Cubs get Kevin Gregg

[guitarchitect7]

Interesting Notes:

Jeff Samardzija rhp
5 years/$10M (2007-11), plus 2012 & 2013 club options

• signed extension 1/07, giving up football
• $2M signing bonus
• no-trade clause
• total value may reach $16.5M with exercise of options
• must return bonus & much of remaining $10M if he returns to football
• drafted 2006 (5-149), signed 6/06, $1M signing bonus, may increase to $7.25M if Samardzija chooses to play baseball over football
• agent: Mark Rodgers
• ML service: 0.000

Rich Harden rhp
4 years/$9M (2005-08), plus 2009 club option

• 4 years/$9M (2005-08), plus 2009 club option
  
  • signed extension with Oakland 4/1/05, replacing 1 year/$0.3365M contract for 2005 signed 3/8/05
  • $1M signing bonus (paid between 4/2005 and 2006)
  • 05:$0.5M, 06:$1M, 07:$2M 08:$4.5M, 09:$7M club option (no buyout)
  • 2009 option may be guaranteed based on IP, starts, Cy Young vote
  • escalators for annual salaries based on IP, starts, Cy Young vote
  • award bonuses: $50,000 each for All Star, Gold Glove, LCS MVP; $0.1M for WS MVP; $0.1M for MVP ($75,000 for 2nd place, $50,000 for 3rd); $0.1M for Cy Young ($75,000 for 2nd place, $50,000 for 3rd)
  • acquired by Chicago Cubs in trade from Oakland 7/8/08
  • Cubs exercised $7M option for 2009 10/8/08
• 1 year/$0.306M (2004)
  
  • re-signed 2/27/04
  • split contract paying $0.103M in minors
• 1 year/$0.3M (2003)
  
  • contract purchased 7/17/03
• signed 5/18/01 (draft and follow)
• drafted by Oakland 2000 (17-510)
• ML service: 4.074

[Bobber]

Wish I could have played baseball worth a lick..

What a life.

[Cyclone90]

Originally Posted by Cyclone90

Just another instance of Hendry trashing the farm system for relatively little return.

The cerebral Cub fan understands letting Wood go. Unfortunately most will not. Wait til Marmol blows his first save. You'll hear booing like never before. The kid hasn't responded well in the past with pressure on. I'm not sure he'll be able to handle being the closer day in and day out.

Originally Posted by Bobber

You didn't watch the Cubs much this year. Marmol slumped a bit ahead of the all star break, but was freaken awesome the rest of the year.

I've been accused of a lot of things, but not watching the Cubs enough is definitely not one of them. Freaken awesome as a setup man is a lot different than as a closer. Check his stats during the '07 playoffs and tell me how good he did under pressure. There is reason he didn't win the closer job out of spring training last year. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not sold on the idea of him closing. You have to be somewhat consistent in that role without a string of blown saves. Having a month of implosion won't fly. The fans will tear him apart after that month or two and he'll be mental applesauce.