Holiday Hangover

At the beginning of the off season I thought I read Ben Sheets wanted some ridiculous money considering his injury history and being out of commission in '09. If he signs with the Cubs (and I'm not totally opposed to it), I hope it's a smallish, one-year redemption contract. He can rake next year, not this year.

...Whatever that's supposed to mean. Meanwhile, I'm going to refresh and hope Arizona Phil posted something positive about some 17-year old future Cubs hot shot.

I could have sat right behind the plate in 422 when I bought my package in 1998, but I would have been in the last row and under the press box. So I chose slightly closer to the field, and out from beneath the press box with the sightline almost straight down the third base line.

Luckily, I made that choice because they tore up the last couple rows of 422 and made them handicap accessible seating a few years later and I would have been relocated way down the lines.

...but I always preferred the straight-toward-the-dish view from 420. Heh heh.

Just like Geo. : )

No problem, I do that kind of stuff all the time.

8 years is Hendry stupid.

Yes! Frosty Malts with those awful-tasting wood, flat spoons.

(if that's a punch line, what's the joke?)

The rumor has been confirmed, looks like it's a done deal:

http://www.thecubreporter.com/2010/01/04/holi...

No first round pick for Harden.

I'm considerably more optimistic about it.

Ben Sheets: Keeping doctors and trainers employed since 1978.

I joke, but that would be a high reward/medium risk transaction. He is He was such a great pitcher, if he can regain that fastball/power curve form he'd be a big deal.

Unfortunately, I think Rosenthal was just making predictions on all the free agents. This rumor isn't rooted in any fact.

You're leaving out the subordinated loans. The article says $674 million of the $845 million purchase price is debt.

As far as I can tell, the Ricketts family sold stock worth $403 million to do this deal. Of that, apparently $170 million in cash went to purchase and another $175 million went into the deal as a subordinate loan---a loan basically to themselves.

The structure of this purchase makes me wonder just what the Ricketts mean when they say they plan to plough all the profits the Cubs make back into the organization. Maybe they'll just use profits to retire these loans rather than refinance them. That will always remain an option but it's not exactly what Cubs fans are expecting.

I don't know what the average interest is on this financing package but if it's between 4 and 5% then the carrying cost is around $30 million/year. That could be paid for by reducing team salary to $110 million (I'm guessing that's the base they're working from now) in the next couple years or by increasing revenue.So far it looks like they're going the revenue increasing route...significant ticket price jumps, more advertising in the park, new income streams in the future from spring training facilities..etc.while freezing the team budget.

I think you're a little behind on that. Zell's problem was solved when the Trib retained a 5% interest in the team.