The Cubs just signed two guys coming off of career years. DeRosa's basically just a utility guy who got at-bats and saw some hits fall in. Soriano upped his walk rate, and became a good, but not great hitter (.277/.351/.560 is good, but not great for a corner outfielder). And the Cubs give him an eight-year, $136 million deal at age 30? Best case scenario, Soriano stays as good as he was last year through the duration of the deal - (highly unlikely) - even then the team's only getting market value. When your best, unrealistic hope is to merely get fair market value on an eight-year deal for a player in his 30s, that's a horrible signing.

Jim Hendry did a good job spotting talent as the head of their minor league system, but he's made some stupid signings (Dempster, Howry, Eyre, DeRosa, Soriano) as GM.