Winter Meetings Facepalm ***UPDATED***

Obstructed View Daily FacepalmThe Winter Meetings are underway and even though the Cubs won't be that active, I wanted to keep up with what's going on with them.

Kyuji Fujikawa

It still appears as though the Cubs have signed Fujikawa to a 2-year deal worth $9.5 million plus an option. However, the Cubs have not yet confirmed this.

Early arriving scouts at the Gaylord Opryland Resort on Sunday for the Winter Meetings were as curious as Cubs fans: Did the team sign Japanese free agent pitcher Kyuji Fujikawa or not?

The Cubs continue to keep quiet about Fujikawa, whom they have reportedly inked to a two-year, $9.5 million contract. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and MLB Network reported the deal on Saturday, saying Fujikawa would receive a signing bonus of $1 million and $4 million in salaries in 2013 and '14. There also was a vesting option valued at $5.5 million or $6 million, to be determined by games finished.

Cubs officials would neither confirm nor comment on the report. – Carrie Muskat

My guess is that the contract is official depending on a physical, but I was under the impression he was still in the US so that shouldn't take all that long. I haven't heard any reports that deny the Cubs signed him so I think we can be about 95% certain they did.

3rd Base

Muskat also mentioned the Cubs will be looking for a 3rd baseman after they non-tendered Ian Stewart. Josh Vitters provided no reason whatsoever to think he's capable of playing that position every day and Luis Valbuena will at the very least need a platoon partner. I still like the idea of signing Kevin Youkilis, but the Cubs have been in contact with Jeff Keppinger.

Peter Gammons Q&A

Tim Dierkes of MLBTR did an interview with Peter Gammons and I really enjoyed it. This part blew my mind:

Is there any reason the Dodgers can't jump up to a $300MM payroll in a couple of years?

I think it's a distinct possibility. I could see them at least going $220MM. Some of the people in the organization have said that the goal is to have an All-Star at every position. George Steinbrenner had that same goal once in the 80s. It'll be fascinating to see. They clearly understand baseball is entertainment. The competition with the Angels for the market and the Giants for the division is absolutely fascinating. It's such a high-stakes poker game, it's going to be really fun to watch.

Gammons also talks about the shift from the AL East to the West (both divisions).

Alfonso Soriano

Alfonso Soriano will be shopped as the Cubs have done for at least a full year now. They had worked out a trade with the Giants at the deadline, but he extercised his no-trade rights. The Cubs will have to kick in some money to find a team and probably won't get much in return. Bill James projects a league average .325 wOBA for Soriano next year. He's due to make $36 million over the final two years of his contract and the Cubs have already found one team interested so my guess is that Soriano will be traded this winter.

UPDATES

* Justin Upton is still on the block and the Cubs have been connected to him at least twice so far, but that doesn't appear to be the case right now. I'd love to acquire Justin Upton if he's really available. He's the perfect age the Cubs are looking for and he'd instantly be the best player on the team.

* The Brewers and Ryan Dempster are talking. The Brewers reportedly want a 2-year deal while Dempster is seeking more than that.

78 thoughts on “Winter Meetings Facepalm ***UPDATED***”

  6. @ Rice Cube:
    His first year of the deal in 2008 was a really good one, but the 3 years after that he was basically just good and last year only average. It’s a terrible contract and it was going to be one at the time it was signed. More than likely the Pujols one ends up being a terrible contract (same with Fielder). It’s actually surprising how well the CC deal has turned out to be in that it hasn’t been a bad deal (yet!).

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  9. dmick89 wrote:

    Brewers are talking to Ryan Dempster

    “Will you stop with the Harry Caray impressions? We’re trying to negotiate a salary with you. PUT THE WHOOPIE CUSHION AWAY! No, I don’t want to see your fucking rubber chicken… what are you doing? PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!”

