What's the loss here? New market, new money. The Trib doesn't like to give money away.
This is a no brainer to me. Make the bold move now, see the reward next spring and summer.  

The naysayers are spinning out of control.

If the Cubs sign him to a longterm contract, they could backload it, but I don't imagine Z signing for less than 5/75.  He'll get much more than that if he waits a year to hit the free agent market.

Ramirez is the 2nd best player available on the free agent market.  He's the best 3rd baseman available on the market.  It's possible, though doubtful, that the Cubs get him for cheaper than he'd get on the open market, but this is a guy who stands to make 5/75 at least on the open market.  Again, maybe this deal is backloaded.  I don't know, but I'm taking the average of what he's going to be offered by at least one other team on the open market.  If Ramirez is making less than $13 million next season I'll be very surprised.  

The payroll as it stands right now without the inclusion of ANY auto-renewal contracts, arbitration eligible player (Prior, Ohman, and Zambrano), or the non-active players on the 40-man roster is at $55 million.  Add, let's just say, $22 million onto that for Ramirez and Zambrano--a number that is far lower than they are worth--the payroll is then at $77 million.  Prior will get $3.5 million and Ohman $1 million.  We're up to $81.5 million.  

That $81.5 million DOES NOT include the salaries of the auto-renewal players (all players not eligible for free agency or arbitration on the 25-man roster) and it doesn't include the 15 players that are on the 40-man roster, but not on the 25-man roster (these guys make no less than $50,000).  

We're basically looking at somewhere between $1 and 5 million depending on how many auto-renewal players are on the active roster.  Let's split the difference and add $2.5 million to the $81.5 million.

That's $84 million.  The payroll this season was a tad over $94 million.  McDonough has said the payroll will be in the "vicinity" of what it was this season (means it could go up a little bit or even go down a little bit).  

So, for the interest of being as accurate as possible, let's say the payroll could increase as much as $5 million and decrease that same amount as well.  We're looking at $10 million left to spend +/- $5 million.  

This is an accurate picture, tomas.  I don't need to make stuff up to make the Cubs look bad.  They do that all by themselves.  

This team would have $10 million, plus or minus $5 million left to spend if they re-signed Ramirez AND Zambrano to a combined 2007 total salary of $22 million--$11 million apiece, which, is what you said they'd make.  

I don't like that you said I was trying to paint any kind of picture.  I wouldn't do that.  If I'm going to take to the time to post anything, no matter how little in content, it's going to be as accurate as possible because that's just how I am.  

Now, if the Cubs are to get insurance for Rusch, or trade Dempster for minor leaguers, then you can add $3 or $8 million onto that number above.  Their future player moves WILL most certainly have an affect on the money Hendry has to work with.  But as of RIGHT NOW, assuming the payroll is between $90 and $100 million, they have between $5 and $15 million to spend, respectively.