A Double Take

The World Series ends, and while a guy goes into reclusion consumed with his first semester of law school -- DON’T PANIC, Ford Prefect -- the Cubs get moving on the hot stove. A month ago or so, when I stopped paying attention, the team had no manager, no third baseman, a question mark at second base, and no centerfielder. Check, check, check and CHECK. Dare I say it? Even Dusty Baker could win 90 games with this lineup...

I don’t know anyone who was 100 percent on Piniella, but as part of this larger plan, I don’t think we could be happier, short of a marquis pitcher. Well, I guess the nitpickers can worry about the outfield defensively as well, but let’s not go overboard. This is a lineup with power and speed top to bottom, a great defensive infield, and a solid bullpen, so with any kind of pitching up front, the Cubs will win a lot of games.

I liked the Ramirez re-signing. The Cubs definitely got him cheaper than his worth in the open market. But more than that, I believe very strongly that the right way to run a baseball team is to keep your core contributing players around as long-term as you can, rather than hiring free agents or especially short-term mercenaries. Baseball unfolds over eras, not over seasons. For that matter, I liked keeping Blanco and Wood, even if “core contributing” perhaps doesn’t apply in the numbers world.

But when you get a chance to sign a guy like DeRosa for 3 years, it makes sense, even if he does strike out a bit much. And when you get a chance to lock up a guy like Soriano for almost a decade, that really makes sense. So much for those one-run losses.

On a more personal angle, rather than the objective analysis, I was really glad they brought back Kerry Wood. I like that he wanted to stay in Chicago, to try and give the team a return on the trust and money they’ve put in him, rather than cutting and running. It’s rare enough that loyalty runs both ways, and in many ways I felt like that validated my unqualified support for the guy. I’m pulling for him.

And still the TribCo rumors sizzle, I take it, although without looking at ANY other factors, my initial line of reasoning is that a business will not take on such huge costs if it plans to sell those costs with an asset. No doubt about it that Ramirez and Soriano were huge costs, and costs that could have been avoided in favor of cheaper options. I figure the TribCo is keeping the Cubs, and was ready to put money in and hope for the big return.

In any case, it’s back to my narrow world of property and constitutional law and torts cases that remind one of the Darwin awards. Exams begin in 3 weeks. Who knows, maybe by then the Cubs will have signed Barry Zito or Ted Lilly, or even Jason Schmidt. After all, we could feel on the first day of October already that change was in the air...