Contracts - Food For Thought

So in this great City of Chicago, bad contracts for our sports teams have become somewhat of a sore subject. Now I'm sure the same can be said for many other cities. After all, who likes a bad contract and when isn't it a glaring problem concerning the future of your favorite team? However, if you're taking a look at the 4 major sports (Football, Basketball, Baseball, and Hockey) you can be sure to find at least one of them on every team. You can argue that the Bears and Blackhawks in this topic don't have a bad contract. Overpaid though....Julius Peppers? Jay Cutler? Brian Campbell? Maybe. But that's an argument for a different blog. That's nothing compared to what Chicago baseball and basketball fans have had to watch this spring/summer. The Bulls signed Carlos Boozer to a 5 year 80 million dollar deal at the beginning of the year only to watch him play terrible defense all season (and postseason) and have only 3 (that's right 3) 20-10 games in the postseason. Rumors have already been circulating that the Bulls will be looking to move him this offseason. Which may prove difficult with that huge contract and the threat of a labor halt looming. He's 29 and turning 30 this November but clearly looks much older than that getting his shot blocked numerous times per game. You can blame it on the "turf toe" but his game was already spiraling down before that injury occurred in the Pacers series. Bottom line - this guy is not who the Bulls thought they were bringing in. But his name has been dragged though the mud enough. Lets move on to the South Side of the city where the White Sox have managed to spend tons of money on very little production. Adam Dunn is batting .176 so far this year. He can't hit lefties and has been sitting in favor of Brent Lillibridge who by the way is also out slugging Mr. Dunn this year. If anything, that's what is most concerning. Adam Dunn is only slugging .309 this season. That's more than 200 points off his career average of .514. You can say it's early, but Sox fans don't want to hear that anymore (probably because it's not that early anymore and he hasn't shown many flashes of what was paid for). That contract is 4 years at 56 million. Yuck. Potentially and even worse looking contract on the south side is Alex Rios. He's batting an unhealthy .199 slugging just over .300 and also has been seeing plenty of time on the bench to make room for productive players. He's signed through 2014 with a team option for 2015 getting paid 7yrs 70 million. There's a reason Toronto waived him to begin with. He has been a decent player throughout the years and a good defensive center fielder but not for that kind of cash. We don't even need to bring up the terrible contracts on the North side of town...those fans have just accepted it at this point. Everyone knows Alfonso Soriano should be arrested for stealing the Cubs money because he's terrible and getting paid 18 million a year to be just that. Perhaps a more glaring issue now is the Aramis Ramirez deal because at least he's been productive up until last season. Where did all that go? Now you have two guys with bad contracts stinking up the joint, and a third one in Zambrono calling his squad a Triple A team after Marmol blows a save. At least Ramirez will be gone after the season, but still one more year of Zambrano as he is unlikely to waive his no trade clause and 2 more years of Soriano as no one is likely to want him, even if the cubs eat most of what's left on his deal. I don't know about you, but if I could do some things over again...I'd start by sending these options back to the kitchen.