wow.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2668465

so... this is a pretty big deal, right? i didn't even know they were in the running.

I guess Piniella intends to win or something.

With the Cubs, even.

I think this a deal to scuttle the sale of The Trib--uglify the company's most attractive asset.

jesus christ. thats way more than hes worth.

I really thought he was going to that Los Angeles of Anaheim team.

It's not way more than he's worth right now. But it will be in year 8 of this contract. But more than anything, I think the Cubs needed to send a message that they will pay anything to win and after the disasterous last two seasons. Kind of like the Mets signing Pedro for a longer deal than he was worth. D.Lee, A-ram, & Soriano is pretty impressive. Now let's add another SP. I wouldn't mind going after Drew either.

If they signed Drew as well, what do you do with Murton and Jones? Does that mean you play Soriano at 2B? His D is horrendous in the IF.

SP is most important. Maybe they can trade Jones/Eyre and a prospect to the Indians for Westbrook, and then sign Drew for CF. Now that'd be impressive.

I'd love Westbrook and I think that's the best case scenerio. But if not, I'd sign Drew and platoon Jones adn Murton. Keep Soriano in the OF. I'd like them to try and move Itzuris. I think Theriot adn Derosa is as good as Itzuris adn Derosa but cheaper. But I agree with you that SP is the biggest priority.

Serious question for Cubs fans: Do you guys totally consider Pryor and Wood busts who will never contribute anything to the team? Like, have y'all moved on from thinking those guys are any good?

I haven't, personally. Wood is going to pitch out of the pen this year, and he was lights out when he came out of the pen two years ago.

Prior, I still have faith in as well. He obviously isn't reliable enough to be counted on as anything more than a 5th starter this year, and it seems like Hendry has learned his lesson with that. Prior can be a huge wildcard for us this year, if he can return to form we could have a dominant rotation.

Here's what I'd like our rotation to look like at the start of the year:

Zambrano
Westbrook
Lilly
Hill
Prior

Prior has the stuff to be a #1, so if he has a good year for us, look out.

what would his role be in the bullpen? with his history of arm troubles I cant see him ever being a reliable setup or closer because then he might be in a position to put too much mileage on that arm early in the season. So, middle relief?

I think in the beginning of the year, yeah, he'll probably be a 7th inning guy. Howry 8th and I'm betting the Cubs will start the season with Dempster still as closer. Demp had a very solid '05 but struggled a lot last year so if that continues I wouldn't be surprised if they tried Wood as closer. From everything I've heard, his arm usually starts bothering him when he hits about 60 pitches so maybe the pen will be good for him.

As a closer, Wood pitching 3 consecutive days is a concern but I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that.

i'm not a cubs fan, but i live ten minutes from wrigley and see a lot of games there. when i first moved to chicago, i was always excited by the prospect of seeing one of them pitch. i've lived here for two seasons and never seen either in a game. i'm over them. i still think prior will contribute, but i highly doubt he'll do anything special with his career.

Prior's still only 26. If he doesn't do it in a Cubs uniform, he'll turn it around somewhere. His career is far from over.

Most of his injuries have not been shoulder/arm trouble. He was ran into on the basepaths in '03, hit by a line drive, achilles trouble. Although they are saying he has a "loose shoulder" this offseason, whatever the hell that means.

Buy his shoulder a drink and see what happens.

I don't think this is official yet but my god, what are the Cubs thinking locking up 8 years and all this money for a 200 strikeout guy and below-average fielder? Unless Soriano can give them 200 IP, this is pretty desperate.

I'm hearing only 6/$90 mil is guaranteed, the last two years are club options. Regardless, I think this is something Cubs fans should be excited about. This club NEVER goes out and signs the top free agent.

Also, payroll is supposed to be around $120 million this year and I'm pretty sure the Soriano signing only puts them at about $100. So the starting pitching is coming. This is very early in the off-season.

cubs are goin out in a blaze of glory!

i'm pretty excited about this. yeah 8 years is too long but who cares. it's nice to see the trib finally go out and say 'fuck it' for once

Free agent pitchers aren't really that great this year, and a lot of teams need it, so I wouldn't get my hopes up too high about the Cubs landing more than one decent SP.

And 8 years is retarded at that amount. However, the Cubs have enough $ that when Soriano starts to decline it won't necessarily cripple the team for years, though I rather hope it does.

With the way contracts keep getting larger and larger, Soriano's contract could be seen as a bargain in 4 years. Who knows. And when he's declining, we can trade him to the AL to be a DH.

There are actually a lot of decent starting pitchers available, and two really big ones. Schmidt and Zito are the big names. Mulder is a FA, though I doubt the Cubs touch him since he's coming off an injury. Jeff Suppan, Ted Lilly, GIl Meche all would make a good 3-4 in the rotation.

And the guy I really want is said to be available via trade. Westbrook from the Indians is a groundball pitcher, and would do excellent at Wrigley and with the Cubs good IF defense. Plus his numbers would probably slightly improve after moving to the NL.

Randy Wolf is also an intriguing option on a thin market.

Base-abol!