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And he grabs them ..... and he tiiiiiies them up .... to the railroad tracks .... and they's a train acommin'

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

Zeke's nearly finished with his minor-league rehab games: He goes back to the major league game starting thursday vs. Cinci.

The cubs need him, too. Even with him; getting to .500 will be a major task.

With 12 games left in the regular season; it looks like getting to .500 will be a real task. They could do it; but they'll have to win most of their remaining games....

Myth's season since he's been back at major league level has been generally pretty good: He had a fine august and a less-so but still okay September. He'll be starting his 4th season next year, so he'll be up for arbitration.

Alicia is expecting sometime in April of next year....

Well, season 4 is slated and ready to roll....

Zeke will have a pretty good season, but will it be enough to help the cubbies into the post-season? My guess right now is it's gonna be mighty close for that wild-card berth...

Zeke's already let the press know come birth of he and Alicia's child, he's off to be there for her. How many games he'll miss will depend if he's at home or on the road at the time. I've set up a radom 'birthdate' system, so even I don't know what the exact day will be.

I'll give a rundown on how Zeke's arbitration went in a couple days....
Zeke shouldn't have to worry about paying the cable bill now....

A quick update on Zeke's salary this season....

Zeke's agent intoduced a suggestion for 15 million.....a record for a 1st year arbitration player.
The cubs suggested something more along the lines of 12 million.

One really doesn't lose when the numbers are up that high, do they?

I'll run thru each sides reasons for their numbers tommorow(I hope).

Apparently, I'm not doing enough to make this interesting.

The cubs think they have the inner lane in the matter. Like any big league baseball club, they don't wish to alienate one of their biggest wheels but the bottom line is they're looking for the most production at the least cost.

A) Zeke's still being paid his signing bonus: thru 2014 in fact. While hardly a record sum, cub's management considers it 'more then representive'.

B) His 2nd and 3rd seasons, Zeke's regular salary was well above the minimal. The concept of the 'hometown discount' can be added therein.

c) While hardly his fault, Zeke was out for 68 games last season. He still played like a allstar when he got back in the lineup but the numbers were also undeniably down a bit. So how much damage was done to Zeke? Has he peaked as a player(Shades of Micky Mantle) The cubs want to cover all bases: a single season contract to be certain Zeke's firing on all cylinders seems in order.

D) Not that cubs management isn't also thinking long range. Obviously, locking Myth up in a miulti-year deal, at something below his free market price would save the team millions.

Thus the cubs offer: a single season at 12 million. If Zeke displays skills resembling his previous seasons, they'll talk something significantly larger and longer.

Myth's agent follows suit: keeping it simple and to the point.

Here are a few of the numbers Myth's put up in his first three seasons:

130 homeruns
392 runs batted in
403 runs scored
.381 batting average
.794 slugging average
152 stolen bases

Myth has only played 418 games so one cannot seriously consider him destined for the hall of fame. But that's as good a 3 season 'foundation' for it as there's ever been.

And it's not just the raw stats that matter. The cubs broke thier century plus dought with the arrivual of Zeke. Championships are team efforts and Zeke was only a single player but it'd be hard to counterclaim he didn't pull his weight.

So:
Why shouldn't Ezekiel Myth get 15 million for the season?

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

Ironically, there's something to what you say, Wayne.

Zeke's made the mistake of stating to the Media(More then once) that he'll only play for the cubs. If he's ever traded to another team, he'll just quit baseball.

Not exactly something a agent wants out there if he's trying for a raise!

There's a bit of a two-way street, of course.
The cub's have to figure if they're better off with a unhappy Zeke at 12 million or a happy Zeke at 15 million.

And naturally; each side could take steps to work out a compromise of some degree(Hint, hint)

After a couple days of letting things stew(but before having to actually arguements before the arbitration panel) the sides meet again and Zeke's agent has some unique twists to things.

What about incentives? Money for acheiving certain awards and like?
This is the out both sides were looking for. They take a couple weeks of back and forth to fine tune things but in the end; a contract is settled on.
(More to follow)

"Base" salary: 10 million.

Incentives:
Zeke's agent comes up with the idea of 'packs': groups of stats which Zeke will be rewarded for leading the league in.

Thus:
The first pack is the tradional triple crown stats(Hr's, Rbi and Batting ave.) plus runs scored.
The second pack consists of total hits, base on balls and stolen bases.

Leading in each item is worth 140000 dollars.
Leading in multipul items within a pack kicks in a 'multiplier' clause.
Basically; take the total monies collected by leading in each single item then multiply by the number of items leading in.

I,e; if Zeke leads in Hr's and rbi he's due;
Hr's=140000
Rbi= 140000
(280000)
lead in 2 'items' multiply by 2 (Resulting in a total take of 560000)

The 3rd pack centers around awards.

800000-if wins a gold glove
700000- wins world series MVP
600000-wins league champanionship MVP
500000- wins Henry Aaron award(For best overall offensive playing in league)
500000- wins silver-slugger award(For best offensive player at his position)
200000-for winning All-star game MVP
100000- for being leading vote-getter at all-star game
100000-for making the allstar game starting line-up.

Zeke stands to make a max of 17million. It's highly unlikely he'll do so(Which is why cub's management got onboard with it) and it's for a single season only. It's a bit of a experiment; to lean so heavily on incentives but everyone is set to see how it works.

Play ball!

At 8.52 AM, 7 April, Marigold Ellen Myth, first daughter for Ezekiel and Alicia Myth was born.

Wow. No congrats to the happy parents?

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein