because most organizations don't waste $10m on wide receivers? samardzija got one of the biggest contracts awarded to players in the amateur draft. sometimes the cubs are unlucky but usually managment just does [expletive] things that predictably blows up in their face. What did Strasberg get? 4 years, $15.1M major league contract. the thing is, you compare samardzija's contract to guys who were legitimately great players in college: pedro alvarez: 4 years, $6.4M major league contract matt wieters: $6M bonus strasburg: 4 years, $15.1M major league contract david price: 6 years, $8.5M major league contract mark teixeira: 4 years, $9.5M major league contract mark prior: 4 or 5 years, $10.5M major league contract evan longoria: $3M bonus it makes no sense whatsoever. these were guys who were great college hitters and pitchers; samardzija got as much or more money than most of them even though he was an unpolished guy who didn't have particularly good numbers in college, and there were serious questions as to whether he would even develop the secondary stuff to be a starter. it's just an incredibly stupid decision and a massive waste of resources. Oh I agree, thanks for looking all of those up.