Solid pickup for them. I'm a Gregg fan, and wanted the Sox to target him this off-season.

It's official according to Rosenthal. Good pick-up, but maybe this means Wood is gone.

theyre better off with gregg or marmol as the closer and saving 10 mil a year or so that itd cost to resign wood.

It looks like a fire sale all over again with the Marlins.

It's lucky for them they do such a good job at identifying young talent and using it so well.

Gregg should be a solid pickup for the Cubs though, you can never have enough good arms for your bullpen.

for jose ceda..dont know much about him

Was compared to Lee Smith.

Hard throwing righty, probably suited to the pen, command is the main issue for him. 4 star prospect on some web-sites IIRC.

Future closer maybe?

The only way this makes sense to me is if the Padres suggested that Gregg was someone they’d be interested in for a Peavy deal. Otherwise, Ceda has a great live arm, and could have been of use to the major league ballclub as soon as September. I’m guessing the drafting of Cashner made this kid expendable that being said, he had some huge upside, and I find this deal very questionable.

Gregg probably takes Howry's place or closes if they lose Wood and don't sign anyone. Ceda has potential but is a ways away.

well mlbtraderumors says the Cubs' offer was much better than reported. which isnt that hard to believe. theres too many bogus reports out there. marshall pie and cedeno for peavy, etc which is so dumb. who knows whats brewing

Hendry just said Wood is done with the Cubs.

Makes sense...had to be only reason this deal was done. Ceda's a ton to give up though, as he's one of the better relief arms in the minors.

wow. does make sense i guess. why spend 10mil on wood when u have other cheaper options. gregg, marmol, notre dame guy

It wouldn't make sense for the Padres to want him, it sounds like Gregg only has one year at about 2.5m left, not the type of deal the Pads apparently want.

Further expand on a couple of posts above, B & B had Jessie Rodgers on and he reported that Henry basically said Wood is done with the Cubs.

No matter how the Cubs rolled through the regular season last year IMO they have some work to be done. I think they need another BP arm, need to address a leadoff hitter and dropping Soriano down and if they can't resign Dempster they need another arm in the rotation, espically since Harden is coming back, you can't count on him to start 30+ games.

Maybe the Cubs couldn't afford to re-sign both Wood and Dempster.

Either way, it's hurts the Sox in their effort to dangle Jenks as a trade - chip with another bonafide closer out there on the FA market.

I like what the Marlins have done here though getting Ceda. He may be able to help by the 2nd half of 2009, and they already acquired Nunez from the Royals, so they've got the makings of a really good young bullpen down there.

Marlin fans will be happy to get rid of him. He was the one guy the fans actually wanted to trade.

he didn't do very well in September, now that could be because he probably had pitched a ton of innings, but it's not like he was lights out like he was when he came up.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/pspli...1&year=2008

Gregg also had a roughly 1.2 WHIP last year, that's OK, but not crazy good.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/greggke01.shtml

So now the Cubs back end of the bullpen consists of 3 guys capable of walking or hitting the first 4 guys in an inning. Marmol, Gregg, and Samardzija won't give up a ton of hits, but damn there are going to be some sticky situations that they get themselves into. Personally, I like strike throwers out of the bullpen.

He had some significant control problems in Miami, but goggles only allowed a .206 and .203 average against in his two years there. He was also only 29 for 38 in saves last year though, and his home run allowed numbers are going to go up at Wrigley. It's a solid pickup for the Cubs, but if he is indeed going to be the man that replaces Wood, they will see their production in the closer spot fall off in 2009. As the last poster mentioned, it's interesting that they are going to rely on the guys they are at the back of their pen, as in three guys with great stuff, but major control problems at times. That's a classic high reward/high risk proposition. He's just the kind of bullpen arm that Hendry seems to like in that regard.

