Cubs and Marmol Agree on Deal & Other Cubs News

The Cubs will avoid an arbitration hearing with Carlos Marmol, as the two sides agreed on a deal for $2.125M...exactly the midpoint of their two submitted figures of $1.75M and $2.5M.

- Kevin Millar was on XM Radio this morning excited about signing with the Cubs. Apparently he lives in the Mesa area and wanted to go to camp with a team nearby so he could spend time with his 2 kids and a third on the way in June. He says he knows that if he as any chance to make the team, he'll have to re-learn third base and try to play some outfield. That should be fun to watch.

In the same radio interview, the hosts referenced an interview with Reed Johnson yesterday where Reed talked about the confines of the clubhouse at Wrigley. Reed seemed to suggest that the lack of space made it difficult on the team last year to escape some of the drama with Milton Bradley and so forth.

- The TV schedules are coming out and the Cubs will be on WGN for a record low 58 games this year and the home opener will be on WCIU. They also have 8 Fox Saturday games (two scheduled for Saturday nights) and another two ESPN Sunday night games in July. A few more games could be dropped or picked up by ESPN as well.

- Vine Line's latest issue features 50 Cubs prospects you should know and they feature two in this blog post - Hak-Ju Lee and D.J. LeMahieu.

- Speaking of Lee, Muskat runs down some of the signings from Korea over the last few years. This was posted in the comments a few weeks back, but here's Lee singing that's referenced in the article.

- Yahoo does their season preview on the Cubs.

On the field, everything must fall in place for manager Lou Piniella’s team to make the playoffs.

Insightful. That pretty much goes for the other 29 teams as well.

- Holding out hope for Orlando Hudson to join the Cubs? It looks like he's headed to the Minnesota Twins.

Tags: 
Carlos Marmol
Cubs Contracts
Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 12:40pm
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Comments

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 1:27pm

Really glowing report on Lee's defensive ability in the Vline article. I likes.

Submitted by navigator
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 1:29pm

The Cubs clubhouse really is cramped and tacky.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3225/267506262...

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 1:54pm

yeah, wrigley field part 2 is badly needed.

as stadiums continue to enhance their perks the shithole known as wrigley field will continue to irk some players.

for all the love the place gets from fans there's more than a few others that hate their facilities and other quirks like having to sit around the line/wall as the bullpen area.

Submitted by artskoe
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 2:56pm

That's what you freakin' get when you elect a south sider as Prez. Da city probably gots them some 100 new trucks to collect gum off 35th and Shields savin' 2 jobs, but not ONE thin DIME to stimulis the Nort Side. Wit the billions Ozzie got he coulda built a freakin' dome, but what do we got? Korean Korkiokee. Next time, let's do some Yankee action, eh? Wit all dem pals up dere, dey probably GIVEN, I say GIVEN dem hot dogs away wit da stimilus money Kostanza got 'em. AND we seen it, didn't we? Damn Yanks took all dat money and blew it on a World Series. Yeah, I don't blame Bradley DIS time for hackin' a loogy up wit dis sweat joint. Jeez..hardly enuff room to take a spit or light up a reefer witout everybody knowin' yer bizznass. Ah, who cares? Damn Blackhawks didn't care. Dey jes put new grass down over what was already new!?!?! Somebody's starvin' somewhere and deez hockey pucks grows some more grass over grass. NOW DAT's tinkin' like da Prez, and some Yankees, baby. "Hey youse guys!! Yah, you over dere!! Pass me the Prior drill towel! Yea, I knows we only gots one, stoopit. What didja tink dis was, Citi Field?"

Submitted by tbone
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 10:37am

And here I thought head scratching dialect humor died with vaudeville.

Submitted by Dr. aaron b
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:14pm

Al Jolson approves!

Submitted by garsky
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 3:18pm

Is that you, Prison Mike?

Submitted by navigator
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 1:31pm

Did any reporter anywhere bother to ask how much this comedy gig of Kevin Millar's is costing the Cubs? Some would have us believe he signed for nothing.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 1:48pm

really?

i mean...really?

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 2:07pm

what's the cost of a minor league deal? less than 100K and not guaranteed if he's cut I believe. AZ Phil would know...

I assume he has some incentives like Tracy if he makes the team.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 2:12pm

some guys get high-end minor league deals, but that usually goes to elder-teacher types who are mentoring someone, don't mind riding the busses, and who's main realistic goal is to be an injury replacement or end-season callup. pat borders...etc.

this is a guy trying to get his career back and with his limited time of viability it seems he's chosen the route of a possible contender to do it.

i doubt he's making AAA minimum, but i doubt he's making huge bank.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 2:16pm

well I assume Millar is just there to try and make the team and show-off for other clubs. I doubt he's going to Iowa if he doesn't make the team. I could see Tracy going to Iowa possibly, he's still pretty young.

