jersey cubs fan

That doesn't mean anything. You still have to replace those players, in addition to replacing what you thought you were paying Soriano for in the first place and will never get. Soriano's contract will hurt, there's no point in sugarcoating it. The fact that Lee and Ramirez might not be here for the last couple years does not change that. The point I was making that when those players' contracts are expired, we may have some very acceptable cheap in house replacements, and the money saved from their exiting contracts could be used to get a free agent to compliment the declining skills of Soriano elsewhere. Kosuke will be a free agent by then. There is no realistic in house replacement for Lee. Even if Vitters does come in and replace Ramirez at a high level, you're still going to need to be playing for middle infield help (cubs don't have a SS in the system). If Soto is any good he'll be making a ton by then. Plus the pitching. The fact that Lee and Ramirez's contracts (which are both reasonable) come off the books during the second half of Soriano's contract doesn't make his contract any less of a hindrance.

The injury means more than fewer SB, it means missed time, which has already happened and likely will continue to happen.

we'll see what happens, but I hope Fukudome ends up being our 3rd best, and not because of a Soriano regression or injury. I'm going to homer for Fukudome all season. i know, i know, SPRING TRAINING, but i just am totally in love with what i've seen so far. I'm not in love, but I too hope that Fukudome is good enough to be better than Soriano, because Soriano just isn't that good. Eh. In my mind, Sori is a far far better bet to put up a ~.900 OPS, which is pretty damn good (though I'm not a huge fan of how he does it), than Fukudome. I do love Kosuke's approach at the plate, though. Not all OPS are created equal, as the one with better OBP is worth more. Add to that the likelihood that Soriano will get himself picked off far more frequently, and I'm thinking Fukudome could outproduce him. That's also why I say 3rd or 4th best hitter. We don't know what either will do this year.

Not even close to the same. Dlee's fluke 2005 was unlike anything he'd come close to in his career. Soriano flirted with 40/40 on a regular basis. But when you pay him what the Cubs paid him, you better be expecting that out of him. Flirting is one thing...look how many times 40/40 has actually been accomplished. Expecting a player to do it agan is statistially pretty ridiculous. He had the drop off last year due to the injury time. Had he not missed that, he likely would have come near 40 home runs again. Again, I'm all about the one part of the 40's, not the stolen bases part. I don't see why everyone automatically assumes that because he's lost some speed, his bat is somehow going to suffer as well. Not being able to steal 40 bases is pretty far from not being able to steal bases at all, so it's not like his stealing "threat" is gone for people hung up on that. His speed was going to drop off relatively early in the contract due to his age anyways. Personally, I don't care whether he actually gets 40/40. But the fact remains, Soriano has been close to that on a regular basis, whereas Lee has never come close to duplicating 2005. Now, if you want to say it's unrealistic to expect Soriano to repeat his 2006, fine. That's true. But that doesn't mean it's wrong to be disappointed that your $136 million player stands little to no chance of ever living up to his contract, because the only way he could is if he regularly repeats his 2006.

That reminds me, I hate that word, chalk. I haven't heard it much this year. But mike and mike were saying it repeatedly last year, and even tried breaking it out with the NFL playoffs.

we'll see what happens, but I hope Fukudome ends up being our 3rd best, and not because of a Soriano regression or injury. I'm going to homer for Fukudome all season. i know, i know, SPRING TRAINING, but i just am totally in love with what i've seen so far. I'm not in love, but I too hope that Fukudome is good enough to be better than Soriano, because Soriano just isn't that good.

That doesn't mean anything. You still have to replace those players, in addition to replacing what you thought you were paying Soriano for in the first place and will never get. Soriano's contract will hurt, there's no point in sugarcoating it. The fact that Lee and Ramirez might not be here for the last couple years does not change that.

Not even close to the same. Dlee's fluke 2005 was unlike anything he'd come close to in his career. Soriano flirted with 40/40 on a regular basis. But when you pay him what the Cubs paid him, you better be expecting that out of him.

you're going to be flushing as much money down the toilet per year on a player like pierre or drew as you are on soriano until the last couple of years of his contract. That's the point though. $18m per is bad enough. 8 years is where it kills you. The Cubs can live with it right now, only because of how much their payroll has skyrocketted. Years 6-8 are really going to hurt.