As for Wood and Dempster, the Cubs could AFFORD both of them, but I doubt either comes back. We know Wood is gone now, and Dempster will likely be in the same boat because the Cubs got career years out of them of them last year and they know it. I give them credit for being wise enough to realize that and not give away huge contracts to either guy though.

Cubs fans are VERY high on him. They believed him to be the cornerstone for Peavy. future stud closer or Ace

I got to see Ceda pitch against Kane County a couple of times in 2007, and he brings it. He is a laaaaaarge man. A Dominican Bobby. I think he's gonna be pretty damn good reliever.

yea i lokked into it. he wont be ready until possibly atleast sept so the cubs were probly more interested in winning right away

Hendry confirmed on Mac, Jurko and Harry that Wood is indeed gone. I'm going to make a bold prediction and say that he's a Texas Ranger in two months.

"bold" should be in the greenest green possible

the last time i saw gregg pitch, i was in florida on vacation and he gave up that 3r blast to ward lol

Gregg isn't anything great. He's got decent stuff, but he's a bonehead of a pitcher. He's better off in a lesser role in with the Cubs. Marmol should be the closer.

agree completely

Marmol would be a disaster of a closer IMO.

I'm sorry, but Cubs fans are ridiculously retarded. ONE healthy season as a closer and this is what they have been saying about Wood:




Wood in the same light as those HOF'ers? Get the f*** outta here.

20 K's buys you superhero status in Wrigleyville. Heck, I still know people who proudly wear the "We Got Wood" shirts

There is no excuse for putting a high-leverage arm like Marmol’s in the closers spot. Not when the kid can give you two lights-out innings in the 7th and 8th nearly every night.

They have been grooming him as a closer for 2 years now, he definitely has the stuff for the job.

You simply do not put a guy with the control and stuff that Marmol has in the closers spot. Marmol is absolutely excellent at getting his team out of Jams, particularly when his team needs it in the 7th and 8th. What gives anyone the impression that he’d be better served coming in in the 9th with no one on and a 3-run lead?

Here's a thought I haven't heard echoed yet... Are the Cubs cutting payroll? No Dempster, and no Wood. Could they be trying to lop off some dollars so that they can push the team sale along?

Doubt it, I think they are cutting cost so they can add "the last piece to the puzzle" in an overpriced LH bat to play RF. I really hope they sign Adam Dunn so they have the worst defensive OF in baseball.

Payroll is going up for them, they back loaded a lot of contracts.

Exactly they are cutting salary to keep the payroll from going up to much.

There are a ton of contracts that are going way, way up.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but that Soriano contract is crazy in its last few years

The combined salaries of Zambrano, Ramirez, Soriano, Lilly, Fukudome, Marque, DeRosa and Harden go up $24.4M between '08 and '09.

Wow, Sullivan just posted an interview with Wood wheWood said that he would of taken a sweetheart deal to resign with the Cubs. It really sounds like Hendry’s trying to force him out, which makes no sense whatsoever given what Wood means to that organization, and the year he had last year.

It makes sense if the Cubs just can't afford to keep him around. Even if he were willing to take a huge discount they're still gonna have to pay him 8 or 9 million a year over 3 seasons. Given how much guaranteed money they already have on the books for '09 and beyond and the tumultuous ownership situation it seems plausible that Hendry would be forced to cut him loose or give away another key player in a salary dump in order to find the financial flexibility required to retain Wood.

It's entirely reasonable that their spending binge might well be catching up to them given the ownership situation. Ramirez, Lee, Soriano, DeRosa, Lilly, Zambrano, Fukudome, those are some big dollars they've put in to those players.

Wood said he'd take another one-year deal to stay.
Hendry wants to turn that page, and is using the "I want to be fair to Kerry" line as a smokescreen.

You know a closer doesn't have to just be just a 1 inning pitcher.

$18 mil per 2010-2014.

Piniella is fairly by the books when it comes to closer use, and its odd that he’s support Marmol for closer considering that the kid’s been his fallback guy for two years.