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  22. @ Suburban kid:
    I’m wondering if we fucked the poll up. I don’t really see how, but it’s about the only explanation. Either that or there are some very small hall guys who visit this place. The poll was self-explanatory. Vote yes for no more than 10. I’ll have to go through some of the surveys.

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  23. @ dmick89:
    I definitely voted. i saw at least 10 people in that thread that said they voted. How many were you expecting? That has to account for 90% of the readers here (dying laughing)

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  25. @ WaLi:
    There have been more than 70 who filled it out. That’s not the problem. The problem is that the highest total for any player is 79% (only two players). Those are the only two who have more than 73%. There are another 4 who are over 70%, so it’s possible those guys finish over 75% though I doubt it.

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  27. (dying laughing) some people even voted for more than 10. I’m going to throw out 2 of the entries because one of them only voted for 1 and the other 2. Everyone else voted for 5 or more.

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  32. It appears we just spread the vote around. Perhaps we should have done it so you could vote for an unlimited number of players thanks to the mistakes the BBWAA has made in the past.

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  33. “I’m optimistic but I’ve also come to terms with that it’s an important lesson life: You don’t always get what you want,” Morris said. “No. 1, it’s an honor to be honored every year and, two, I’ve been kind of a controversial figure in the Hall of Fame because of the cybernetics (sic) guys, the numbers guys, vs. the guys who use … call it ‘the eyeball test.’ You know, ‘Were you there? Did you ever see me pitch?’

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  35. dmick89 wrote:

    It appears we just spread the vote around. Perhaps we should have done it so you could vote for an unlimited number of players thanks to the mistakes the BBWAA has made in the past.

    I’m interested to see how it turns out in the end. I like that we kept the rules the same so that we have to make our choices based on the same criteria that the BBWAA uses. I thought we’d elect a ton of people, but it appears that there is far from a consensus.

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  37. @ dmick89:
    We probably all just wildly disagree about who should be in. I didn’t vote for Sosa, but I saw other people did. He was borderline for me, given that I could only chose 10, and there were a lot of good candidates.

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  38. I definitely submitted a list of ten, and ten only. I thought there’d be consensus on at least five of them. I did share your poll with our followers and (no offense to anyone) some of them are not the best at following instructions, so if the source of the crap is coming from that subset of voters, then my bad…

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  39. Was reading old comments and RC said something about the World Series. And then I had to look up who won the World Series. I already forgot.

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  41. For what it’s worth…from the Twitters:

    More broadcasting news: Jim Deshaies leaving Astros TV to replace Bob Brenly on Cubs TV (Brenly went to Arizona)— DKnobler (@DKnobler) December 3, 2012

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  44. The Cubs are talking to many agents about bullpen help and they like Jason Grilli, tweets Bruce Levine of ESPNChicago.

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  51. Something Mish and I talked about in passing was the notion of the “Fame” in the “Hall of Fame”. If you consider the contributions made by guys like McGwire and Sosa that most likely extended off the field, they should almost get into the HOF on Fame alone even if their statistical cases are merely borderline. That’s also why I think Jack Morris is always in the running and will probably get in this year or next.

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  60. For those interested in the broadcaster selection process, Kaplan’s tweets the other day said Glanville was never even interested in the job, and he implied that Sutcliffe and Plesac decided they weren’t interested after all. Then he did a little lobbying for his boy Hollandsworth who turned out to be the loser along with Karros.

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  65. So Dave Kaplan sent me some extremely angry emails defending his fake tan again. (dying laughing)

    The guy takes his oompa loompa skin quite seriously.

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  67. A 250M+ payroll is madness. Do y’all think they would just pay the luxury tax every year and say fuck it? Or would we see some weird ass 15M/15M/5M/15M contracts? Or is the tax determined off average annual values?

    I’ll guess Bonds and Biggio for the subscriptions. Those will make great holiday gifts.

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  69. @ MJK:
    They use average annual value for luxury tax purposes. The Dodgers did just get that huge tv contract so I do think they’ll be over $200 million before long.

    Wrong guess.

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