Alfonso Soriano

[apete6]

Defend the contract...someone...please

[UMFan83]

I'm not touching this becuase I was against it from the start.

[synergy]

Defend the contract...someone...please

 

who cares, Cubs are always going to lose no matter who is playing for the Cubs.

[PrimeTime]

Terrible plate approach..136 million for 18 HR's?? signing Carlos Lee wouldve looked looked hell of alot sweeter right now

[XZero771679666304]

Has anyone ever actually tried to defend it? It's totally indefensible.

 

Having said that, I like having him on the team, and think that after a few weeks of I am not surprised by his poor play in the past couple games. Also, I think his poor play at home is a direct result of simply trying too hard. It's not a proper excuse, but I think he'll get over it.

 

Unfortunately, that might wait until next season.

[SouthSideRyan]

Defend the contract...someone...please

 

who cares, Cubs are always going to lose no matter who is playing for the Cubs.

 

Jayson Stark!

[frostwyrm]

What's really funny is that he's not even underachieving. He's performing exactly according to his career norms. This is why I predicted it would be one of the worst contracts in the history of sports.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Terrible plate approach..136 million for 18 HR's?? signing Carlos Lee wouldve looked looked hell of alot sweeter right now

 

Especially if all we were going to do was put Soriano in LF. If Soriano would be used in CF or RF, he'd have a bit more value and I could accept him over Lee. But if we were just looking for a LF, we should have signed Lee.

[synergy]

Terrible plate approach..136 million for 18 HR's?? signing Carlos Lee wouldve looked looked hell of alot sweeter right now

 

And same witih D. Lee who has even less homers. Brewers have 3 or 4 players who have more homers than any other Cub. Soriano sucks, D. Lee is a light-hitting 1B, and Ramirez is injured way too much. Cubs should just put Pie in CF, Jones in RF, and Murton in LF.

[synergy]

I think Cubs fans should just boo the hell out of Soriano so maybe he gets disgruntled and leaves the Cubs or force a trade.

[Little Slide Rooter]

If the Cubs couldnt give Corey Patterson a massive contract, they did the next best thing. I always thought Carlos Lee would have been a better fit for the team. An big time RBI guy rather than an overrated "5 tool player" whose holding the team back by keeping the proper leadoff man out of the leadoff spot.

 

Theriot

Jones

D Lee

C Lee

Ram

DeRosa

Floyd

Kendall

P

 

Now that looks like a good linup.

[XZero771679666304]

I think Cubs fans should just boo the hell out of Soriano so maybe he gets disgruntled and leaves the Cubs or force a trade.

 

Yeah, that'll work.

 

Soriano's unmovable. Booing him will solve nothing.

[hawkeyecub]

Defend the contract...someone...please

 

who cares, Cubs are always going to lose no matter who is playing for the Cubs.

 

Yet you just started a thread complaining about Zambrano's contract...

 

Strange.

 

As far as the original topic, I don't think anyone in the world thinks it's a good or smart contract. But sometimes when you have the resources the Cubs do and you're desperate, you have to overpay. There were situations in past years where they refused to overpay or hand out a huge contract and in part, our offense suffered. Obviously you don't want to make a habit out of that but sometimes you have to put yourself out there.

 

You just hope that he can give us 5 relatively healthy and productive years and that in 2012 that contract doesn't look so bad so we have some options.

I didn't expect him to come back from a 3-week layoff hot.

[XZero771679666304]

What's really funny is that he's not even underachieving. He's performing exactly according to his career norms. This is why I predicted it would be one of the worst contracts in the history of sports.

 

Not underachieving overall, but he is at home.

[frostwyrm]

If I were a GM and Hendry offered me Soriano in return for absolutely nothing, AND agreed to pay $50M off the back end of the contract($10M annually over the final 5 years) I'd still turn him down without hesitation.

[Keener98]

If the Cubs couldnt give Corey Patterson a massive contract, they did the next best thing. I always thought Carlos Lee would have been a better fit for the team. An big time RBI guy rather than an overrated "5 tool player" whose holding the team back by keeping the proper leadoff man out of the leadoff spot.

 

Theriot

Jones

D Lee

C Lee

Ram

DeRosa

Floyd

Kendall

P

 

Now that looks like a good linup.

