Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Ricketts To Owns Cubs... Other notes...

- Ameet Sachdev reports on ChicagoBreakingNews.com that Tribune Co. has reached a deal to sell the Cubs and Wrigley Field to the Ricketts family for about $900MM. This includes the Cubs, Wrigley, and 25% control of Comcast SportsNet. ChicagoBusiness.com passes on a Reuters report says the Tribune Company has not agreed on the deal with anyone and that Marc Utay has recently sent a bid for the Cubs. This report does not seem correct but who knows. It does give the Cubs flexibility make a trade at the deadline if the deal is near completion.

- Roy Halladay is being made available. While the Cubs are not in desperate need of starting pitching it would be great to get Doc. Ken Rosenthal says the Cubs could be a landing place of Halladay but because of lack of prospects and since their ownership is not finalized it is not likely. He still names them as suitors though.

- The Sun-Times has this quote from Jim Hendry-

"We have a pretty good team,and if our guys all play like their capable ... you don’t have to do a whole lot."

Seems like posturing to me. Hendry always makes a deal!

- The Royals acquired Ryan Freel and cash from the Cubs for a PTBNL. Nice to get something for him.

- Aram, Johnson, and Guzman were activated yesterday from the DL and Kevin Hart and Sam Fuld was sent to AAA while Patton was put on the 15 day DL with a groin injury.

- Dempster was put on the 15 day DL with a fractured big toe. No word on how he injured the toe. Dempster could be out 4 to 6 weeks and will get X-rays in two weeks and go from there. The Cubs called up Kevin Hart and he will start Weds. against the Braves. Hart is an interesting choice considering Jose Ascanio has better stuff and better numbers in Iowa.

- The Cubs could now look at trading for pitching at the deadline or sign a guy like Pedro or Paul Byrd. The Cubs biggest concern to me is still an impact bat in the lineup. They should upgrade 2nd base by getting a Teahen or Uggla.

- Johnson will leadoff tonight and may find him in the 1 hole against lefties the rest of the season. It looks like Soriano will not be leading off anymore due to his struggles, but the way Lou is that could change by tomorrow.

That is it for now, GOOO CUBS!!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

WE-DO-NOT-NEED-STARTING-PITCHING. Cubs absolute needs:
-A difference making SS and move Theriot to 2nd.
or
-A difference making 2nd baseman
-A difference making lefty reliever
Yes, we would all like to see our slumping stars moved for better talent but that is just not going to happen.

Possible moves that would benefit but not absolutes:
-Good quality arm from the pen
-Mark Teahen (Notice he is not an absolute especially if the absolutes listed above are attained. However his versatility and his lefty bat would come in very handy in many situations.)