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 2008 Naughty and Nice List

Well, tomorrow's Christmas Eve and it's time to put together our 2008 Cubs Naugty and Nice lists. Here's what I got:

Nice:
Ryan Dempster- for leading the team in wins
Jim Hendry- for adding Reed Johnson, Jim Edmounds and Rich Harden
Sweet Lou- for winning manager of the year
Geo- for winning Rookie of the Year and for having a great year
Mark DeRosa- for having the only Cubs playoff HR and for dealing with the trade rumors for 2 year in a row
Mike Fontenot- for being the most underrated guy on the Cubs.
Carlos Zambrano- for tossing a no-no
Jeff Samarjiza- for having a great first few months in the Bigs
Pat Hughes- for being such a great play-by-play man
All the Cubs fans who are still loyal despite the lack of winning
Henry Blanco- for accepting his role even thought he got little playing time
Sam Fuld- for signing lots of autographs in Spring Training
Jason Marquis- for no good reason
Ted Lilly- for being the best 4th starter in the game of baseball
Carlos Marmol- for being a great set up man
Adam Dunn- for wanting to be a Cub

Naughty:
Jim Hendry- for letting Kerry Wood go
Derrek Lee- for grounding into so many double plays
Alfonso Soriano- for choking in October
Aramis Ramirez- for choking in October
Matt Sinatro- for getting lost when he drove to Cincinnati with Lou
Kosuke- for falling apart after the first 2 months of the year.
Joey Gathright- for jumping of cars
Felix Pie- for never proving himself
MLB Veterans Committee- for leaving Ronny out, again
-The Cubs fans that say they won't follow the team as closely any more because of the sweep to end the season.
Rich Hill- for have a "lost" season
Ronny Cedeno- for taking up Matt Murton's spot on the 2008 Cubs roster
Micah Hoffpauir- for waiting his turn
Bob Brenly- for not getting that managers job
Raul Ibanez- for signing with the Phills
Dave Otto- for being boring when ever he fills in for Ron Santo
MLB Network- for stealing Dan Plesac and his train
TBS- for giving the Cubs bad luck in the playoffs

Well what do you think? Leave a comment!

Trivia Answer: Reed Johnson did gymnastics as a child.

The Next 2 Days Comcast Sports Net will be reliving the Cubs and White Sox 2008 seasons. Here's the schedule:
Christmas Eve:
7:00 PM CT- CSN Rewind: 2008 Chicago White Sox
Christmas Day-
10:00 AM- Repeat CSN Rewind: 2008 Chicago White Sox
Noon- Sox Classic; Cle @ CWS Sept. 28, 2008
2:30 PM- Cubs Classic; Mil @ Cubs Sept. 18, 2008
7:00 PM- CSN Rewind; 2008 Chicago Cubs

Check out the holiday episode of Cubscast from yesterday.

And listen to "Harry Caray" visiting with Steve Cochran of WGN Radio on Christmas Eve 2004.

Well, I'm going to take a break the next few days to enjoy Christmas. I'll be back with an update on the Cubs on Friday.
Everyone, have a very Merry Christmas.
☺ Brandon