This season, the Chicago Cubs believed that they had found their shortstop of the future in Starlin Castro. And maybe they have. A 21-year old kid who hit .307 for the Cubbies while missing only two games, Castro has tons of upside.

But, maybe he has downside too. He’s being accused of sexually assaulting a girl back on September 29th after they left a Chicago bar. The girl went back to his apartment and she says she blacked out. She awoke later to Castro sexually assaulting her, according to the police report.

Castro hasn’t been questioned by police because he was on a plane back to the Dominican Republic the following morning after this allegedly occurred.

His attorneys have released a statement on his behalf.

“We are aware of certain allegations that have been made against our client, Starlin Castro,” the statement reads as far as you know. “We have thoroughly investigated this matter, and we are confident that these allegations are baseless. Given the sensitive nature of this matter, we cannot comment any further.”

Castro isn’t officially charged with anything yet, but police would like to have a little tete-a-tete with him at some point.

The Cubs have also released a statement:

“We are aware that a police report was filed regarding an incident involving Starlin, but we have received limited information. While this is something we take very seriously, there is not enough information to make any further comment or take action at this time. We are hopeful when the facts are brought to light, Starlin will be cleared of any wrongdoing.”

Chicago Cubs fans must be thrilled about having a new team president that was the mastermind of two Boston Red Sox World Series titles. It’s going to be great! Wait ’til you see who you get now!

Well, while Theo Epstein did some great things for the Red Sox, he hasn’t been stellar as of late. This past offseason, he signed a Carl Crawford, a player the owner never wanted, to a seven-year, $142 million contract. That’s a lot of money for .255 and 11 HR’s. And Epstein’s idea of adding pitching help at the trade deadline was oft-injured, five-innings-per-start Erik Bedard.

But, one of his worst moves came in 2009 and now it looks even worse. Not only is John Lackey’s five-year, $82.5 million contract one of the worst in all of sports, he now won’t be even able to earn any of that money for at least a year or so.

Lackey is undergoing Tommy John surgery.

On one hand, you can say that this makes the 33-year old an even bigger bust as a free agent. But on the other, you can say that it will keep his 5.26 ERA and 1.50 WHIP since signing the deal on the bench.

Great ready, Cubs fans! You thought the Alfonso Soriano deal was bad? You ain’t seen nothing yet!

Theo Epstein’s reign of terror as “the guy that finally brought these whiny fans a title or two” has officially ended. Epstein has resigned as the general manager of the Boston Red Sox and will now take over as the guy who will run the Chicago Cubs.

Here is a joint press release from both teams:

CHICAGO – The Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs jointly announce this evening that, effective immediately, Theo Epstein has resigned from the Red Sox in order to become the new President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs. The Clubs also have reached an agreement regarding a process by which appropriate compensation will be determined for the Red Sox and that issue will be resolved in the near term.

Both the Red Sox and the Cubs intend to hold press events on Tuesday, October 25 during which the Cubs intend to announce Mr. Epstein, and the Red Sox intend to announce his successor as General Manager.

Out of respect for the World Series, both clubs have agreed to forego further comment until Tuesday, the next scheduled non-game day. Further information on each club’s media availability for Tuesday will be distributed on Monday.

It’s widely believed that Ben Cherington will be named Epstein’s successor in Boston, although we’ll all find out together when they, you know, tell us. Epstein’s contract with the Cubs is expected to be of the five-year, $18.5 million variety.

Okay, so this might take a little longer than we all thought. It seemed like the Chicago Cubs already had a deal in place for Boston Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, and that deciding on compensation was somewhat of a formality.

But, no. A source tells CSN Chicago that talks have gone sour and become contentious.

“Larry Lucchino is one of the most unreasonable people I have ever dealt with and because of his frayed relationship with Theo Epstein he is looking to make a point at the expense of Theo’s happiness and his desire to go to Chicago,” the source said. “I didn’t believe that ownership group for one second when they said that they wouldn’t stand in Theo’s way if he wanted out of Boston. They are furious that he wants out and they are trying to make a point.”

The truth is, the Red Sox owners never said that they weren’t going to stand in his way. They granted permission to speak to the Cubs because that’s what teams do when a higher position is available. However, they could be a little tweaked that Epstein may have had a conversation before he got permission, which owner John Henry seems to think happened.

