World Series Buried Lead: FOX Sports Chicago

(The Big Dead Sidebar will try to provide readers with a buried lead before each and every World Series game.  This is the second installment in a series.)

In an effort to pull in a third large market for the World Series, FOX Sports will present the World Series through the eyes of some of Chicago's most popular players and managers.  At least, that's my theory ... and I'm sticking to it.

And, really, who wouldn't want to appease a city like Chicago?  It is the home of great food, great nightlife and great sports fans.

Mark Grace is a Chicago icon on and off the diamond.  The three-time All Star and three-time Gold Glove winner was the last impact position player the Cubs have brought through their minor league system.  He led the 1990s in hits and posted an underappreciated .308/.386/.445/.832 line in his 13-year career in Chicago.  It was a career that came to an unceremonious end thanks to Andy MacFailure constant drinking of Haterade.

Off the field, Grace coined the term "slumpbuster" and is a legend in the Wrigleyville bar scene.

Now that he is in the broadcast booth, Cubs fans have pined for him to make his return but is currently blocked by Bob Brenly.  And thanks to new ownership, Grace's return could be more likely than ever ... once Brenly takes his next managerial job.

Knowledgeable and witty, Grace is an ace of FOX Sports' analyst staff.

Eric Karros will always be remembered for slamming Jose Acavedo's first pitch over the left field wall in the epic Kerry Wood vs. Roger Clemens match-up.  Of his 12 home runs that season, that effort might have been the most important.  Karros also owns an inside video of the Cubs' 2003 playoff run -- none of which has seen the light of day since the team fell apart in the NLCS against the Marlins.

However, Karros will always be more remembered for his Dodger career.  He is the team leader in home runs with 270.

Several people have asked me how Ozzie (Bleepin') Guillen got a spot on the World Series analyst crew.  It's very simple ... it's FOX.  Why did they have three seasons of Temptation Island?  Because FOX hopes a trainwreck can bring some new eyes.

And if all else fails, Ozzie will probably get a swear word or two pass the FOX sensors.

Am I the only one who is looking forward to a confrontation between former White Sox first baseman/outfielder/pick-up artist Nick Swisher and his former boss, Ozzie Guillen?

Joe Girardi is a great story of how one can overcome being an ex-Cub.  Girardi spent seven years with the big club, but went tot he Yankees and won four World Series titles.  He caught Doc Gooden's no-hitter and David Cone's perfect game.

As a Cub, his most memorable moment was delivering the "Daryl Kile is dead" speech to 40,000 fans at Wrigley Field on June 22, 2002.

He was runner-up to Lou Piniella as Cubs manager.  And I'm sure he's thankful for it each and every day.

When it comes to the Ex-Cub factor, it looks as if we've got a dead heat.  The Phillies have four former ex-Cubs with Paul Bako, Matt Stairs, Miguel Cairo and Scott Eyre on the ballclub.  The Yankees have four as well with Girardi, Eric Hinske, Jerry Hairston Jr., and Chad Gaudin.

The Buried Lead In The Milton Bradley Saga

Until Crazy Uncle Milton says his official goodbye, this will be the final time The Big Dead Sidebar writes about Milton Bradley.

Celebrate accordingly.

I have defended Bradley, the baseball player, throughout this season.  Honestly, if his name was not associated with a board game, Cubs fans would have been thrilled to add a guy who led the American League in OPS.  However, there was no defending Milton Bradley, the person.

But this isn't about that.  No.  The upcoming post is about something bigger than that.  Bigger than that, you ask?  Follow me after the jump.

The buried lead in the entire Milton Bradley fiasco is the fact that it all came about thanks to the damn good reporting of the Daily Herald's Bruce Miles.  For those of you keeping score at home, Bruce Miles is the Cubs beat writer for the Daily Herald, located in Arlington Heights, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.  So, take note that the byline that started it all did not appear in the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun-Times.

(I'm not saying Paul Sullivan couldn't have done it, but MB was going Drew Rosenhaus on his ass during interviews.  Gordon Wittenmyer is a joke, and I'm assuming CST employs him as it bides its time 'til yours truly returns home. I digress.)

Why is this a big deal?  It's a big deal because like most newspapers in the country, the Daily Herald is having its own money issues.  To help offset costs, it has stopped sending its beat writers on road trips.  As noted by Andy Dolan of Desipio, this is a terrible disservice to the newspaper and the people that read the newspaper -- also known as the people that newspapers once catered to.

