That’s What I Get for Taking a Weekend Off

Damn, I hate it when Sully and I agree on something. And I hate it even more when Sully gets his bit into print before I post mine:

If anyone can sympathize with Jim Hendry these days, it’s White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.

Just as some baseball executives are criticizing the Cubs’ general manager for giving Alfonso Soriano an eight-year, $136 million contract, so too was Reinsdorf pounded by his peers 10 years ago for signing Albert Belle to a five-year, $55 million deal.

Reinsdorf set the market shortly after being a leading hawk during the players’ strike of 1994, incurring the wrath of his fellow owners.

Not that I’m singling out the White Sox, of course. And neither is Sully, who also touches on Andy Hawkins, Ryne Sandberg, Nolan Ryan, and Manny Ramirez.

What I am singling out is that every couple of years some team gives some free agent a huge contract. And that sets off a chorus of wailing and gnashing of teeth from the other teams.

In years past, the Yankees have been the team most railed against. Ten years ago, it was the White Sox.

This year, the Cubs are in the unusual position (for them, at least) of spending money like it’s going out of style. And, as I noted in an earlier post, the vast majority of commentary on this deal has consisted of pundits hyperventilating over the contract, and not whether or not the addition of Soriano improves the team on the field. I’m not surprised. In the thirty-odd years since free agency became a reality, economic concerns usually trump baseball concerns during the Hot Stove season.

Meanwhile, Roberto Hernandez, Danys Baez, Greg Zaun, Juan Pierre, Gary Matthews Jr., Carlos Lee, Nomar Garciaparra, Ray Durham, and Adam Eaton have signed contracts that some might consider questionable in their own right. I guess the reason no one talks about that lot is that no one wants to single out any particular team...