that's not true at all; nobody with an eqa around .290 to .300 is a "decent enough complimentary player." that more accurately describes a guy like matt murton (.270-.275 eqa.) plus soriano is a good fielder, and murton is average at best. i agree that soriano is not the superstar that he is made out to be, but his offensive value is not far off from aramis ramirez, who i don't think anyone considers to be a "decent enough complimentary player." The point of the description was he better not be your stud. It's fine to have such a dangerous, yet highly flawed player as your 3rd or 4th best hitter. If he's your marquee guy though, you did a horrible job building your team. My original point is that Ankiel's numbers last year were not "very very good". They are complimentary numbers. Soriano is a better version of that complimentary hitter.

i didn't mention the yankees, and the red sox' budget isn't as unlimited as you think it is. they do have a very high payroll; however, they would not be able to afford all the guys like manny, j.d. drew (not worth anywhere close to $14M per year), ortiz ($13M per), lowell ($12.5M per), varitek ($10M per), beckett ($10M per), lugo ($9M per) and daisuke ($8.5M/$17M per, depending on how you think about it) is because they also have guys like youkilis, pedroia, ellsbury, buchholz and several bullpen arms who are productive players at or near the major league minimum. same with the dodgers, who are more on par with the cubs as far as revenue/payroll. the pierre contract is abominable; they're also flushing money down the toilet on nomar and jason schmidt. but again, the dodgers have mined very good prospects out of their farm system like matt kemp, russell martin, jonathan broxton, andre ethier, james loney, chad billingsley, andy laroche and (soon) clayton kershaw. so they can handle the bad contracts that EVERY good team inevitably has, because they also have the ability to generate their own young talent. you'd be hard-pressed to find a team in the top 10 payrolls that doesn't have a contract that is either bad or has become bad as a player aged. But there's also a difference between a bad contract, and a laughable one like Soriano has. Wasting $10-14m per for a few years isn't the same as throwing $18m per at a player who is going to be as one dimensionally weak as Soriano is going to be in a couple years.

That can't be good for the 'ole trade value. What would possibly give you that idea? He was never going to make the opening day roster. Optioning back to AAA changes nothing.

Nope. He's a decent enough complimentary player though. And hopefully he'll be closer to the .340 OBP area for at least a little while.

Most of the lineup is going to be bad, but 2-3-4-5 is going to be very very good. You sound awfully sure that Duncan and Ankiel can come close to repeating last year's production. I don't see it happening Even if they do, nobody with a .328 OBP is very very good.

As an aside, 1 month in and we're still referring to some sort of disease? Can somebody change the title?

12:30 according to my guide. I thought it was always 11:30 (eastern).

That was a bit of a non-sequitur... I turned on CBS expecting basketball, and instead found a very bored sounding Drew giving away a trailer.

What? That's what Lou said. He didn't want Kerry to sit on the bus and get a stiff back (that is, if he'd pitched in the first game of yesterday's double header). The question was about Wood potentially pitching in game 2. It was a split squad game. It wasn't a doubleheader, and nobody played in both games. The more established vets typically play in the home game, where Wood could have pitched if he was fine. I agree with the general sentiment of your post, but there was no way Wood was getting on a bus and potentially pitching in the 2nd game of a DH. The bus ride was about the game on Friday. They didn't want him pitching Thursday, then driving Friday and pitching again.

Drew Carey is horrible on Price is Right. And I like him in general.

What?

I read something about a peeled up hood, and from what I saw on Comcast sportsnite, it looked like something more than bats did the work.

Wuertz + for this guys doesn't seem very sensible. "This guy" was #3 in rookie of the year voting last year. Yeah, and in 89 Walton and Smith went 1/2. ROY and other voting is meaningless to me. We're talking about a guy who has done a decent job hitting for average and getting on base at an old age for every level, and he hits for no power. I don't see him making much of a career out of his skillset. Wuertz, as a middle reliever, may be of equal value, but I'd much rather include Wuertz in a deal for something meaningful, not another 4th outfielder. Coming from a GM who so grossly overvalues veteran relievers, I can't imagine how he can justify trading one of his best + prospects for this guy. From what I see, he was 5th in voting.

A) The Kendrick thing was the closest borderline funny/mean thing I've ever seen. Hysterical. B) If the players took bats to the car....and Wood is suspectively involved.... And Wood's back starting getting stiff on Tuesday, the same day the car demolishing happened. And his back got worse on Wednesday.... It's elementary, my dear Watson. It seems to me the damage was done with something other than bats. I can't imagine they all stood around and beat the crap out of it.

Wuertz + for this guys doesn't seem very sensible.

I'd take my chances that Marquis can start the season solid and drive up his trade value. Contrary to conventional wisdom, trades do happen in April, May and June. And teams are looking for pitching help at that time.