“There was an initial conversation before formal permission was granted,” Henry said. “I can’t go into the specifics of what’s going on.”

So, this is a lot more complex than maybe we thought. Epstein is one of the best GM’s in all of baseball and has a year left on his contract. Could the Sox be a little tweaked that he wants to leave? Sure. Are they right to try to get the best compensation that they can for letting him loose? Yep.

We’ll see what happens.

While the Boston Red Sox surely don’t want to lose a guy like Theo Epstein, they have to understand that he doesn’t have anything left to do in Boston. He took a team that hadn’t won a World Series title in 400 years and made them a two-time champion. For guys like Epstein, that challenge is over.

So, now it appears that his next stop is in Chicago with the Cubs. According to WEEI’s John Dennis, Epstein has a five-year deal in place with the team in a deal worth more than $15 million.

Now, they need to work out compensation with the BoSox, who would surely never let a guy like this just walk out the door.

The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of the week. The Cubs have not settled on a title for Epstein, but he’s expected to have more power than he did in Boston. How is that possible? He has final say on team logo? He can now say that beer will be served into the ninth inning? No more parking voucher’s for media? EPSTEIN’S CALL.

Okay, maybe that didn’t need to be said. The Chicago Cubs placed Carlos Zambrano on the disqualified list after he left the team after being yanked from a game, and threatened to retire.

Well done.

He isn’t eligible to come off the list and be paid until September 12th, but the Cubs have announced that they basically told him to keep his fat ass at home. The team said that there will be “insufficient preparation time” for him to pitch again in 2011. And when they say “insufficient preparation time,” they really mean “he’s a miserable prick and we can’t stand him.”

Zambrano is due an insane $18 million in 2012 and we aren’t sure what the Cubs are going to do about that. Whoever signed him to that stupid five-year, $91 million contract back in 2007 should be fired. Wait….they did fire him?

We are extremely curious to see what the Cubs do here. They are on the hook for all that money for a guy who is a total waste of space and a team cancer. Have fun with that!

Many Chicago Cubs fans have been calling for general manager Jim Hendry to replaced by someone, anyone. And get someone in there while we’re waiting. Well, it looks like the finally got their wish. According to Jon Heyman of SI, the Cubs have fired Hendry.

“#cubs announce gm jim hendry has been dismissed,” Heyman tweets with less-than-perfect grammar.

Assistant GM Randy Bush will apparently take over his job in the interim.

Hendry actually did a somewhat decent job, he just threw some bad decisions in there. He was the GM since 2002 and they almost made it to the World Series in 2003. They won the NL Central in 2007 and 2008, so he couldn’t have been doing that bad of a job.

But, he did give Alfonso Soriano an eight-year, $136 million in 2006. That has not remotely worked out. Then you have the years of problems with Carlos Zambrano. I don’t even know to what degree that’s Hendry’s fault, but the guy really needs to go.

Regardless, for Cubs fans that wanted a change at the top, they got it.

For now, Chicago Cubs pitcher/pain-in-the-ass Carlos Zambrano is still a Cub. According to the Chicago Tribune, the team is talking with his agent trying to work out some sort of a deal.

What do you mean a deal?

Oh, you didn’t hear? Zambrano left his start Friday night and promptly cleaned out his locker, left the team and said he was mulling retirement. While he hasn’t filed retirement papers, he didn’t rejoin the team either.

And who says the Cubs even want this a-hole back? It’s looking like they could put him on the restricted list, like they did last year after yet another outburst. That time it involved an incident with Derrek Lee and it also got him anger management counseling that clearly worked.

If we’re the Cubs, how can you take this guy back? How can you allow him to be in your locker room? He seems like an awful teammate and an even worse person.

If you haven’t seen it yet, just be warned. Chicago Cubs outfielder Marlon Byrd got popped in the face with a pitch this weekend against the Boston Red Sox.

It was so bad that you could see the horror and concern on the face of Red Sox 3B Kevin Youkilis. Byrd got popped pretty good and is still recovering at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (if you are going to get a nasty injury while playing sports, Boston is a good place to do it. Insane medical care up there).

So, it’s no surprise that the Cubs have placed Byrd on the DL with no timetable for recovery. His left eye is swollen shut from the pitch from Alfredo Aceves and he needed stitches to close some of the gashes on his face.

It looks like Reed Johnson will get the bulk of Byrd’s work while he recovers from a nasty, nasty injury.