 

We were 8-11 with your "proper leadoff man at the leadoff spot" whats our record with Soriano in the leadoff spot?

[UMFan83]

If they put Soriano on irrevokable waivers, he'd get even less interest than Manny

[XZero771679666304]

If I were a GM and Hendry offered me Soriano in return for absolutely nothing, AND agreed to pay $50M off the back end of the contract($10M annually over the final 5 years) I'd still turn him down without hesitation.

 

Like I said, he's unmovable.

 

We might as well hope for the best.

[erik316wttn]

I think Cubs fans should just boo the hell out of Soriano so maybe he gets disgruntled and leaves the Cubs or force a trade.

 

Yeah, that'll work.

 

Soriano's unmovable. Booing him will solve nothing.

 

And besides, booing players hurts their fragile little feelings. Haven't you learned Anything from NSBB?

[Mizzou]

I don't think the Cubs payroll would be this high if we didn't have Soriano. In other words, I think Hendry was given that money purely for Soriano. If he would've failed to land him, I don't think he would've been allowed to spend that money in other areas. With that in mind, I don't have a problem with the contract. It was either the Cubs with this payroll with Sori in LF, or the Cubs with some hack in LF with a payroll considerably less. I'll take the former.

 

Of course, this is all speculation. But I believe it to be true.

[frostwyrm]

If they put Soriano on irrevokable waivers, he'd get even less interest than Manny

 

I've thought about that too. I'm sure even the Yankees wouldn't want this contract, and they overpay everybody.

[XZero771679666304]

I don't think the Cubs payroll would be this high if we didn't have Soriano. In other words, I think Hendry was given that money purely for Soriano. If he would've failed to land him, I don't think he would've been allowed to spend that money in other areas. With that in mind, I don't have a problem with the contract. It was either the Cubs with this payroll with Sori in LF, or the Cubs with some hack in LF with a payroll considerably less. I'll take the former.

 

Of course, this is all speculation. But I believe it to be true.

 

I think there is some truth there. It was a bad signing, but just how bad it was will depend it's place in future context.

 

If the new owner(s) raise the payroll even more, it's consequence will be lessened. If the payroll goes down, it will be an albatross. The future of the market will have an impact on how it is viewed as well.

[frostwyrm]

The future of the market will have an impact on how it is viewed as well.

 

I'm not so sure about that. At age 31 he is maybe just slightly above average for his position. When he gets to age 35 he'll be making $19M annually and it's very possible he won't even be good enough to be more than a bench player on a contender, like the Jeromy Burnitz we had in 2005, only playing LF instead of RF, and with less durability. I can't imagine that 19M will look like a good price for that player unless the U.S. adopts the Mexican peso as its currency.

[rocket]

I don't think the Cubs payroll would be this high if we didn't have Soriano. In other words, I think Hendry was given that money purely for Soriano. If he would've failed to land him, I don't think he would've been allowed to spend that money in other areas. With that in mind, I don't have a problem with the contract. It was either the Cubs with this payroll with Sori in LF, or the Cubs with some hack in LF with a payroll considerably less. I'll take the former.

 

Of course, this is all speculation. But I believe it to be true.

 

Just because the contract may have given us payroll flexibility for this year doesn't mean it will for the remainder of the contract.

[IowaCubsFan]

Defend the contract...someone...please

 

who cares, Cubs are always going to lose no matter who is playing for the Cubs.

 

Yet you just started a thread complaining about Zambrano's contract...

 

Strange.

 

As far as the original topic, I don't think anyone in the world thinks it's a good or smart contract. But sometimes when you have the resources the Cubs do and you're desperate, you have to overpay. There were situations in past years where they refused to overpay or hand out a huge contract and in part, our offense suffered. Obviously you don't want to make a habit out of that but sometimes you have to put yourself out there.

 

I seem to remember getting outbid by the Tigers after the 2004 season for Maggs. Boy would it have been nice to have him.

 

You just hope that he can give us 5 relatively healthy and productive years and that in 2012 that contract doesn't look so bad so we have some options.

I didn't expect him to come back from a 3-week layoff hot.

 

It would be nice to see him improve on his numbers at Wrigley just a little bit though. His numbers are downright Murtonesque at home.