At the tender age of 23, I learned that valuable lesson at my old college newspaper stomping grounds.  Our sports desk was slashed in half to three.  As the staff shrunk, so did the column inches.  Eventually, so did the travel budget.  In fact, our bi-weekly paychecks served as the travel budget as the staff traveled to more Midwestern college towns than College Drunkfest.

It's true, sending a beat writer can be quite an expense, but in my humble opinion, it was the price worth paying to get the entire story.  Not just what we could see on television or hear on the radio. Trust me, it's hard to get a scoop when you're sitting in a newsroom or somewhere on campus when the real action is hundreds of miles away

The dateline in The Story shows that Miles found a way down I-55 to get to El Casa De Albert to get the story that helped bring down the Bradley Era.  Miles should probably get something equivalent to a medal of honor from the baseball scribes of America.  And if he traveled to St. Louis on his own time, he should get two.  Think about it like this, had Miles not been on that trip, would this have happened?  Dealing Bradley -- definitely would have happened.  But not in this nut-busting fashion.

It's the crash and burn ending many fans wanted Bradley to have from the get-go.  And to think, it would not have happened if Bruce Miles had not taken one fateful trip to St. Louis.


Here's to you Bruce.  Despite the efforts of colleagues such as Jay Mariotti, Rick Morrissey and Phil Rogers, your extraordinary effort shows why good sports journalism will not die.

Cubs Interested In Shipping Zambrano? Here's Your Irresponsible Blogger-Turned-GM Post Of The Day!

The story of the day in Chicago baseball was the Cubs' 2-0 win against the Milwaukee Brewers.  The win would have meant something a year ago at this time as the Cubs and Brew Crew were duking it out for NL Central supremacy.  Right now, the Cubs' biggest battles are against themselves and mediocrity.

And now we bring you to the buried lead in the story brought to you by Chicago Tribune Cubs beat writer Paul Sullivan:

Now that Hendry is assured of returning in 2010, he'll have to decide which players to bring back. Dempster, who signed a four-year, $52 million deal last winter, is assured of returning. [Carlos] Zambrano, who signed a five-year, $91.5 million deal in August 2007, is not.

Despite the fact that Zambrano has a full no-trade clause, the Cubs plan on shopping him this off-season, sources said, believing he'll waive the clause to go to the right team, as Jake Peavy eventually did when the Padres consummated a deal this summer with the White Sox.

According to Cot's Baseball Contracts, Carlos Zambrano has $53.75 million coming his way from 2010-12, with a vesting option worth $19.25 million in 2014.

Let the record show that despite a mediocre season by Zambrano (8-6, 3.77 ERA), pitching has not been the Cubs' downfall.  The North Side staff ranks in the top-5 in strikeouts, ERA+, WHIP, H/9 and K/9.  But with a weak free agent market awaiting, now might be the best time to move Big Z.

But where?


NEW YORK METS

The Metropolitans might be the ideal landing spot for the beleaguered Cubs ace.  Big city, bright lights and the opportunity to be a hitter are probably things Zambrano would look for in a new team.  New York's "other" team provides all that.  Adding Zambrano would also fall in line with Omar Minaya's blueprint of creating a Latino baseball All-Star team in the NYC.

The Cubs could go one of two routes here.  They could opt to go for the home run and try to acquire the equally beleaguered Jose Reyes.  The shortstop has been bothered by injuries this year and rumors have already been floated that he could be moved.  Adding Reyes would improve the Cubs in a variety of ways.  It would move him immediately into the lead-off role, while pushing Ryan Theriot to second base.  For this to happen, the Cubs would likely have to eat a huge chunk of his salary.

Another option would be swapping bad contracts with the Metros, which would ideally send center fielder Carlos Beltran to Chicago.  As it stands now, the Cubs have a right fielder playing center, and adding Beltran (who makes $37 million over the next two years) makes a lot of sense as well.  Beltran is a career .392 hitter at Wrigley Field with 9 homers, 22 ribbies and a 1.292 OPS.  Bringing in the switch-hitting center fielder would leave Kosuke Fukudome in right field, especially if Peter Gammons' recent nugget of sending Milton Bradley back to Texas comes to fruition.

