Fucking argh
You know how I’ve been really happy that the Cubs haven’t signed any free agents this year? This is why.
Ten million dollars for Carlos goddamn Peña. Ridiculous. Short and sweet: from a value-for-money perspective, you want at least 2 WAR to justify a $10M contract (it’s impossible to know exactly at this point, but it’ll not end up far from that). Carlos Peña has done this exactly twice in his ten years. If you prefer Fangraphs WAR, okay, then three times. None of those years were 2010.
Not that that’s the only reason this is ridiculous. 2011 is a rebuilding year for the Cubs. They’re waiting out a bunch of existing awful contracts that are eating up all their moneys. Zambrano, Fukudome, Dumpster, Ramirez, Silva, Byrd, John fucking Grabow fucking, and especially Fonzie — that’s $106 million already spent. Some of those guys are so bad they don’t even play. Los ouch. So why the fuck would you give a ridiculous contract like this to a not-very-good 1B? Couldn’t you just, like, play Jeff Baker, who’s just about as good and already under contract? But no — have to get that lefty bat! That was what was wrong with the 2010 Cubs, you know: not enough lefties. It certainly wasn’t that they were goddamn awful.
I don’t get this contract. It’s an expensive one-year deal, so it’s clearly not part of any rebuilding strategy. Does Hendo think the Cubs are in contention, and what they really need — the one piece that’s missing — is a 1 WAR lefty 1B who plays shitty defense? I may have said something nice about Jim Hendry once; if I did, I apologise.
Let’s be clear about one thing. Derrek Lee is available. The Wrigley fans love him. He’d probably come cheaper than $10M. He is a mortal lock to be worth more than Carlos Peña. 2010 was the worst year of Lee’s career (not counting 2006, when he broke his wrist and was out all year long), and he was still worth 3/2 as many wins as Carlos Peña. Twice as many by Fangraphs. But the Cubs signed Peña instead, even though he sucks, because he’s left-handed.
You fucking morons.