Archive - Nov 18, 2008

The Kansas City Star says the Cubs are making a play for Mark Teahen. This on the heels of a radio report that the Cubs are very interested in Milton Bradley. The KC Star article also says the Cubs have interest in Raul Ibanez, but his cost may be prohibitive.

The Cubs would prefer David DeJesus according to the article, but he seems unavailable as the Royals want to move him to left field and acquire a new center fielder. Teahen though might be attainable. The names thrown out by the author are Felix Pie, Mike Fontenot and Ronny Cedeno.

UPDATE: Here are the contract terms according to SI.com: $8 Million in 2008 with a $4M bonus ($12M total). $12.5M in 2010, $13.5 M in 2011 and a 2012 $14M player option which is almost a guarantee to be picked up. And as I mentioned earlier, I'm about 90% certain he's earned 10/5 no-trade rights.

It's being picked up by multiple news sources that the Ryan Dempster Experience will call Chicago home for the next four years. It sounds like it might be for a total of $52M a year or $13M on average. That's a pretty good deal if he pitches like he did last year, not so much if he pitches like 2001-2003. For what was out there though and for how much the Cubs and Dempster seem to like each other, it sounds like the right deal. He really did have a fantastic 2008 season. His 152 ERA+ was good for third best in the NL.

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- Kevin Towers did a radio interview and basically said the Cubs are the only team the Padres are talking to right now. The Braves are out, he hasn't spoken to the Angels at all and has barely spoken to the Yankees. That's the good news. The bad news is the Cubs do have some interesting pieces but not exactly what the Padres want, so a third or possibly fourth team will be needed to finish the deal. There's also an online version of the story from Tom Krasovic.

- I didn't hear it myself, but some folks claim to have heard a report from Bruce Levine that Ryan Dempster will decide in the next 48 hours on the Cubs offer...whatever it may be. Supposedy in this BP article from yesterday, it says he turned down a 4/52 offer already. Rosenthal mentions "the next day or two" as a potential time frame as well.

- Speaking of Dempster, on an XM radio update either Gary Hughes or Randy Bush said signing Dempster is still their top priority but that Randy Johnson would be a great fallback.

- Beyond the rumors...the folks who ran Thunder Matt's Saloon have rebranded to Pomp Culture - less Cubs, more pop culture, no Matt Murton on the Cubs.

I also wanted to mention one of our new advertisers that you may have noticed at the top of the site. Bob Horsch has been taking pictures of Chicago for over 30 years including a huge collection of Chicago Cubs photos. A rather pleasant fella I might add, so if you're looking for some gift ideas with the holidays approaching, be sure to visit his website.