Then you want the impossible. It's all but inevitable that you're going to be overpaying at some point if you're trying to lock up a superstar. If you refuse to that then you have a team full of Darwin Barneys and Marlon Byrds with a few blips above or below them for the forseable future, and that's a recipe for mediocrity or worse for the next decade. I have no idea why you would prefer this route, but that's what you're getting and the Cubs go chicken-[expletive] and refuse to pay for superstar FA because they inexplicably decide they live in a world where nobody overpays for those kind of players (even though everyone does and has to). I mean, you DO realize that not every player that gets a huge contract isn't Soriano, right? You do realize the Cubs are owned by very, very rich people and make a lot of money, yes? I'm not saying they spend just to spend, but it would be flat out stupid to not take advantage of the huge resources at your disposal, especially when players like Pujols or Fielder roll around right at the moment you have money to spend, you need an offensive superstar (well, at least a couple, actually), and you need someone to play 1B.