This is just what that Chicago Cubs need. According to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Cubs will be placing pitcher Randy Wells on the disabled list, not long after he tossed six innings of one-run ball in Monday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“Wells, yes wells, forearm. To be dld. Not elbo [sic] says hendry,” Wittenmyer tweets.

This pretty much comes out of nowhere. We don’t have details at this point, but this is certainly not good news for the Cubbies.

Don’t forget that the Cubs just had to DL Andrew Cashner with a mild strain in his rotator cuff. That leaves two vacant spots in the rotation. Casey Coleman is expected to plug one of those holes, but they’ll still need to find a solution for the other.

The Chicago Cubs apparently didn’t care for comments that Carlos Silva made on Saturday about pitching coach Mark Riggins and the team in general. After Silva found out that he wasn’t going to make the 25-man roster (mainly it was for pitching like shit all spring), he said that Riggins wasn’t “straight” with him and that he needed to realize that he was in the big leagues now. Riggins has some major league coaching experience, but has spent most of his career as a minor league pitching coordinator.

Well, the Cubs decided that they don’t need an overweight finger-pointer on their roster and released Silva today. They will eat his $11.5 million salary.

“Obviously, we’re dealing with a man that at this particular point in his career is not willing to face the facts,’’ general manager Jim Hendry said. “That what he’s done the last few years, except for a two-month period is well below major league standards and who seems to have the continual problem of blaming everybody but himself.’’

Silva showed up to spring training overweight and already got involved in a skirmish with Aramis Ramirez in the dugout after pitching just one inning. Well done, Carlos.

And don’t forget that he won just one game in the second half of last season and only pitched 11 1/3 innings. Well done, Carlos.

“Basically, he wasn’t good enough to make the team,’’ Hendry said. “You factor in not only spring training, but you try to go back and factor in the second half last year, and you’re looking at a guy that had a 14-something ERA from July 11 on and that came to camp with the notion that he already had a spot in the rotation.’’

Hendry wasn’t done there.

“Twenty-nine hits in his first 11 innings of camp, and I wouldn’t have anybody that I’ve ever dealt with classify that as bad luck,” Hendry continued. “Besides that, his comments about Mark Riggins were totally inappropriate and unacceptable. Once again, it’s a weakness for somebody that doesn’t perform well and chooses to blame somebody else on the way out.”

The New York Mets finally severed ties with Luis Castillo this week. He was due $6 million this year, is 35-years old, hit .235 last year and supposedly has no range whatsoever left.

But that doesn’t mean that there is no interest in him. According to ESPNNewYork.com, Castillo is generating interest from the Philadelphia Phillies, Florida Marlins and Chicago Cubs (Castillo wouldn’t confirm this, but sources told the WorldWide Leader that this was the case).

“I feel calm, confident that I will be in a major league roster on opening day of the season,” Castillo said in phone call with ESPNDeportes.com.

“Despite all the negative atmosphere of recent days, I’m positive and in the best shape for a long time,” said Castillo.

For what it’s worth, he’s hitting .283 this spring and is only a year removed from batting .302. A team like the Phillies would really only need him until they can get Chase Utley back (who the hell knows when that will be?).

“Until Sunday I can not talk of contract, but I’m sure I have options. I am not finished as it has been painted,” said Castillo, who will be a full-on free agent after Sunday at 1 PM.

“I enjoyed every moment in New York and will always be grateful to the Mets. I have nothing negative to say about the organization,” he said. “Baseball is a business.”

Kerry Wood played for the Chicago Cubs for the first 10 years of his career, but no one knows it because he was on the disabled list the entire time. He has since been healthier and bounced around with the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees.

But, according to Chicago Now, it looks like the Cubs could be close to bringing the now setup man back.

“Wood has made Chicago his permanent home and told me just last week that whatever decision he made about where he would pitch in 2011 had to be a good fit for his family,” writes David Kaplan. “Being able to stay home and his longtime relationship with Cubs general manager Jim Hendry are huge factors in the Cubs favor.”

Wood has become an excellent setup man, going 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA in 24 games for the Yankees last year. He’d be the bridge to Carlos Marmol. And with Sean Marshall providing lefty help, the back end of the Cubs bullpen could be pretty nasty.

As for starting pitching and hitting? Can’t help you there.

