Cubs Notes

Almost everything appears to be set for the Cubs in 2004, not much activity since early January. Only 10 days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training and Maddux has not yet made up his mind. The Cubs 2 year offer of $10 to $12 million in mid January was more than I was expecting but it appears that at least the Dodgers are in contention for his services. In other Cubs news Kyle Farnsworth is elligible for arbitration and is asking for $1.7M while the Cubs offerred $1.1M. He made $600K in 2003. If Farnsworth can put together another solid season and not revert as he did in 2002, then he's well worth it.

In the strangest stat I've seen this offseason I saw in the Bill James Handbook that Farnsworth was 2nd to Billy Wagner in number of pitches thrown over 100 miles per hour in 2003. Wagner had an incredible 159 while Farnsworth had 8.