SouthSideRyan

To get paid to do nothing. When the arbitrator ruled, his career was effctively over. I don't think ARod wants to embarrass himself on the diamond. Who said he'd embarrass himself? If anybody wants A-Rod off the diamond it's the Yankees, not A-Rod. Baseball is his life, he's not walking away no matter how badly the Yankees want him to

I read somewhere that A-Rod is required to sue the union if he's going to continue to fight. And if the Yankees buy him out it will be for a dollar on the dollar. Why on Earth would A-Rod accept a buyout for anything less than the entirety of his contract?

*checks browser history* theblaze.com theblaze.com theblaze.com theblaze.com theblaze.com theblaze.com theblaze.com theblaze.com theblaze.com Must be viewing infowars on Incognito

Are sheeple any relation to the lizard people that run everything?

Well, he got 49 games knocked off his suspension for one. And I'd bet he certainly thought he had a chance of winning considering the length of the supsension handed down was just pulled out of Selig's ass, the information on the case was bought from a criminal, and one of the arbiters was testifying against A-Rod. If his career is over what exactly has he lost? He wasn't going to break any records after 2 full seasons away from the game. He loses 0 dollars. Selig ended his career with HIS crusade, so all he had left was to try and fight it in court.

FTFY. All the results indicate is that New York was more persuasive, be it financially or otherwise (and by many accounts the Yankees utilized a number of things to woo Tanaka). It doesn't mean the Cubs weren't serious in their pursuit. If it comes to light that the Cubs offer was much, much lower, then we can question how serious the club was. He was responding to a post by Marlin (who everyone considered reliable 24 hours ago) saying the Cubs offer was much, much lower.

Bah, what does this guy know, Ms. Tanaka just likes going to Broadway shows.

Kemp? yeah, you just have to ask SSR, who knows what every team bid Or you could take the reports of everyone outside of Dave Kaplan, along with EVERY rumor of what the Cubs were bidding and compare it to the Yankees final 7Y/175 (inclusive of posting) and realize the Cubs were most likely outbid.

You must live indoors and never visit the outside world. That's just what he wants you to think.

A's sign O' Flaherty to 2Y/7M deal. Cubs 2014 payroll estimate drops to 26th in the majors

-Likely offered him the most lucrative contract.

Let me know if you plan on including Ricketts in the spree so I can get @DeadTomRicketts registered

If they both included 4 year opt outs it's pretty significant to have an extra 25M guaranteed if your arm falls off

Wtf were they doing signing Edwin Jackson then?

i like the your name or your brains thing a lot. that said, the real argument is probably that this is why it's stupid to put your whole offseason on the hopes that you can sign one guy, especially if you've turned yourself into a hilarious joke team that no one wants to play for given any other options. He was the FA this offseason that fit the plan. So they made a huge push for him and he decided he'd rather play somewhere else. Who else should they have signed this offseason? Ellsbury For $22m/year for 7 years? If we're operating under the assumption that we have actual American dollars to spend, yes.

i like the your name or your brains thing a lot. that said, the real argument is probably that this is why it's stupid to put your whole offseason on the hopes that you can sign one guy, especially if you've turned yourself into a hilarious joke team that no one wants to play for given any other options. He was the FA this offseason that fit the plan. So they made a huge push for him and he decided he'd rather play somewhere else. Who else should they have signed this offseason? Ellsbury

SRO still available

Source? Agree -- right now it seems very unclear as to which team's offer was more, the Yankees or the Cubs. We have Passan saying the Cubs may have been slightly higher, and Rosenthal saying the Yankees were higher. Twitter seems in agreement that the Yankees' decision to up their offer to include a 7th year, an opt-out after year 4, and a no-trade clause were each instrumental, but none of this really speaks to which offer was "greater" in terms of total dollars (or whether the Cubs were already offering each of these sweeteners). One thing that I've seen no media type report on today is that he wanted to go to New York regardless of money.

Source?

