Good Bye Granpda Lou!

Here I am again for the second straight post saying good bye to another Cub...this time Manager Lou Piniella after he announced his sudden retirement today. Arguably, he's been retired since last July when he gave up on a winnable division, but as of August 22, 2010, it is now official...Grandpa Lou is GONE!

There was a lot of irony or coincidences or as Lou called them, Cubby occurrences with today's festivities. Today was the day the Cubs chose to honor Braves manager Bobby Cox who is making his final appearance as a manager here at Wrigley Field (completely official now with the Cubs NOWHERE near the playoff picture). I don't know when the Cubs announced the fact they would honor Cox (is it weird that an opposing team would be honoring him while still managing against them?), but my guess is that it was quite some time ago when the Cubs had not yet been eliminated from the playoffs (actually, they still probably haven't been officially eliminated). Anyway, so the Cubs chose to honor the opposing team manager on a day when their own manager announced his own retirement due to personal reasons related to his mom's health. Many people, myself included were wondering why Lou didn't just stay down in Florida with his sick mother a couple weeks ago when he took some time off to be with her...why want a couple weeks and hang on watching (OK, maybe managing...) this lousy team? The GM is dumping his players left and right and he's "stuck" with all these rookies, so why come back? He had the perfect excuse with the sick mother...stay home and be done with this!

In a bit of pathetic irony, the Cubs lost today's game (I was there unfortunately) 16-5 to the Braves which gives Lou bookend losses to the same team by the same score to start and end his final season as manager. Some similarities between the two games were LONG bombs hit by Braves rookie Jason Heyward although he actually hit two dead into a 15-20 mph wind today. Heyward also had 4 RBIs in both games. One big difference was the Cubs' starting pitching...in the Opener, former #1 starter Carlos Zambrano gave up 8 ER in 1 1/3 innings while today it was primarily the bullpen giving up the runs (although Wells was charged with the first 2 runs as he started the 7th) as the Braves scored 11 runs in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings. Did Lou really come back to manage a bullpen with guys like Justin Berg, James Russell, Tommy Diamond, and Marcus Mateo? Diamond was the diamond in the rough today only allowing 1 run but at least it was unearned. Berg was the victim of some more HORRIFIC Cubs' defense although somehow all 5 of the runs he gave up were deemed earned. Actually, he was on the mound or responsible for 8 total runs as he inherited bases loaded and allowed all three to score on THE worst defensive play of the season (and that's saying a LOT with this lousy team - more on this later). Mateo finished it off with 2 more runs in the 9th raising his ERA to 11.37. Lou came back to manage these guys?!?

The Braves have seemingly been inspired by knowing this is Bobby Cox' last season as they've pretty much come from nowhere (literally NOBODY picked them to finish higher than 3rd in the NL East) to lead their division right now. I don't think they'll have enough juice to hold onto their current 2 1/2 game lead with the Phillies getting healthy and surging up from behind them. Their big key is their ridiculous 44-17 record at home which leads the entire MLB. The Cubs were in the same boat this year with their manager almost certainly retiring at season's end and look what they've done - today's loss leaves them 21 1/2 games behind the Reds in the NL Central. Want some more irony? How about the fact that the first place Reds are managed by Dusty Baker? The Reds payroll is just a little more than half that of the Cubs. Irony can be so ironic...

