Monday, December 08, 2008

Jake Peavy First Victim of Tribune Company Bankruptcy?

The company that owns the Chicago Cubs has announced they are filing Chapter 11.   They say that the bankruptcy filing does not include the Cubs, but one still has to wonder if the owners know that they could put out a team consisting of 11 minor leaguers and still sell out Wrigley, why they would be the involved in a high-stakes pitcher acquisition like Peavy, and his $63 million in salary over the next 4 years.

The Cubs are apparently the only team working to get Peavy, but one has to assume the PR hit is about to become unsustainable--The Tribune Company is clearly getting ready to lay off a lot of folks, and even if they spin the Cubs away from the failing part of their media empire (and really--why are media companies buying sports teams?) they simply can not lay off hundreds of employees while another part of their company is committing to over guaranteed $60 million to a single employee.

Keep your eyes out on this--this could be the first evidence we see of the economy really really impacting baseball wheelin' and dealin'.


2 comments:

Andrew Wice said...

Just traveled across the country so I'm too tired to present my evidence, but there's a NY Times article in the business section (Tuesday Dec 9th) explaining how the CEO borrowed against the employees' pensions to buy the Tribune etc and now the pensions are in jeopardy. But don't worry, the CEO is protected against losing his money.

The Black Freighter said...

Word is the Twins are now the 3rd team the Cubs are roping into this Peavy mess. We'd receive 2nd baseman Mark DeRosa in return. I'd assume that Casilla would then move to short and Harris/Buscher would platoon 3rd base. DeRosa is a free agent after 2009 and would most likely receive a compensatory pick or two in return. I have no problem with this move depending on what pitching talent we lose.