Was it a good move? Well, it may be a couple of years before we find out. I don't think I would've made this trade though.
Choi was cheap, like, league-minimum cheap. Lee isn't - think 5-7 million (I'm using The Cub Reporter's numbers here).
Choi was left-handed. Lee is right-handed, like everyone else on this team.
Derrek Lee is good. We can expect him to be good in 2004, and there's some comfort in that. We don't know how good Choi would have been. But with all the holes in the Cub lineup, I would have preferred that the Cubs take a flyer on a cheap youngster with patience and potential. They could have saved that money for other needs. For example, the Cubs have no second baseman right now. For another example, they're paying no-hit SS Alex Gonzalez 5.5 million. They're also paying no-hit catcher Damian Miller 3 million.
Maybe the Cubs will solve these problems too, and maybe Choi really is the player we saw in the second half of 2003, a .140 hitter perpetually mystified by breaking balls. In a couple of years, maybe I'm congratulating Jim Hendry for his keen foresight.
But this hurts a bit. We've been looking forward to having this guy in the lineup for so long. The Cubs ditched Mark Grace a season early to make room for him. Injuries and The Fred McGriff Experience delayed his arrival. And this year, the collision with Kerry Wood cut short a promising rookie season. It just never quite worked out.
On Opening Day 2004, take a look at the Cubs' starting 1-8, and count the prospects. Assuming he makes it back from his ACL injury, there's Corey Patterson . . . and that's it. One career Cub. Choi was supposed to be our guy too, manning first base for years to come. And now he's gone, and that just makes me feel bad.
posted by
Derek at 4:16 PM MST [link] --
wMonday, November 24, 2003
As a Colorado resident hailing from Chicago, what's better than having your pathetic, 3-7 (now 4-7), lost-to-Detroit-last-week, no-account Bears beat the Broncos in Denver, pounding home what what may be the final nail in Denver's 2003 coffin?
Not a whole hell of a lot.
posted by
Derek at 11:18 AM MST [link] --
wReigning NL Central Division Choke Artists
Eamus Catuli
AC016097
wOfficial Let's Play Two Favorite Cub (TM)
Carlos Zambrano
3-3, 3.22, 68 K
5/31: ND,8 IP,0 ER,1 H,9 K
Next start: 6/05 @ SD
