No one can devalue an asset (or is it overstate a liability?) and still get someone to give him something in return like Jim Hendry can. Of course, Silva can't pitch. Can he play centerfield?

Cubs have deal to ship Bradley to Mariners - Sporting News

Wrigleyville23 defends the selection of Ryan Dempster to the All-Star game over Cole Hamels, Chad Billingsley, and Johan Santana, in response to criticism from ESPN.com's Keith Law.

Congratulations to Ryan Dempster, who threw his first complete game in tonight's 7-2 win over the Atlanta Braves since his final start of the 2002 season, which happened to be against the Chicago Cubs. Dempster didn't walk a batter tonight while striking out 11. His 82 game score tied his season-high game score, which he had set in his win over the San Diego Padres on May 15.

Here is the video of Felix Pie doing to Ken Griffey, Jr. what Griffey himself has done to others a few times over his career -- robbing him of a home run -- in the Cubs' 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds last night.

Baseball Crank analyzes the NL Central according to Established Win Share Levels (EWSL). The report is not kind to the Cubs, who are hoping for a number of players to exceed normal expectations. Predicted wins: 78.

If you were ever wondering which Cubs' player has the most career at-bats in a Cubs' uniform without a hit, wonder no more, as Cubnut at The Cub Reporter has your answer.

Joe Aiello at View from the Bleachers presents some interesting bits of information on the Cubs from Bill James' new book. Specifically, Alfonso Soriano's free-swinging ways and Felix Pie's excellent baserunning.

From the Chicago Tribune: "As recently as Sunday, Stone planned to call just 13 Friday Sox home games, serve as a three-days-a-week baseball analyst for WSCR-AM 670 and perhaps continue his postseason work for TBS. Then Sox vice president Brooks Boyer called to ask if he wanted a roster spot on the Sox broadcast team. Within 36 hours, the one-year contract was done."

(Hat tip: Baseball Primer.)

He's calling games for the wrong Chicago team. How did it come to this? Wrigleyville23 blames Dusty.

Maury Brown and Kurt Hunzeker at The Biz of Baseball write on Sam Zell's exploration of selling the naming rights to Wrigley Field:

Sam Zell has said that he should be able to selling the naming rights to Wrigley for as much as $400 million over $20 years, a deal that would match Citigroup’s deal with the Mets’ new stadium as the largest payout for a naming rights in US pro franchise history.

As a secondary naming-rights deal, it would be unparalleled.

And therein lies the problem.  A $400 million secondary naming-rights deal?

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Rich Hill has allowed an 83% (39/47) stolen base rate during his career. To help improve that, he has made some alterations to his delivery, which he will use whether or not runners are on base, reports the Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan.