Hoosiercubbie

This from cbssports: Another high interest Japanese free agent, outfielder Kosuke Fukodome, is expected to narrow his choices early next week after his agent presents him with a final report regarding his options on Friday. San Diego is believed to have offered three years and $36 million, and the Cubs may be up to as much as four years and $40 million. The Padres are hoping Fukodome prefers a western locale, because the Cubs almost certainly will out-bid them.

It was mentioned that he would be competing for the closer spot. I'm pretty certain that at this point it would be as a reliever.

As I understood it, the Cubs were not among the teams offering 2 years although I might have misunderstood.

Initially it sounded like 5-6 million per year on the other offers but they clarified it to $5 million total.

They said he had 2 yr offers from Boston, Texas and Milwaukee for about 5 million total but decided to return to the Cubs.

ESPN 1000 in Chicago just reported that Kerry Wood will stay with the Cubs - 1 yr/4 million.

I don't know for sure but since WCIU is basically only for Chicago Area Cable, the ESPN telecast should still be available.

It's as if it didn't exist. It'll be replayed from the beginning (if it's replayed at all) and nothing that happened during the game will be included in any stats.

ESPN 1000 in Chicago just reported that Hendry is trying to get a deal done for Church.

Who knows what will happen but a glance at the schedules for the Cubs, Brewers, and Cards would seem to indicate that both the Cubs and Brewers have an easier second half schedule than the Cards. I've probably missed a game or two somewhere but it appears as if the Cubs have 58 games against teams with a sub .500 record and 20 against teams with a plus .500 while the Brewers are something like 52 -.500 and 24 +500, with the Cards at 38 -.500 and 41 +.500.

My daughter's boyfriend's family are Cardinal season ticket holders. They're giving us use of their tickets fo Fri night and Saturday's game. They're excellent seats about 50 ft past the Cardinal dugout 5 rows up.

Going to see Fri/Sat games next weekend. Hopefully Lou will continue to keep Z on his every 5 day schedule so I won't have to watch Miller get hammered again. Was hoping to see Hill and Z pitch but it looks like it'll be Marquis and Z. Here's hoping Marquis continues to pitch as he has and Z starts to pitch like Z!

He had something like 43 or 44 pitches thru the 3rd, about 60% for strikes.

Paul Sullivan was just on Chicago Tribune Live. He said the deal was a low base - high incentive contract. He didn't specify any numbers.