Given the following information, who do you bat second in the lineup?

Poor Tom Hume. Facing Andre Dawson having a great day in his most powerful year. The date: August 1, 1987. The video:

Baseball Prospectus's minor league guru Kevin Goldstein has posted his top 100 prospects in baseball. Just two Cubs show up on the list, one of whom made an impact on the 2007 big league club and the other the Cubs' #1 draft pick in 2007:

37. Geovany Soto
45. Josh Vitters

Goldstein's top two Cubs matches John Sickels'.

(I assume that Felix Pie no longer qualifies as a prospect.)

ZiPS projects Soto to hit a robust .284/.342/.483 in 2008.

More information about the players from BP will be available in Baseball Prospectus 2008.

I have updated the Roster / Contracts page to include Carlos Zambrano's salary information and the Jon Lieber signing. I have also inserted numbers for the minimum service guys, guessing whether they will be on the 25-man roster (which grants them at minimum a $390K salary) or in the minors (approximately $100K, depending on service time). The approximate total salary for 2008 currently stands at $123 million.

Jan. 28, 2008, 10:42PM

NBA Entertainment League / NBAE

Director: Cut ... to the basket

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5493271.html

Also see

http://www.nba.com/nbae/

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Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals photos, Ryne Sandberg Day pics

Cubs fans TV listings

... the Pirates are not going to be great in 2008. "I said I think it's pretty obvious that this group of guys is not going to get it done," said Mr. Bay, who, after winning the Rookie of the Year in 2004 and being an All-Star in 2005 and 2006, hit all of .247/.327/.418 last year (worse than the strangely maligned Matt Murton).

FOXSports.com's Dayn Perry lists the Dusty Baker-led Cincinnati Reds on top of his teams that could surprise in 2008. (Hat tip: Wrigleyville23.) It seems like people have the Reds as possible contenders every year, usually referencing their supposedly powerful offense. That offense finished 10th in the NL in runs scored in 2006 and 7th last year. True, the Reds finished first in runs scored in 2005, but they also finished 16 games under .500 that year. How are they better this year?

One of the long-time and most prolific members of the Cubs Blog Army has decided to stop publishing.

Visit the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration website at:

http://www.archives.gov/index.html

and type in CHICAGO CUBS in the search box and click on the GO option.

Then select both Archives.gov and Presidential Libraries and click on SEARCH.

Here's a sample of what you'll find:

Remarks at a White House Luncheon for Members of the Baseball Hall of Fame

March 27, 1981

www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1981/32781b.htm

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Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals photos, Ryne Sandberg Day pics

Dora the Explorer day at Wrigley Field. April 19. Grab your backpack, let's go! Swiper no swiping!

New Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell may not want to hold onto the Chicago Cubs, but for now his focus is on selling Wrigley Field (to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority) and not the team, reports the Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan. There is also the issue of possibly selling naming rights to Wrigley Field. Team Chairman Crane Kenney sounds almost bitter that Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. has been getting something for free since it sold the team in 1981. Thankfully, the holdup has seemed to not have negatively affected the Cubs' ability to spend money on player acquisition and development.

Here's something neat that the Library of Congress is now doing: posting photos on Flickr with the hope that the general public will add value to the old photos by tagging them and commenting on them. Richard Koman at ZDNet has more. Here are the photos and here are the photos tagged baseball.

I didn't immediately notice any Chicago Cubs photos, but here's one of the great Christy Mathewson playing catch:

At least Mark DeRosa is honest enough to say that he'd rather play everyday than the team get better: "I find it hard to believe I'm going to get playing time if you acquire a player of that caliber [Brian Roberts]. You've got Fukudome in right, you've got Aramis at third, you've got Roberts at second, you've got [Alfonso Soriano] in left. Where am I going to play? That was my question [to Hendry], and that was my approach. It's not like you're acquiring another super utility player, and we can all bounce around and all give each other days off and all find a happy medium." (Hat tip: Bleed Cubbie Blue.)