3 years ago when I became a Cubs fan, my dad told me to save myself. He told me that ever since he was a kid, they always seemed to be bad and that back in the days when Wrigley owned them that they would steal money from them, and now the Tribune is doing the same. I've stuck with the Cubs, but I decided to see if the ownership was really being dis-honest, and I have come to the conclusion that they are. In the off season, they traded Sosa (16 mil) to baltimore for hariston. Im not sure what hariston is getting paid, but I think its between 1 and 2 mil, not even close to Sosa's 16 mil. They chose not to re-sign clement, and he was being paid around 5.5 mil. they chose not to re-sign grudz and he was paid 2-3 mil. they let alou go, and that was around 8.5 mil. They signed Burnitz for 1.8 mil, and rusch for I have no idea how much, but It couldnt have been more than 3-5 mil. I could be wrong or missing something...but I dont think so.
If theres any major releasings/signings that I missed, post it.
I don't follow the financial dealings of the Cubs very closely, but all of those moves made good financial sense to me. Sammy isn't close to earning $16 a year, let alone $16 million, and Hairston is a decent Util player. Alou wasn't going to reproduce the year he had last year and was going to giving a new long term deal to a 38 year old doesn't make sense at all in my book. The Clement deal is the only one that could be classified as a bad move, but the only reason he looks good this year is because he's got good run support and his walk rate has been incredibly low compared to his career numbers (read: he will not keep this up once his walk rate returns to his normal level in the AL East). I agree that they could have made some more/better moves in the offseason, though. I guess I'm just not much of a conspiracy theorist, then again, I'm not a Cubs fan, so I don't have to be.
SaintsOfTheDiamond wrote:I don't follow the financial dealings of the Cubs very closely, but all of those moves made good financial sense to me. Sammy isn't close to earning $16 a year, let alone $16 million, and Hairston is a decent Util player. Alou wasn't going to reproduce the year he had last year and was going to giving a new long term deal to a 38 year old doesn't make sense at all in my book. The Clement deal is the only one that could be classified as a bad move, but the only reason he looks good this year is because he's got good run support and his walk rate has been incredibly low compared to his career numbers (read: he will not keep this up once his walk rate returns to his normal level in the AL East). I agree that they could have made some more/better moves in the offseason, though. I guess I'm just not much of a conspiracy theorist, then again, I'm not a Cubs fan, so I don't have to be.
SOTD is right here, the problem last offseason was that we had to pay a lot of our players their arbitration raises. I don't have all the numbers but Prior, Wood, CP, Zambrano, Barrett and a few others all were paid more through settlements. The plan last offseason was to go at one of the big OF in Beltran or Drew, the problem was by the time we got rid of Sosa both were off the F/A market and it was too late. I don't think it's as big of a deal as you are making it, just one cubs fan opinion.
last night after I posted this, I checked and hairston is getting paid 1.7, and rusch 2. If we were giving players raises, they would have had to be pretty incredible raises. I dunno...I could be wrong....I thought all that up at 2 AM....
Moving Sosa was a smart move. He would not have produced even close to the numbers he should for what he is paid.Plus the bad blood around tohe club house would not have been good. Letting Clement go wasn't a good move but sometimes players want a change and we don't know all the reasons for him signing elsewhere. I'm not sure it was a good idea to let Alou go, but he is getting old and maybe they wanted some at bats for younger guys like Murton.
I think that getting Gerut was a good move as Dubois has no defencive skills. I would like to see the Cubs add some help at the deadline but I'm happy with the team as is.
I hate the Tribune. They're a business and bottom line is that they have to make money. They won't put in the $$$ to win. They don't need to. Fans like me still pay to go to games whether they suck or not.
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by cubsrock » Sat Jul 23, 2005 3:13 am 
