Cubs sign Soriano

[nilodnayr]

Ha, with me, Rob, and KC representing about half of the posters on the transactions board, we should ressurect this thread!!! Finally we have numbers!

[radarluv1]

150 pages? thats almost 1 per mill. :shock:

[A New Era]

150 pages? thats almost 1 per mill. :shock:

 

One page per SORIANO's Million right? It took me a minute to know what you were talking about. Mr. Vaguey Vaguestrom! :lol:

[nilodnayr]

150 pages? thats almost 1 per mill. :shock:

BUY PREMIUM

[Soul]

150 pages? thats almost 1 per mill. :shock:

 

One page per SORIANO's Million right? It took me a minute to know what you were talking about. Mr. Vaguey Vaguestrom! :lol:

 

All we have to do to make the Soriano signing seem thrifty is push this thread to 10,000 pages :)

[CardsFanInChiTown]

Prospect Retro: Alfonso Soriano by John Sickels

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

This article does not paint the signing in a positive light.

[CubsInNC]

This article does not paint the signing in a positive light.

 

But yet, it says that it's still not likely to be the worst deal handed out this winter. How condemning of this FA pool and the mad money being thrown around can you get? Ironic for someone from NY to say.... =)

[illiniguy]

What a great article. Seriously how much better is the cubs lineup with Soriano as opposed to Pierre? We have to get better, we have the money, why not spend it?

[WrigleyinEngland]

Press Conference tomorrow??? Hot Stove seems to of gone preety cold, Hopefully by the end of the week we are going to here something about our rotation.

[Garwilly]

Press Conference tomorrow??? Hot Stove seems to of gone preety cold, Hopefully by the end of the week we are going to here something about our rotation.

 

Zambrano, Hill, Zambrano, Zambrano, Miller.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Press Conference tomorrow??? Hot Stove seems to of gone preety cold, Hopefully by the end of the week we are going to here something about our rotation.

 

The signings for pitchers seem to be slow. My guess is that teams aren't as eager to throw out five and six year deals to pitchers and so the signings aren't happening as fast as they did for hitters. My guess is things won't heat up again until the winter meetings.

[JWCUB]

Press Conference tomorrow??? Hot Stove seems to of gone preety cold, Hopefully by the end of the week we are going to here something about our rotation.

 

The signings for pitchers seem to be slow. My guess is that teams aren't as eager to throw out five and six year deals to pitchers and so the signings aren't happening as fast as they did for hitters. My guess is things won't heat up again until the winter meetings.

 

Then let the fun begin.

[wilk]

Ken Rosenthal[/url]"]The breakdown of Alfonso Soriano's eight-year, $136 million contract with the Cubs: $8 million signing bonus, $9 million in 2007, $13 million in '08, $16 million in '09 and $18 million per season from ‘10 to '14. The contract also guarantees Soriano six premium tickets to the All-Star Game – if he is a participant – as well as home games during spring training, the regular season and playoffs.

 

I wonder how that signing bonus is allocated but as long as a large chunk of it isn't upfront it looks like we have more payroll flexibility remaining this offseason than imagined.

[LeftCoastCubFan]

Ken Rosenthal[/url]"]The breakdown of Alfonso Soriano's eight-year, $136 million contract with the Cubs: $8 million signing bonus, $9 million in 2007, $13 million in '08, $16 million in '09 and $18 million per season from ‘10 to '14. The contract also guarantees Soriano six premium tickets to the All-Star Game – if he is a participant – as well as home games during spring training, the regular season and playoffs.

 

I wonder how that signing bonus is allocated but as long as a large chunk of it isn't upfront it looks like we have more payroll flexibility remaining this offseason than imagined.

It looks like the signing bonus will be spread accross (an assumption due to the amount matching years), so it's likely 1m a year over 8 years. 10 for 2007.

 

That drops us from an estimated 101 mil spent for 2007 to 94 mil.

[WrigleyinEngland]

If this is true we should be looking at Drew or Manny. If you can get either and lose Jock + Eyre/Howry your still in a position to go after pitching FA or Via trade. If numbers add up and the payroll is $125 mill Hendry still has alot of flexibility at $95 Mill. Not to mention being able to give Z his money.......

[WrigleyinEngland]

I've come full circle after thinking about this, i was thinking about the old debate of win now vs win later and Pitching vs hitting and then i wondered what happens if you go cheap on the pitching and defence but end up with this

 

RF Soriano

SS Lugo

1B D Lee

LF Manny

3B Rammy

C Barrett

2B Derosa

CF Pie(if you managed to keep him in the Manny trade)or someone serviceable such as Lofton or perhaps the riot??

 

I know what everyones going to say but just look at that lineup 8)

[TruffleShuffle]

Well, I'm a week late thanks to my internet service provider, but I'll share my thoughts.

 

Obviously the contract is big. Huge. Will he be overpaid? Sure. But, he's a good player, quite possibly very good if his 2006 season wasn't a fluke. It was going to take a buttload of money to sign him, and with guys like Gary Matthews Jr and Juan Pierre making about $10M per, this deal doesn't look so outrageous. If the current economic climate is really here to stay, the deal might look really reasonable in a year or two.

 

Anyway, will he sustain his 2005 performance? I tend to believe that he will, because he's an extremely talented player whose main weakness was strike zone judgement. He hit very well for several years without controlling the strike zone much, and last year, when his plate discipline improved, so did his numbers.