Brandon Webb used to be a really good pitcher. Then, his arm started to fall apart and he’s now coming off shoulder surgery. He hasn’t pitched in an MLB game since April 2009, but he’s trying to work his way back.

And sources tell Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse that the Chicago Cubs are the latest team to be linked to the right hander.

“Source says #Cubs in talks with former Cy Young winner Brandon Webb, free agent coming off shoulder surgery,” Price tweets.

The last we heard about Webb’s health, he was topping out at 84 mph. That’s just not going to get it done at the Major League level. But if he can regain the form that made him one of the top young pitchers in baseball years ago, a gamble could pay off for a team.

We can’t imagine anyone giving him much guaranteed. He’ll most likely be working on a “prove it” deal. Unless he has enough strength in his arm to knock Carlos Zambrano the hell out when he has his next tirade. Then he could be worth it.

Let’s be honest. No one cares about a Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers game right now. Neither team is in it and no one cares.

But apparently, someone slipped a fake press release into the press pack, and we’re pretty sure that Cubs GM Jim Hendry didn’t find it amusing. Check out the image, it’s pretty hysterical.

Brewers Vice-President of Communications Tyler Barnes said they are looking into what happened, but that it’s “impossible to know where it came from.”

“You’ve got people credentialed from every city in the country around here,” he said. “Without knowing who did it… It’s an unfortunate incident. It’s a lousy attempt at a practical joke and in that way we’re certainly sorry. But without being able to know who did it…”

We disagree. We think it’s a brilliant practical joke. Of course, if we were involved we’d be fuming, but from our vantage point, this is great comedy.

Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella had said a while ago that this would be his last season. After 2010, he was retiring.

But, due to the declining health of his mother, Piniella had to cut it short. Sadly, he announced that today would be his last game and that he’s done after this.

“Lou announces stepping down after today’s game,” Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets, basically repeating what we just told you.

It’s a shame that he had to step down this way, but family first. It looks like third-base coach Mike Quade will take over for the rest of the season and not Alan Trammell. Quade will also be considered for the full-time job next year.

That is, unless the Cubs don’t make the playoffs.

Down the stretch run, the Philadelphia Phillies acquired Roy Oswalt to help them get back in the race for the NL East title. Combine that with getting Chase Utley and Ryan Howard back, and the Atlanta Braves losing Chipper Jones, and it looked like the division was theirs for the taking.

But not so fast. David Kaplan of CSNChicago.com has learned that the Braves are close to acquiring Derrek Lee from the Chicago Cubs. As a 10-5 guy – 10 years of service and the last five with the same team – Lee has a right to refuse any trade. But Kaplan is hearing from Lee’s camp that he would approve a trade to the Braves because they have a chance to win the division and make a World Series run.

We don’t know what exactly the Cubs would get in return, but Kaplan doesn’t think they’ll get much. Lee has a sore back and has had a down 2010. Basically, they’d be getting Lee’s contract off the books.

Stay tuned on this one.

The Chicago Cubs are 10 games back in the NL Central and it’s probably safe to say that they won’t be making the playoffs. And it’s not too tough to imagine that they’d prefer to get something for 34-year old Derrek Lee before he leaves via free agency at the end of the year.

But, a source tells ESPN‘s Jayson Stark that it’s not likely that he would waive his no-trade clause.

“A source who has known Derrek Lee for years says it’s “highly doubtful” he’d waive full no-trade to OK any deal at this stage. #cubs #trades,” Stark tweets.

We aren’t sure what he’d fetch in trade at this point anyway. He’s hitting .251 with 11 HR’s, far off from what he usually does. And his contract runs out after this year so you’d only be renting him if you traded for him.

The New York Daily News has learned that former New York Yankees manager and current Chicago Cubs manager will retire at the end of the 2010 season. The 67-year old Piniella has endured two rough seasons after taking the club to the playoffs in the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

The disappointing Cubs are probably a big reason he’s done managing baseball. We would have to think that just sharing a clubhouse with Carlos Zambrano would be enough to make him quit. Dealing with Milton Bradley last year probably didn’t help either.

Piniella is in the last year of his contract so who knows if he is stepping away from the Cubs, or baseball altogether. It’s possible that the right offer could bring him out of retirement, but that’s just a guess.

Currently, the Cubbies are 10 1/2 games back in the weak NL Central.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that the New York Mets are turning their attention to Chicago Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly.

