Rob

hahaha you fell for it to? I'm starting to think this is performance art.

That's like being kicked in the beanbag, but only getting nailed in one ball.

Seriously. Baker and Feldman have a decent chance to crack that top 10.

Jesus that's depressing.

Yeah, but that's a not always a good thing; this is a pretty middling FA class. Next year looks to be even worse. You gotta pick your punches based on what's actually available. Which is why they need to get one of Sanchez/Jackson or extend Garza. Or trade for somebody about to get expensive. If they don't do something, I'll be out front with you waving my pitchfork. But let's wait to see how it plays out before getting all worked up, okay?

That's because I don't act like a petulant child every single time the Cubs are outbid. The Adam Dunn thread was a classic example. No, it's because I don't care. Your ideas of what is a good deal or not means absolutely nothing. 1.) It's not a near miss. Not yet anyways. 2.) If you camped outside the front office and whined like you do around here, the Cubs would be floating a $300 mil payroll just to shut you up. That would be terrible, wouldn't it? Because big spending is bad for some reason. I don't want the Cubs to spend just to spend and get themselves into a hole; I want them to spend because they CAN spend because they SHOULD be able to spend. How is this possibly something you don't want as well? Like I said, if the Cubs are choosing not to spend significantly more but can, that's unfortunate. If they can't spend significantly more, that's even worse. Neither is something that anyone would want. First off, sorry about my previous post. I got frustrated and was a bit rude. By the time I thought to edit it, people had responded. I want the Cubs to spend. I've never implied anything other than that. But we don't have a new TV deal. We don't have a giant advertising board. The simple fact is that we can't spend like the Dodgers. Not yet anyways. Given our current team and the market, there are players that make sense. But we aren't talking about the playoffs without some very good luck. I've been pretty vocal supporting some big contracts. Darvish and some slight support for Pujols last offseason. Upton, Bourn, Sanchez this year. But the simple fact remains that the window is more 2014 and on. There will be opportunities to overpay every year. To justify getting guys now, the deals need to be reasonable — both in contract terms and risk.

Edit

Given the structure of his contract, it seems almost impossible for Soler's contract to be a bargain. I mean, he's still plenty worth having if he turns out to be a great hitter, but he won't be much of a bargain. If he uses that opt out, I'd say we already had a bargain. I'd rather have Jackson at that price than Sanchez at 5/75. But really, I just want to make sure that the end answer isn't "nothing." Agreed on that point. I want to see the resources used somewhere. But I want to get as much out of them as possible.

What a ridiculous post. Has there EVER been a contract for a player you like that you thought was too high? I've never seen you express that sentiment. Great call; I want the Cubs to be willing to go six years or add a few million on to the rumored contract offer to Anibal Sanchez and that suddenly means I'm cool beans with with any size contract possible. I've never seen anything from you to suggest otherwise. The Cubs can't come over the top on EVERYBODY. Even a well-run farm system will have its dry spells. Having some flexibility is important. We can now be pretty sure the dual fronts thing isn't a myth. If the Cubs don't get Sanchez, they'll probably get Jackson at a relative bargain. Or maybe Marcum or somebody similar. I just can't bring myself to get bent out of shape at losing Sanchez when the terms leave my comfort level.

Until it's a prospect. We can lap the market on Concepcion or Soler, and that's just pure coolness. It's still pretty easy to see a path towars Soler's contract being a bargain. (Though admittedly, Concepcion looks like a huge mistake). Do you see Anibal Sanchez at 6/$90m as better than say, Edwin Jackson at 4/$48m? At a certain point there's a better use of the resources.

What a ridiculous post. Has there EVER been a contract for a player you like that you thought was too high? I've never seen you express that sentiment.

Theo and Jed weren't hired because they bring a bonus to our payroll budget. They were brought in because they know how to squeeze the most out of our resources. The constant refrain of "well just keep upping the offer" is completely missing the point.

fwiw You'll never get a 1 year deal signed in this town again Mato!! That joke works better when the front office hasn't just made their biggest offer to a pitcher since Zambrano.

Occam's Razor pretty much demands this came from the Cubs. Either directly or indirectly, i.e. they told another player's agent they had a deal with Sanchez and wouldn't be pursuing their client, and that agent leaked to the media. I'll concede the possibility of an accidental, indirect leak but the only party with motive is the agent. Theres absolutely nothing to gain for the Cubs leaking it.

At 6 years, I move on to Edwin Jackson.

.500ish team now. If we actually got positive variance for once we could conceivably make the playoffs.

Theo always seemed to have a lot of churn on the back end of rosters. I'm okay with it. Most of these guys are pretty fungible.

Close as it is, I'd just give Paniagua 7 and not waste another day on voting.

Must be a false rumor. I saw Magic Johnson at Caesar's Palace yesterday. He couldn't possibly have signed off on the contract.

Don't tell my parole officer.

toonster is gonna need Hernandez on before too long.

I thought it was surely you. he's at least a couple down for me. ;) I still like him more than most, but he's probably floating around 10 for me.

I voted for Vizcaino, but I think Vogelbach should be closer than he is. I am a bit disappointed in the fact my inner monologue included a semi-convincing argument for Junior Lake's all-tools / no-polish approach this early in the list.

Schierholtz makes a lot of sense given the FO's current plan. He's cheap and could pretty easily combine with a decent platoon partner to give us 2-3 WAR in RF. He'll be easy to flip or push to the bench later. Very little downside here, and decent upside. That said, the point of trying to find all these bargains is that you free up money to spend elsewhere. I'm a patient man, but there have been players at reasonable contracts that would make sense for this org. I'm beginning to get frustrated.

Theo traded Nomar and Manny at the deadlines in years the Red Sox were going for it.