Doesn’t makes sense to do game by game reacts when the reacts are coming much later and after all those links have done it already (and likely better.) Unless something tweaks me into saying a lot more, I’m probably just going to look more big picture right now. Tougher to be instantly out of date that way.
Part of the big picture is to collate some of the data I’ve been posting in bits and pieces through the spring. Now that we’ve got a set roster, I’ve got a set page for it.
For all the talk about the Cubs being a top 1-3 team in the NL in salary, their opening day 25 man roster is actually a smidge under 80 million. They’re laying out over 20 million – 1/5 of the total team salary more to cover the guys on the DL and no longer on the team. (Not just Sosa; we’re paying more for Alou than we are for the two guys who are replacing him.)
Speaking of salaries: I’m not a huge fan of the A-Ram deal, mostly because the out clause after ’06 scares me. We’re either going to end up redoing this because it’s under market value (and risk losing him) or being stuck with him over market value the last two years. A-Ram wins either way, which is at least good for him.
On that contract page, you might also notice links to the Iowa Cubs and Peoria Chiefs rosters, in what appears to lineups. Do not take them seriously; I’m just picking the starters on press releases and stats from last year. I’ll be at least updating the rosters (and probably adding links to stats and such) through the season to keep track of things. The idea is to keep track of who’s where, and how they’re doing; I’ve got maybe one-tenth of that done.
I don’t plan on doing the other farm teams; I did Peoria because I’ll be seeing them, and I’m doing Iowa because we’ll all be seeing them at some point. But maybe when I have a working home computer and get really bored, I might figure something out.
If some other Cub fan sees this, let me know what else is worth adding. Some stuff (age) is obvious and I can figure enough to label the actual prospects, but I don’t know what else would be helpful.
And if someone can recommend a spreadsheet program without the ugly microsoft HTML markup, that’d be pretty near.
(quick Cub thoughts I never got to: it’s surprising Mitre got sent down, though I’m sure he would’ve gotten sent down in a week anyway when Prior came back. It’s nice for the Cubs Kelton did make it thru waivers, though probably not nice for Dave.)