Submitted by Arizona Phil
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 6:38pm

Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 2:07pm.
what's the cost of a minor league deal? less than 100K and not guaranteed if he's cut I believe. AZ Phil would know...

I assume he has some incentives like Tracy if he makes the team.

===============================

ROB G: Miner league contracts are not guaranteed, and termination pay for minor leaguers is two weeks salary (1/12 of the player's salary). For minor league players released during the off-season (before they are signed for the next season), there is no termination pay.

In the case of a Chad Tracy or a Kevin Millar, the typical minor league deal would be a $120K-$300K minor league salary (or $10,000-$25,000 every two weeks), meaning if Tracy or Millar gets released prior to Opening Day, it costs the Cubs (at most) maybe $25,000 in termination pay for each player (plus about another $1,100 per week in Spring Training pay, per diem, and housing allowance that all players receive while in big league camp).

For MLB vets like Tracy and Millar, there is always a pre-arranged MLB salary (in writing) in case the player is added to the MLB 40-man roster, usually somewhere between $600K-$1.2M, depending on the player. Tracy's has already been announced ($900K MLB salary plus another $500K+ in performance incentives). Millar probably got a similar deal.

Also, MLB veterans like Tracy and Millar often will have a player option allowing them to request and receive their release if they don't make the MLB 25-man roster out of Spring Training. Sometimes players with this option will defer it and report to the AAA club for a month or two, and then request (and receive) their release. Rod Beck did this a few years ago (accepted an assignment to AAA Iowa, before asking for his release a couple of months into the season so he could sign a major league deal with the Padres).

Submitted by Cubster
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 1:50pm

is the netting above on that picture there because of falling concrete in the locker room?

Submitted by Tito
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 2:15pm

It's actually for guys who need to take swings during the game. They drop the net and guys hit off a tee. Pretty high-tech, I know.

Submitted by John Beasley
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 2:32pm

I took the Wrigley tour last year and was surprised by the size of the clubhouses, especially the visitors. It's amazing the building used to host football games.

Anyways, there was a part of the east wall of the home clubhouse that had obviously been smashed by either a bat or a really angry fist. It had Johnson's autograph next to it. I have a picture somewhere.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 2:58pm

hahah

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:45pm

mets sign travis blackley to a minor league deal and he promptly goes out in the Carb. WS and throws one of the worst/flattest sliders ever to go with his ordinary fastball.

good luck making it past ST, dude.

-edit- and the worst blown call at 1st since the 85 WS just happened in this MEX/PR game

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:47pm

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_s...

10 times baseball has been a final jeopardy answer

I got 7 of 10, although I would have gotten the expansion question if I had more time.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:09pm

9 out of 10, I missed the first.

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:30pm

9 0ut of 10.

Never heard the Stargell quote before, but I guessed right due to it's fantastic description.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:37pm

did you guys give yourselves about 30 seconds on the expansion question?

if so, I'm impressed...

screwed up the name for stealing a player one (guessed Dodgers...I know dumb) and the 3 different cities (forgot Braves one won in Milwaukee)

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 7:18pm

I missed Pirates question, yes did 30 seconds.

Dodgers named for people dodging trolleys in Brooklyn.

Submitted by Ryno
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 10:12pm

I figured it out on my own, but it took my about 5 minutes. The two I missed were the first one (sadface) and the one about the Boston Red Stockings.

Submitted by The Joe
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 10:35pm

That's a 10 out of 10...toot that!

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:24pm

http://bloguinnetwork.com/i94sports/articles/...

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:29pm

my god...

paul sulivan is STILL on that "let's party! milton bradley is gone! hahahah!" kick, huh?

wow, remind me not to fuck his wife. i'd never hear the end of it from across the country any opportunity he got to bitch about it.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:34pm

he'll always be on it, if you read the comments here

http://424tales.blogspot.com/2010/02/it-is-my...

it appears Milton made it clear that he didn't like Sullivan early on and let him hear it on many occasions.

my take is that Sullivan's enjoying Milton's departure a little too much and I never cared for blaming the season on him. But Milton was kind of a douche/idiot/whatever you want to call him when he was here.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:36pm

it seems hirejimessian.com picked a tangent and ran with it without understanding sulivan's months-long bitchfest about bradley while thinking the other blogger dude was on the verge of butt-hurt and tears over the whole issue.

good for them for taking something too seriously and ignoring sulivan's history on the milton subject in order to make fun of another blogger with their brand of humor.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:40pm

yeah, pretty much agreed with jim essian myself, although not to that extreme, although I like Tim's writing for the most part.

none of it was about sullivan's history though with bradley, the reactions were about the alleged improper use of calling a player an idiot in a tweet by a beat writer.

but I know you don't like HJE since your still on their testimonials page...

