Got Them By The Balls

A lot of talk lately is about Aramis Ramirez opting out of his contract after this year and either holding the Cubs hostage for more money, or going elsewhere. While he plainly isn't worth more money, based on his lackadasical play most of the season, he has the laws of supply and demand going for him, as there are few 3rd baseman on the market this offseason, and he is putting up big numbers,though they are all in the last month or so. While it would be a shame for him to get paid more than Derrek Lee, and would kind of be like when Toni Kukoc got paid more than Scottie Pippen all those years with the Bulls, the Cubs could easily come up with the money to meet his demands. Between Maddux not coming back and Kerry Wood's option not getting picked up, there is anywhere between 19 to 23 million dollars saved right there. They could save more money by doing the following:
1. Don't re-hire Dusty Baker. Hire someone like Fredi Gonzalez. That should save at least $3 million,, figuring they probably have to pay Fredi about $1million.
2. As I said on this day, they should either cut Prior's salary the full 20% or non-tender him and see if they can sign him at about $1 million. I don't know the rules, but if they can do that, they can save anywhere from $500,000 to almost $3 million.
If they do all that, they ought to have enough to make Aramis happy - if that's what they want. A dimwitted chimp can figure that out. Unfortunately for Cub fans, he's not the GM, Jim Hendry is. I don't think he can.