Secondly, the Cubs have agreed to terms with Reed Johnson on a 1 year deal with a $3 million base salary and incentives. The Cubs have now avoided arbitration with Johnson, Cotts, and Gaudin but still need to agree to terms with Kevin Gregg, Ronny Cedeno, and Michael Wuertz. Also Kerry Wood has passed his physical and will be in an Indians uniform next year.
Every Saturday morning on ESPN Radio is a show with Bruce Levine and Carmen DeFalco starting at 10 AM CT. They talk Cubs and Sox the whole show all year around. Here's the link to the web page. http://stations.espn.go.com/stations/espnradio1000/show?showId=talkinbaseball It's a great show but in case you don't have time to listen to it or don't what to sit through all the commercials and Sox talk, then I'll have a full recap of the Cubs talk on many Saturdays.
- Bruce says that the Peavy situation is not over.
- Crane Kenney had to answer questions on Wednesday to talk about the Cubs involvement with Governor Rod Blagojevich.
- Levine still believes that unless Peavy is traded or the Cubs start making other deals then this deal could still be made.
- Towers has to move this guy and has to do it soon.
- A caller asked if not being able to move Marquis effected the Cubs Peavy deal. Levine says that the main road block was that the Cubs would lose 7 or 8 players that a role that would need filled for 1 guy.
- Levine thinks Milton Bradley will be in a Cub uniform by the new year.
- Carmen says that the Peavy deal is not dead forever.
- Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel joined Bruce and Carmen to talk baseball;
- Carmen asked about the Phills bring in Raul Ibanez. Charlie says that he should do well in their ballpark and says he look forward to having Raul on the club.
- Manuel says the Mets did a great job inproving their bullpen and says that the Mets could create a lot of problems next year for the Phillies.
- He says the Atlanta's real close to being good and suffered lots of injuries last year and he thinks the Braves are going to be pretty good next year.
- Charlie says the off season is a lot more relaxing being the World Champion manager.
- Manuel said Gavin Floyd of the White Sox can be a real good pitcher someday. (Floyd came up with the Phillies and then was traded for Freddy Garcia)
- Charlie said Scott Eyre was good pick up and by the end of the year their bullpen was very strong.
- Carmen says it doesn't make any sense that nobody else is made any offers to CC Sabathia besides the Yankees.
- Bruce said he met with Jim Hendry in his nice suite each day throughout the week in Los Vegas at the Winter Meetings.
- Bruce says that 2008 was an even better year for the White Sox than it was for the Cubs because the Sox rebuilt, got younger, and won on the fly.
- A caller asked about Adam Dunn and wondered why the Cubs would be more interested in Milton Bradley than Adam Dunn (I was wondering the same thing). The guys said Bradley had the best OBP in the league last year, and is a switch hitter. Carmen says that having Dunn and Soriano would be "brutal" as your corner outfielders defensively.
- Bruce says Dunn would have no chance in right field and says he can't run the bases. Bruce just isn't a big Adam Dunn fan.
- The Cubs are going after 2 left handed bats and Levine says that Bradley is already going to be one of them.
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