Fukudome, Prior & Mitchell

For the second year in a row, the Cubs have landed their #1 offseason free-agent target. Last year they got Alfonso Soriano for a mere $136 million to play left field and bat leadoff. This year they toned down their spending by signing Kosuke Fukudome for $48 million to play right field. The money is flowing out of Wrigley and the fans continue to flow in, with the expectation that there will be a celebration in 2008, and not the 100-year anniversary party that some of you are thinking about.

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Late last night, the Cubs decided not to offer Mark Prior arbitration, thereby making him a free agent. This was inevitable when Prior refused to sign an incentive-laden contract with a club option year for 2009. He did not have the same sense of loyalty that Kerry Wood had last year and again this year. Prior felt he didn't owe the Cubs anything in return for the almost $7M they had paid him over the last 2 years in exchange for pitching in 9 games and earning 1 victory.

It is possible that he could recover to his greatness of 2003 and make some team (likely SD Padres) very happy. But, I won't feel bad about losing him, not only because he has no loyalty, but because he is a pansy. He whined that he wasn't hurt multiple times but then wouldn't take the mound and eventually said he was hurt. He is an evil-twin mirror image of Kerry Wood. Prior wanted to be a great pitcher and recover from injury, but he wasn't willing to work through it like Kerry has just as often. I would much rather have a player like Kerry than Prior.

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The Mitchell report was released today and implicated 86 individuals as users of performance enhancing drugs. Big names like Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Miguel Tejada, David Justice, and Mo Vaughn were included in the report. But one name was conspicuously absent from the list of the guilty.

Sammy Sosa

His name is mentioned once in the report, as one of many players whose lawyers' were sent a questionnaire and never returned it. Of course, it is possible Sammy had a different source than many of the players identified today. But, if that is the case, the source has stayed loyal and silent, and none of Sammy's teammates have ever implicated him other than saying that his body got a lot bigger over a few years.

I am starting to think that Sammy's Hall of Fame application is looking a lot better with over 600 home runs and no direct link to performance enhancers.