lawton aren't any more serious than the other options in my opinion, and therefore i think he should at least warrant consieration. Thoughts?