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Vine-Line Tid-bits, October 2004

Sunday, October 31, 2004

This should have been "Vine-Line Tid-bits, November 2004

The Chicago National League Ball Club, inc. (a.k.a Chicago Cubs) publishes a monthly magazine named "Vine-Line." On the average, the magazine is a waste of money for subscribers, who are typically treated to articles with little substance, written by authors dependent on the team for their employment. The fact that the magazine is owned by the team it covers should give you a good idea as to how independent the magazine is from the team.

Anyhow, despite largely being a company mouthpiece, Vine-Line's typically have some interesting information that is relevant to Cubs fans. Today, I begin what will be a regularly occuring post highlighting some of the relevant information available in the month's issue of Vine-Line.

Page 4: Roster Tracker - The magazine officially lists the contract status of all men on the 40 man roster as of the end of the 2004 season.

• Joe Borowski, contract ends 2005
• Ryan Dempster, contract ends 2004 with team option for 2005 (which has since been picked up)
• Mark Grudzielanek, contract ends 2004 with team option for 2005 (which was not excersized... the club paid Grudz a $250,000 buyout, and Grudz is now eligible to be a free agent)
• LaTroy Hawkins, contract ends 2005 with a club option for 2006.
• Derrek Lee, contract ends 2006.
• Greg Maddux, contract ends 2005, with an automatic vesting option for 2006 if Maddux pitches 187.1 innings in 2005.
• Mark Prior, contract ends in 2006.
• Mike Remlinger, contract ends in 2005
• Sammy Sosa, contract ends in 2005, with a club option for 2006 (this option is automatically vested if Sosa is traded)
• Kerry Wood, contract ends 2006, with a mutual option for 2007.

• Moises Alou (Vine-Line doesn't explain why Grudz, who had a team option similar to Alou was listed as under contract, while Alou was listed as eligible for free agency. However, the end result is that the Cubs have declined both options, and paid Alou a $2.5 million buyout to avoid an $11 million salary in '05).
• Paul Bako
• Matt Clement
• Nomar Garciaparra
• Tom Goodwin
• Ben Grieve
• Todd Hollandsworth
• Ramon Martinez
• Kent Mercker
• Neifi Perez
• Glendon Rusch
• Todd Walker

Eligible for Arbitration: Players Eligible for Arbitration are unsigned for 2005 and have logged between 3 and 6 years of big-league service. The deadline to tender contracts to such players is Dec. 20.

• Michael Barrett
• Kyle Farnsworth
• Jose Macias
• Corey Patterson
• Aramis Ramirez
• Carlos Zambrano

"0-3 Men": Players in the 0-3 category are unsigned, but are not allowed to sign with other teams unless the team doesn't tender them a contract (deadline is Dec. 10). Essentially, the Cubs can pay these players any amount they desire, provided it is above the league minimum which was $300,000 in 2004.

• Ronny Cedeno
• Jason Dubois
• Angel Guzman
• David Kelton
• John Koronka
• Jon Leicester
• Richard Lewis
• Sergio Mitre
• Will Ohman
• Renyel Pinto
• Carlos Vasquez
• Todd Wellemeyer
• Michael Wuertz

More Vine-Line Tid-bits Please!

Posted by Byron at October 31, 2004 1:31 PM | | |

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