This time, a MLB Trade Rumors link is appropriate, since they are the ones reporting the signing of former Pirates catcher Jason Jaramillo:

The Cubs completed their minor league deal with catcher Jason Jaramillo, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes has learned. MLBTR reported in December that the Cubs were nearing a deal with the 29-year-old.

Jaramillo has hit .235/.293/.327 in 366 major league PA over three seasons, all with the Pirates. He’ll compete in spring training for the backup spot behind Geovany Soto with Welington Castillo and Steve Clevenger.

Jaramillo is, as far as I know, no relation to Cubs hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo. He’s a native of Racine, Wisconsin and played college ball at Oklahoma State. He had an elbow injury that forced him to miss much of the 2011 season. This appears to be a low-risk signing simply to give new manager Dale Sveum and staff another catching option in camp this spring.

I tend to think most of the VFTB readers are somewhat intelligent baseball fans. In my travels around the web I find most Cub fans are not. The 2012 season won’t and shouldn’t be about the Major League team as they will suck, but they will suck with purpose!

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Today’s Morning News takes a look at the Cubs arbitration agreements (or lack of agreements) and a pretty good deal on a young pitcher in Tampa.

To read the rest of the post, be sure to visit us at www.viewfromthebleachers.com

With the signings of all the Cubs’ arb-eligible players except Matt Garza, we can now estimate what the 25-man roster payroll will be for this season.

I’m not usually into roster construction, but this is a useful exercise in trying to figure out what the major league payroll will be, how it relates to last year’s, and how much might be left over for the draft and international signings.

According to USA Today, the Cubs‘ payroll for 2011 was $125,047,329; ESPN.com reports a slightly larger figure of $126,380,663, and Cot’s Baseball Contracts says that the Opening Day 2011 figure was $134,004,000.

Follow me past the jump for what is, admittedly, a guess at a 25-man Opening Day roster and what it will cost. This assumes that no further trades or signings are made, which might not be the case. But at least it’ll give us a … um, ballpark figure. For the purposes of this exercise, I am assuming that Matt Garza will make the figure he asked for, $10,225,000; the Cubs offered $7,950,000. They’ll probably settle somewhere in the middle.

Listed in order by salary. I have put most of the sub-arb players at the MLB minimum, except for Starlin Castro, who I assume will get a raise. The figure for Chris Volstad is the difference between Carlos Zambrano‘s 2012 salary ($18,000,000) and the amount Volstad was reported to have signed for. Jeff Samardzija’s number is an estimate.

Alfonso Soriano: $18,000,000Chris Volstad: $15,345,000Ryan Dempster: $14,000,000Matt Garza: $10,225,000Carlos Marmol: $7,000,000Marlon Byrd: $6,500,000Geovany Soto: $4,300,000Paul Maholm: $4,250,000David DeJesus: $4,250,000Kerry Wood: $3,000,000Randy Wells: $2,705,000Ian Stewart: $2,237,500Jeff Samardzija: $2,000,000Jeff Baker: $1,375,000Reed Johnson: $1,150,000Blake DeWitt: $1,100,000Starlin Castro: $800,000Tony Campana: $480,000Travis Wood: $480,000Bryan LaHair: $480,000Darwin Barney: $480,000Welington Castillo: $480,000James Russell: $480,000Chris Carpenter: $480,000Rafael Dolis: $480,000

There’s probably one too many starting pitchers on that list and one too few relievers; I’m assuming Castillo is the backup catcher, though it could be Steve Clevenger or someone else. Either way, the backup catcher salary is probably going to be the minimum. The 25-man roster might include a few different names than the ones I have listed here, but my guess is — not many.

It doesn’t seem likely that both DeWitt and Baker will make the Opening Day roster, but for now, since they have published salary figures, I included both.

Unless I added wrong, the total of these 25 salaries, along with the $5 million of Carlos Peña‘s 2011 deal that was deferred to this year, is $107,077,500 — a significant decrease from the 2011 payroll, almost 25% lower. Some of the extra money clearly has gone for the hiring of Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, Jason McLeod and the rest of the expanded front office — but that doesn’t add up to over $20 million.

