This is ridiculous.  The Matsui deal you can justify.  Matsui is a damn good player, the Yankees can afford to overspend a bit, and they recoup some of the cost in advertising.  But this?  That's closer money right there.  For comparison sakes, Eddie Guradado made $4 mil this year and Keith Foulke made $7.5 mil.  There's no way you can pay that kind of money for a guy who, prior to this year, had one good full year in the big leagues.  He has a career ERA of 4.52, with only three seasons in which he pitched more than 50 innings with an ERA under 4.50.

You have to imagine that if a mediocre career reliever coming off a good season can get this kind of money, Burnett, Ryan, and Wagner are going to get some ridiculous money.

The article said there was a player option for a third year (2008), meaning that the Cubs are on the hook for 3 years unless Eyre walks away after two. Maybe the $11mm includes the third year. If it is really $11mm for two years, that might be the richest contract in baseball history for a setup man and is certainly the dumbest. Even at $11mm for three years, it's way overpriced.

Ricardo Rincon and Mike Myers must be happy guys right now.

Many, including me, who have been wanting to re-sign Dotel for a reasonably low, incentive-based contract just lost our hopes.  Unless Dotel really wants to play for free (unlikely), Eyre pushes him out of our price range.  I wasn't expecting this big a boom for relief pitchers this year though.  There are a ton of pretty good relievers on the market this yr (Wagner, Ryan, Howry, Dotel, Wickman, Jones, Gordon, Worrell just to mention a few).  And now the Cubs sign the Eric Milton (won't be very good, way overpriced) of relief pitchers this early.