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Jake Peavy wins an award that honors his pitching; Sam Fuld wins an award that honors his character.

• The GMs have voted 25-5 in support of limited use of video replay. A proposal will now be forwarded to the Commissioner, who will involve representatives of the Players and Umpires unions in evaluating the proposal. Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's VP of Baseball Operations, says he does not expect the proposal to become a rule in time for the 2008 season.

• Curt Schilling is now officially no longer a free agent, but rather, Red Sox property for the upcoming season, his last in the big leagues. It seemed like just the other day he was listing 12 teams in addition to the BoSox that he would be willing to play for. I'm going to assume the Cubs came in second.

• Rob mentioned this earlier in the comments: Glendon Rusch has apparently recovered from the life-threatening blood clot that ended his '06 season prematurely. Last week, he threw a 60-pitch audition for scouts from nine Major League clubs, the Cubs not among them. The session included breaking balls, change-ups and 86-87 mph fastballs. He is hoping/expecting to get a Spring Training invitation...from somebody.

Things you think of while watching a World Series slaughter and waiting for an all-old rerun of The Daily Show to come on: * Last night’s one-sided contest looked like the Dads vs. Kids softball game at the annual Cub Scout Picnic, only in this version, the dads wanted to be sure the kids went home in tears and never had the will to get on the field again. *Fox’s Ken Rosenthal had to point out that the Rockies were stepping up in class by matching up with the AL’s best after fattening up on the lowly Diamondbacks and Cubs in the NL playoffs. Bad enough to have your favorite league trashed (however deservedly); even worse when your favorite team has to be mistakenly dragged into the argument to illustrate the point. *I look at that Boston lineup and a very small part of me is glad the Cubs aren’t on the field to face it. I’m imagining it would feel pretty hollow to have finally made the Series after all these generations, only to be disemboweled in front of an international audience. *The consensus before the Series--that Boston was the better team and that Colorado’s miracle ride was about to skid off the road and crash into an embankment—was certainly borne out by last night’s result. But even assuming the Red Sox roll again tonight, I think the games in Denver may prove to be challenging for Boston. The altitude, the unfamiliar park, the selling of Rocky Mountain Oysters in the concession stand—lots of reasons for the mighty Red Sox to be thrown just a little off kilter. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. The thought of three more games like Wednesday night’s is just not anything to be excited about. Finally, a non-World Series Cub note: At The Hardball Times, Dave Studeman reports on Net Win Shares Value, i.e., which teams got the most and least for their payroll dollars in the season just past. A shout out to possibly soon-to-be-ex-Cubs Jason Kendall and Craig Monroe, who showed up at 2nd and 7th respectively on the Worst Values of '07 list. On the positive side of the ledger, the Cubs 2007 free agent class finished as the fourth best value in the game. Seattle, Tampa Bay, and Detroit led the way.

From Dusty, himself:

"I love challenges." "I know I'm not a miracle man. I don't know if it's going to take a year or two years or whatever. But we're dedicated to winning.” "I want to dispel the reputation that I can only work with older players…I'm looking forward to having a mixture of young and old. I sometimes feel I have more in common with younger players." "I want to help guys on the team have a winning attitude. I'm almost more of a teacher than a manager." "A number of players have indicated that they would possibly like to come [here] and play for me. They're dedicated to bringing in the best players that the budget will allow."

From his new boss, the General Manager:

"He brings a lot of intangibles. A lot of people want to play for him." "It's pretty obvious that he's one of the best in the business. Every player he gets, he gets the most out of him." "Putting our young players in his hands is going to be terrific. It came across very clearly…that he was looking forward to helping mold and shape their careers and he was looking forward to working with young players. He felt, through his homework, that we had a lot of good ones, not only coming up to the big leagues last year, but coming up through the system…He's a guy I feel can work with any type of player, and certainly with our young players."

Bob Castellini and Wayne Krivsky feel they have the right man. But then, so did Andy MacPhail and Jim Hendry, back in November of 2002…when Dusty and Hendry stood before the assembled Chicago media and the microphones at the press conference from which all of these quotes were taken.