Can this former Ranger become a hit with Cubs?

One joke going around the Cubs clubhouse in the early days of spring training was this: How do you end up with the Cubs?

Answer: Have a career year with the Texas Rangers.

Let's see, there was Mark DeRosa. There was Milton Bradley. Now there's Marlon Byrd.

Fortunately for Byrd, perhaps, there's also hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, who enjoyed a "career" career with the Rangers before signing with the Cubs last October.

Byrd hopes his continued good working relationship with Jaramillo will lead to continued good production with the Cubs over the life of a three-year, $15 million contract.

What are the issues with Byrd? Let's examine them.

Home sweet home: The biggest caution flag people waved about the Cubs signing Byrd were his home-road splits last year with the Rangers.

In Texas, Byrd had a hitting line of .282/.336/.538 with 14 home runs and 52 RBI. The on-base percentage of .336 and the slugging percentage of .538 combined for an OPS of .874.

On the road, Byrd's line was .285/.322./.419 for an OPS of .741, 6 homers and 37 RBI.

Fortunately for Byrd and the Cubs, Byrd is going to another "plus" ballpark for hitters. Wrigley Field ranked third while Rangers Ballpark was seventh in favoring hitters in runs scored last year. In home runs, however, Rangers Ballpark ranked third while Wrigley Field ranked 15, likely owing to a cool summer with the wind blowing in 55 times.

Which is it? In 2008, Byrd had a hitting line of .298/.380/.462 with 10 homers and 53 RBI. Last year, the overall line was .283/.329/.479 with 20 homers and 89 RBI.

The homers and slugging percentage were up last year, but the OBP took a big hit. Byrd's walk percentage fell from 10 percent in 2008 to 5.3 percent last year.

Byrd definitely goes up there hacking. As fangraphs.com points out, he swung at 74.1 percent of pitches in the strike zone.

If you're looking for a tiebreaker as to which year was better, Byrd's "weighted" on-base average (wOBA, which assigns weights to different outcomes) was .370 in 2008 compared with .345 in 2009, making 2008 the winner.

Watch the weather: One key to Byrd's increased homer total last year may have been his ability to elevate the ball in Texas' hot air. He hit 40.7 percent flyballs in 2000, compared with 32.7 in 2008.

If the wind blows in at Wrigley this year as much as it has in recent years, a good number of those flyballs could nestle in outfielders' gloves.

Center of attention: Byrd's acquisition allowed the Cubs to move Kosuke Fukudome from center field back to right, his best spot and the Cubs' preferred position for him.

Byrd is considered an average center fielder by most statistical measures, and the Cubs go as far as to say his play in center is underrated.

Who's on the way? You may have heard this one before: The Cubs have a center-field phenom in the pipeline.

This time, they hope Brett Jackson turns out better for them than either Corey Patterson or Felix Pie.

Jackson, taken in the first round of last year's draft, was sent back to minor-league camp Sunday after getting a good taste of big-league spring training.

Baseball Prospectus called Jackson a "first-round draft steal." A five-tool player, Jackson is still trying to define himself as a hitter. He had a .383 OBP and 7 homers last year at Class AA Peoria. In two minor-league stops last year after being drafted, Jackson struck out 52 times in 200 at-bats.

Before Jackson gets here, the Cubs could get backup help from Tyler Colvin and/or Sam Fuld.

<p class="factboxheadblack">NL's best</p>

<p class="News">Where we rank the top center fielders:</p>

<p class="News">1. Matt Kemp, Dodgers</p>

<p class="News">2. Carlos Beltran, Mets</p>

<p class="News">3. Nyjer Morgan, Nationals</p>

<p class="News">11. MARLON BYRD, CUBS</p>