ya his name is ken kadokura.  hes a pitcher and just signed with the Cubs.  as you may know i like japanese players and the cubs.  so im pretty happy.  he seems like a kind of guy who could help loosen up a clubhouse even though he probably cant communicate with the guys very well.  however the cubs think that kosuke fukudome could use some people he can talk to.  i think that kadokura will help a lot if he makes the team.

the cubs also signed so taguchi.  he might be here to help for the same reason.  there was also some news about signing ken takahashi.  i think ive written about him a bit and i think that getting a couple japanese players will really jumpstart fukudomes offensive game.

possible lineup for cubs:

1 alfonso soriano

2 mike fontenot

3 derrek lee

4 aramis ramirez

5 milton bradley

6 geovany soto

7 kosuke fukudome

8 ryan theriot

thats how i see the batting order going

i think 5-7 spots could be switched around depending on who has the hot stick

starting rotation could look like this:

carlos zambrano

rich harden

ryan dempster

ted lilly

___________ this could be any of the following:

sean marshall

jake peavy

garrett olson (im very interested to see how he will do with the cubs.  if the cubs do end up getting peavy then olson is likely to be part of the trade though)

rich hill

angel guzman

bullpen candidates

jeff samardzija

carlos marmol (closer probably)

kevin gregg (i would actually want him to be closer more than marmol)

ken kadokura

ken takahashi

mike stanton

jose ascanio

michael wuertz

neal cotts

chad gaudin

luis viscaino

i think that every one of these guys has a chance of making the bullpen (assuming takahashi does end up signing with the cubs.)

bench candidates

catchers:

koyie hill

jake fox

paul bako

henry blanco

infielders:

ronny cedeno

aaron miles

micah hoffpauir

casey mcgehee

outfielders:

reed johnson

joey gathright

so taguchi

sam fuld

brad snyder