Sayonara

LaTroy Hawkins to the San Francisco Giants for two young guys, right-handeders Jerome Williams and David Aardsma.

Beyond the fact that the first player alphabetically in major league history is now a Cub, the real good news is that the Cubs save close to $5 million over the next two years. This is found money as the team expected to have LaTroy under contract through 2006.

The real question is: What are they gonna do with the money?

The Trib better not pocket it!

:::UPDATE:::
The Trib reports that the Giants only have to pay LaTroy $900,000 of his salary this year, but all of his salary for next year. The Trib also reports that LaTroy's 2006 salary is in excess of $4 million. This contradicts the numbers I was using to calculate the savings shown above (Hardball Dollars), but still yields the same savings. The Cubs now have reduced their payroll by $5 million in 2005 and 2006.