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Mark DeRosa’s days with the Cubs are no more.
On what was a busy day of transactions for the Chicago Cubs, the Cubs have decided to part ways with Mark DeRosa.  DeRosa will head to the Cleveland Indians while the Cubs acquired three minor league pitchers from the Indians: Jeff Stevens, Chris Archer and John Gaub.  I have a very hard time accepting that the Cubs would trade someone like DeRosa for three minor league pitchers.  Part of me thinks that there has to be something else going on with this deal.  Perhaps these pitchers may be used to reopen the Brian Roberts talks?  Who knows.

According to an update on the Jason Marquis trade, the news for that deal is not going to be announced until sometime next week.  I have to wonder why they would wait a week to announce this if the Cubs had no problem announcing the DeRosa deal today.

Meanwhile, the Cubs also acquired Aaron Miles today.  Miles batted .317 in 134 games for the St. Louis Cardinals last year.  Like DeRosa, Miles is also a utility man as he played in six different positions last year (seven, if you include his appearance as a relief pitcher).

Anyhow, Wrigley Field is set to be on an international stage tomorrow as it hosts the 2009 NHL Winter Classic.  Look out for photos sometime tomorrow night.  I will be there and I am very excited for this game.

I guess the Cubs listened to my post yesterday (you know, the one where I said that it has been a quiet/boring off season so far).

According to the official website of the Chicago Cubs, Jason Marquis may be dealt to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for Luis Vizcaino.  Marquis still had one year on his contract with the Cubs.  It seems as though this will help the Cubs save some money as Marquis was due just shy of $10 million, while Vizcaino will make around $3.5 million.

Vizcaino should be a good addition to a bullpen that has lost Kerry Wood, Scott Eyre, Bob Howry (am I missing anyone?).  I think it should be fun to see what the new guy brings.

Bye to Marquis.  I know that they always say how Marquis has always been on a team that makes the playoffs, so I guess this means you can get out your ballpoint pen and write in the Colorado Rockies as one of the eight teams to represent the National League in the 2009 playoffs.  LOL.

News from the Cubs’ website today:

Andre Dawson is on the ballot for the Hall of Fame.  The Cubs website is trying to pump up Dawson’s nomination by getting up the hopes of Cubs fans again.  As if we didn’t get our hopes up enough already with Ron Santo, the 2008 Chicago Cubs, I could go on and on with this one!

WGN reports that the conversion of Wrigley Field to an ice rink is currently way ahead of schedule.  They showed images of the crew putting the Winter Classic emblem on center ice, the roof top owners getting prepared, flags flying above the scoreboard, “Detroit and Chicago” up on the scoreboard, and some other cool things.  I am still waiting on those jumbotrons.  I’m really curious how big those are going to be and where exactly they will be placed.

As for the Chicago Cubs themselves, there is no real news to report as it has been for the past couple of weeks.  It has been a very quiet offseason for the Cubs so far, and I am not all that surprised.  The Cubs don’t have too many areas to upgrade, so they have no need to do massive/dramatic signings a la the New York Yankees.

Taking a slight shift from the usual Cubs talk and the latest on the NHL Winter Classic…

As I am sure many of you have started to get the sense, I am a big fan of all Chicago sports team.  Therefore, I feel that it is only appropriate to mourn the end of the Chicago Bears season today.  I think that the Bears were a mediocre team as evidenced by their late collapses early on in the season (see: Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Bucs, Atlanta Falcons, and close wins against Minnesota and Detroit).  I think many of us should be surprised that the Bears were still in this thing in the last week.

Sure, it’s easy to go back and point at specific plays, games, or moments that defined the season.  I still think that the amount of games that we lost in the final seconds is very balanced to the games we won in the final seconds.   Basically, the Bears were pretty much a .500 team and managed to win some close games and lose about the same amount of close games.

I think that it is unfair for Chicago sports fans to be upset with the Bears after today.  Obviously, the Vikings won so the Bears could not have won the NFC North.  Assuming Dallas wins this afternoon, the Wild Card would have been closed off as well.  I think that the bottom line is that the Bears really made it an entertaining season… and that is what these players are paid to do.  Of course, it sucks we are not in the playoffs, but I will admit that I was more excited about the Bears in the last few weeks than I have been all season— why?  Because of the intensity and importance that was placed on each of the games in the final weeks.  I won’t forget that game last week against Green Bay and how exciting it was after winning that game.

Anyway, call it a “loser mentality” if you must, but I enjoyed the ride.  I hope that you did too.

Now all that is left is the Chicago Bulls (who have nothing likeable about them besides Derrek Rose) and the Chicago Blackhawks (who have a lot likeable about them) until late February when Spring Training begins!

I just saw this commercial and thought it was amazing… It is the commercial spot for the NHL Winter Classic game at Wrigley Field.

