Is there a precedent?

[Little Slide Rooter]

I cant help but blame 2006 for a lot of it. after the magical 2003, there was the ill fated roller coaster ride of 2004, the mediocre 2005, and the afwul 2006. '06 embarassed the organization big time, and as they probably already new they were going to sell the team, or they simply wanted to make a statement and they decided to stock up. The 2006-2007 free agent class wasnt particularly plentiful, but Hendry was bound and determined to stock up on as many free agents as possible. It started out innocently enough with the signing of Mark DeRosa, a career utility player coming off a career season in Texas.I cant help but notice that Jim Hendry has a thing for guys coming off career years in Texas. Many thought that the 3 year deal for a guy with DeRosas credientials, or lack there of was foolish. They were soon to learn the meaning of foolish. Then it escalated to 2 massive deals announced in like an hour, Alfonso Soriano and the resigning of Aramis Ramirez, who had recently opted out of his previous deal. At the time, most experts expected both guys to end up with either the Angels or Phillies, but Jimbo well out bid everyone. Next up were 2 rotation up grades, Ted Lilly, and later Jason Marquis, and to top off the spending spree he added a pair of DHs in Cliff Floyd and Daryl Ward. Im not sure exactly how much money was spent in that off season, but it was a lot. A hell of a lot. Several months later, Jim would throw some more fuel on the already raging inferno with a massive extension to ace Carlos Zambrano. Had 2006 not been as humiliating as it was, would the Cubs have felt the need to spend so much money in such a short period of time?

[dew1679666265]

Our payroll increased about $5.2 million from 2006 to 2007 ($94 mil to $99 mil). Our biggest payroll increase was 2008 to 2009 when we jumped from $118 to $134 mil.

 

As for the spending spree of 2006, most of the signings were very good. The Ramirez deal was good and the DeRosa signing was very productive as well (and eventually netted us Gaub, Archer and Stevens). The Lilly signing was also very good. The Soriano deal has been decent enough so far, but he's significantly overpaid - especially going forward. The Ward and Floyd signings were pretty insignificant due to being (I believe) 1-year deals.

 

And I'm not so sure we overpaid much, if at all, for Aramis. The cubs.com article (for what it's worth) was written as if the Cubs got a hometown discount and that's what I tend to remember as well. I could be remembering wrong, though.