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:53pm

wow...they still have that? i forgot about that.

yeah, they do good stuff sometimes, but most of their stuff reminds me of Dane Cook in an autistic rage. very serious ranting while going "why so serious?" doesn't make it any less serious.

-edit- well damn...not only am i there, but i'm 1st on the list and linked to TCR. oookay. kinda weird my newest statement matches the 1st to an extent.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:56pm

you have two testimonials and both unfortunately associate back to TCR...

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:57pm

yeah, i really wouldn't want to be associated with TCR, either.

Submitted by Aisle 424
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 6:04pm

I didn't go into a whole history of Sullivan's obsession with hating on Bradley since I thought it was understood. The idiot comment and his blocking of me was just what set off the post, not the totality of my problems with him. Then all hell broke loose.

I'm fine with HJE mocking the post, I'm frankly surprised I don't get more mocking of some of the crap I post. It was good for traffic for a couple of days though.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 6:27pm

as I said, think Sullivan's a little too giddy about Bradley leaving and put far too much weight into his attitude and performance as being the problems with the 2009 team. On the other hand, I don't think calling Bradley an idiot is a big deal at all, nor banning someone for calling him an idiot is either. Blogger, fan, etc. doesn't really give anyone the moral high ground to then resort to the same petty namecalling.

I did nominate you for best Cubs blog at Cubscast...figured you needed a pick-me up after the last few days. :)

Submitted by Stevens
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 9:27am

"Blogger, fan, etc. doesn't really give anyone the moral high ground to then resort to the same petty namecalling."

Poppycock. Calling Paul Sullivan names automatically defaults you to the moral high ground. : )

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 6:58pm

You're a little too easy on HJE. His diatribe impossibly managed to walk the tightrope between longest and least informed on the subject.

Anyone who doesn't recognize the self parody of bitching about someone summarizing tweets, by directly quoting that summary should probably have his infinite number of monkeys taken away.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 7:46pm

but...but...it's satire. if you don't enjoy it you obviously don't understand satire. enjoy your humorless world. my soul weeps for you...to the extreme.

Submitted by Aisle 424
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 8:07pm

Yeah, it seemed over the top, but whatever. I thought it was entertaining that Sullivan has no problem calling other people names but then can't take one comment from somebody that no one cares about in the slightest.

Like I mentioned in HJE's comments, if I had known it would have blown up like this, I probably would have stood on some more solid ground than the stupid idiot tweet incident in making my case that Sullivan needs to get over Bradley being mean to him.

I wonder how many work hours have been lost as people kept running with this.

Thanks for the nomination, Rob! (tear)

Submitted by The Joe
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 10:37pm

Seriously. I never fuck someone else's wife unless I'm certain he won't keep mentioning it, like some bitch.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 10:39pm

yeah, dawg.

Submitted by The Joe
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 10:51pm

~high fives~

Submitted by Stevens
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:56pm

Seriously, does it get any worse than Paul Sullivan?

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:57pm

only to idiots, supposedly. i'm waiting for the major players to stop swinging their purses long enough to tell us if that's the case.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 4:59pm

yes...Phil Rogers.

Submitted by Stevens
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 5:14pm

Such is my distaste for Sullivan that I'd even prefer Rogers.

What if the Tribune actually had good writers covering the Cubs? What would that be like?

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 6:43pm

the 1980's? with Jerome Holtzman? (or whenever he covered)

actually I grew up on the Sun-Times because my Dad was cheap and it was .15 cents cheaper for a paper.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 5:06pm

"Chicago Cubs Debt Could Hurt Team"

http://blogs.forbes.com/sportsmoney/2010/02/c...

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 5:08pm

"The limited liability corporation used to facilitate the acquisition already had $699 million of debt from other sources."

-blink-

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 6:41pm

I didn't read the article, but if you create a shell corporation to buy a baseball team, they're going to have a lot of debt.

Submitted by Ryno
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 10:19pm

Apparently the Ricketts put the purchase on their dad's Discover card and the interest rate increased just before the Credit Card Protection Act went into effect. What a shame.

It's okay, though, Tom Ricketts is going to securitize the debt by creating a new financial instrument called a Credit Underwriting Balance Swap and sell it on wall street.

Submitted by Ryno
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 10:20pm

I think it's past my bedtime.

Submitted by Stevens
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 9:30am

"Apparently the Ricketts put the purchase on their dad's Discover card..."

That is some serious Cashback Bonus.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 8:09pm

looks like they may have found some more entertainment in the Midwest...

http://www.collegeofidiots.com/2010/02/zambra...

