Bruce Levine Notes and Others

On talking baseball on Saturday, Bruce Levine said:

Bruce said that Jim Hendry really wants Jake Peavy in his rotation and if he can't get Peavy you might hear the Brian Roberts rumors again (that makes no sense to me because Roberts only has 1 year on his contract yet and the Cubs just traded the Orioles Pie. The Cubs also pick up Miles to go with Fonty at second. I will be find with it, if they give up a discount). The only way I see them getting Roberts is if they trade Fonty, which I won't think will happen. He says you will start hearing the rumors again in March or April for a blockbuster deal ( when the ownership is pretty much resolve).

He also says that Cubs are either going to sign Aurillia or Millar for the 25th man roster (as a bench player).

Levine is hearing from good sources that Carlos Zambrano will not pitch in the WBC.
Levine mentioned 2009 needs to be a breakout year for Big Z.

The Cubs have scheduled 25 starts for Rich Harden.
Sean Marshall and Aaron Heilman are in the mix to take Harden's other eight starts.

The Rich Hill-to-the-Orioles trade has not been officially announced and according to Bruce Miles, Hill appears to be gone. Word of the trade leaked to the Baltimore press but the Orioles must make room on their 40-man roster before acquiring Hill from the Cubs.
Many think the trade will become official at some point in the coming week.

Jayson Stark began his Cubs discussion with the still possible acquisition of Jake Peavy, but revealed more concerning news regarding the sale of the Cubs.

"But does that mean this deal can get revived sometime soon? Not necessarily, because there are still major ownership issues. And no matter how much the folks at MLB might want to get the Cubs' sale approved by Opening Day, the timetable isn't solely in its hands.
"I don't think we're anywhere near as close to resolving the ownership situation as it looks," said one baseball man with knowledge of those machinations. "You have to remember [the seller, the Tribune Company] is in bankruptcy court. So if somebody comes along and says, 'We offered more money,' the court can say, 'You have to take the most money.' So there's no way of saying right now whether this gets resolved in two to three months or six to eight months."

So why does that matter? Because the Cubs can't add a $63 million contract without ownership approval. And there's still no assurance they'll have an owner before Opening Day. So how can they move forward on a deal?

Right now, they can't even get a tentative go-ahead from prospective owner Thomas Ricketts because he's still, technically, negotiating. And even after those negotiations are completed, the court still has to sign off."

Stark dropped his gem a couple of days ago, but as the saying goes....better late than never

On A side Note: It is Ernie Bank's 78th Birthday today.

I will always keep you posted on the latest Cub news.

Cubs Chat!

Chat

Tomorrow at Noon, we will have a chat on this very website, to talk anything and everything Cubs as well as some baseball related questions. So be here!

I will post the chat up 15-30 minutes before (I'll start it up and let the questions flow in so I have a very suggestive list to chose from,) so be ready around 11:30ish AM for some non-stop questioning.

If your new to Live It Live Chats, there kind of like a Q&A .

So just be here, alright?

Bruce Levine Notes

Bruce Levine has a couple rumors:

He says that the Cubs could start Peavy talks in March, when the ownership is resolved or close to being resolved.

The Cubs are looking at Kevin Millar and Rich Aurillia as backup infielders.

Nomar wants a full time job somewhere and not a backup (I guess we can't chant NOMAH WE WANT A HOMAH.)

I will keep you posted on more rumors.

Paul Bako

According to a press release, the Cubs have agreed to terms with C Paul Bako.
The contract details were disclosed.

Paul Bako will make 725K base salary with 300K in possible incentives.

Chat tomorrow (Saturday) @ 12:00pm (noon) on this very website.

Rich Hill traded to the O's for PTBNL.

According to Chicago Cubs Online, the Cubs have traded Rich Hill to the O's for the all but famous player to be named later.

Players who have gone into the major leagues as former PTBNL's are Jeremy Bonderman, Scott Podsednik, Coco Crisp, Moises Alou, Jason Schmidt, and David Ortiz.

I'm not so surprised about this trade, but I would've wanted more for his potential.

There are two rules to a PTBNL transaction. The deal must close within a six-month time frame following the conclusion of the rest of the trade, and the player must change leagues. -Wikipedia


When more info comes along I'll past in on.

This deal would create an open spot for the Cubs to finalize the deal for Paul Bako.

Chat on Saturday, January 31 @ 12:00pm (noon) at this very website.

Picking 7th in Fantasy Baseball.

Here's a recap of my mock draft today while picking 7Th in a 12 player game. I will have the players I picked as well as the round I selected them in. So here we go:

Jimmy Rollins SS (R1, P7)
Dustin Pedroia 2B (R2, P6)
C.C. Sabathia SP (R3, P7)
Carlos Pena 1B (R4, P6)
Adam Dunn OF (R5, P7)
Garrett Atkins 3B (R6, P6)
Cliff Lee SP (R7, P7)
Jose Valverde RP (R8, P6)
Milton Bradley OF (R9. P7)
Bengie Molina C (R10, P6)
Torii Hunter OF (R11, P7)
Ted Lilly SP (R12, P6)
Kyle Lohse SP (R13, p7)
Jim Thome DH (R14, P6)
Aaron Harang SP (R15, P7)
Casey Blake (Bench 3B, R16, P6)
Kosuke Fukudome (Bench OF, R17, P7)
Kevin Gregg RP (R18, P6)
Cameron Maybin (Bench OF, R19. P6)
Cristian Guzman (Bench SS, R20, P7)
Todd Helton (Bench 1B, R21, R6)

Some of the picks were necessary because the way other people picked and selected, so I felt it was in my best interest to pick that particular player (s.) Have any questions then comment and I'll explain why I picked that particular player.

