Amazing_Grace

This, most likely, is why they can get away with it without having the historic regulators step in.

It's true that this one ad isn't going to destroy the mystique of Wrigley. It's more like the collective effect of all the successive times that we've seen "just one ad" be put up in Wrigley will eventually diminish the mystique considerably. It's a slippery slope. An ad here, an ad there, and we always say, it's just one, it's OK if it's tasteful, and before you know it Wrigley is no different from any other park in baseball as a way to sell people crap. On an mostly unrelated note, there's way way way way way too much advertising in pro sports (and college for that matter, at my 10,000 student mid major college alma mater there are no fewer than 5 sponsored half-time and timeout events during the basketball games). The way things are going, all sports will end up like Nascar, with ads every conceivable place from the tiny decals for every piece of the automobile to the ginormous NEXTEL in front of the name of the league. I'm not looking forward to watching the Seattle Windows take on the St. Louis Buds for the Wal-Mart championship trophy in the General Electric World Series, played on beautiful Pepsi field in the spacious Citipark.

Of course we wont. The pitcher wont be batting 3rd. Now that's just mean. I'm disappointed enough as it is.

Here's a phrase I bet we don't hear this year. "It looks like they're going to intentionally walk Izturis to get to the pitcher."

It's not that hard to believe. He got paid like an absolute superstar but he's not one. This is correct, he's getting paid as if his career OPS was .912, not just last year's. Our GM doesn't understand career years, but he recognized the need to improve the team. There weren't a lot of options this offseason, and overpaying for Soriano was probably the least bad.

Given the directive to win this year and the extreme unlikelihood of the Cubs being far enough behind in the playoff hunt to really consider trading him, there really is no choice but to suck it up and resign Zambrano long-term. If you start with a damn the torpedos mentality, you better be willing to stick with it to the end.

Yes, but can he drive in runs with his glove?

What a ringing endorsement. Paying 21M to hope for mediocrity.

This is dumb. More money does not equal a WS championship. Not only that, this won't necessarily even increase profits. If they lose the tradition of Wrigley and the mystique of the stadium, they have nothing, nada, el zilcho, squat, except for a sometimes mediocre usually worse baseball team run by a pack of morons who take their philosophy from the 1970's. Last time I checked, Kansas City's attendance sucks, as does Pittsburgh's, Florida's, Tampa Bay's, and Cincinnati's. If they want to win a WS, the first thing they should do is fire Hendry and spend whatever it takes to pry Billy Beane from Oakland, Theo Epstein from Boston, or Terry Ryan from Minnesota. They should then trade everyone on the team that can be jettisoned and let the new GM start with the 75-80M payroll that we used to have. I'd wager real money we'd still be a better ballclub within 3 seasons.

It begins.....

So basically you're saying Marquis is not as good as Rich Hill or Carlos Zambrano and barely worth a roster spot, let alone being worth 21M over 3 years. I wholeheartedly concur.

Ironically, I think this story is the closest thing to confirmation of a trade request we've seen. It's Piniella's quote that announce that the request is withdrawn, thus at one point it was requested. That's what I was thinking when I posted. Kinda weird for a manager to publicly withdraw a trade request that no one in the organization, including the player and the GM, acknowledges actually took place.

As much as I dislike Trachsel,its still better than paying 3/21 for Marquis. This is true.

Are we sure Jones even made a trade request in the first place?

The one thing he has to consider is injury. If he doesn't sign before the year starts, and he blows out his arm during the season, that's a ton of money blowing out the window. Isn't that what every player in Z's position has to think about? They might sign with their current club for many reasons, but the biggest one is because they can get a little less guaranteed right now-----if they play Russian Roulette with their arm and come up lame, that's something that haunts them for the rest of their life. Maybe it's the referring to himself in the third person that does it, but something tells me Zambrano is the type that thinks he's invincible and nothing bad will ever happen to him. I'm not sure if "what if I get injured" has entered into his mind, though as you say, it should have, especially given what he's seen happen to Prior and Wood.

Was gonna say opening day at Cincinnatti but J.R. beat me to it so I'll say 4/4.

