Paul Sullivan's views on the Cubs free agency needs...

Mussina & SHeff aren't coming to Chicago..

just awful

the idea of shifting Jones to left and platooning him with Murton.  Then find a better right fielder.

plan.  Its wrong headed in so many ways.  What the Cubs need to do is to stop being self-delusional and make next year a big time "rebuilding year".  This means that, in the off season, they let A-Ram and Pierre walk and they shop Jones, Eyre, Howry, and Dempster.   They commit to a very young staff for next year knowing it will likely get lit up.  (Some combination of Zambrano, Marshall, Hill, Mateo, Marmol, Williams, Guzman and Ryu).  Given a little time to develop, you have at least one top starter and a bunch of guys that could break out to being a top starter, but at a minimum, could be very good 3's, 4's and 5's. )    They have an OF of Murton, Pie and Pagan (or some other young guy gotten in a trade for the above).   They have an IF of Moore, Theriot, Patterson and Isturis with Lee at First and Barrett at Catcher.   They have a bad year.  But they will really know what they have and will have saved enough money to make a big push in the 2008 FA market AND will have developed the young talent needed to be a team for many years to come.  

This is necessary because the Cubs didn't follow the "smart" school of adding one or two good young players every year.

Kessinger ss
Beckert 2b
Williams lf
Santo 3b
Banks 1b
Hundley c
Hickman rf
Young cf
Jenkins p

and its beat writers?  Its truly astounding, outside of Bruce Miles THEY ALL ARE TERRIBLE.  What is going on?  Northwestern has one of the top journalism schools in the country (Wilbon and Greenburg from ESPN, both are alumni) you'd think they'd graduate the occasional sport's journalist from time to time.

This article pulls Sullivan down into Phil Rogers territory, that is the territory where you actively avoid reading an article, because the content is guaranteed to be A: lifted from somewhere else  B:  so ridiculously stupid you would think it was composed waiting for the short-yellow school bus to pick up the writer.  C:  So obviously made to assuage the Cubs/Tribune, you want to puke.  (Remember the Dusty Extention piece, only a month ago?)

Cancelling your subscription to the Tribune would help us all (you know why) but you should be doing that anyway because the WRITING in the Daily Herald or Sun Times is INFINATELY BETTER anyway.

douche.

Dusty's wish list.

Isn't a bad idea.  I'm kind of an advocate for that, I don't like him personally but I think he can hit.  Aside from injury concerns he'd make a nice 1-2 year player.

Mussina is probably going to resing with the Yanks for less than his $17 million option.  He's probably not going anywhere.

Dempster in the rotation?  WTF???

Howry and Eyre as co-closers?  Um, NO!  How about Wood as the closer, Howry and Eyre as setup men and Dempster in the current Novoa role?  Oh wait, that would put Dempster in a lot of critical situations wouldn't it?  Okay, Dempster as mop up man.  Honestly I think Demp could be a good closer if he's in the right situation, or rather used correctly.  I'd rather see Wood in that role though, just my opinion.

Murton as the 4th outfielder and Jones in left?  Murton will have a better year than Jones next year, quote me on that.  I'd rather see a platoon than having Jones getting the bulk of the playing time, but I'd rather see Murton getting the bulk of the playing time rather than see a platoon.  My point is, if either is a 4th outfielder it should be Jones.  Nice bat off the bench anyway.

Let Aramis walk if he's not loyal enough to accept a lesser salary to stay with a losing team?  That makes no sense at all.  So we should let a good player walk because he didn't have a good April but we should take on a Mike Lowell instead?  So Lowell had a better batting average and obp for a month or two, big deal.  Look a the numbers now and tell me who is the better player.  Lowell is alright but Aramis is clearly superior.  Holding a grudge against him because he didn't come through every time we wanted him to is ridiculous.  

Bold moves are great and all as long as they aren't stupid.  Most of the moves Sullivan suggested only make a bad team worse and his rational for making them is shortsighted and naive.  

players Sullivan might have included?  How about Albert Belle in left?  What's Jack Clark up to?  I know Joe Morgan hates the Cubs but could he be the answer at second or will Beckert beat him out in his second go-around with the Cubs?  I wouldn't mind seeing Banks and Baker back as long as there's a hole up the middle.  If not Baker then what about the remains of Johnny Evers at second?  

Actually, the remains of Johnny Evers might be better than what's on the roster.

of hearing about Ray Durham. He should be avoided like the plague. That's all we need is another big injury risk.

Out of everyone he suggested, I'd be more than happy to get Mike Mussina. I don't see it happening, though.

I do agree with his takes on letting Ramirez and Pierre walk, though.

...he should go to the field now and watch the SF Giants.  He's basically stolen Brian Sabian's MO of hiring the oldest has-beens possible.

No one ever mentions Andruw Jones as a possible center fielder for the Cubs. I don't think Vernon Wells is coming here,as nice as that would be but I would take either of them over Pierre or Lofton or anybody else right now.