Five Cubs could be headed for salary-arbitration hearings scheduled between Feb. 1-21. Then again, the monetary differences in every case don't appear insurmountable. When the deadline came Tuesday for both sides to exchange proposed 2006 salaries, Carlos Zambrano had a $1.2 million difference with the club and Mark Prior only a $700,000 gap. Zambrano filed to earn $7.2 million compared to the Cubs' proposal of $6 million. Prior is seeking $4 million, while the team countered with $3.3 million. The biggest financial chasm among the arbitration-eligible Cubs was new center fielder Juan Pierre, who was acquired in a trade with Florida last December. He filed at $6.5 million, even after what he acknowledged was an underachieving season in 2005. The Cubs offered him $5 million and certainly don't want to get off to a bitter dispute with him, so these negotiations could be worth watching. Second baseman Jerry Hairston wants $2.6 million, while the Cubs are dangling $1.95 million. Reliever Will Ohman asked for $775,000, more than the $500,000 the Cubs considered to be a fair return for his past value. "We feel like we always do, that we're trying to be fair to the player,'' general manager Jim Hendry said. "We have proven in the past that we are willing to be more than fair."