I wasn't comparing the deals, I was comparing the attitudes people have of Wood and Zambrano. Also, I'm not entirely opposed to giving Zambrano Zito money, the man deserves it. He's what, 26? Jesus guys. I'd give it to him too. The question is, does Hendry have it to give to Zambrano? After giving the big money out to all these other guys, I'm not so sure he has the money to offer Z. He had an opportunity to lock up Zambrano before he paid out money to Lilly, Floyd and Marquis. He didn't do it. Now he risks losing him to someone WHO WILL give Zambrano Zito money next year, maybe more. If that happens, should Hendry lose his job? Absolutely. My desire to trade Zambrano now is only to attempt to get more than a couple of draft picks when Zambrano leaves. I believe Zambrano won't be back if he isn't signed before this season starts. No way will the Cubs be able to outbid the Yankees. I agree with this. To sign Lilly and Marquis without knowing for a fact that you still had money for Zambrano is unforgivable in and of itself. This blunder alone would cost any MLB GM his job, and Hendry is a guy that should, IMHO, have been fired earlier. If this goes down the way I fear it will, with Z walking for draft choices and no Cub WS in 2007, Hendry will, and should, go down as one of the worst GMs in Cubs history.

After further churning this one around in my head, I think I've come up with Jimbo's possible thinking. The organization is in win-now mode, presumably because the Trib thinks a WS champion Cubs team will sell for substantially more money than the lovable losers. Whoever buys the Cubs next offseason will have to make a decision about the GM. However, if the Cubs aren't sold, the situation isn't much different. Either way, Jim knows that with his record being lackluster since 2003 and the fans starting to really turn against him, another losing season will probably cost him his job. So what does he do? He overpays for FA's to do whatever it takes to win this year. He knows that worst come to worst, Z goes to arbritration and we have him for this year. Hendry knows that if the Cubs don't win and maybe even if they do win, Z will walk, but it won't matter to him because if the Cubs lose he'd be fired regardless and if they win the WS, his job is probably safe no matter what else happens. If they make the playoffs and don't reach the WS, he's betting that the new ownership or the Trib, whichever, will come up with enough cash to satisfy Zambrano long term or that Zambrano will take a big money one year deal, to go for the WS in Chicago one last time (not a bad bet that one of these two would occur). In any case, Hendry has no reason to even care about the Cubs beyond this year. Leaving Hendry in place this offseason was, IMHO, a bad move for reasons like this. He is showing all the classic signs of a desperate GM throwing caution to the wind in a desperate play to save his own butt.

It's going to be tons of fun ribbing my brother (Orioles fan) that their big offseason pitching staff upgrade consisted of Jaret Wright and Steve Trachsel. And we thought Lilly and Marquis was disappointing.

But would we need him at 7M per season?

Preach on, brother. Yet another reason the Marquis signing looks stupid. I'd rather spend 18M on Z and take my chances with prospects and reclamation projects rather than spend the same amount of money on Lilly and Marquis. If the Cubs give Z Zito money, they'll have around 70M dollars in payroll committed to 6 players (Lee, Ramirez, Soriano, Lilly, Marquis, Zambrano). That leaves just 30-40M left to sign 19 other guys. Unless the Cubs managment really plans on taking the payroll into NY/Boston territory, I don't see this happening. I think everything hinges on where the Cubs are in the race this year. As everyone has said, if they're in the race, they can't, or more accurately won't, trade Zambrano. If they're out of the race, then this becomes the equivalent of when Randy Johnson got traded out of Seattle midseason. That's probably the most accurate comparison, moreso than the position player comparisons. Ace pitchers are just not available at the trade deadline that often, and once it became clear the Cubs would move him, teams would bid just to keep other teams from getting him. I don't think it will be horrible if all the Cubs get for Z are 2 picks. The farm system badly needs an infusion of talent. Ultimately, I think this is exactly what will happen because I doubt the Cubs will be out of the race by midseason.

watch the rerun on CLTV in 1 hour I don't live in Chicago :(

Wow, that's gonna generate some controversy. Can anyone confirm this?

I do hope Marquis doesn't suck. I also hope that a million dollars will fall from the sky into my roof.

In all seriousness, these odds reflect how much money is bet on which team. It has nothing at all to do with which team is actually most likely to win. It has everything to do with which teams the betters think are most likely to win. That being said, betters are usually wrong, and casino owners are usually rich. This is meaningless from a baseball standpoint. EDIT: If I were betting, I'd put a dollar on each of the top 10 payrolled teams in MLB behind the Yanks and Sox (perennial favorites low payouts).