The end of winter is in sight—pitchers and catchers reported to spring training today. more ›

The New York Yankees rummaged through the Cubs' trash and pulled out former Cubs general manager Jim Hendry. more ›

Hendry helped put together three NL Central champions, but he's been widely perceived to have had a horseshoe up his ass in recent years. more ›

A wild weekend for the Cubs ended with the team releasing pitcher Carlos Silva on Sunday, forcing the team to eat many millions left on his contract. The move came a day after Silva learned he was the odd man out when the Cubs announced their 25-man roster. Andrew Cashner was named their fifth starter while Marcos Mateo earned the final spot in the bullpen. With Silva left off the team, The Cubs told him they hoped to trade him, or else he could pitch for Triple-A Iowa. more ›

While most of Chicago's sports fans were too preoccupied with Bears playoff mania to think about baseball, the Cubs hosted their annual convention at the Hilton Chicago last weekend. As in past years, Cubs fans had a chance to mingle, meet players and attend panels with the team's players and management. Fans also got a chance to check out the newest high profile additions, like first baseman Carlos Pena and starting pitcher Matt Garza, and hear from newly appointed manager Mike Quade. more ›

Winter is still in the air but baseball is creeping up on us as trade winds continue to blow throughout the city. more ›

Looks like Steve Dahl and I weren't the only ones to have a pizza summit recently. The Tribune's Paul Sullivan reports that the seeds for Kerry Wood's one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Cubs were sown at D'Agostino's Pizza in Wrigleyville, more ›

Why is Mike Quade smiling? It's probably because he's been named the Cubs liked enough of what they saw from his 24-13 record after Lou Piniella retired in August to remove the "interim" title from his job. more ›

The Cubs have reached an agreement with Carlos Zambrano's agent and MLB's Players Union on how to handle the hot-tempered pitcher after Friday's outburst. The team will switch Zambrano from the suspended list to the restricted list starting today - which means he's back on the payroll - and also enter a 'treatment' program. The move means Zambrano will be away from the team through at least the All-Star Break and the team has called up Jeff Stevens to take his spot. No one involved has elaborated on exactly what kind of 'treatment' Zambrano will undergo but it seems pretty obvious it'll be for behavioral/anger issues. After all, this is not exactly the first time Zambrano has been involved in an outburst with a teammate (or an outburst in general). From ESPN: more ›

• In his budget address today, Gov. Quinn called for a hike of the state income tax from 3 percent to 4 percent to help avoid education cuts.
• Police have released information - including name and photo - of the suspect in last week's Southwest Side rapes.
• WBEZ has background on today's immigration rallies.

Former Cubs pitching star/sure-fire Hall-of-Famer Greg Maddux is once again a Cub albeit not on the mound. Instead, Maddux will be an assistant to GM Jin Hendry and, let's face it, Hendry needs all the help he can get. According to ESPN: more ›

Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings are underway at a hotel in Indianapolis, and of course it's a veritable hotbed of rumors about trades and free agent signings. But the most persistent rumors flowing throughout the gathering involve the Cubs' Milton Bradley -- so much so that it's become the running joke around the hotel. His inability to fit in with the Cubs was well documented, and moving the disgruntled outfielder has topped GM Jim Hendry's off-season to-do list. more ›

It wouldn't be as big a miracle as making the 2009 playoffs, but being able to trade troubled outfielder Milton Bradley? That would provide something of a silver lining to the entire debacle and mean that the Cubs wouldn't eat the entire Bradley contract without at least a little something in return. A report in today's Tribune says that San Francisco or San Diego are two current possible destinations for the right fielder and Kansas City is also being mentioned. San Diego is the only team to openly admit an interest in Bradley but the Trib's Paul Sullivan suggests the Giants' Aaron Rowand could make for a nice swap for Bradley. Of course, given the flop seasons from Bradley and the Cubs' other big free agent signing for '09 - Kevin Gregg - it's still going to be hard for GM Jim Hendry to wash await the taint. more ›

Embattled Cubs outfielder Milton Bradley tried to improve a very bad situation on Wednesday, by issuing a formal apology through his agents. Bradley also dropped his union grievance over the suspension on Wednesday, when the Cubs agreed to suspend him with pay -- meaning he'll earn about $400,000 while sitting at home (waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than what Marcus makes by blogging in his underwear from a basement). more ›

With 2009 rolling around, many of us made New Years resolutions -- go to bed earlier, save more money, eat better. For the Cubs, apparently, their resolution was giving up Pie. The North Siders traded Felix Pie, their onetime center fielder of the future, to the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend in return for two pitchers. In return for Pie - who will perhaps be best remembered for his twisted testicle - the Cubs landed left-handed pitcher Garrett Olson and Class A right-hander Henry Williamson. Olson was just 9-10 with a 6.65 ERA in 26 starts for Baltimore last season. more ›