Much of the ridiculously large crowd (announced at over 37,000 although take it from someone that was there, NO WAY - lots of no-shows!) seemed to be cheering Lou each time he came out of the dugout to make pitching changes including a fairly surprising double-switch in the 7th. I have to say I was NOT one of the idiots people cheering for Grandpa Lou. WHY would anyone cheer for this guy? His trip to Chicago was a complete and utter failure! I know he said he feels like he raised the bar, but WRONG again Lou...the bar was already raised when you arrived big guy. I know he recently came out and said he didn't really understand what he was getting himself into when he was brought in to manage the Cubs to a World Series win. What did we get instead? We did get a surprise visit to the playoffs in Lou's first year which ended quite unceremoniously with a 3-0 sweep against the D-backs in the first round of the playoffs...not to worry...we weren't even supposed to be in the playoffs in 2007. In 2008, Lou led the Cubs to the best record in the NL with 97 wins..NICE...but another 3-0 sweep ended that season much more abruptly and Lou's managing had a LOT to do with that sweep. How does Fukudome start game 1? How does Ted Lilly (a.k.a. Bulldog for his tenaciousness) NOT get a start in that series? How does Z get a start? Other than what proved to be a total fluke with a no-hitter on 9/14, Z had given up 5, 8, 3, 6, 5, and 9 runs in 6 of his final 8 starts heading into the playoffs...not exactly the run you were hoping for although he kept it "going" by giving up 7 to the Dodgers in game 2. Harden pitched well in LA, but no O finished off the Cubs. The team played very tight - Dempster walked 7 in less than 5 innings in game 1, the 4 errors by the entire infield in game 2, and 0 RBIs by their 3-4 hitters in Lee and Ramirez. Unfortunately, the 97 wins in 2008 was Lou's best "moment" as Cubs manager as he couldn't even helped the Cubs earn a single playoff game win, let alone series win or World Series ring. Lou's record as Cubs manager finished up at 316-292 which is above .500, but we were past that point weren't we? I thought so, but apparently Grandpa Lou didn't.

So now, the dreaded interim manager tag goes to Mike Quade. He has never managed in the bigs before, but he did manage well over 2000 games in the minors including 4 seasons at AAA Iowa. What happened to Alan Trammell? Hendry said he "made a decision in the process moving forward that Alan would not be considered for the managerial job after this year." Yikes! As I have mentioned before, NOBODY else "gets it" and it will take an ex-Cub to get this thing turned around. That leaves just Joe Girardi and Ryne Sandberg as I'm not aware of any other ex-Cub candidates. Bob Brenley won a World Series with the D-backs a few years ago and he would seem to know what he was getting himself into having been the Cubs television broadcaster for the last several years. I like what he has to say on TV and maybe out of any of the other candidates, he might actually "get it" so I'd throw him in there as the #3 candidate. As I've also said before, we've gone the "experienced" route with the last two disappointments...Girardi has some experience including a World Series ring as a manager and 3 more as a player ('96, '98, and '99 Yankees). He won the manager of the year award in 2006 while managing basically an entire minor league Florida Marlins team to a near .500 record and is now in his 3rd year as Yankees manager so he has proven he can coach young kids AND also handle big name, big money guys too...sounds PERFECT as that's just what the Cubs will have next year.

So the hope for me starts with Tom Ricketts firing EVERYONE ($145 million payroll is on pace for 96 losses and STILL nobody has been fired!) including Crane Kenney, Jim Hendry, and ALL the coaches. Then I hope the Yankees hold on to win the toughest division in baseball but fail to win the AL pennant again...then the Yankees don't renew Girardi's contract and the Cubs jump on that opportunity...he brings in Ryno, Mark Grace, and Greg Maddux to help him take this fairly young (all of a sudden!) team to the "promised land". Grace and Sandberg should certainly be able to work with this HORRIBLE defense (do you think Grace could help Colvin become a pretty good 1B?). Do you think Maddux could show Marmol how to throw strikes? What about teaching Samardzija a second or third pitch? What about Zambrano? The Cubs have him for at least 2 more seasons so lets try to make the best of a poor situation and it definitely starts with the coaching and atmosphere in the clubhouse.


What a TOTAL DEBACLE today at the "friendly confines"! Did it get off on the wrong foot by honoring a manager whose team has pretty much tormented the Cubs during his 25 years as Braves manager? Maybe...shouldn't knowing today's game was officially the end of Lou's tenure have made up for that though? If it did, it certainly wasn't obvious...Cubs starter Randy Wells gave up a lead-off HR to Omar Infante who would touch 'em all twice for his 5th and 6th bombs of the season (i.e. not exactly a power hitter folks). Wells was charged with 7 runs, but didn't get a lot of help. His defense was atrocious and the relievers did little to relieve anything as I mentioned above. I haven't seen worse 3B play than Aramis displayed since attending an Iowa Cubs game last summer and watched Bobby Scales look more like a matador than a 3B. Aramis was only issued with 1 error on a terrible throw on an easy DP ball right to him where he stepped on 3rd and threw a one-hopper to Xavier Nady at 1B. Another hard hit ground ball that went right at him was called a hit (nice for Aramis; not so nice for the pitching staff) but helped lead to 4 runs in the 7th for the Braves which broke open a 5-3 game. He also played matador when his old buddy D-Lee hit a ball to his right that he failed to get a glove on for a bases clearing 3-run double (Lee's first RBIs and first "hit" as a Brave). I mentioned above that the Cubs made the worst defensive play of the year in the 7th inning. With the bases loaded, Alex Gonzalez hit a flare to short LF...Cubs rookie 20-year old SS Starlin Castro broke back to the ball immediately while Cubs veteran LF Alfonso Soriano must not have because Castro beat him to the spot but neither player got a glove on the ball...it was a flare so it didn't go far, but Soriano overran the ball so Castro had to retrieve the ball...no communication at all on the infield as Gonzalez was frozen between 1st and 2nd while the runner from 1st rounded 3rd...Castro didn't know what to do with the ball and the hesitation cost the Cubs a run that even the scoreboard operator didn't get for a few minutes...they did get Gonzalez out for the 3rd out of the inning, but the runner from 1st scored before they got the out so that run scored too. So for those of you scoring at home...that's a 3-run single with no error!