New York Yankees

If one New York team is involved, the other can't be too far behind, right?  The Yankees are a team that is usually more than willing to take on other teams' misfits and salary problems.  I wonder had Alex Rodriguez struggled mightily after the whole roid-gate thing if he would have been on the trading block because at times, I have wet pipe dreams of A-Rod suiting up at shortstop and reuniting with Lou Piniella.

Pure speculation here, but if the Cubs also threw in Ryan Theriot, could they land lefty-swinging second baseman Robinson Cano and his career OPS of .816?  He's owed $48 million through 2013 if all the options are picked up.

Boston Red Sox

If the Yankees are interested, so are the Red Sox.  Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman reported Toronto declined to accept Boston's 5-for-1 deal for Roy Halladay.  Could the BoSox be interested in Big Z?  If I were Jim Hendry, I'd be intrigued by a number of their prospects.

Texas Rangers

Remember when you were a kid and you had problems finding Waldo?  That's how the Rangers feel about finding pitching.  Former top prospects Edinson Volquez and John Danks have flourished since leaving the organization, so adding a pitcher of Zambrano's caliber might be the best avenue for Texas' team.

Infielder Michael Young just signed a five-year deal worth $80 million in 2009, and when he played shortstop he posted a .310/.358/.453/.811 line before moving to be the Rangers' full-time third sacker.

Colorado Rockies

If the Cubs want to go into complete blow-up mode, the Rockies might make an ideal fit.  The Rox usually have a good amount of young talent going through the system and actually making a difference at the big league level.  Chicago could land some valuable pieces in exchange for its troubled right hander.

THE ULTIMATE WILD CARD: Florida Marlins

Hear me out.

The Cubs have a problem child in Carlos Zambrano.  The Marlins supposedly have a problem child in Hanley Ramirez.  Since the 2002 season, the Cubs have made seven trades with the Marlins, six of them have spawned under The Hendry Regime.  So, the question is: does Trader Jim have another one left in him.

Bringing HanRam to the Cubs would be the blockbuster of all blockbusters.  He's owed 64.5 million over the next five years, so swapping salaries wouldn't be that big of an issue.  The Cubs would likely need to throw in prospects such as Jeff Samardzija, Andrew Cashner, Jay Jackson and (*screech*) Josh Vitters ... among others.

It'd be a deal worth making for both ends, seeing that the Fighting Fish build their teams around pitching, and always have a prospect nipping at the heels of their current players.  For the Cubs, slotting Ramirez in the No. 3 hole in front of Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano would give the Cubs the best heart of the order (on paper) in the National League.

As the title suggests, this post is highly irresponsible on several fronts.  But hey, one of the top signs that your team is out of contention is when trade rumors start popping up in September.  Besides, what else am I gonna do.  I've got to wait 'til Sunday to see a meaningful Chicago sporting event.

The Buried Lead: Jerry Reinsdorf Cares More About His Baseball Team Than He Does His Basketball Team

Ben Gordon hides his laughter after learning the White Sox had acquired Alex Rios, and his nearly $60 million remaining contract.

Kenny Williams is getting a lot of praise these days. Sure, he's engineered a pair of deals to bring in Jake Peavy and Alex Rios to the White Sox. And while he deserves that praise, it re-affirms something that Chicago sports fans know all too well.

Jerry Reinsdorf doesn't care about his basketball team.

Money was one of the big issues when it came down to letting Ben Gordon, the Bulls' leading scorer, sign with Detroit via free agency this offseason. However, I am not sure how Reinsdorf could spin this injustice.

There is no way I can justify not extending the contract the only guy who has proven to hit a big shot since M. Jeff skipped town in the same summer he added the $60 million paycheck of a guy currently hitting .264 with a .317 on-base percentage.

Even Jim Hendry thinks throwing a shade under $60 million at a fourth outfielder is laughable.

Taking a brief look at the 2010 free agent class and you'll notice guys like Matt Holliday, Jason Bay, Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu and Vladimir Guerrero litter the outfield market. There's no way you can justify Rios at $12 million per year when legit All-Stars will be coming to the market place.

As for the Peavy acquisition, I still contend that was a good move. But in the end, a little bit of simple math unearths the buried lead in the recent praise the White Sox's GM has earned.

The White Sox have obtained more than $100 million worth of remaining contracts. Meanwhile, the Bulls refuse to dabble in the free agent market and hesitant to dip their toe in trade market.

Bulls fans, prepare yourselves for a winter of mediocrity followed by a summer that will feature more teases than amateur night.