Park Ridge officials are puzzled by the sudden appearance of signs at the intersection of Prospect Avenue, Touhy Avenue and Northwest Highway declaring the thoroughfare "Honorary Jim Hendry Way." Hendry, the general manager of the Chicago Cubs, is a Park Ridge resident. Park Ridge director of public works Wayne Zingsheim said a Illinois Department of Transportation rep told him the signs were installed based on an ''executive order from the governor's office.'' The city's mayor, Howard Frimark, and aldermen are also clueless as to the story surrounding the signs and when they went up. The rub? The City Council was preparing to vote on a measure that would prohibit such designations of honorary streets, but since the poles on which the "Hendry Way" signs appeared are property of IDOT, the city has no say. What Hendry did to deserve the designation is anybody's guess (Blago is a confessed Cubs fan), but we have two ideas: either a big campaign donation or he's being honored for his propensity to overpay outfielders. [via] more ›

With the free agent signing period for Major League baseball set to begin at 12:00 a.m. Friday morning, clubs are making trades to get the most of what they can before they lose players to the market. First up are the Sox, who dealt Nick Swisher and minor leaguer Kanekoa Texeira to the New York Yankees in exchange for infielder Wilson Betemit and a pair of right-handed pitchers, Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez. While Betemit saw some big league action this year, both pitchers spent '08 in the minors. more ›

The Chicago Cubs and GM Jim Hendry have reached an agreement on a contract extension that will keep Hendry with the Cubs through the 2012 season. Hendry has the third-longest tenure at GM (July 2002 to present) and is the only Cubs GM to see the team go to the postseason three times. He's also the only Cubs GM to see the team lose in the playoffs three times. Said Hendry upon the extension announcement, "It's an honor to receive this long-term commitment from the Chicago Cubs. We know there is work to be done in reaching our goal, and I thank my staff for their commitment to this organization. We'll continue to do everything it takes to reward our great fans for their dedication to this team." Like a World Series trophy? Awesome. K thnx bai. more ›

Sammy Sosa's boom box. Dugout electrical fans. Now we can add "Dodgers plumbing" to the list of things that frustrated Cubs players have taken out their aggressions on. Who broke the water pipe that caused the dugout to flood? No one's fessing up - and Cubs GM Jim Hendry doesn't give a rat's ass. He told the Trib: more ›

Answer quickly... who was the last Cubs pitcher to win 20 games? more ›

Well, that was fast! Barely 24 hours ago, Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome announced that he would leave Japan to play in the major leagues. Fukudome and the Cubs have already reached an agreement on a four-year deal, supposedly for between $48 and $50 million. By signing the outfielder, the Cubs beat out the Padres, White Sox and a couple other clubs rumored to be interested. more ›

Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome finally declared his intentions to play in the major leagues next season. Considered to be one of the best outfielders in Japan's top professional league, he's expected to draw interest from a number of team. Among the teams most interested are both the Cubs and White Sox, as well as the San Diego Padres. Will the latest Japanese sensation land in Chicago? “It’s no secret we’d like him to come to... more ›

The Cubs finally traded maligned outfielder Jacque Jones on Monday, sending him along with $2 million to Detroit for utility infielder Omar Infante. A slow start to the 2006 season after signing a 3-year, $16 million deal to join the Cubs caused the fans to sour quickly on Jones. He became the next "Corey Patterson" -- which Chicagoist predicted the day he signed -- and the target for relentless taunting by the fans in the... more ›

Athletes these days just don't have nicknames like they used to — isn't that right, Fred? more ›

Is that a goat we hear bleating? Because no sooner do the Cubs climb into a tie with the Brewers for the NL Central lead, they lose one of their top sluggers to injury. Alfonso Soriano landed on the disabled list on Monday, after tearing his right quadriceps in Sunday night's game against the New York Mets. Attempting to run from first to third on a Ryan Theriot single in the third inning, he came... more ›

Baseball's non-waiver trading deadline passes this afternoon, and while both our clubs have been attached to rumored moves, little has happened yet. While the Cubs look to add any missing pieces for a playoff push, the Sox were expected to be big sellers as they remain well below .500 for the season. more ›

In a trade that was surprising in its swiftness, the Cubs traded embattled catcher and "good guy" Michael Barrett (or "number 8" for those of you who don't visit Wrigley Field for the baseball) and cash to the San Diego Padres for backup catcher Rob Bowen and minor league prospect Kyler Burke. The trade closes the book on Barrett's three-plus years as a Cub, a time marked by emotional outbursts, an uncontrollable temper, suspect defensive... more ›

This is not a fun time to be a baseball fan in Chicago. Whether a White Sox or Cubs fan, you no doubt have that sinking feeling about your team's prospects for the postseason after they were swept this week. The Cubs lost 9-0 to the Florida Marlins on Wednesday, following a day full of meetings. The players held one. So did management. Didn't help, at least on Wednesday. The players felt they needed to... more ›

So just what, exactly, is Ryan Dempster's role on the Cubs' pitching staff? Not even Ryan himself seems to know. more ›

Chicagoist can be lazy sometimes. We feel like we just keep writing, and writing, and writing about injury woes and the Cubs. So we recently decided that it'd be well worth our while to write a fill-in-the-blank post we can simply re-use each time somebody else goes down. How fitting that Mark Prior gives us the first opportunity to utilize our new time saving bit of prefab journalism: Cubs former pitching phenom Mark Prior, who... more ›