The Cubs have signed 34-year old lefty swinging catcher Mark Johnson to a minor league deal. He played in 22 games in AAA-ball last season and he was 12 for 71 (.169 avg, .478 OPS) with 6 runs scored, 4 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. Johnson last played in the majors in 2007 with the Cardinals. He has played in 332 games in his major league career and he is 204 for 934 (.218 avg, .632 OPS) with 115 runs scored, 16 homers, 83 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. Johnson will likely start the season in AAA and only get a call to the Cubs if he is playing well and the need arises.

The Cubs have signed 37-year old righty swinging 1B/3B Scott McClain to a minor league deal. He played last season in Japan and he last played in the majors during the 2008 season with the Giants. McClain has played in 44 games in his major league career and he is 15 for 78 (.192 avg, .579 OPS) with 11 runs scored, 2 homers and 8 RBIs. McClain has 292 homers in his 16 years in the minor leagues making him a modern day Crash Davis.

The Cubs have signed 27-year old lefty swinging 1B Bryan LaHair to a minor league deal. LaHair played in 121 games in AAA-ball last season and he was 132 for 457 (.289 avg, .883 OPS) with 72 runs scored, 26 homers and 85 RBIs. He has also played in 45 games in his major league career in which he was 34 for 136 (.250 avg, .661 OPS) with 15 runs scored, 3 homers and 10 RBIs. LaHair will get a chance this spring to earn a spot on the Cubs’ bench.

Leon “Bull” Durham played 8 years with the Chicago Cubs. He appeared in 921 games for the Cubs and he was 898 for 3,215 (.279 avg, .846 OPS) with 474 runs scored, 138 homers, 485 RBIs and 98 stolen bases. Durham was never an elite player with the Cubs but he had decent power and speed for a player his size. He saw more than his share of losing years with the Cubs as he was one of the better players in the dark years for the Cubs.

The Cubs are hoping for health and rebounds from a couple of slumping players to improve the team in 2010. I’m not so sure I like this line-up that much and if the season started next week the Cubs would look like this in the field:

C-Geovany Soto
1B-Derek Lee
2B-Jeff Baker
SS-Ryan Theriot
3B-Aramis Ramirez
LF-Alfonso Soriano
CF-Marlon Byrd
RF-Kosuke Fukudome

The Cubs really need Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez to stay healthy to make this line-up work. They also need Geovany Soto to rebound from his sophomore slump in 2009. I think the Cubs should play Jeff Baker everyday at 2B which I think will help the offense as he is a player who would likely excel from getting full time at bats for a whole year.