Cubs Arbitration Figures
UPDATE: L. Valbuena signs for $4.1M according to Bruce Levine.
The Cubs had 7 players that could head to arbitration cases, they've settled with 5 of them today. Today happened to be the deadline when teams and players had to file their arbitation numbers if they were going to go to a hearing, thus the influx of news on completed deals.
F. Doubront got $1.925M (1st time arb eligible)
Chris Coghlan got $2.505M (1st time arb eligible)
W. Castillo got $2.1M (1st time arb eligible)
J. Arrieta got $3.63M (1st time arb eligible)
T. Wood got $5.685M (2nd time arb eligible)
That leaves L. Valbuena (2nd time arb eligible) and Pedro Strop (1st time) as the two that have yet to reach a settlement, although I highly doubt either will head to an arbitration hearing even if the deal isn't finished today.
In other Cubs news, Cubs Convention begins today, your annual opportunity to get cramped into a hotel lobby and hear absolutely nothing new. I guess you can snap a picture with your favorite player, coach or suit? Honestly, I'm not sure of the appeal, but yet it sells out just about every year. Regardless, CBS seems to be webcasting some of the events for tomorrow if you're so inclined.
And finally, the Bears have settled on their head coach and it indeed will be John Fox on a 4-year deal. Early rumors are that Kyle Shanahan will be his offensive coordinator and Dennis Allen will be his defensive coordinator. Ultimately I think all non-terrible head coaches and football teams are gonna hover around .500 for the most part unless they have a real good quarterback or can coach up really good defenses. You take a look at Fox's career record and he's 81-79 without Peyton Manning. Does that mean I think it's a bad deal? Hardly, I just think that's the NFL right now. Parity reigns and few teams can dominate that don't have a big time quarterback. Honestly the only team I can think of that has been pretty good without a great QB is the Baltimore Ravens under John Harbaugh and I do think Flacco is a good QB, much like I think Jay Cutler could have been a good QB. And the Ravens almost always have a good defense...and the year they won the Super Bowl under Harbaugh, their regular season D wasn't good, but they also lost Ray Lewis up until the playoffs. What I do think is that players truly want to play for Fox and he'll have teams prepared week in and week out. I'm not sure I can say that of Trestman and Tucker.
As for the coordinators, Dennis Allen did pretty awful as the Raiders head coach, but that's a pretty awful situation. He was Fox's DC his first year in Denver and they ranked just 20th in yards allowed that season (jumping to 2nd the following season after Allen left). Well geez, none of that looks promising. Allen was also a secondary and assistant defensive line coach with the Saints while new GM Ryan Pace was there, so the connection is strong. Whether the results will be remains to be seen, but I'm a bit skeptical already.
In regards to Kyle Shanahan, son of Mike, he's been an OC with the Texans, Redskins and Browns since 2008. Things didn't go too well in Cleveland last year, but terrible QB's and no Josh Gordon for 3/4 of the season doesn't give you the ingredients you need to cook up a winner. In 4 of his 6 previous seasons, his offenses were in the top 10 in yards gained (this with QB's like Matt Schaub and Robert Griffin) so you have to like that. He seems to be pretty flexible about his style, tailoring to the personnel he has and that will certainly be key for next year if they do hire him, as he'll likely be stuck with Cutler and Co. for at least one season.
Comments