Hire Jim Essian

Well, I guess the big news around here is that someone else is going to be signing my paychecks really soon. And that someone is J. Joe Ricketts. The team is supposedly going to be sold for $900M. That's $9M for each year this team hasn't won a World Series, if you're into doing "math." Rest ... Read More

In yet another move clearly designed to get Jake Peavy in a Cubs uniform, Jim Hendry traded Felix Pie and his out-of-control testicles to the Baltimore Orioles for LHP Garrett Olson and RHP Henry Williamson. I'm assuming this is part of the increasingly-more-complicated Peavy-for-Gathright, Miles, some dudes from the Indians, and some other dudes from the Orioles trade. Olson sucked ... Read More

Jim Hendry has been suddenly busy this offseason, as today he finally shipped Jason Marquis to the Colorado Rockies for Luis Vizcaino (thanks to Jon for the tip). There's no link, but the Cubs e-mailed out a press release. Vizcaino is crap, and the Cubs have plenty of starters, so this is a salary dump. But that's ... Read More

Ha ha ha ha ha! Get it? Because the Cubs just signed Aaron Miles? What does this mean? Well, I'm guessing The Pulse is getting shipped out of town, meaning that Jake Peavy trade isn't as dead as Kevin Towers was pretending it was. If Jim Hendry manages to trade Jason Marquis, land Peavy, and sign Milton ... Read More

The idiot Cubs front office once again had a coaching opening, and once again didn't even bother to INTERVIEW Jim Essian for the job. Instead, the Cubs promoted Ryne Sandberg from the Class A affiliate, the Peoria Chiefs, to the AA affiliate, the Tennessee Smokies. Some guy named Marty Pevey is now the manager of the Peoria Cubs. ... Read More

Rumor has it (and thanks to Oleg for the tip) that the Cubs are about to sign former Devil Ray and former Kansas City Royal outfielder Joey Gathright. He's fast, and he can catch the ball, so the signing would make sense for, say, the Bears. But he can't hit. Like, at all. Unless you count ... Read More

What's really taking so long to make the Jake Peavy trade? Some (Dolan) might say the Padres are waiting for the Rule V draft so that they can clear some room on their roster for the flotsam they're going to get from the Phillies and Cubs. And that makes sense. But HJE dug deeper and found the ... Read More

How long is the Jake Peavy hostage crisis going to trudge on? The fact that Peavy is going to be a Cub has gone from "worst-kept secret" of the Winter Meetings to "public domain." Padres GM Kevin Towers has apparently put together a four-team trade that would make Peavy to the Cubs feasible, but it involves cutting Ronny ... Read More

EDIT: It's come to my attention from my good friend PAUL SULLIVAN (through Dolan) that Carrie Muskat's father recently passed away. I know I have my fun at Carrie's expense on a weekly basis, but mine and I hope your thoughts and prayers are with the Muskat family in their time of grief. Oh, hey, I forgot to say ... Read More

This week's Muskbag somehow manages to revisit Rich Hill. No one revisits Rich Hill. Rich Hill isn't even going to have visitors at his house for Thanksgiving. But the Muskbag has all the Rich Hill coverage you could possibly want. I've been hearing that the Cubs are trying to shop Kosuke Fukudome. I'm not sure why they're trying ... Read More