jersey cubs fan

I think you'd be surprised, guys. Let's use the contract Troy Tulowitzki got -- 6/$31M, with a $15M option on a 7th year -- after finishing second in ROY voting. That contract calls for $5.5M in year 4, $8.5M in year 5, and $10M in year 6. Now let's look at the ROY vote-getters from the year 2002. If these players had been signed to the same deal that Tulowitzki got, they'd have been paid $8.5M last year, and $10M this year. 1 Eric Hinske TOR 2 Rodrigo Lopez BAL 3 Jorge Julio BAL 4 Bobby Kielty MIN 4 John Lackey ANA 6 Josh Phelps TOR 7 Kevin Mench TEX 8 Mark Ellis OAK 8 Tony Fiore MIN 8 Dustan Mohr MIN 8 Carlos Pena TOT 1 Jason Jennings COL 2 Brad Wilkerson MON 3 Austin Kearns CIN 4 Kazuhisa Ishii LAD 5 Damian Moss ATL 6 Ryan Jensen SFG 7 Josh Fogg PIT 7 Mark Prior CHC 9 Alex Sanchez MIL 9 Jason Simontacchi STL 9 Dennis Stark COL There's not a single name on that list that you would've wanted for $8.5M last year, or $10M this year. Now the 2003 list. Here you're asking if you'd want the guy for $8.5M this year, and $10M next year: 1 Angel Berroa KCR 2 Hideki Matsui NYY 3 Rocco Baldelli TBD 4 Jody Gerut CLE 5 Mark Teixeira TEX 1 Dontrelle Willis FLA 2 Scott Podsednik MIL 3 Brandon Webb ARI 4 Marlon Byrd PHI 5 Miguel Cabrera FLA 5 Brad Lidge HOU 7 Jeriome Robertson HOU 8 Jose Reyes NYM 8 Ty Wigginton NYM You've got some hits and some misses, but more misses than hits. How many of these guys would you want for $5.5M this year, $8.5M next year, and $10M in 2010? 1 Bobby Crosby OAK 2 Shingo Takatsu CHW 3 Daniel Cabrera BAL 4 Zack Greinke KCR 5 Alexis Rios TOR 6 David DeJesus KCR 7 Ross Gload CHW 8 John Buck KCR 8 David Bush TOR 8 Nate Robertson DET 1 Jason Bay PIT 2 Khalil Greene SDP 3 Akinori Otsuka SDP 4 Aaron Miles COL 5 Matt Holliday COL 6 Kazuo Matsui NYM 6 Terrmel Sledge MON ... only maybe 2 or 3. These contracts *are* risky. They represent the chance to save a little if the player continues to play great, or cost a fortune if they head south. Basing this on rookie of the year votes is completely nonsensical.

He's dying for a LH bat to break up the righties and force the opposing manager to make bullpen decisions, yet he puts the two LH bat back to back?

Says you. So you're cool with gay jokes?

But the situations are very different because Patterson was injured and Lofton was still pretty good. Corey also had 1000+ major league PA compared to the non-chance given to Pie this year before being sent down.

Being fiscally responsible is not just for small market teams. The Cubs haven't really done this because they've had zero position players to even think about extending. There's a risk management element in addition to the fiscal responsibility element. The risk management element points to not offering the extension. There's risk on both ends. Let him go year-to-year and you are a likely to wind up paying a hell of a lot more than if you locked him up early.

I like that Jason Marquis's endorsement is the primary source of support for Jim Edmonds.

amen

Being fiscally responsible is not just for small market teams. The Cubs haven't really done this because they've had zero position players to even think about extending.

Your description "impatient, free swinging, and streaky" fits most power hitters. Your description "way overpaid" fits 98% of major leaguers. What? Most power hitters are patient, only a handful are free swingers, and very few of them come close to the streakiness of Soriano. Soriano's overpaidness blows away 98% of all other overpaidness.

He's a catcher, and he doesn't have a long track record of success. I wouldn't look to give him a 6 or 7 year deal, but after this season, I'd strongly consider signing him through arbitration if at all possible.

I believe he's guaranteed about $4.5m. The highest paid kicker angle is not overplayed. Just because the cap is going up doesn't mean you have to overpay a kicker who can't kick for a lick from distance. The Bears put a tremendous about of effort into special teams. They have a highly compensated long snapper and more than most teams emphasize coverage units and returns. Gould is the weak link on kickoffs, and they have no faith in him from anything beyond 45. He was fine as an undrafted free agent, but it's a joke to make him the highest paid before he was even a free agent. A lot of this is unprovable conjecture. Can you provide evidence that the Bears emphasize special teams more than other teams or that this is the reason why the kicking game has been excellent rather than Gould himself? Gould is not the mediocre kicker you're making him out to be. You're over weighting the need to be able to kick LONG field goals above the effectiveness of making reasonable attempts at a high clip (which Gould is among the very best in the NFL at). And Gould has been just fine on kickoffs. He's not consistently booming it out of the back of the end zone but our coverage units have been able to make up for it. If he's a weak link it hasn't manifested itself negatively. Throwing around words like "a joke" just reeks of off season histrionics that should be reserved for the fact that we have two dreadful options at quarterback. Gould had a high percentage in 2006. He did not kick a high percentage in 2005 or 2007. Your last point is moronic. I didn't say he's a joke as a kicker. I didn't say his ability was a joke. I said it's a joke to make him the highest paid kicker a year before he even hits free agency.

