- Marlon Byrd has a good relationship with former Cub Milton Bradley calling him "a great guy".
- Byrd told the Chicago Sun-Times that the Chicago was a place he really wanted to go.
- According to Phil Rogers, Byrd is a fit with the Cubs, but he does make a right handed lineup even more right handed.
- The Chicago Tribune's poll tells us that 60% of voters are happy with the this signing.
- Carrie Muskat reports that Byrd's decision to sign with the Cubs was influenced by the fact that his hitting coach with Texas Rudy Jaramillo is now in Chicago.
- Keith Law of ESPN.com doesn't like the Byrd signing, saying that it was the latest in the series of outfield mistakes for Jim Hendry.
- Dave Cameron described Marlon as an average player.
Steve Stone joined Kaplan, Van Dyck, & Rogers to talk about the move yesterday on Chicago Tribune Live:
- Stone thinks he's a very solid center fielder.
- Byrd had a pretty good year last year offensively with Texas.
- Steve doesn't think he will bring speed or power, but he is a good guy and a solid player.
- The only problem with Marlon is that he is another right handed bat in a lineup loaded with right handed bats.
- If your team's real good, you can still win with only one left handed bat in the lineup (Kosuke).
- The Cubs "are in pretty good shape" to compete in the NL Central next year.
- If Matt Holiday stays in St. Louis, they could give the Cubs a problem next year.
- The money is not there for the Cubs to go out and get that left handed difference maker.
Next up, Cubs GM Jim Hendry joined the guys on CTL:
- Hendry said Marlon is a great teammate and a terrific guy in the clubhouse.
- Rudy has talked to Lou, Randy, and Jim since the first day Jaramillo was signed to try to get them to go after Byrd.
- Jim will leave it up to Lou where to bat Byrd in the lineup.
- There wasn't really a "big bat" center fielder available. The Cubs expect Marlon's numbers to be consistent.
- Lou is very happy that the Cubs got Byrd.
- The Cubs may still be a different club when they get to camp than they are today.
- Brett Jackson is a "fast track" guy and the Cubs are confident he is going to get to the big leagues.
- The Cubs brought Ty Colvin up sooner than they planned due to the injuries. James Adducci has a chance to be a good player as well.
- Jim says the Cubs have good outfielder coming, but they are not worried about 3 years down the road yet.
- Now that the center field thing is taken care of the Cubs will regroup.
- The Cubs would certainly like to add a bullpen arm.
- There are still a lot of good players out there, and Jim thinks they will still be there in a couple weeks.
- Hendry is still looking at someone who can hit off the bench and maybe help in the outfield against left handed pitching.
- The Cubs feel they got their defense a lot better by moving Kosuke to right field and plugging Byrd into center.
Dave Van Dyck pointed out that the Cubs have tried 6 different guys to replace Sammy Sosa in the outfielder since Slammin' Sammy left after the 2004 season. He listed Jeremy Burnitz, Jacque Jones, Cliff Floyd, Kosuke, Milton Bradley, and Marlon Byrd. Rogers wonders what the Cubs have gotten out of the system with Byrd in center, Soriano in left, and Kosuke in right.
Paul Sullivan was on 670 the Score with Hub Arkush and Barry Rozner:
- Sully doesn't see this as a bad deal at all.
- It's hard to imagine the Cubs going in to the season with all these right handed bats in the lineup.
- Paul, Hub, and Barry made fun of the fact that Byrd said Chicago was where he wanted to go all along.
- Byrd does hit right handed pitching well.
- We've seen the Texas thing "too many times".
- Barry is a little nervous that Byrd was released by Washington before coming to Texas. He is unsure if Marlon can hit outside of Texas.
- Sullivan hopes that Byrd will turn out kind of like bringing DeRosa in from the Rangers.
- If Lou is going to keep Soriano 6th, Byrd could hit 5th.
- Right now, Theriot would be the lead off guy according to Paul, followed in the lineup by Fukudome, Lee, and Ramirez. So 5th or 6th is the "likely spot" for Marlon.
- The Cubs have a place down in the Dominican where Aramis and Alfonso are already working out.
- Surgery was not necessary for Aramis Ramirez.
- The Cubs do keep track of there players workouts by sending guys around to world in the offseason.
- Barry is surprised the Aramis didn't have surgery. Sully says Ramirez didn't want to get the surgery, he just wanted to rehab his arm. Rozner "guarantees" that the shoulder will dislocated again since it was not surgically repaired.
- Sullivan called the Marlon Byrd signing an OK move. He thinks Mike Cameron would have been a better fit.
Other Cub notes:
- Jim Hendry fully expects Carlos Zambrano to return next season.
- Carrie Muskat says "Will new ownership make a difference" is the number 1 question going into 2010.
- Carrie lists her favorite 10 Cub games of the decade.
- She posted on her blog that she sees the Opening Day lineup looking like this: Fukudome, Theriot, Lee, Ramirez, Byrd, Soriano, Soto, Fontenot. It's interested how Stone, Sullivan, and Muskat all think Byrd will be hitting fifth, I expected him lower in the order.
- Bruce Levine says Marlon will hit between 5th and 7th.
- The Chicago Tribune took a look at the best Chicago games of the decade.
That's it for now, I'll keep you posted on Everything Cubs as always.
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