Friday Rumors and Notes

• Reed Johnson will be honored at the Comcast Sportsnet awards next Monday as the Cub player of the year. John Danks, Bobby Hall, Patrick Kane, Brian McBride, and Drew Gooden will also be honored.
• On Sunday night at 10:30 (PM CT) Comcast Sports Net will air a Cubs special. They will breakdown the Cubs bullpen and rotation. It will be hosted by David Kaplan and Len Kasper.
• Gail Fisher will have live reports from Cubs camp every night in Mesa starting on Friday Feb. 13 (next Friday) on Sport Nite on CSN.
• Cory Provus of WGN Radio could be leaving the booth. Cory is the leading candidate to replace Jim Powell in the rivaled Brewers radio booth. Provus, who does the 5th inning and pregame show on radio, joined the Cubs broadcasts in 2007 when Andy Masur left for a job with the Padres.
• Former Cub Matt Murton has been traded to the Rockies. He's back in the NL, so we could face him this year.
• Kevin Millar appears to be close to signing with the Blue Jays.
• Bruce Levine still thinks the Cubs have to add a right handed bat off the bench. Right now, Reed Johnson would be the only guy on the bench that hits right handed.
• Lots of sources think Nomar Garciapara could be a fit to come back to the Cubs. Right now his best offer is a minor league deal with the Phillies.

More posts to come including a look at what the Cubs have done this off season. And of course, I'll keep you posted.

Cubs Rumors

• The Cubs could be interested in adding Aaron Heilman to their bullpen. The Mariners are looking for middle infield help and Ronny Cedeno could be traded in a deal for Heilman according to Bruce Levine.
• Levine also reported during Talking Baseball today that the Cubs could pursue Randy Wolf.
• The San Diego Union Tribune says that if Jake Peavy is traded he could skip the World Baseball Classic so he could train with his new club.
• The Cubs are hoping to get 25 starts from Rich Harden in 2009.
• Bruce said that Sean Marshall will be used as a "Super 6 Starter".
• Milton Bradley is not worried about receiving taunts from the Wrigley crowd like Jacque Jones and LaTroy Hawkins got.
• The Cubs may sign Henry Blanco to be the backup catcher once the ownership situation is resolved. The Cubs have talked about Henry been a coach in the organization once he retires.
• Barry Rozner of the Daily Herald believes that Tom Rickets might increase the Cubs budget, which would allow Jim Hendry to acquire Peavy if he becomes the owner.

That's it for now, but I'll keep you posted.

Mark DeRosa on Sports Central, More Cubs Rumors

Last night former Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa joined David Kaplan on WGN radio to talk about being traded to the Indians. Here's the highlights:

• DeRosa said that on one hand he's disappointed and said he didn't even know how much he was going to love Chicago when he signed.
• Mark was on the golf coarse when he got the call to say that he was traded. DeRo said that he followed the whole Peavy sage online and says he thought his time in Chicago would continue when the Peavy trade fell through.
• He said that when he saw that Jim was calling him he knew he got traded.
• Mark is exited about playing 3rd base with the Indians.
• Kap asked if DeRosa would ever come back to the Cubs if he got offered a contract. Mark sounded like he definitely would.
• He said that Lee, Lilly, Dempster, and other team mates have called him since the trade.
• Mark says he thinks he did his job for 2 years.
• Overall I would say DeRosa was very disappointed.

I'm very sad that DeRosa is leaving and even more upset after listening to Mark talk to Kap.

Well, here's other Cubs rumors for today:

• The Cubs seem set to officially sign Milton Bradley in the coming weeks.
• The Tribune says that Ryan Dempster would welcome Bradley with open arms.
• Bruce Levine expects the Jason Marquis trade to be made official on Sunday or Monday.
• Levine thinks there is an 80% chance that the Peavy deal will get done.
• Players Bruce is hearing could be involved include Wellington Castillo, Jeff Stevens, Kevin Hart, and Josh Vitters.
• Kaplan mentioned on Sports Central last night that the Cubs are interested in signing Rich Aurillia to back up 1st and 3rd base.
• The Cardinals were prepared to offer Aaron Miles about the same as what he got with the Cubs but the more sincere interest by Cub management drew him to the Cubs.

I'll keep you posted.

CUBS MAKING BIG MOVES.....DEROSA TRADED!

The Cubs are making moves left and right! Here's the latest:

• The Cubs have signed switch hitting infielder Aaron Miles to a 2 year deal. Miles is 32 years old, batted .317 with 15 doubles, 4 HR, and 31 RBIs in 2008 for the Cardinals. Miles can play tons of positions. He appeared in 7 different ones last year: 85 games at second, 27 at shortstop, 11 games at 3rd, 4 in left, 1 in center and 1 in right. Miles played for the White Sox and Rockies before becoming a Cardinal in 2006.
• Bad News if you like Mark DeRosa; the Cubs have traded him to the Clevland Indians for Jeff Stevens, John Gaub, and Chris Archer. All 3 are minor league pitchers.
• Here's the stats for Stevens, Gaub, and Archer.
• The Marquis trade to the Rockies for Vizcaino is a done deal and will be announced sometime over the next few days according to sources including Bruce Levine of ESPN Radio and David Kaplan of Comcast Sports Net.
• Levine thinks that with the money the Cubs will save in the Marquis deal they will end up using on Milton Bradley and goes as far as calling it a "done deal".
• I'm also hearing the the Cubs will rework the Peavy talks using the players they got in the DeRosa deal and adding other prospects.

I don't know what to think about the DeRosa deal. I really like DeRo, but if it is what the Cubs have to deal to end up with Bradley and Peavy then that's fine. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. I expect either Fontenot or Miles will be the starting second baseman in 2009.

I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE 2:25 CT- David Kaplan says that he thinks bringing in prospects for the DeRosa is the start of the getting the Jake Peavy deal set up. He also reports that the Marquis deal is not done yet because Jason is out of the country.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that since the Cubs have traded for 3 pitching prospects and traded away our 5th starter, the Peavy deal could be back on.

Kap had Paul Sullivan on the show to talk about the Cubs news.

• Sullivan says that he thinks it's amazing how everything is happening at once.
• Sully says it seems that Miles could move into the leadoff spot.
• He hates to see DeRosa go.
• Kap asked about Milton Bradley. Paul said that he talked to Frank Thomas and Frank said he was intense and smart and just needs to be left alone. If Bradley can stay healthy and out of trouble this could work out good. Paul is willing to give Bradley the benefit of the doubt.
• Paul says he sees no need for Rich Aurillia. He thinks Pie and Cedeno will be traded and would like to see another lefty in the bullpen.

The Cubs have a conference call coming up, so I'll keep you posted.

Recap of Talking Baseball

First of all, thanks to Byron from http://www.cubsblogarmy.com/ for adding my blog to his site.
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.

I'd like to thank everyone who has read the blog so far. Please leave your comments and scroll down to the bottom of the page to vote on our poll. As always, I'll keep you posted.