MLB Hot Stove... A Seller's Market

This is unbelievable.  Alfonso Soriano is an excellent player, but eight years at $136 million!  This is the richest deal the Chicago Cubs have ever made in their history.  The Cubs are trying to return a degree of credibility to their franchise after being the laughingstocks of the league for... say... a century?  It goes to show just how desperate the Cubs are to get back on the competitive radar after being schooled and upstaged by their south-side rivals for the past two years, and bottom dwellers in the already mostly mediocre National League. 

The Cubs still need some pitching for me to take them seriously.  We saw a Yankees murderer's row lineup win one playoff game in 2006 without much pitching.  As I said yesterday, offense is exciting, but pitching wins.  The dizzying sums paid to guys like Frank Thomas, Alfonso Soriano make it a great time to be a player.  Frank had a nice comeback season to be sure, but making a cool 18 mil over two years in the twilight of his career after a base $500,000 salary with the A's last year is not a bad chunk of change.  I'd take 1/16th of that and be plenty happy.