Great Contracts:  None.  Absolutely no great contracts, the closest one would be Aramis Ramirez, and we’ll post a few of these (including his) in the Notes section.

Arbitration Contracts:

Chad Gaudin (2).  $1.775M last year.  He was certainly no throw-in in the Harden trade.  He’s one of the better long men/spot starters in baseball.

Neal Cotts (2).  $800k last year.  He fell out of favor with Lou last year, but he seems to have turned that over the past season.

Rich Hill (4).  $445k last year.  He’s a namesake at this point, the only way he’ll see the majors is with another club.  He’ll probably be included in a deal.

Carlos Marmol (4).  $430k last year.  The crown jewel, so to speak, for the Cubs and has future closer written all over him.  The winter’s final outcomes with dictate what he will be doing next year.

Ryan Theriot (4).  $428k last year.  He had a great year, and if he keeps playing that sort of solid baseball, their middle infield will be well equipped.

Ronny Cedeno (3).  $407k last year.  He’s another Lou-doghouse guy.  It does not look good for him in blue.  My guess is Rich Hill and he are a part of a trade come early December.

Mike Fontenot (5).  $405k last year.  The most underrated of the Cubs young guys.  They should look to give him a shot at the second base job on a permanent basis.  Unfortunately, Hendry is still looking for **** (Where will this put Derosa and Theriot?) and if he gets one, that means Fontenot goes that much farther down the pipeline.

Felix Pie (4).  $401.5k last year.  Include him with Cedeno & Hill.

Geovany Soto (5).  $401k last year.  The ROY is ready to become a mainstay, and could quite possibly become the best catcher in baseball over the next few years.  Watch out Mauer.

Micah Hoffpauir (5).  $400k last year.  A more improved version of Daryle Ward, not to mention cheaper.

Sean Marshall (4).  $400k last year.  Once more, a cheap young player, and once more — he’s going to probably be traded.  The team is obsessed with paying big money to pitchers, and he does not qualify, so he will probably be traded as well.

Albatross Contracts:

Kosuke Fukudome.  09 – $11.5M; 10 - $13M; 11 – $13.5M.  This could become something that is not awful if Fukudome hits better the second time around.  There is clammering to trade this contract for another (i.e. Gary Matthews Jr.), but I believe they should keep him and hope that he catches on.  At worst, he can platoon with Reed Johnson next.

Alfonso Soriano. 09 – $16M.  10-14 – $18M.  Was any other team really willing to offer Soriano a 6 year, $108 Million contract?  That is what Soriano has left on his deal, which was not a 6/108, but rather an 8/136 deal.  8 Years for a 29 year old (at the time of the deal) is a dangerous thing to get into.  At the time of the deal, you could say albatross.  He is a good player, but not worth this.

Notes:

Carlos Zambrano: 09 – $17.75M; 10-11 – $17.875M; 12 – $18M; 13 – $19.25M player vesting option.

Aramis Ramirez: 09 - $15.65M; 10 – $15.75M; 11 – $14.6M player option; 12 – $16M club option ($2M buyout).

Derrek Lee: 09-10 – $13M

Ted Lilly: 09-10 – $12M

These contracts are listed, not because they are necessarily bad, but because they are on par with what these players are worth.  Also, the quantity of these contracts may very well be what brings the team down to salary hell.  It is good to have these guys on the team, they are good players, but too many of these, and it will make it harder to fill your teams needs.

If the Cubs win the Peavy sweepstakes, and they resign Dempster (Noted by Hendry as a possibility and even a desired event), they will have an insane roster and insane money donated to the starting rotation:

09 – Zambrano – $17.75M; Ted Lilly – $12M; Dempster – $12.5M; Harden – $7M; Peavy – $8M; Marquis – $9.875M; Marshall – Arb ($400k)

10 - Zambrano – $17.875M; Ted Lilly – $12M; Dempster – $12.5M; Peavy – $15M; Marshall – 2nd Year Arb.

That is a lot of money dedicated to pitching, and although that is important, you want your farm system to fill in some of the spots to reserve cash for other areas of the team.  Even without Peavy, we’ll see what happens with the Cubs “Super Rotation”.