So GOOD BYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE GRANDPA LOU! I for one will NOT miss you AT ALL. Enjoy your retirement...now you can wear your 1977 Yankees World Series ring all you want!

Good Bye D-Lee

If you have followed my blog, particularly last year, you know that D-Lee was the subject of my ire much of last season; he was a distant #2 to Jim Hendry for putting this mess together in the first place. Well, today I got my wish even if it happened a year late...the Cubs officially traded D-Lee. Surprisingly, they actually received 3 minor leaguers from the Braves in return including their 16th ranked player. With only 40 games left in the season, his last one of his big 5-year contract, it certainly works better that they actually received compensation beyond the the dreaded "bag of balls".

I'm a little concerned with the "cash considerations" phrase I keep hearing and reading tonight as I just don't understand that concept...it's not like the Braves are doing this huge favor, is it? Same thing with the Dodgers and Ted Lilly (now 3-0 with 1.89 ERA for them)...WHY are the Cubs paying ANY of the money owed to these traded players? Apparently, it's part of "the game" I guess as it seems to happen every time one of these trades happen so I know I shouldn't be surprised.

Here's a quick little history of D-Lee with the Cubs:

• D-Lee made himself right at home here in the NLCS while on his way to winning the World Series with his former team - the Florida Marlins
• D-Lee was "stolen" from the Marlins in an off-season salary dump trade to the Cubs for Hee-Seop Choi and a minor leaguer before the 2004 season
• With the addition of D-Lee and Greg Maddux, the Cubs were the overall favorites to win the World Series - didn't even make the playoffs as the folded down the stretch
• 2003-04 was the first time the Cubs finished about .500 in consecutive seasons since 1972 which was the 6th straight season they finished above .500
• D-Lee's numbers in 2004 were nearly identical to his 2003 Marlins number, with the exception of post-season numbers obviously
• The Cubs finished with a better record than 2003, but finished 3rd in the NL Central and watched the Red Sox break the Curse of the Bambino while winning their first World Series in 86 years
• Cubs non-World Series streak reaches 96 years
• D-Lee had a HUGE year winning his only batting title to date, nearly winning the MVP (finished 3rd behind Pujols who won and Andruw Jones who finished 2nd), making his first All-Star Game, winning his second Gold Glove and earning his only Silver Slugger (tough to beat out Albert Pujols)
• The Cubs were not very good finishing 4 games under .500 leaving them in 4th place while watching their cross-town rivals break their streak by winning their first World Series in 88 years
• Cubs non-World Series streak reaches 97 years
• D-Lee broke his wrist on a freak play when Rafael Furcal (who the Cubs very nearly signed that off-season) crashed into Lee near 1st base
• Lee played a career low 50 games which "helped" push the Cubs to 96 losses and led to Dusty Baker being fired
• Lou Piniella was hired to replace Dusty Baker (should have hired Joe Girardi who was unceremoniously fired by the Florida Marlins even though he won the Manager of the Year)
• D-Lee came back from the freak wrist injury but was not quite the same player at least from a power standpoint dropping from 46 HRs and 107 RBIs in 2005 to 22 HRs and 82 RBIs in 2007
• Cubs turned it around in Lou's first season winning the NL Central just as they did for Dusty in 2003
• This time, no "magic" in the post-season for the Cubs getting swept by the Dodgers in the NLDS
• D-Lee hit .333 in the series but had zero RBIs
• Cubs non-World Series streak reaches 99 years
• D-Lee nearly duplicated 2007 regular season numbers in 2008
• Cubs won 97 games earning the #1 seed in the NL for the playoffs
• This was the first time since 1908 that the Cubs made the post-season two seasons in a row
• Cubs were again swept by the Dodgers in the NLDS
• D-Lee his .545 in the series but again had zero RBIs
• Of course, this was the dreaded 100-year anniversary of when the Cubs last won the World Series
• D-Lee was about the only bright spot from last year's 2009 Cubs team finishing with a career high 111 RBIs while hitting 35 HRs and batting .306
• The Cubs did finish above .500 for the third straight season, but finished 2nd in the NL Central and missed the playoffs
• 101 years and counting for the Cubs last World Series title
• D-Lee REALLY struggled during this 2010 season from start to "finish"; combining with Aramis Ramirez' career worst year completely doomed the Cubs
• D-Lee finished his nearly 7-year run with the Cubs hitting .251 which was his worst since 1999
• Before hitting 4 HRs against the Cards last weekend (very timely as far as this trade happening), he was sitting on 12 HRs for the year having hit only 2 in the previous 8 weeks
• Of course in "typical" D-Lee fashion, all 4 HRs this past weekend were solo shots
• Actually, 10 of his 16 HRs this year were solo leading to a pathetic RBI total of 56 through 120 games

