With Giambi's and Bonds' grand jury statements and Canseco's book, steroids will be the cloud that continues to shroud baseball for the near future. I must admit, that I was among those that didn't believe that steroids would make that much of a difference in baseball. After all, a hitter still has to make contact.

It appears that I was wrong.

Even if we were to believe part of what Canseco claims, that 'average players become superstars and superstars become incredible,' attention must be paid.

So that got me thinking about past Cubs hitters who might have used the juice/cream. The list of players begins in 1986, and includes those that played at least one game for the Cubs and only looked at home run output.

DISCLAIMER: Sudden jumps in home runs during a season followed by a steep falloff may be due to a variety of factors. Among them are playing time, injuries, where in the batting order a player hits, which parks they play in, personal life, and who knows what else. More importantly, these numbers only look suspicious because of the sudden jump in home runs followed by a sharp falloff. These are not accusations. Here's the list:

Here and now, within a week of pitchers and catchers reporting, in addition to the all the prognostications, questions take center stage. And I have some (along with some prognostications).

Let’s start with the center of my baseball universe—da Cubs.

1. Will Patterson learn to lead-off? Those in the know are saying he’s a quick learner. And last August he certainly sure showed his potential. Of course, last September he also showed the dark side of his potential. Those in the know are also saying he will lead off. But the acquisition of Hairston, at the least, allows for a Plan b.

My prediction: He’ll bounce around the lineup again and end up lower in the order.

2. Will the pitching staff stay healthy? Yes, and no. Wood and Prior have both experienced problems and Wood has had a longer history of injuries. So we can’t presume this year will be different. The good news is that if that’s true, it’s also true that Zambrano and Maddux will stay healthy and give us 200+ innings. That will put pitching staff success on Rusch, the bullpen, and any mid-season pickups. Regarding the bullpen, I think we’ll be stronger than last year. Hawkins will be in his role as set-up, and the option of having two closers, Dempster and Borowski is enticing, with Dempster showing glimmers of approaching Gagne-like status.

According to legend, when the Phillies unloaded Von Hayes, the local Philadelphia paper, I think it's called The Astonisher, queried Lenny Dykstra about the deal. When told that Von Hayes was traded, Dykstra is said to have remarked, "Great trade! Who'd we get?"

Both come to mind when considering the two most recent Cub transactions, Sosa and Farnsworth. Some suggest the team is stockpiling some potential trade bait for a closer. That may be true. It may also be true that scouts in the system see something in these players that the stats don't show. Or maybe it's addition by subtraction. Or all three.

All this increases the gnawing anticipation of Spring Training, when life begins again.

Soon.