According to mlb.com, Kerry Wood is close to signing a two year deal with the Cleveland Indians. The article suggests an option for a third year is a possibility. I didn't notice any dollar amounts suggested in the article.

If this is true, it appears he will get a multi-year deal, albeit in the AL, despite his apparent preference for the NL. Hope Wood does well for the Indians, and it does prevent some weirdness in facing him this year, although if I'm not mistaken, the Cubs do play the Tribe in interleague this year

According to this, the Cubs are interested in Mark Teahen to be their LH-RF. The article suggests Felix Pie may be the chip since they'd like to shift DeJesus to LF if they can acquire a CF. Also mentioned are Cedeno and Fontenot if the Royals prefer a MI. For minimal analysis, try here. Interesting that it is assumed that acquiring Dempster puts the Cubs out of the running for Peavy, and that talks for Teahen were going on earlier, but stalled when the Cubs thought they might have to use some of those chips toward a Peavy acquisition. Teahen certainly fits within the "affordable" mantra, as he's arb eligible and likely to cost around $3 mil. I'm not that well informed on his abilities, so I'd welcome any information. Thoughts?

UPDATE: add this to the mix

Haven't seen this posted anywhere on BCB yet. The Cubs declined Blanco's option, but expect to resign him at a lower guaranteed salary to continue being the backup C. Wittenmeyer suggests its possible there's a "handshake agreement" in place. Smart move to save $1M or $2, and it also answers the backup C question for '09.

Seems to indicate the tighter budget vibe we've been hearing has some truth to it, and Hendry is getting a little creative to free up some $$.

Friday afternoon a friend called to say she had free tickets to see the Camden Riversharks (right across the river from Philly) that night and asked if I was interested. Of course, I said, free minor league baseball. Out of interest, I browsed the net to see which team the Riversharks were an affiliate of, only to find out Camden is in the Atlantic Independent League, which wikipedia said often had former major leaguers on their rosters. This could be interesting I thought...

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I'm currently celebrating Lilly's victory a little more today because I think it makes us the only team in the majors with TWO (count em) 15 game winners. In looking ahead, I noticed Pinella has decided to pitch Trax on 3 days in houston ( he threw only 47 pitches sun), rest Z an extra day to start him in St. Loui, and then throw Marshall and Lilly in the DH.  My only thought was, is it bad to throw 2 lefties in a DH, allowing opposing batters to get used to that approach (left handed hurler) Why not start Marshall Thurs in Hou and throw Trax in the DH with Lilly? Then again Marshall may do poorly against Houston, haven't seen the numbers.

Just saw coin-flip results for tie-breaking races in each division, and wild card.  Apparently, the cubs will play a one-game playoff at home if they tie the brewers, or in st. louis if they play the cards.  The cards will go to Mil. to break that tie (but we don't have to worry about that do we) For some reason I was under the assumption that a tie would be broken based on head to head records (which gives us an advantage over the brew, and up to this point the cards) At any rate, I know we all hope this won't matter and that the cubs will win the central without a playoff. Do these coin-flips happen every year and I've just somehow missed it?