<!--quoteo(post=80658:date=Feb 25 2010, 01:01 PM:name=Butcher)-->QUOTE (Butcher @ Feb 25 2010, 01:01 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=80656:date=Feb 25 2010, 12:54 PM:name=jstraw)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jstraw @ Feb 25 2010, 12:54 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=80647:date=Feb 25 2010, 12:30 PM:name=Butcher)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Butcher @ Feb 25 2010, 12:30 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=80638:date=Feb 25 2010, 12:15 PM:name=Butcher)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Butcher @ Feb 25 2010, 12:15 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=80637:date=Feb 25 2010, 12:14 PM:name=jstraw)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jstraw @ Feb 25 2010, 12:14 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=80627:date=Feb 25 2010, 11:04 AM:name=Butcher)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Butcher @ Feb 25 2010, 11:04 AM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Part of the signing was to make a splash in the free agent market and to generate some buzz -- and both of those things were done to make the team more attractive to potential buyers.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
"So Tom, gonna buy the Cubs eh? Well...<i>I wasn't</i> but now that the GM under contract has saddled the team with a bunch of bloated, back-loaded contacts the franchise is looking a LOT better to me. LOVE the Sorano deal, for example."
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Maybe not now, but when Soriano signed, he absolutely made the Cubs more marketable.
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Let me just add to this. The Cubs had just come off an abysmal season and a 6th place finish. Hendry was told to build a winner -- and cost wasn't an issue. He proceeded to go on a spending spree (that made most Cubs fans jizz in their pants, by the way) that ended up putting together back to back division titles.
All of this made the team more attractive to potential buyers.
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You said that the signing was to make a splash in the free agent market and generate some buzz and that this makes the team more attractive to buyers. It doesn't. Winning does. Nothing about loose purse strings per se, makes the team a more salable commodity.
I'd argue that taken on it's own, the opposite is true. Those deals don't help sell the team, the results on the field may or may not. A prospective owner still knows he's getting a back to back division winner with a left fielder that is getting old, may or may not ever be healthy again and may or may not have ever earned what he was getting paid, let alone ever earn it during the back end of the contract.
Yes, buying a team where fan interest is still high on the bell curve will sell more merch than buying a year-in, year-out loser would but Cubs fan interest is never low. The Soriano deal only makes sense as a gamble toward winning it all during the front end of his deal. Without even evaluating that aspect of the decision to sign him worked out or not, it's still the only <i>good</i> to consider the signing. Making a splash on the FA market is only useful for helping Hendry deflect criticism for about ten minutes. It's the worst possible reason to blow big money.
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For all of his faults, without Alf, we don't win back-to-back divisions. Think the Trib wanted to try to sell a 6th place team? After 2006, things were looking grim. Hendry's spending spree took the team from 6th to 1st.
When you buy the top free agent on the market, you're going to get fucked -- no two ways about it.
I've never said I'm happy about Alf's contract. But I absolutely understand why Hendry pursued him. Hendry had to build a winner -- and quickly. The only way to do that is by paying for it. Building from within (and fiscally responsibly) takes time. Hendry didn't have time.
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I agree that we don't win those divisions without him. As I said, THAT is the reason to go get him...NOT to make a splash in the market.
But I'm not sure the Ricketts' don't still buy and I'm not sure the price is significantly lower without those divisional championships.
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