Cubs to be rebuilt from the ground up?

[Sammy Sofa]

Well obviously there may be financial restraints, but that's clearly not what these people are talking about. People are equating a Pujols/Fielder acquisition as a Soriano waiting to happen and/or some type of band-aid/stop-gap measure that doesn't even make sense if you think about it for a quarter of an instant.

 

While I'm all for Fielder or Pujols at any cost, I understand the concern. Looking at some of the massive contracts handed out in recent years, they just don't seem to end well. Soriano gave the Cubs 2 great years before a dreadful 2009 before becoming more productive, but nowhere worth the money in '10 and '11. Big Z was never the ace we paid for. As for other teams, the ink was barely dry on Alex Rios and Vernon Wells contracts before the Blue Jays wanted out. Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand were huge mistakes for the Giants, Jason Schmidt, Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones, and Rafeal FurcalX2 were all awful for the Dodgers. Jason Werth and Adam Dunn have both been beyong awful for their teams in the early goings of their contracts. Matt Holliday has been very good for the Cards so far, but he's only in year 2 in what I believe is a 7 year deal.

 

Looking at all of these contracts, it's easy to see why any team would be hesitant to hand out a 5-7 year contract to any player, unlessit's like the Braun, Tulo, or Longoria ones in which the team is essentially buying out the players primes at a team friendlly price.

 

OR LIKE FIELDER AND PUJOLS?

 

Christ.

[Lefty]

Let's start by destroying the mausoleum on Addison and Clark.

[KingCubsFan]

Let's start by destroying the mausoleum on Addison and Clark.

That's not happening. Ricketts won't build a new stadium with his own money, and governments are finally figuring out that those ridiculous numbers thrown out by owners involving economic growth and benefits for the community with a new stadium were, well, ridiculous.

[dew1679666265]

While I'm all for Fielder or Pujols at any cost, I understand the concern. Looking at some of the massive contracts handed out in recent years, they just don't seem to end well. Soriano gave the Cubs 2 great years before a dreadful 2009 before becoming more productive, but nowhere worth the money in '10 and '11. Big Z was never the ace we paid for. As for other teams, the ink was barely dry on Alex Rios and Vernon Wells contracts before the Blue Jays wanted out. Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand were huge mistakes for the Giants, Jason Schmidt, Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones, and Rafeal FurcalX2 were all awful for the Dodgers. Jason Werth and Adam Dunn have both been beyong awful for their teams in the early goings of their contracts. Matt Holliday has been very good for the Cards so far, but he's only in year 2 in what I believe is a 7 year deal.

 

An important note to mention is that none of the players you mentioned here are in any way comparable to Pujols and Fielder. Pujols is one of the greatest hitters in the history of the game and is far superior to anybody you mentioned, while Fielder will be 28 for his next contract and has been as productive or moreso than any other player on this list. Pujols and Fielder also have the patient approach that everybody on that list, save Dunn, lacks.

 

I can't really think of any player on the FA market recently that quite compares to Pujols and Fielder, which is why citing big contracts that have failed for players like Wells and Soriano is completely irrelevant.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Well obviously there may be financial restraints, but that's clearly not what these people are talking about. People are equating a Pujols/Fielder acquisition as a Soriano waiting to happen and/or some type of band-aid/stop-gap measure that doesn't even make sense if you think about it for a quarter of an instant.

 

While I'm all for Fielder or Pujols at any cost, I understand the concern. Looking at some of the massive contracts handed out in recent years, they just don't seem to end well. Soriano gave the Cubs 2 great years before a dreadful 2009 before becoming more productive, but nowhere worth the money in '10 and '11. Big Z was never the ace we paid for. As for other teams, the ink was barely dry on Alex Rios and Vernon Wells contracts before the Blue Jays wanted out. Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand were huge mistakes for the Giants, Jason Schmidt, Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones, and Rafeal FurcalX2 were all awful for the Dodgers. Jason Werth and Adam Dunn have both been beyong awful for their teams in the early goings of their contracts. Matt Holliday has been very good for the Cards so far, but he's only in year 2 in what I believe is a 7 year deal.

 

Looking at all of these contracts, it's easy to see why any team would be hesitant to hand out a 5-7 year contract to any player, unlessit's like the Braun, Tulo, or Longoria ones in which the team is essentially buying out the players primes at a team friendlly price.

 

OR LIKE FIELDER AND PUJOLS?

 

Christ.

 

No, Braun, Tulo, Longoria were all in their early-mid 20's when they signed their deals. I actually thought that Fielder was closer to 29, but he's only 27, which does make a difference, so he'd be more likely to give us a good 5-7 years. Again, I'm all for one of these guys, but I'm just saying that I understand teams being hesitant.

[SouthSideRyan]

(the devastation of the Garza trade)

 

Whut.

 

Millions dead.

[hardcorecubfan]

We have seemed to have gotten away from drafting as many pitchers as possible and then trading for position players philosophy.

[davearm2]

This completely ignores that Pujols will almost certainly be progressively setting career lows in WAR throughout the length of his next contract, while being paid $25-$30M a year.

 

The bold part isn't certain at all. He obviously will be declining at some point in the contract, but your wording makes it sound like he's all but a lock to have career-low WARs each year of his contract.

Whatever Pujols' career low WAR is right now, IMO he's almost certainly going to have many years below that during his next contract. That's what I meant, but worded poorly.

 

How they sequence is pretty irrelevant.

[KingKongvs.Godzilla]

(the devastation of the Garza trade)

 

Whut.

 

Millions dead.

 

Ooooooh the prospects lost!!!!111 If we kept those 3 backups, a pitcher that can't walk less than 5 per 9, and a now High A SS we coulda had a top ten farm!!! Oh the huge manatee!!!

 

Hendry fired!!!!

[BaileyT]

I like Pujols but I agree that he's approaching his peak and I wouldn't want him with a long contract. I think we need to build up talent in the MiL and do better at that but at the same time I think we could also start building a core of good and young players in the ML. I'm not happy about waiting for something to happen perhaps down the road, I've done that for too long as a Cubs fan.