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 8:40pm

his "hispanic" accent sounds a lot like a "ninja" accent.

Submitted by Charlie
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 9:32pm

That was terrible, and a poor ripoff of some videos making fun of energy drinks.

Submitted by JoePepitone
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 9:17pm

I wouldn't watch it twice or show it to anyone I cared about.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 9:14pm

VEN/DOM game is good, btw... MLB Network...

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 10:01pm

DOM taking a 3-2 lead by stealing home in the bottom 7th...yeah, that's a good game. freddy gonzalez's 3rd steal of the game (3 for 4).

woo...early feb. live baseball.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 11:59pm

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball...

Millar's deal comes w/ no guaranteed money

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 12:02am

Z earning his loot and more fan support...sweet.

Submitted by John Beasley
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 7:09am

For me, a winter in Chicago would consist of mostly Gino's East, Al's, hockey games and Weed Street. Nice to see that Z is a little more responsible than I am.

Submitted by Newport
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 10:44am

Gino's East is disgusting.

Submitted by jacos
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 11:48am

Lou Malnati's is good.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 12:50pm

whaaaat?

Submitted by Sweet Lou
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:18pm

Gino's East is fantastic. Lou Malnati's not so much. There's a place on Clark called My Pie that I like a lot. It doesn't get much press, but it is pretty good.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:26pm

Lou Malnati's is pretty awesome too...

Submitted by Cubster
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 6:13am

Adam Kennedy signed by Nationals

Orlando Hudson signed by Twins, 1 year/$5M

at least I'm glad Kennedy won't be rumored coming here

http://twitter.com/washingnats/status/8664809638

http://twitter.com/JoeCStrib/status/8662634166

Submitted by Cubster
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 6:15am

no reporting yet on the $$ Kennedy gets but here's the mlb.com article on his signing

http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/arti...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 12:51pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/sports/base...

Her digestive system has been affected. Unable to swallow, Riley spends mealtime tethered to a feeding tube, while another tube in her tiny throat allows for the draining of built-up secretions that could seep into her lungs and impair breathing. It’s her only manifestation of the illness.

poor kid....

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:07pm

It makes the quality of Dempster's season last year even more surprising.

No doubt about who's that girl's daddy, is there?

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 12:56pm

http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/storie...

Cactus League President Robert Brinton said ticket surcharges previously have been used by specific cities to fund baseball stadiums within their jurisdictions, but this is the first time a leaguewide fee could be imposed for one project. In a nutshell, the D-backs, Sox and spring training fans Valleywide would help foot the bill for Mesa to build a 15,000-seat stadium for the Cubs.

“We’re opposed,” said White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

wonder how many spring training sellouts they get when the Cubs aren't the opponent?

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:01pm

I can see being fundamentally opposed but pratically, they're going to lose a lot of money of the Cubs leave.

Submitted by Sweet Lou
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:22pm

Seems short-sighted by Reinsdorf...

President of the Cactus League? That's got to be a pretty sweet gig. The season only lasts one month and then you have eleven months to prepare for the next one.

Submitted by Seamhead
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:32pm

Rob:

When I log in and a thread indicates that there are "23 new comments", I can identify those comments on page one of the thread with the helpful red "new" label on each comment.

However, if I scroll to page 2 or any subsequent page, the red "new" label no longer appears on the new comments, making it difficult to identify new comments on any page other than page 1.

Am I missing something or can something be done to identify new comments on later pages? Thanks!

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:34pm

change the amount of comments per page to a higher number...the setting is at the top of the comments...threads rarely go over 150, so that's probably a good number.

Submitted by Seamhead
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:59pm

Done.

Much appreciated.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 2:07pm

Comments after 45 or so are seldom good anyway.

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:33pm

it's almost a token position. bobert brinton does all kinds of Mesa boosting stuff with outdoors, business, and tourism. he kinda likes Mesa.

Submitted by jacos
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:50pm

I think he has to make that statement in the press to appease his meatball fan base.

But privately he knows who's his dark master.

Submitted by jacos
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 3:45pm

Did I fanbase? I meant team too.

Stay classy,White Sox.

http://deadspin.com/5465320/not+completely+so...

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 3:59pm

bwhaha. awesome.

Submitted by Stevens
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:30pm

Jerry Reinsdorf opposing a sweetheart deal for building a stadium is rich with irony.

Submitted by John Beasley
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 3:12pm

It's different when the TAXPAYERS foot the bill. This one would actually require the other owners to pay, if only by technically increasing their own ticket prices.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:44pm

says Indians offered 2/$10M with 3rd year option for Hudson but backloaded, with most of $$ coming in buyout for third year.

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