The only optimistic thing is Pie gets to play instead of ride the bench, but it's not as if he had to ride the bench. The rational move was to actually play him in the majors.

I don't believe in destiny. I meant destined in a talent and opportunity (which this hinders to some extent, yes, but at 23 this isn't really a worry) sense. Listen, I'm not really trying to defend the move all that much, I just think a lot of people are wearing their Edmonds hating hat when judging this move. We are currently getting slightly more than nothing production wise from cf and a few more weeks of that is worth the chance that Edmonds has something left, in my opinion. I guess it might be a stretch to assume Edmonds won't get longer than that if he struggles, but I really trust Lou's knee-jerk, reactionary managerial style to provide the correct result in this case. A) I don't believe players are destined for the majors, teams have to develop talented players and give them an opportunity to play there. When you screw around with a guy in his pre-prime and pre-arbitration years, you lose developmental time as well as cost effective time, which can lead to decisions like cutting ties with a guy prematurely. Look no further than Matt Murton for a guy that was clearly capable of producing in the majors but whose prime has been wasted by the Cubs in part due to their something left in the tank nonsense like Cliff Floyd. B) We are getting nothing out of CF because Lou is playing a guy who can't hit RHP against RHP. Yet, the Cubs are still scoring runs and winning games. They can live with getting nothing out of CF for a while because so many others are producing, that is the perfect time to let a kid work in the majors. C) Lou's knee jerk reactions occur with young guys and those who fail to make a good first impression. If Edmonds happens to run into one in a crucial spot early, he's going to get a much longer rope to hang himself with than is appropriate.

I don't believe in destiny.

He's also an idiot who said Reed Johnson should start everyday and leadoff despite loads of proof that Reed Johnson would fail miserably as an everyday player.

I don't care that he's an obnoxious former Cardinal. I care that he's a bad baseball player and they are once again going with washed up proven veterans instead of seeing if a kid can work his way through his struggles.

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but this has been an ongoing issue all year, and he's been expected to sit-out of things. Once Briggs was done this went on the front-burner, and Angelo has hinted that he's not about to bend in the least. I'm somewhat neutral. Urlacher is under contract, but he's also a special case. Guys are asked to renegotiate for the team all the time, they can be cut at any time. And it's somewhat standard practice to give raises to players who are outperforming their contract. I believe Urlacher has been outperforming what has turned out to be a very team friendly contract. If he plays this year without a new deal, he will have a very good argument to make a stink next offseason. I think they can give in to him a little this year, but actually wind up saving a little in the longterm.

If he was any good I wouldn't care about his history and would be more than happy to root for him.

When people try and support a clealry asinine move like benching Pie for Reed Johnson and Jim Edmonds, it's not being reasonable, it's being ridiculous.

Hahahaahahahahahahahahahahaha

As I understand it he's cleared waivers therefore, no team has put in a claim meaning all Hendry has to offer is the league minimum. just because he CAN offer league minimum, doesn't mean he WILL. The teams didn't pass on Edmonds, they passed on him at his current salary. THe OP is saying that Hendry is thinking that SURELY a lot of other teams are interested in him at a reduced rate, so Hendry will outbid himself. Any money paid to Edmonds is deducted from his salary as a Padre. Jim Edmonds will make 8M this season no matter if he plays in Chicago, Tampa, Gary, or he goes home and sits on his ass. There is no reason for any team to voluntarily pay more money to get Edmonds because it's only going to benefit the Padres, not Edmonds. There's also no reason for the Cubs to have any interest in Edmonds. But Edmonds would be a free agent and Jim has big against himself for more than his fair share of mediocre veteran free agents.

I'm not really sure how you can say this when the details of how the contract is structured isn't known. We know the total dollar value, guaranteed dollars and years. And we know it was signed a full year before reaching free agency.

Edmonds will make the pro-rated version of the league minimum. ~280K. The Padres will pay the remainder of his 8M contract minus that. No player that ever gets waived gets more than the league minimum. Didn't Reed Johnson?

It's not just 50+, it's more like beyond 45.

Sub 2 ERA at home, nearly a 5 ERA on the road.