“#Mets now turn strongly to Lilly because #Astros still want too much and will pay too little of Oswalt’s contract,” Sherman tweets.

As Sherman correctly points out, the Houston Astros are asking just too much for their stud Roy Oswalt. They would have to be asking for some of the Mets current roster because the Mets don’t really have a farm to rape.

Lilly is 34-years old and a free agent after this season. You’d have to think that he’d be a rent-a-player in this situation. Then again, the Mets do like to sign older players to contracts they don’t deserve.

Lilly is only 3-7 this year, but he has a 3.76 ERA so clearly that record isn’t his fault.

Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano is looking more and more like a certifiable nutjob. His explosion in the dugout Friday, which was directed at his teammates for not playing well enough behind him (there is no evidence that they screwed up in that four-run first inning), earned him a suspension. His people claim that he was just trying to pump the team up, but anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows differently.

So, it seems that he has been placed on the restricted list, and he will undergo some sort of treatment that we can only imagine is psychological.

“Cubs announce Carlos Zambrano on ML restricted list starting Tues and will start treatment Wed.,” MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat tweets.

First of all, has anyone heard of the restricted list? We asked a couple of knowledgeable baseball people about Zambrano’s status and they responded with two questions:

1. “How in the hell did you get in here?!”
2. “What is the restricted list?”

People that are supposed to be “in the know,” still aren’t in the know. This means that the restricted list is rare and could be reserved for total lunatics. And what kind of treatment is he supposed to go through? The kind Milton Bradley and Jose Guillen should have gone through seven years ago? Is being a total a-hole a treatable illness?

We think the Cubs might be making too much of this and trying to patch up a situation that is probably not fixable. You have an expensive pitcher who yells at his teammates, yet isn’t good enough to warrant a “he just wants to win”-type of excuse.

Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano was suspended for his blowup in the team dugout on Friday. No one seemed to appreciate being yelled at after they gave up four runs in the first inning to the Chicago White Sox.

But, a source tells the Chicago Sun-Times that it was all an episode of “Three’s Company.” It was all a big misunderstanding and that Zambrano was trying to get the team fired up.

”All he wanted to do was pump the team up. It was completely misunderstood,” a source close to Zambrano said. The source also said that Lee ”took it personal” and told Zambrano to ”shut the f— up.”

Yet team sources say Zambrano was yelling a bunch of stuff including, ”This team is horse s—-!”

Alfonso Soriano was told of Zambrano’s supposed side of the story.

”That’s not the way we see it,” said Soriano. ”If he explains, maybe we can see it the way his friend sees it. But what he said wasn’t right.”

As one Cub put it, ”Anybody who believes [Zambrano's version] must be smoking something.”

Soriano was asked if the Cubs players can forgive Zambrano, he said, ”I don’t know.”

OTR thinks that Zambrano is probably just a dickhead. There is probably no way they can trade him and his $45 million that remains on his contract.

“If he wants to bring a lot of negatives into the team, it’s better to not have him,” said Soriano. ”It’s enough what we’ve got. We have a lot of negative things here in this team, and we don’t want more.”

The Chicago Cubs must be having a lot of fun with Carlos Zambrano this year. First, he stunk up the joint as a starter and had to be sent to the bullpen. Then they brought him back as a starter, where he decided to unload on his teammates.

On Friday, Zambrano gave up four runs in the first inning. To end the inning, he stomped on first base to make the final out, then headed into the dugout to rip his teammates for not playing hard enough behind him.

So far, it seems that the team has not spoken with Zambrano about the incident.

“I think until something gets rectified, I think probably the less conversation the better,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said Sunday.

GM Jim Hendry said he’s spoken to Zambrano’s agent a few times since the incident, but not directly to Zambrano. As of now, the team doesn’t know what to do with him and will play with a 24-man roster.

“He’ll have some issues to deal with [regarding] his teammates,” Hendry said.

Manager Lou Piniella thinks there was no reason for the tirade.

“I think [his behavior] was a combination of frustration,” Piniella said, “but again, it serves no purpose. These guys have to play behind you.

“I looked at the film after the ballgame,” Piniella said. “There wasn’t a play that wasn’t made that could’ve been made. Get out of that inning with one run — but four. You don’t want that on a team.”

We’ve heard that many think this whole thing was blown out of proportion, and maybe it was. But, this isn’t the first time Zambrano has pulled something like this and he isn’t pitching well enough to get away with it.

Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella tells ESPNChicago.com that he will use Carlos Zambrano as a backup closer to Carlos Marmol when Marmol needs a break. Usually, Marmol can go three days in a row, but he pitched Friday night and then chucked 35 pitches on Saturday, so he might need to sit on Sunday.

Zambrano has been pretty good since being shifted out of the starting rotation. In his last 2 1/3 innings he has only given up three hits with no runs or walks. He gave up a run in his first outing as a bullpen guy.

Marmol has saved four of the five games he’s been asked to close down. And at this point, there has been no talk of moving Zambrano back to the starting rotation, which we admit still baffles us.

Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, who is off to a bad start this season, is being moved to the bullpen, according to a Paul Sullivan tweet.

In Sullivan’s brief, but solid tweet, he insures fans that Z is “cool with the move,” as only Paul Sullivan would.

Zambrano is currently hitting .000 with eight at-bats and three strikeouts.  With those stats, nobody can argue the move wasn’t warranted.  The only hitter in MLB who has a worse batting average than Z is Atlanta Braves first baseman Troy Glaus who is batting -.090.

Chicago Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano made his long-awaited arrival today and raised more than a few questions about his status for 2010. He says that his surgically repaired left knee is “maybe 80 percent or 85 percent.”

***slides Soriano down fantasy baseball draft board***

But, he didn’t stop there. If you were expecting a big comeback season for Soriano, it sounds like you may not get it. We know that he physically he says he’s not ready, but we imagine his brain is focused and ready get back out there.

“Mentally I don’t feel 100 percent,” he said. “But we’ll see in how my knee is running in the field and doing some stuff I didn’t do in the Dominican.”

Eh….really?

***slides him farther down draft board***

Soriano hit .241 last year with 20 home runs, but was battling through pain. Looks like he still is. Draft him accordingly.

Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto has dropped 40 lbs this offseason and gone from a size 42 waste down to a 36.

“I felt I needed to do something, I felt I needed to go to the next level,” said Soto, who was listed at 230 pounds. “I felt I needed to show my teammates I’m really into this, I really want to play, I want to play hard, I’m committed to this and I want to win.

“First and foremost, I did it for me, because I feel better. I love the Cubs and I want to win. That’s the bottom line.”

What’s impressive is that he did this all on his own and really took the initiative and decided that he needed to step up the plate and help his team. He is so driven that he was able to take the initiative all by himself.

“We talked to Soto after the season was over and told him, ‘Look, you’ve got to lose some weight,’” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said.

Oh.

“We thought 10, 15 pounds, but when I saw him the other day, he looked like a jockey,” Piniella said. “I mean that very complimentary. He looked wonderful.”

Look for Soto to his .350+ and for the Cubs to win the World Series.

The Chicago Cubs are reportedly going to make a run for free-agent pitcher Ben Sheets.  Hopefully, Sheets will not try to make a run at anything or he might pull a hamstring, twist an ankle, or get a blister.

In his eight-year career, all with the Milwaukee Brewers, Sheets has had problems with bulging discs in his lower back, inner ear infections, shoulder tendinitis, a strained hamstring, and a tear in his right elbow.  However, when he is on the mound, Sheets has pitched very well.  He’s accumulated a record of 86-83 with an earned run average of 3.72, and amassed 1,206 strikeouts in his career.

Sheets is reportedly been looking for a two-year deal that will average around $10-$12 million per year.  Is the price too high for an injury-prone pitcher?  Maybe not if it’s only for two years.  And it’s the Cubs, so who really cares?

This is not safe for work. And if you have a three-year old on your lap while you are on the internet, playing this video is a bad idea here as well. But if you aren’t at work and don’t have a three-year old on your lap at work, then this is a great video to watch. Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia goes off on the Chicago fans and it couldn’t be better.

We’ve posted this numerous times on OTR, but it doesn’t get old. No, it’s not safe for work…….that is…….unless you work in a brothel. In that case, the contents of this video might not be that offensive. Lee Elia’s occasional swearing and harsh tones are probably nothing compared to the daily grind of the dark underbelly of an illegal drug- and sex-infused world. But we digress.

This is from 1983 and it’s great. Then Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia blasts the local fans for their nasty treatment of the Cubs. We already posted several other videos this evening, might as well keep it going.