During his exit press conference, he said his "experience was nothing but positive" referring to his nearly 7 years in Chicago and that he "grew as a player, grew as a person" but he "didn't achieve the ultimate goal". D-Lee was a very respected player and considered a clubhouse leader...in that sense, he will certainly be missed. His anti-clutchness will not be missed...at least not by me. I don't know a way to figure out how to come up with the following stat, but I'd like to see where he falls in regard to RBIs per HR...his career 162-game average is 90 RBIs and 28 HR. While 28 HRs is a very respectable total (no, he is definitely NOT Albert Pujols - there's only ONE of those guys!) but barely exceeding 3 RBIs per HR just doesn't seem like a lot to me. Out of his 309 career HRs, 191 of them have been solo shots (62%) so it isn't like this year's performance (62.5%) is an aberration. I looked up a few other guys and this is what I found:
     Aramis Ramirez - 281 total HRs, 143 solo (51%)
     Sammy Sosa - 609, 326 solo (53.5%)
     Paul Konerko - 356, 212 solo (59.5%)
     David Ortiz - 343, 204 solo (59.5%)
     Carlos Lee - 322, 173 solo (54%)
     Adam Dun - 347, 196 solo (56.5%)
     Adrian Gonzalez - 159, 89 solo (56%)
     Alfonso Soriano - 309, 197 solo (64%)

I swear this is every single player I thought of and didn't leave anyone off the list that didn't help make my point. Paul Konerko has been brought up quite a bit lately as being non-clutch so I threw him in there. I find it interesting that Soriano is the only one with a higher percentage and was the closest to D-Lee's percentage since he was a lead-off hitter for so long.

Similar to how Mike Fontenot (not that there is any other comparison with these two guys) who was traded to the Giants while the Cubs were in San Francisco; D-Lee is traded to the Braves as they come to town this weekend. The Braves are hosting the Washington Nats right now with a game on Thu afternoon (get-away day!), but I doubt they'll have D-Lee fly out there just to turn back around and head back to Chicago right after that game.

So will the Cubs miss D-Lee? Most definitely; particularly rookie Starlin Castro and Aramis Ramirez who take the most advantage of D-Lee's Gold Glove ability to save them several throwing errors. The rest of the team will miss his clubhouse presence (except Carlos Zambrano maybe) and his quiet leadership. To me, it seems like he along with Aramis and Lou have all thrown in the towel already so I'd rather see him move on before passing on those thoughts to the rest of his young teammates.

