Unsurprising Statement From Furcal's Agent
The Chicago Tribune's story this morning that the "Cubs' interest in [Rafael] Furcal is mutual" does not mean much. The source of the Trib's report on Furcal's interest in the Cubs is, of course, Furcal's agent, Paul Kinzer. The Trib quotes Kinzer as saying: "He's very close to Neifi [Perez] and [Aramis] Ramirez, and he played with [Greg] Maddux, so there's a comfort level in Chicago. Whatever team he goes to, he wants to be able to go to a World Series, and he feels the Cubs are going to be competitive in trying to get there. I'd say there is very serious interest from Rafael."
Kinzer's motivation is to ensure that there are as many bidders for Furcal as possible. If he can convince teams that Furcal is interested in them, that will make those teams more interested in Furcal. After all, you're not going to expend time and effort courting a player who has no interest in you. So when the Trib calls Kinzer and asks if Furcal is interested in the Cubs, Kinzer only has one possible response: of course he is. So those excited about the possibility of Furcal playing shortstop and batting leadoff for the Cubs over the next 4-5 years should not get excited over this story.
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Furcal
I think that if I were Jim Hendry, Furcal would be the kind of player I'd pursue despite the risk of inflating his worth.* We could hold out hope for someone better to fall into our laps, but that seems unlikely.
Furcal is still relatively young for a free agent, only 28 next season, very good defensively, and, well, good enough offensively. Only Derrek Lee had a higher WARP on the Cubs last year, and while it's worth noting that Furcal had a career year, he's just now hitting the age that you'd expect him to put up his best numbers.
The wild card in all this is Ronny Cedeno, since except for him, the organization is a vast wasteland at shortstop. If I honestly thought that Cedeno provided a long term answer, I wouldn't be tempted by Furcal, but I'm not convinced. Cedeno had a very encouraging year, but it was even further out of his norm than Furcal's year. And anyway, if Cedeno does repeat his 2005, they could always move him to second. Todd Walker won't be around forever.
* - It's possible that I've flip-flopped on this; I don't remember for sure, and I'm too lazy to check. So, know that before reading on.
RE: Furcal
Here's my last statement on him: "I don't think the Cubs should pursue him so vigorously that they overpay (and I do think someone will overpay for Furcal), given that Cedeno appears ready."
In any event, I just don't see Hendry going after him too hard. Someone will overpay for him. Hendry doesn't overpay for his stars. He overpays for utility players and relief pitchers.
RE: RE: Furcal
Hendry doesn't overpay for his stars. He overpays for utility players and relief pitchers.
Realistically, I'm sure you're right. But maybe someday Hendry will realize he has this completely backwards...