srbin84

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Ramirez make it to the All Star game last year? I don't remember if he started or not though. He did, but Rolen won the starter voting.

Why not add Ramirez to this plan as well.

Rotoworld is pretty well respected around here and even they said Lee could have gotten 10-15 mil more as a free agent.

You wouldnt want them because the cubs have one of the best players in major league baseball, and to sign any of those players, while would be fine for other clubs with lesser 1bs, is unacceptable to cubs fans who are spoiled with Lee. Hence, It was an amazing bargin for the amount of money Lee signed for. To prove my point would one of the number crunchers compare Lee's numbers and his contract amount to other players with simular monetary compensation. You're going to get a Pujols comparison (same pay rate) and debate as to if they are equal players or not.

Carl Everett has never played first base in his career. Maybe he doesn't believe in the position? Yeah, I didn't think so either, but he was on the list. I wouldn't want him making one at bat for this team and his presence on the list makes it look even worse so I left him on.

Here's a list of the upcoming 1B free agents I pulled off the net minus Lee, Ortiz, and some of the obvious bench players: Sean Casey Phil Nevin Shea Hillenbrand Dmitri Young Erubiel Durazo Kevin Millar Frank Thomas J.T. Snow Nomar Garciaparra Doug Mientkiewicz Carl Everett (Team Option) Jeff Conine (Mutual Option) Darin Erstad Dimitri Young (Team Option) Craig Wilson Aubrey Huff I wouldn't want any of those guys starting for us.

not for the last 167 games he isn't. I think you are over-stating your case here. It remains to be seen if Lee can maintain last year's pace, but last year he was the better player - I don't think its accurate to say Pujols is light years better in every facet of the game. And what about speed/baserunning? I think Lee is better than him there too.

I'm confident he would have gotten more money and possibly even an extra year from the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Orioles. Nevermind the Yankees and Red Sox who could easily get into a bidding war, if Ned Colletti gave 13 mil to Furcal, what makes you think he wouldn't give 15 or 16 to Lee? Despite those three options, he would have Baltimore as well, which has coveted him for years and has Angelos as their owner...not to mention a disgruntled Tejada. I put him in the same class as Pujols and he's making about the same amount of money as him. You could put him in that class, but you'd be dead wrong. He's nowhere near as good as Pujols, and not worth as much as he is in any reality. Well, even if you don't, he'd be in at least the same price range were he to test free agency. No he wouldn't. Not even close. Pujols would get close to Manny money in this past FA market. Maybe more. I'm not even kidding. Pujols is light years better than Lee in every facet of the game except defense, and his freakish hitting ability more than makes up for that. We overpaid for Lee. It's different (and better) than overpaying for fringe talent like Hendry tends to do, because at least Lee should be productive for most of his deal. As I said, the only downside of overpaying Lee is that it could hinder an effort to either prevent Aramis from opting out or prevent us from resigning him should he opt out. However, to say he's in Pujols' class and thus deserves this contract is just silly. I never said Pujols wouldn't have gotten more money as a free agent, of course he would have. I hope it doesn't hurt us in other ways either, but he would have got a better contract from another team.

I'm confident he would have gotten more money and possibly even an extra year from the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Orioles. Nevermind the Yankees and Red Sox who could easily get into a bidding war, if Ned Colletti gave 13 mil to Furcal, what makes you think he wouldn't give 15 or 16 to Lee? Despite those three options, he would have Baltimore as well, which has coveted him for years and has Angelos as their owner...not to mention a disgruntled Tejada. I put him in the same class as Pujols and he's making about the same amount of money as him. You could put him in that class, but you'd be dead wrong. He's nowhere near as good as Pujols, and not worth as much as he is in any reality. Well, even if you don't, he'd be in at least the same price range were he to test free agency.

Probably Guzman.

I'm confident he would have gotten more money and possibly even an extra year from the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Orioles. Nevermind the Yankees and Red Sox who could easily get into a bidding war, if Ned Colletti gave 13 mil to Furcal, what makes you think he wouldn't give 15 or 16 to Lee? Despite those three options, he would have Baltimore as well, which has coveted him for years and has Angelos as their owner...not to mention a disgruntled Tejada. I put him in the same class as Pujols and he's making about the same amount of money as him.

Well Ramirez is sort of locked up, it's just a matter of whether he opts out or not after this year. I cant think of a better option at 3B. How much does he have left? "I want to be a Cub for the rest of my life." I think it would take a lot for Ramirez to opt out. Either a season so astronomically good that he knew for sure that he could get a lot more on the FA market, or major shakeups that he didn't like involving the Cubs. I highly doubt he opts out. you dont think he could get better than 2/22.5 as a free agent? Perhaps he values certain things more than an extra few million. Perhaps he realizes that if he becomes a free agent he can just re-sign with the cubs for more money/years than he's current under contract for. So you think about 14 mil/year is too much to be spending on Lee, but Ramirez should be getting paid more than 11.25?

I guess Dusty can only make analogies about MVP baseball, Napoleon Dynamite and Weezer.

He can say whatever he wants. I personally find his fishing analogies funny and weird. That's fine if that's your opinion. You're entitled to it. Somebody declaring them dumb, especially if they don't understand them, seems dumb to me though, personally. And it's as much to do with the constant search for a reason to slam Baker when he is doing all the major things the Dusty haters wanted him to do as the analogy itself.

Nothing. But making fishing analogies when talking about baseball sure is. And why is that? Because the intent of his message is very clear without the fishing reference. It'd be just as dumb as if Dusty was a big fan of backgammon and threw in random backgammon references when talking about a player who is struggling. So are you saying he shouldn't make analogies in situations like this? I think he was just trying to get some fans to relate to the slump Jacque was in.

What's dumb about fishing?

personally i wouldn't let a skunk in the boat with me in the first place It's amazing how some fans just pick apart every aspect of Baker. He's having a fine year so far... Agreed.

Treeman, what would you have done if Lee insisted on getting the contract he got?

Couldn't agree more.

I think the Cubs signed him for below market value.

Good deal for the Cubs. Nice job by Hendry.

Well, Babe Ruth was a very productive player through age 39 without the DH, and he didn't exactly live a healthy lifestyle.

I still think Lee could easily get 5/80 from a number of teams (Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles-who have always wanted him).

I'm pretty sure whether it's crazy or not my reaction is going to be "I really hope he's the best hitter in the game for a while longer". well sure, but if we decided it would be fun to give him 5/70, we're going to be wishing a heck of a lot harder. 5/70 for Lee would be a fair deal for the Cubs. Jim Thome got 6/85 in 2002 at the same age. and that was a terrible deal Well if Thome could get more money and more years than that in 2002, what makes you think Lee can't get even better offers from more than one team? He's a better player too. Do you just not want the Cubs to have those kind of players? I don't think we could win if we just let him walk and signed someone cheaper.

I'm pretty sure whether it's crazy or not my reaction is going to be "I really hope he's the best hitter in the game for a while longer". well sure, but if we decided it would be fun to give him 5/70, we're going to be wishing a heck of a lot harder. 5/70 for Lee would be a fair deal for the Cubs. Jim Thome got 6/85 in 2002.