So who replaces D-Lee at 1B for the next 41 games? I'd LOVE to see Tyler Colvin get a shot as I just don't think the Cubs really have anyone in the minors ready to step in (and don't say "what about Micah Hoffpauir?" because he's had his chance - he hit .239 in 105 games last year and is 0-for-7 with 4 Ks this year). The outfield remains set without Colvin as far as big contracts for 2011 - Soriano ($72 million for 4 more years) in LF, newly signed Marlon Byrd ($12 million for 2 more years) in CF, and Fukudome ($13.5 million for 2011) in RF. Fukudome may eventually be traded next year as he'll be in the last year of his contract, but it will take some time and you'd hate to have that much money sitting on the bench. BUT I have ZERO confidence the Cubs management "brain trust" will think even slightly out of the box so we'll probably see Xavier Nady over there instead...or maybe a combo with Hoffpauir. Now that Lee is gone, will the Cubs pull off the biggest coup EVER and nab The Machine who is a potential free agent and seemingly nearly unsignable by the Cards? If not, what about grabbing Adrian Gonzalez from the cash-stricken Padres?

After Lou ripped the rookie pitchers following Mon's loss, he basically apologized following Tue's loss. If you watched today (Wed) and you were paying attention, you saw 10 rookies play today including 6 pitchers and 4 starters against the NL's best team. What?!? Holy cow! Speaking of Lou, what was the point of Lou wearing his 1977 Yankees World Series ring? His Cubs are now 21 games under .500 and in 5th place in the NL Central 19 1/2 games behind Dusty Baker's Cincinnati Reds. They've already raised the white flag with the Lilly/Theriot trade at the deadline and the rumors were swirling about a potential Lee trade on top of that. So was the 1977 ring a "nah, nah, na-nah, nah - you'll never have one of these" things or what? Just like everything else Lou since last summer, I just don't get it.

Anyway, Good Bye D-Lee...regardless of everything, I wish you well and I'll see you on Sunday as I'm heading back to the Friendly Confines for the 8th time this season (yuck!). I'll be pulling for your Braves in the NL during Bobby Cox' last season but hope the Rangers win it all (I guess not if they have to face the Rays in the playoffs - yikes!).

GO BULLS!!!

May 19th Update

I wanted to do an update on the most recent happenings associated with the posts on my blog. I'll go through each of the most recent posts one at a time here so read the ones that interest you and feel free to respond/comment as you see fit.

Well, I simply must start with the Blackhawks. Does anyone else feel like the Hawks have the Red Wings right where they want them? Even though the Hawks are down 2-0, I feel like they are really "right there" and could easily take the next 4 games to win the series in 6. After being a non-factor in Game 1, Towes obviously came to play tonight scoring both of the Hawks goals. Khabibulin stepped up pretty well tonight saving 35 shots. Unfortunately, he was only 1-for-2 in OT and the Hawks fell 3-2. My daughter was hoping the Hawks would duplicate her soccer team's performance over the weekend. They were down 2-1 late in the game but were able to tie it in regulation and were able to pull it out in OT. The Hawks got it half right. Now they come home to a rockin' UC and will take back the momentum from the Wings. This whole thing kind of reminds me of the 1980 Olympics with the Wings playing the role of the "unbeatable" Russians while the upstart Hawks are the USA.

Now on to the Cubs...what the heck was THAT tonight against a reeling Cardinals team? Weren't the Cards coming off a home sweep at the hands of the 1st place Brewers while the Cubs were coming off a 4-1 homestand? That's not what it looked like to me. Did they really get completely dominated by Joel Pineiro? 3 hits? Really? 3 lousy hits! Where was the patience at the plate this team has exhibited most of the year? Pineiro pitched his first complete game of the season while throwing only 92 pitches. He came in with an unremarkable 4.17 ERA but after 9 innings of shutout ball, dropped it to 3.48. On a good note, they only left 1 guy on base. Of course, it is easier to let only 1 guy on base when 3 guys reach base with no walks to go with their 3 measley hits. Bradley hit into a DP to eliminate one of the runners and then Soriano was picked off to eliminate another; hence "only" one runner LOB. Wow!

How can you explain such a lousy effort against your #1 division rival? I just don't get it. You can't blame Lou for the lineup this time either. Other than Aramis being out with his injury, the rest of the lineup would have to be considered their best lineup. You really need to take advantage of those rare days when Phat Albert doesn't do anything too. Pujols was 1-4 and left 3 runners on base tonight. Too bad.