 

Remember, Sammy Sosa was a good-but-not-great hitter for 8 big league seasons before he took off, as a result of learning how to control the strike zone. The steroid whispers, if you believe them, increased Sosa's ability to hit the ball far - but not his ability to not swing at crappy pitches. For some guys who are super-talented but always used that natural talent to succeed, it takes a long time for the plate discipline to click.

 

I also think Hendry is probably right when he says Soriano is a "young 30." He's a great athlete and is still fairly small and wiry despite his big power numbers. Obviously, his ability to steal bases will go downhill as he gets older, but good base-stealers like Bonds, Sosa, Biggio and Molitor lost their ability to run fast as well, and still were good players well into their 30s. The important thing is that his game isn't built on speed, like Juan Pierre.

 

Yeah, Carlos Beltran would've been nice. But when you look back to his signing - he too was coming off a career year. His discipline clearly had been improving, but his OBP was below-average just two years before his free agent year. He's younger, and that is important... but he had a below-average OPS+ (95) his first year in New York, so obviously he's not infallible.

 

I'd surely take him over Soriano, but what's done is done, and all the Cubs can do is go foward and try to build the best team they can. The offense was incompetent in 2006, and Soriano is a huge upgrade over Pierre. With Lee and Ramirez, you have three real cornerstones in place, and Barrett and Murton are two very solid complementary players. This should not be a bad offense in 2006, and quite possibly could be a pretty good offense.

 

It's not my money, and as long as the Cubs are committed to expanding the payroll, I'm happy about the signing. If they go cheap in 2 years and want the payroll less than $100M, then Soriano's contract will be a millstone, but I really do feel optimistic about how he'll produce in a Cub uniform.

[Sammy Sofa]

I've come full circle after thinking about this, i was thinking about the old debate of win now vs win later and Pitching vs hitting and then i wondered what happens if you go cheap on the pitching and defence but end up with this

 

RF Soriano

SS Lugo

1B D Lee

LF Manny

3B Rammy

C Barrett

2B Derosa

CF Pie(if you managed to keep him in the Manny trade)or someone serviceable such as Lofton or perhaps the riot??

 

I know what everyones going to say but just look at that lineup 8)

 

I would have killed for the Yankee's lineup last year, too.

[Soriano12]

It has been a while now, and you have to admit, next to the money some chumps are getting, Soriono's deal really isn't that bad.

[goonys evil twin]

I've come full circle after thinking about this, i was thinking about the old debate of win now vs win later and Pitching vs hitting and then i wondered what happens if you go cheap on the pitching and defence but end up with this

 

RF Soriano

SS Lugo

1B D Lee

LF Manny

3B Rammy

C Barrett

2B Derosa

CF Pie(if you managed to keep him in the Manny trade)or someone serviceable such as Lofton or perhaps the riot??

 

I know what everyones going to say but just look at that lineup 8)

 

I would have killed for the Yankee's lineup last year, too.

 

I would have killed for 97 wins as well.

 

People forget that the best pitching didn't win the playoffs. It's luck, timing and a lot of other stuff. But having a great offense is not a bad thing. Slightly above average pitching won this year. And that's probably why so many slightly above average pitchers are cashing in. But don't kid yourselves into thinking the Yankees were a bad team because they were all offense. They won 97 games.

[Sammy Sofa]

I've come full circle after thinking about this, i was thinking about the old debate of win now vs win later and Pitching vs hitting and then i wondered what happens if you go cheap on the pitching and defence but end up with this

 

RF Soriano

SS Lugo

1B D Lee

LF Manny

3B Rammy

C Barrett

2B Derosa

CF Pie(if you managed to keep him in the Manny trade)or someone serviceable such as Lofton or perhaps the riot??

 

I know what everyones going to say but just look at that lineup 8)

 

I would have killed for the Yankee's lineup last year, too.

 

I would have killed for 97 wins as well.

 

People forget that the best pitching didn't win the playoffs. It's luck, timing and a lot of other stuff. But having a great offense is not a bad thing. Slightly above average pitching won this year. And that's probably why so many slightly above average pitchers are cashing in. But don't kid yourselves into thinking the Yankees were a bad team because they were all offense. They won 97 games.

 

I'm not saying they were bad, or that pitching is the end-all-be-all...just that their collapse is probably almost all due to they fact their pitching was so deficit, and ours is much moreso at this point.

[tkenm356]

A little more indepth:

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/wires/11/28/2010.ap.bbn.cubs.soriano.0392/

[TruffleShuffle]

A little more indepth:

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/wires/11/28/2010.ap.bbn.cubs.soriano.0392/

 

 

There are also plenty of incentives for the five-time All-Star, who will be the Cubs leadoff hitter. He gets $250,000 for collecting most All Star votes, $350,000 if he is selected the World Series MVP, $250,000 for the league championship series MVP, $300,000 for the MVP award and $75,000 for a Gold Glove.

 

 

hahaha, why'd they even bother putting this in the contract???

[Rob]

A little more indepth:

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/wires/11/28/2010.ap.bbn.cubs.soriano.0392/

 

 

There are also plenty of incentives for the five-time All-Star, who will be the Cubs leadoff hitter. He gets $250,000 for collecting most All Star votes, $350,000 if he is selected the World Series MVP, $250,000 for the league championship series MVP, $300,000 for the MVP award and $75,000 for a Gold Glove.

 

 

hahaha, why'd they even bother putting this in the contract???

 

In case he waves his no-trade.