The Cubs acquired Gold Glove 1st baseman Derrek Lee from the Florida Marlins on tuesday. Hee Seop Choi and another minor league player go to Florida in the trade. I'm ecstatic about this deal. Lee has power (20+ HRs in each of the last 4 years), speed (40+ steals in the last 2 years), a defensive Gold Glove award, and he's just 28 years old. He could easily produce a 30 HR, 100 RBI, 20 Steal season hitting behind Sosa in Wrigley. Lee is a definite upgrade from last year's first base production.

The Cubs labeled Hee Seop Choi as the first baseman of the future a few years ago. Matt Stairs, Fred McGriff, Eric Karros, and Randall Simon were temporary fillins while Choi prepared in AAA. Choi will be a solid major league player, but at best, he will be putting up the numbers that Lee is right now. The only snag in the trade is that Lee is another right handed bat. The Cubs have almost no left handed hitting and that's an area they need to address.

Jim Hendry will be looking for a left handed hitting second baseman and a couple upgrades for the bullpen during the winter GM meetings. He has done an incredible job of bringing in quality players that other teams cannot afford and he's just getting started with the offseason deals.