Things Could Be Worse for the Cubs...

( Originally posted on IvyReport.com )

I hate when my friend says "things could be worse" when it comes to the Cubs.

As the Cubs sit at 27-35 on the season; third place feels a long way away from first, and it is.

As much as this 2010 Cubs team is in the hole right now, their future is not insanely bleak. With the tradable contracts of Ted Lilly, Derrek Lee, Xavier Nady, Ryan Dempster, and Carlos Silva, the Cubs can get a gigantic amount of back-loaded cash and older players off the team this deadline.

Players like Fukudome, Zambrano, and Soriano could always find suitors, but the Cubs would have to eat a sizable amount of their contracts. Although that is a hassle, they still free up positions are another pretty large chuck of change.

I say things could be worse because the Cubs could have made a few rumored signings this past off-season that would have further handcuffed them for the future...

Rick Ankiel

Ankiel was one of the oft-mentioned possible signings for the Cubs in this most recent off-season.

He was a center-fielder, and that fit the main specification the Cubs were looking for. I'm sure him being a lefty made Lou Piniella's heart race to boot.

As the story goes though, he signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with Kansas City. The Cubs gave Marlon Byrd a three-year-deal, wherein he's making $3 million this season.

Byrd has been great at the plate and more than adequate in the field, as anyone who's been watching the ever-depressing 2010 season knows. Ankiel, on the other hand, has been the horrible version of himself that appeared in 2009.

He's hitting .210 with a shockingly low .275 on-base percentage. Ankiel is also a sub-par defensive guy in the center-field to boot.

Basically, as bad as this Cub team has been, can you imagine replacing it's most productive offensive player with Ankiel's terrible season? I'd rather not imagine that, as I all ready feel queasy enough watching this team...

Chone Figgins

As I've mentioned in a previous article, any team with Chone Figgins has to accept his unbelievable offensive inconsistency.

2006: .267 / .336 OBP / .712 OPS
2007: .330 / .393 OBP / .825 OPS

2008: .276 / .367 OBP / .685 OPS
2009: .298 / .395 OBP / .788 OPS

2010: .227 / .336 OBP / .618 OPS

He bounces around from being a premier lead-off hitter in 2007 and 2009 to being an eight-hole hitter in 2006, 2008, and this season. He's also a 32-year-old injury threat.

Luckily enough for Cub fans, although there were reports and rumors of the Cubs ponying up and signing Figgins to play center-field or second base, the Mariners swooped in to give him a four-year, $36 million deal. Thank God for Jack Zduriencik, Seattle's GM.

Although Figgins can be a dynamic offensive player who is always more than solid defensively, his unpredictable offensive play means you can never consistently count on him to get the job done.

Can you imagine if the Cubs were hand-cuffed with another obscenely overpriced, four-year deal on a guy in his early to mid-30's? I'd like not to imagine that, actually...

Curtis Granderson

This was a trade that was dangerously close to being made.

The Cubs were to give up Starlin Castro, and multiple other mid-level to high-level prospects to receive Curtis Granderson from the Tigers.

It may be a little premature to name this move a bad one for the Yankees, but Granderson is almost perfectly emulating his mediocre 2009 season this year. It's hardly a bad year for a center fielder, but it is very middling and unimpressive. Not the descriptive words that you trade a superstar package of prospects to receive, to say the least.

He's making $5.5 million this season and is under contract for the next three years, making increasing pay. Not the worst contract in the world, but much worse off than Byrd's, who has massively outplayed Granderson at the plate this season, and who has been better in the field on top of it.

Unless Granderson remembers how to hit like he did early in his Tiger career, the Cubs would again have been held back their team in trading for him while losing multiple prospects who should be making up a few different starting positions in the next two years.

John Lackey

Well, I'm not exactly sure who the Red Sox thought they were getting in Lackey, but they gave him a five-year deal for $82.5 million.

They gave him "Ace-money" for sure, but Lackey has only been worth that kinda cash one year of his career - in his 2007 season.

I hope they didn't expect him to recreate that season, but I'm sure they at least expected him to be a solid number two guy in their rotation at a minimum.

He's been pitching better of late, but he is having a pretty dreadful season in comparison to his career numbers. Lackey has a 1.57 WHIP on the year (He has a career 1.32 WHIP), and is posting a 4.54 ERA.

His 44 strikeouts are paired with 35 walks, which is very obviously unacceptable.

The Cubs weren't exactly headliners to sign Lackey, but there were multiple reports about the idea, some claiming that Lackey "would give the Cubs the Ace they need."

Some "ace" he's been, indeed. And if the Cubs the 32-year-old that long of a contract they would be in a much worse place then they are right now.

These things are small victories I suppose, but it's always good to remember that things could easily be much worse. The Cubs upcoming rebuilding process won't be a very long one, but it could have been a much stickier situation.

I'm just an optimist.