Cubs fans vs. Sox fans update. CSN is advertising this week as rivalry week with the Cubs in St. Louis and the Sox home facing the Twins. Cubs vs. Cards drew 41,374 while the Sox vs. Twins drew all of 26,696 on a GORGEOUS Tuesday evening. Where's all the Sox fans? Too busy watching the Cubs lose on WGN tonight? Hey Sox fans, double-bonus as I'm sure you didn't even notice - the Sox won tonight! By the way, just to put that pretty pathetic attendance figure at The Cell last night in perspective...the Cubs drew 23,441 to Miller Park with 24-hour notice on a rescheduled game that was supposed to be played in Houston but was moved to Milwaukee due to the hurricane in Houston. The game date was September 14th so don't tell me how last night was a school night because the game at Miller Park was a school night too.

Lee vs. Hoffpauir update. Maybe watching Hoffpauir play well in his absence clicked something in D-Lee's head. Lee has gone 6-11 in his last 3 games since coming back to the starting line-up and has even drove in 3 runs in those 3 games. Of course, the Cubs are 1-2 in those games. Hmmm. I was hoping Hoffpauir would take a little more advantage of his opportunity than he actually did, but he still did pretty well while being thrown into the starting line-up like he was. I'd still like to see him play more consistently but if just the threat of his being there and ably fill in is enough to help D-Lee produce, that works too.

I hope you are all enjoying my posts. Please be sure to comment as much as you can so I know you're "listening". Thanks!

D-Lee - #3 Hitter?

So what do you all think of our very own Derrek Lee? Personally, I think he is ULTRA over-rated, that is if anyone thinks all that much of him these days other than Lou Piniella. But if you read the comments from The Lou blog, you already know this. Actually, if you have ever talked to me about D-Lee, you already know it too.

While he may be finally out of his DP funk from 2008, he is still just simply NOT clutch and that is a TREMENDOUS flaw for your #3 hitter. Here's a Cubs team that led the NL in runs scored last year, but the #3 hitter in a career high number of plate appearances couldn't manage even 100 RBIs. How is that possible? I'll tell you how...NO POWER! D-Lee finished with a very respectable .291 BA, but managed only 20 HRs in a hitter friendly home ball park. Hmmm. To me, BA is the most overrated stat in baseball. It is not about how many hits you get in a game; its how many runs you score. To that end, the #3, 4, and 5 hitters have the biggest responsibility to drive in those runs. Sometimes you just need a single, but a lot of times you need extra bases so while he hit a respectable .308 with RISP, he only drove in 63 runs in over 180 plate appearances. Now, I won't compare him to Albert Pujols because, as much as it pains me to say it, he's just the best ball player in the game right now although he plays for the mortal enemy (sorry White Sox, I know the Cubs are your mortal enemy, but we just really aren't that concerned about a team we play 6 times a year) Cardinals. But let's compare him to Ryan Howard, shall we? Hey, it's my blog! Ryan Howard batted a smooth .320 with RISP and drove in 90 runs in 223 PAs. For all you anti-math guys out there, that's 27 more RBIs in just 43 more PAs. Further examination shows D-Lee had only 1 HR with RISP while Howard had 12. As a matter of fact, out of D-Lee's pathetic 20 HRs in 2008, only 5 of them were NOT solo while Howard hit 26 out of his 48 HRs with runners on base.

So while Lee hit for a .291 BA, he only drove in 90 RBIs while Howard "only" hit .251 but drove in 146 RBIs. How do you like BA now for an offensive stat?

Just for Rob...since you couldn't lay off protecting your boy D-Lee in my The Lou blog, here's another stat for you...while D-Lee is "average to slightly above average in rbi opportunties", he's tied for the team lead (Ramirez has been hurt and Bradley has been AWFUL) in RBIs with the likes of little Mike Fontenot, Ryan Theriot (my personal favorite Cub), and Mr. April (a.k.a. Kosuke Fukudome). Even with Fukudome's inflated salary ($11.5 million), if you add all of them together (Theriot - $500K, Fontenot - $430K), they still don't surpass D-Lee's ($13 million).

So, is it D-Lee's fault he just isn't that good? A little, right? But what about the knucklehead that has implanted him in the #3 or #4 spot in the lineup since he's been here? Ya, you know who I'm talking about...The Lou! How long can you live off a career year that happened 4 years ago? That's ancient history at this point, isn't it?

My thanks to the Cot's Baseball Contracts blog for all the salary data - http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/chicago-cubs_112114177768677294.html.