Preparing for Baseball Season

Cubs fans make me sick.

All of their unfettered optimism entering each season and unwillingness to point out their team's obvious flaws entering a season makes me giggle. And the fact that they always think the Cubs are going to win the division and compete for a World Series, NO MATTER WHAT they did in the offseason is downright humorous. Well, this season is no different.

It's no secret that the Cubs spent more money this offseason then Chevy on the "This is Our Country" commercials. But they didn't fix nearly enough problems to make them contenders, and the fact that Vegas is buying into the hype (they're 9-1 odds to win the World Series are second to the Mets in the National League) proves that everyone is just looking at Alfonso Soriano and Lou Pinella and absolutely nothing else.

Consider this, only once has a team had a payroll of 100 million or more and has won a World Series (2004 Red Sox), and the Yankees' highest payroll during their late '90's run was 92 million in 2000. Furthermore, the defending champion Cardinals, the team the Cubs should really try to mirror, have never had a payroll of more than 92 million. The Cubs' payroll this season is estimated to be in the high 100-millions, and what have they gotten to show for it? Soriano and a whole bucket of crap.

They will be paying Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis (a combined 29-29 and an average of 5-16 ERA) a combined 61 million dollars over the length of their contracts (four years for Lilly, three for Marquis). You could make a joke that general manager Jim Hendry had to have been sick to sign Lilly for that kind of money, but he actually was. He was ACTUALLY hooked up to an EKG machine in the hospital when the Lilly deal got done. And if you don't believe me, check this out. http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/9855166.

Despite all of this ridiculous spending, reporter after reporter kept claiming that the Cubs rounded out their rotation by signing these players. So let's recap.

This is what the Cubs rotation could potentially look like in 2007.
-Carlos Zambrano (Cy Young candidate and "Most likely to kill another player and get suspended for life" candidate)
-Ted Lilly (the numbers speak for themselves, but hey, he's left-handed!)
-Jason Marquis (higher ERA than Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano COMBINED last season)
-Mark Prior (the prodigal son who can't ever pitch but nobody ever knows why)
-Wade Miller or Rich Hill (former Astro who, according to Steve Stone is "the only guy in the majors with worse mechanics than Kerry Wood," or an unproven guy with potential)

I guess this can be viewed as an improvement from the likes of Carlos Marmol and Angel Guzman, but how exactly did this make people believe the Cubs are legitimate contenders?

Oh don't worry, I'm not done.

Aramis Ramirez made 11 million dollars this year and quit on his manager and team. He didn't start putting up numbers until the Cubs were in the basement and realized "Hey, if I swing for the fences on every at-bat, some sucker's going to give me a big contract."

So who was that sucker? You guessed it. So now Ramirez will be making 15 million dollars a year to coast through June and piss off everyone in the clubhouse. Why would the Cubs shell out that kind of dough when they could have swung together a Jacque Jones, Prior and prospects to LA-Anaheim for Chone Figgins (who made 2.5 million last year and was available this offseason)? It's the Cubs management's unwillingness to part with Prior, Wood, or any of the Cubs' amazing prospects who never pan out.

Having said that, here's the Cubs' projected 2007 lineup:

C-Michael Barrett (same as last year)
1B-Derrek Lee (who everyone has already labeled a sure-thing superstar after one great season)
2B-Mark DeRosa (will he be an upgrade from Ronny Cedeno?)
SS-Cesar Izturis (pretty good defensively and career .259 hitter)
3B-Aramis Ramirez (see above)
LF-Matt Murton (or will they give it to Cliff Floyd?)
CF-Alfonso Soriano (We know his talent but how good is he for the clubhouse?)
RF-Jacque Jones (same as last year)

Again, this doesn't quite look like a team poised for a World Series run, nor does it look too differently from the 66-96 team a year ago. Not to mention the fact that their bullpen is no different then last season. I just don't understand where the optimism comes from.

And I know what anyone who knows me will say, that I'm just a Cub-hater who should worry what my precious White Sox are going to do this year. But what stands out is that this same thing happens every year! Soriano played on bad teams in Texas and Washington and instead of putting up MVP-type performances and leading them out of the basement, he just put up great individual numbers and pissed off his team enough that they still didn't want him. And Pinella is a pretty good manager when he has talent around him. It's not too hard to have success when he has the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Randy Johnson as he did in Seattle nor does he have the competitive flair he did in Cincinatti. He's like the MLB's version of Bill Parcells. Mean enough that people listen but old enough to not make a difference anymore.

So I'm sorry to say it but it's going to be another long season in Wrigleyville and the Cubbie fans will yet again be disappointed by the result. I'm just counting the days until fireloupinella.com starts.