I think it's pretty easy to look at the organization and say we'll need to target ofers and starting pitchers. Very little can happen in 14 that would make me think otherwise Starting pitching, sure, I'll give you that. Outfielders? What if Olt looks solid at 3B, or Villanueva, for that matter? KB comes up as a RFer, because he's not nearly as good at 3B as either of them. If Soler and Almora both look to be mid 2015 callups and are both top 20 prospects still, are you considering the OF as a bigtime hole? I have no issue trading Alcantara and Vogelbach for an OFer, even in this situation, but I think I'd prefer dealing them for a SP instead. If Olt/Villanueva have solidified 3B, Baez is manning 2B and Bryant has RF covered all during this coming season, then I'm damn sure going to try to win in '15 and don't care about having one sport for Almora and Soler.

Goony is just saying this because he's mad the FO cut off all his sources

There's not a single name on this list that you'd like to sign as a FA that you think will actually make it to FA next year? And even if that's true, it's good that the Cubs are still allowed to trade. He very clearly said "as attractive". Great. You pay Tanaka $225m and I'll pay Mad Max $150m. Look, we missed out on the prom queen and that sucks. But it'd be great if we could have 1-2 posts of ridiculous before we move on rather than 10 pages of it. There are other fish in the sea. If 2014 shows that some of our top prospects are ready to produce in 2015, I'll be as furious as any of you if we don't make some major moves to contend in 2015. But we made the best offer to the best FA and he decided to go somewhere else. What the [expletive] do you want? I don't think Scherzer even makes it to FA, but if he does he'll certainly get more than 150 and he'll still be 4 years older than Tanaka Regarding Tanaka, Well he took what he deemed was the best offer, so for starters I wanted to make the actual best offer

I think it's pretty easy to look at the organization and say we'll need to target OFers and starting pitchers. Very little can happen in 14 that would make me think otherwise

sign all of Brett Anderson, Brandon Morrow and Josh Johnson at reasonably reduced rates and you'll come upon a TOR arm (or two!) somehow or another Wasn't this your plan for this offseason only replace morrow with Hughes or something?

Tanaka wasn't making the 2014 Cubs a playoff team. And who knows what the team will look like heading into 2015. Too many possible FAs, trades, etc to write that off today. Not that it will stop you. I'll go out on a limb and say there will not be as attractive a starting pitcher available for nothing but money in the next 2 offseasons There's not a single name on this list that you'd like to sign as a FA that you think will actually make it to FA next year? And even if that's true, it's good that the Cubs are still allowed to trade. Brett Anderson (27) - $12MM club option with a $1.5MM buyout Homer Bailey (29) Josh Beckett (35) Chad Billingsley (30) - $14MM club option with a $3MM buyout Joe Blanton (34) - $8MM club option with a $1MM buyout Wei-Yin Chen (29) - $4.75MM club option with a $372K buyout Kevin Correia (34) Johnny Cueto (29) - $10MM club option with an $800K buyout Jorge De La Rosa (34) Ryan Dempster (38) Gavin Floyd (32) Yovani Gallardo (29) - $13MM club option with a $600K buyout J.A. Happ (32) - $6.7MM club option Dan Haren (34) - $10MM player option if 180 innings reached in 2014 Roberto Hernandez (34) Luke Hochevar (31) Hisashi Iwakuma (34) - $7MM club option with a $1MM buyout Josh Johnson (31) Kyle Kendrick (30) Jon Lester (31) Colby Lewis (35) Justin Masterson (30) Brandon McCarthy (31) Brandon Morrow (30) - $10MM club option with a $1MM buyout Jeff Niemann (32) Ross Ohlendorf (32) Felipe Paulino (31) - $4MM club option with a $250K buyout Jake Peavy (34) Wandy Rodriguez (36) Max Scherzer (30) James Shields (33) Carlos Villanueva (31) Ryan Vogelsong (37) Edinson Volquez (30) None of these guys are as attractive a target as Tanaka was. And there were several free agents I was interested in this offseason too. I also hear trades were allowed but I'll have to check to make sure