Floyd"ed" in the Outfield?

The Tribune Company, who is up for sale by the way, has spent well over $300 million this offseason to try and put a competitive squad on the field for Lou Piniella? Is this per Piniella's request, or are the Tribune company executives making their final attempt at winning it all and using the championship to make their sales pitch more attractive. The signings of all these players to large contracts are quite interesting as they are quite back loaded. Surely, a World Series championship would be huge for the potential sale of the corporation, but it would leave the new ownership group sitting with some horrible contracts.

With todays acquisition of Cliff Floyd by the Cubs, they are now sitting with seven potential outfielders (Cliff Floyd, Jacque Jones, Matt Murton, Angel Pagan, Felix Pie, Mark DeRosa and Alfonso Soriano). Or are they? Will all those names be considered in the outfield mix come April 2 when Lou pencils in the lineup to face the Reds, or will a couple of them be in the infield? We all know Lou Piniella is used to having to score a lot of runs to win due to mediocre pitching staffs (see Mariners and Devil Rays). Well, the Cubs are no different this year. With a staff of Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis, Rich Hill, Wade Miller and Mark Prior, the manual scoreboard operators are going to be kept quite busy. So what lineup should Sweet Lou put out on the field that will allow them to outscore their opponents? If all are healthy, and that is a big if when Cliff Floyd is involved, this is the lineup and batting order that should be gracing the Bleacher Bum faithfuls on a regular basis.

Player		Position		HomeRuns		OBP
Soriano		2B		46		.351
Barrett		C		16		.368
Lee		1B		8		.368
Ramirez		3B		38		.352
Jones		CF		27		.334
Murton		RF		13		.365
Floyd		LF		11		.324
DeRosa		SS		13		.357
Zambrano		P		6		.316

Even with Derrek Lee's injury riddled 8 Home Runs, which we can pretty safely guess will be at least 20-30 more this season, that is some serious power to go along with a pretty impressive on base percentage. To put the OBP into perspective the formidable lead off hitter Juan Pierre would have ranked only ahead of Cliff Floyd and Carlos Zambrano last year with an abysmal showing of .330.

If Derrek Lee and Cliff Floyd stay healthy, and the rest of the Cubs lineup performs anywhere near last years numbers, this team could look to make a serious run at Houston's 2000 NL Home Run record of 249. Why do I think there could be some serious skirmishes out on Waveland Avenue.

Note to Bleacher Bums: Bring a glove to wear opposite your beer hand for your own protection.

Note to Tribune Corp: Lock up Zambrano or he will cost you a lot more than $100 million after 2007.