Kerry Wood News

For Cubs fans, the Verducci effect is an old and familiar foe, even if they have never heard of it.

John Grabow can laugh his way to the bank. According to the Chicago Sun-Times , Grabow and the Cubs have agreed on a two-year contract extension worth at least $7 million dollars, and Grabow is considered an option to take over the closer's role if Carlos Marmol's control issues cannot resolve themselves.

Relief pitching, as usual, will be one of the busiest counters in the free-agent department store.

Pitcher Randy Wells may have been the biggest surprise of 2009, winning 12 games, but it wasn't enough to give the Cubs their second straight National League Rookie of the Year.

Cubs pitcher Randy Wells finished sixth in the voting for the National League Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award, announced Monday by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

The expanded bleachers aren't the only thing new at Wrigley Field this year. The Cubs will start the season with eight new players on the roster, ranging from vital cogs such as Juan Pierre to little-known reserves such as Angel Pagan.

The Indians jumped into the free agent market early last winter. They signed closer Kerry Wood in December at the winter meetings in Las Vegas to a two-year, $20.5 million deal.

Reports are flying out of Arizona, where the Chicago Cubs are having their first winter management meetings with new owner Tom Ricketts, that apparently 2009 hasn't bottomed out just yet.

Castle: Keep Bradley? Cubs look to patch up offense. Move 3,000 miles west to San Francisco.

Wood, however, is not proud of everything associated with his time in Chicago. Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer Cleveland Indians' pitcher Kerry Wood.

Duensing-Blackburn-Pavano-Baker: Worst playoff rotation ever? I ask this not to denigrate the Twins, who I really admire as an organization.

Kevin Towers was fired as general manager of the San Diego Padres, but he doesn't know why.

About six months ago I posted a piece predicting the Cubs would win the World Series.

Count pitcher Randy Wells among the best chapters to a sad Cubs story. Brought up in May to fill in for the injured Carlos Zambrano, Wells outperformed all but one of his rotation counterparts, capping his 12-10 season Saturday in the Cubs' 5-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It's been a little weird this week for Rich Harden and John Grabow. They are two of the Cubs' four free agents-to-be, and one has already begun talks about returning, while the other is taking a wait-and-see approach.

Cubs starter Randy Wells delivers a pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the Cubs' 5-0 victory Saturday at Wrigley Field.

A.J. Hinch addressed his team for the final time prior to Friday's opener of a three-game series with the Cubs.

Randy Wells vs. Matt Cain Story-lines How impressive has Randy Wells been? Look at the very basic line comparing him with Matt Cain -- probably any team in baseball would take the Giants stud without qualms, but in reality his numbers are no better than Randy's. Perhaps Wells has been even better than we give him credit for.

According to most everything I've read or heard, it seems a foregone conclusion that Rich Harden won't be wearing a Cubs uniform next year.

Growing pains continue to be a recurring theme for young Cubs pitchers, whose on-the-job training eventually may lead to on-the-job ulcers for manager Dusty Baker.