I think it’s awesome to hear Harry Caray and it gets me even more excited for this game.  Wouldn’t it be something if they played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” while the zamboni makes its rounds between periods?  I think that would make it all the more fun.  Maybe the Cubs players can lead the Wrigley faithful in the singing of the old past time.

I also found this article that mentions that there will be NHL sponsored events that will take place over on Waveland and Clark.  So even if you don’t have a ticket, go check out those festivities.  They begin at 9:00AM.

Five more days til the Winter Classic!  It’s gonna be great!

I drove past Wrigley Field tonight and noticed a large bulldozer and huge pile of what was once the Sports Corner on Sheffield and Addison.  I don’t think that Bacci Pizzieria was effected… but I’m still unsure why Sports Corner was razed.   I thought that place was always packed during Cubs games and I figured it would be packed for the Winter Classic as well.  I can’t seem to find any news stories on it, so I am wondering if anyone else knows what happened.  I wouldn’t think it went out of business seeing as the building has been completely destroyed and it was still standing last week when I passed by.

I can’t believe the Winter Classic is so close!  This is going to be great!

Hi everyone,

Merry Christmas to everyone that celebrates.   I hope that everyone has a real nice holiday, eats some good food, spends some good, quality family time, and gets some great presents.  Speaking of presents, I have been looking at getting this for myself.  I think it would be pretty cool to have a puzzle of Wrigley Field.  Not sure if I’d pay $16.99 + shipping for it, but I still think it’s pretty sweet.  Is anyone else out there giving away Cubs gifts this holiday season?  If so, tell me about them.  I would love to hear.

Anyhow, Merry Christmas to all, and may you have a nice, warm holiday.

Go Cubs!

Ok.  I have explored every opponent except for the National League Central Division so let’s jump right in to it!

The Cubs open their season against a Central opponent at the Houston Astros.  By month, here is how the Cubs look with the Central teams: (remember, the Cubs have 35 against the West, 32 against the East, and 15 against Interleague.  This should leave 70 games against the Central)

It looks like the Cubs have a huge amount of games against the Central competition in the early months and then a ton in the final month.  The 20 games in September also include seven against Milwaukee; and at least one game with every opponent in the Central.  Here’s a look at how the 70 games against the Central break down:

It actually seems to be pretty even this year.  I feel like last year we played way more games against Pittsburgh but the disparities are not that large in 2009.  I do think it sucks a little that they have to play Houston and Milwaukee the most, but whatever.  If the Cubs are going to win in 2009, they’re going to have to beat good teams anyway.  By the way, I am kind of surprised by a few trends: There are only two series against the Brewers at Wrigley and they are both four game sets.  Also, the Cardinals are done at Wrigley in early/mid-July.  I don’t know, but I actually liked it more with the home games against the Cardinals being held off until the last two months because it meant we were responsible for knocking them out of contention (plus, we got to celebrate the division crown while playing them).

Overall, it seems the entire schedule is pretty well balanced.  I think that the Cubs are going to face a good mix of good and bad opponents at an equal rate (I suppose the whole thing with the West could be argued, but still, it’s only three more games than the East).

We’ve already looked at the Cubs’ schedule against National League West foes and the National League East opponents.  This leaves the Central and the Interleague schedule.  Again, the Cubs get 32 games against the East and 35 games against the West; bringing us to 95 games.

The Interleague schedule sees the Cubs facing American League Central opponents (with the exception of the Kansas City Royals).  The Cubs will only face Interleague rivals in the month of June.  The Cubs will face American League teams fifteen times— it seems as though all National League teams will face the American League fifteen times as well (ie: I could not find any National League team that does not play the American League exactly fifteen times… granted, I only looked up a few schedules).  This should be interesting because it seems that the Cubs have played less Interleague games in years past.  I kind of remember them getting Atlanta, Pittsburgh and San Diego a lot over the past two years, instead of playing interleague opponents.

Anyhow, here is how the Interleague schedule shakes out:

In continuation with the 2009 schedule analysis, I guess it only makes sense to shift gears and look at the East.

I think the East is going to be a pretty solid division next year.  You’ve got the Philadelphia Philles who won it all in 2008.  The Mets seem to be much improved as they have addressed their bullpen issues.  The Marlins are always a handful (at least for the Cubs), and the Braves should be pretty decent too.  The only gimmies might come from the Washington Nationals, but then again, they also seem to give the Cubs problems.

The Cubs will play 32 games against the East in 2009.  That is the same amount of games that the Cubs played against this division in 2008.   Unlike the schedule with the West, the Cubs schedule with Eastern opponents is much more even as there are 16 games at Wrigley Field and 16 games away from Wrigley Field.  Also, the Cubs do not play any Eastern opponents in the months of May and June.