The 136 Million Dollar Man

Apparently, when Jim Hendry had that sit-down meeting with Lou Pinella, Hendry wasn't kidding when he said that he would go out there and spend a lot of money. If that's what got Pinella to come to the Cubs, then bravo Jim Hendry, you're holding up your side of the bargain.

Aramis Ramirez was retained signing what was, at the time, the largest contract in Cubs history. Kerry Wood was brought back at a very cheap price to pitch out of the bullpen. Wade Miller returns. Hendry also decided to bring in Mark Derosa and give him, for whatever reason, 13 million dollars over three years [whatever, Jim]. Hank White will continue to back up Michael Barrett.

Oh yeah, and then Alfonso Soriano made Aramis Ramirez's contract look like chump change as he signed the richest contract in the history of the Chicago Cubs at 8 years and $136 million; the fifth richest contract in baseball history. All this to a man who might not have even been the best hitter on what was a sub-mediocre Nationals team last season. If the Cubs are giving top-5 all time money to a guy, you would think they would give it to someone who looked more like 1998-2001 Sammy Sosa than a guy who looks like 1995-1997 Sammy Sosa...Not that 1995-1997 Sammy Sosa was bad, because he wasn't, but he wasn't anything compared to 1998-2001 Sammy Sosa.

Jim Hendry is, at least, taking the "we gotta win now" approach in light of the fact that the Cubs are looking at 100 years of futility coming up after the 2008 season...and it looks like said futility will continue beyond that. The idea of spending money does not bother me because it's something the Cubs should have been doing from the moment they were purchased by the Tribune. Not winning a championship for an entire century will make them the laughing stock of sports history [if they're not already], and they're spending whatever they can to make sure that doesn't happen. Unfortunately, the team now has so much of whatever money it has tied up in Soriano, a guy who has only had one truly great season and then a few alright ones [certainly not numbers to justify the money].

Ultimately, the question is this: Can Soriano replicate 2006 into, at the very least, 2007 and 2008? Anything beyond 2008 doesn't really matter because at that point the franchise will have either not won a championship and everything will be overhauled, or it will have won a championship and everyone will live happily ever after.

The answer to the question is uncertain. I personally really hope that he can. Nobody wants him to win an MVP more than I do. The truth is, I just don't see him keeping up the walk numbers, and it's not like his batting average has ever compensated for that low walk rate. If the batter's objective is to not make an out [essentially, to get on base] he still didn't do that great a job of it as he was fourth last season in the NL in outs with his increased walk total. He will continue to hit home runs, and I doubt anyone is going to deny that. Wrigley is a smaller park than RFK, and he could potentially hit 50 out of the leadoff spot. The power is a bright side of what Soriano can bring to the table, and the combined home run output of Soriano, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Michael Barrett and Jacque Jones [lol] is potentially very exciting. However, from this point of view, it looks like that might be all he's bringing to the Chicago Cubs for the next 8 years.

In an ideal situation he can keep the walks and bring his batting average back to around .300. I won't be overly optimistic and say that I want him to actually increase his walk rate when it's never been higher than it was last season, but at least I know he can hit .300, or at least .290, which would help things if combined with the repeated walk rate. In said situation he would also be hitting his 45-50 homers, thus yielding a line of something like .290/.365/.560, which I would completely and totally live with.

Soriano leading off provides an interesting lineup situation. It will probably end up looking like this on opening day:

CF: Soriano
2B: Derosa
1B: Lee
3B: Ramirez
RF: Jones
C: Barrett
LF: Murton
SS: Izturis
P: Zambrano

If Lou wanted to have some fun he could try this:

CF: Soriano
1B: Lee
3B: Ramirez
C: Barrett
RF: Jones
LF: Murton
P: Zambrano
2B: Derosa
SS: Izturis

The thing is, that lineup might not be out of the realm of possibility considering the chances of both Derosa and Izturis actually being worse at hitting than Carlos Zambrano...which are high.

My ideal Soriano lineup:

LF: Murton
2B: Derosa
1B: Lee
3B: Ramirez
CF: Soriano
C: Barrett
RF: Jones
P: Zambrano
SS: Izturis

Yes, I think Cesar Izturis will suck that badly. It's funny how this is a team being built to win a championship now, but three of our position players [and potentially four] will be on a very good deal of Hacking Mass teams. Good show Jim Hendry.

He's also never played centerfield before and will be playing it with Matt Murton who is alright and with Jacque Jones who is pretty bad. That's going to be, at best, an adventure.

Over the past two seasons Jim Hendry has turned me from being the ultimate optimist when it came to the Chicago Cubs to being a member of one of the legions of pessimists that lurk amongst the scores of optimists. Sure, in life I maintain a fairly optimistic outlook...but not anymore when it comes to the Cubs. I'm hoping for the best case scenario with Soriano, but when I look at this deal I don't see anything more right now than some large power numbers and nothing else for what is an albatross of a contract.

Call me a pessimist when it comes to the Cubs. It'd be the truth. Nobody wants me to be wrong more than I. I'd love it to see Alfonso Soriano get inducted into the Hall of Fame one day wearing a Cubs hat saying that he carried us to a World Series victory.

I just doubt that's going to happen.