Now, I could be wrong about some of the renewal players — they could get more, but that wouldn’t make more than a couple million dollars worth of difference. On the other hand, Garza could (and probably will) get less that what he is asking for. But it would seem to me that the Cubs have room for another acquisition or two before spring training begins.

Have at it.

With the signings of all the Cubs’ arb-eligible players except Matt Garza, we can now estimate what the 25-man roster payroll will be for this season.

I’m not usually into roster construction, but this is a useful exercise in trying to figure out what the major league payroll will be, how it relates to last year’s, and how much might be left over for the draft and international signings.

According to USA Today, the Cubs‘ payroll for 2011 was $125,047,329; ESPN.com reports a slightly larger figure of $126,380,663, and Cot’s Baseball Contracts says that the Opening Day 2011 figure was $134,004,000.

Follow me past the jump for what is, admittedly, a guess at a 25-man Opening Day roster and what it will cost. This assumes that no further trades or signings are made, which might not be the case. But at least it’ll give us a … um, ballpark figure. For the purposes of this exercise, I am assuming that Matt Garza will make the figure he asked for, $10,225,000; the Cubs offered $7,950,000. They’ll probably settle somewhere in the middle.

Listed in order by salary. I have put most of the sub-arb players at the MLB minimum, except for Starlin Castro, who I assume will get a raise. The figure for Chris Volstad is the difference between Carlos Zambrano‘s 2012 salary ($18,000,000) and the amount Volstad was reported to have signed for. Jeff Samardzija’s number is an estimate.

Alfonso Soriano: $18,000,000Chris Volstad: $15,345,000Ryan Dempster: $14,000,000Matt Garza: $10,225,000Carlos Marmol: $7,000,000Marlon Byrd: $6,500,000Geovany Soto: $4,300,000Paul Maholm: $4,250,000David DeJesus: $4,250,000Kerry Wood: $3,000,000Randy Wells: $2,705,000Ian Stewart: $2,237,500Jeff Samardzija: $2,000,000Jeff Baker: $1,375,000Reed Johnson: $1,150,000Blake DeWitt: $1,100,000Starlin Castro: $800,000Tony Campana: $480,000Travis Wood: $480,000Bryan LaHair: $480,000Darwin Barney: $480,000Welington Castillo: $480,000James Russell: $480,000Chris Carpenter: $480,000Rafael Dolis: $480,000

There’s probably one too many starting pitchers on that list and one too few relievers; I’m assuming Castillo is the backup catcher, though it could be Steve Clevenger or someone else. Either way, the backup catcher salary is probably going to be the minimum. The 25-man roster might include a few different names than the ones I have listed here, but my guess is — not many.

It doesn’t seem likely that both DeWitt and Baker will make the Opening Day roster, but for now, since they have published salary figures, I included both.

Unless I added wrong, the total of these 25 salaries, along with the $5 million of Carlos Peña‘s 2011 deal that was deferred to this year, is $107,077,500 — a significant decrease from the 2011 payroll, almost 25% lower. Some of the extra money clearly has gone for the hiring of Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, Jason McLeod and the rest of the expanded front office — but that doesn’t add up to over $20 million.

Now, I could be wrong about some of the renewal players — they could get more, but that wouldn’t make more than a couple million dollars worth of difference. On the other hand, Garza could (and probably will) get less that what he is asking for. But it would seem to me that the Cubs have room for another acquisition or two before spring training begins.

Have at it.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Giants ace Tim Lincecum asked for $21.5 million in salary arbitration Tuesday and was offered $17 million by the club.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Giants ace Tim Lincecum asked for $21.5 million in salary arbitration Tuesday and was offered $17 million by the club.

DETROIT (AP) — Tigers star Victor Martinez has injured his left knee and is likely to miss most of the 2012 season.

BOSTON (AP) — Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford had surgery on his left wrist and could miss opening day.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — When he was 19 years old, Craig Counsell met Sandy Alderson, who was the Oakland Athletics’ general manager at the time.