Chat on Saturday, January 31 @ 12:00pm (noon) at this very website!

Rich Hill Status

Bruce Levine reported yesterday that there are teams interested in Rich Hill.

What teams might want him:

San Diego Padres- Could be a part of the Jake Peavy trade and the Padres need to cut budget and Hill is not making a lot of money.

Texas Rangers- Desperate of pitching and might want to take a chance on a guy who had stuff 2 years ago. Need pitching to compete with the Angels and Athletics's.

Oakland Athletics- The only thing they really need to compete with the Angels, is about 2 more starters. Last year they traded Dan Haren to the Diamondbacks before the season started and Rich Harden to the Cubs and Joe Blanton to the Phillies at the trade deadline last year.

Baltimore Orioles- They really don't have pitching and might need a couple more starters to finish around 5 hundred. They don't have a chance to compete with the Yankees, Red Sox, and the Rays but they can show a point that they could be a good team.

Seattle Mariners- They might need another pitcher to make spot starts if a pitcher gets injured, for instance like Eric Bedard, he had arm injuries last year and he might get them again. So they will need a cheap price player to step in.

Kansas City Royals- They have a lot of starting pitching but maybe to get his command back they will put him in the bullpen. They still need more pitchers in there bullpen.

Chicago White Sox- Don't like to spend money and like to take chances on Pitchers (Bartolo Colon, sign 1 year 1 million deal this year).

I put no teams up here on the National League because the Cubs don't want Rich Hill to come back and do really good and beat them for a win.

Those are some teams that I think will be interested in Rich Hill.

Buster Olney on the Jake Peavy Trade. NOW UPDATED

UPDATE: ESPN's Jayson Stark siad that the cubs won't even talk about Jake Peavy untill the ownership is resolve, which remains far apart. He said that you might be looking at a deal (If one), late March early April.

According to Buster Olney, the Cubs and Padres will start up the Jake Peavy talk because now the Cubs have starting pitching that the Padres will like. He also says the trade will be around third baseman Josk Vitters. Olney also says that they have more flexibilty with the acquisition of Aaron Heilman (Now the Cubs could trade Marshall and now use Heilman as there long relief guy).

UPDATE:
According to Tim Dierkes of MLBTR.com the Cubs-Padres deal that involves trading Jake Peavy to the Cubs isn't gonna happen. Things can certainly change at any second, but I'll keep you posted.

On Saturday, January 31 @ 12:00pm (noon) I will have a chat on this very website to talk Baseball, but more importantly to talk Cubs.

Predictions.... Notes....Buster Olney Video Talking About Jake Peavy.

Here are my 8 teams to make the playoffs:

NL

West: Diamondbacks- They have added Jon Garland, and they now have a solid starting three.

Central: Cubs-Weak division, monster lineup, and a good starting rotation.

East: Mets- Great bullpen, good lineup, OK starting pitcher (unless they sign another SP.)

Wild card: Phillies- They beat out Atlanta. Great bullpen, great lineup, solid starting rotation.

AL

West: Angels- Very good starting rotation, solid bullpen, good offense. (95-67)

Central: Indians: OK starting rotation, good bullpen, good offense. (88-74)

East: Redsox- Great starting rotation, great bullpen, good lineup. (102-60)

Wild card: Yankees- They beat out the Rays in a playoff game (Joba beats big game winner in Matt Garza) great lineup, Great starting rotation, OK bullpen. (97-65)

ALDS
Redsox beat Indians in 4 games.
Yankees beat Angels in 5 games.

ALCS
Yankees beat Redsox in 7 games.


All-star game: National League finally wins.

Carlos Marmol VS Kevin Gregg

Bold indicates "winner."

Career ERA:
Marmol-3.43
Gregg-4.00

Avg. K's per year:
Marmol-90
Gregg-61

Career Saves:
Marmol-8
Gregg-62 (only second year as full time closer.)

Postseason ERA:
Marmol-7.94 (5.2IP)
Gregg-0.00 (4IP)

Avg. BB per year:
Marmol-45
Gregg-27

With a limited sample, it looks like Kevin Gregg is victorious. But with that being said, I'd still prefer Carlos Marmol as the closer.

Here's a link with Buster Olney talking about the Cubs and a possible Jake Peavy deal (it's encouraging.)

On Thursday I will have a mock draft up, to show how to draft 7Th in fantasy baseball. It will show which players I picked with the rounds they were selected in.

On January, 31 @ 12:00pm (noon) I will have a chat on this very website to talk Baseball, but more importantly to talk Cubs.