Much Ado About Dollars

Today is not only the non-tender date (aka the Day Jim Hendry Throws Money Away By Giving It To Korey Patterson), but it also seems to be a decision date for one Mark Prior. According to today's Chicago Tribune, Mark Prior has the option to void his contract and file for arbitration if he chooses.

He'd be smart to exercise that option.

With the Cubs and Jim Hendry throwing money around and lousy ballplayers (Korey and this waste of space), Prior is a fool to take what his contract calls for -- around $3.5 million.

He's much better off taking his wounded flipper and trying to see if an arbitrator might just give him a raise to $6 million or so. Hell, maybe the Cubs would be scared of such a result and settle early for $4mm or more.

And, perhaps this is the hangup in any trade for Miguel Tejada. Perhaps Baltimore just wants to know what a Mark Prior is going to cost before they take him. More likely, the Cubs want to know what Prior is going to cost before they take his probable DL time into account.

If Prior ends up in the $6mm range, perhaps a swap for Tejada isn't so unlikely.

Typical Cubs. Two years ago they could have had both players. Now, they probably have to swap the one for the other.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm living in the past. Forgive me for showing how past incompetence has a great effect on today's decisions. Forgive me for suggesting that reminding people of past mistakes might just help them avoid those mistakes in the future.

I'm done here. Off to do an art project.

Crap.

Someone ate my paste.