Dempster and Edmonds Among 65 to File for Free Agency

Baseball's off-season kicked into second gear on Thursday, less than 12 hours after the Phillies beat the Rays to officially end the 2008 campaign. There was a trade between the Royals and Marlins, a couple of big name players found out their options for the 2009 season would not be picked up, the Brewers named Ken Macha their new manager and 65 players filed for free agency....and four Cubs were among the players that filed on the first day full day of the Hot Stove season.

Ryan Dempster, Jim Edmonds, Chad Fox and Bobby Howry were the first of the Cubs free agents to file. Kerry Wood, Daryle Ward, Jon Lieber and Henry Blanco, if his option is not picked up, could be added to the list in the next few days. The Cubs have stated they want Ryan Dempster to return and have left the door open for Jim Edmonds as well. Indications are Edmonds could opt for retirement.

Chad Fox did not figure into the 2008 season and Bobby Howry was inconsistent at best in the third and final year of the deal he signed with the Cubs before the 2006 season. Neither Fox nor Howry figure to be in the Cubs' future plans.

Other notable free agent filings on Thursday:

Jay Payton
Jon Garland
Mark Teixeira
Bobby Abreu
Ivan Rodriguez
Raul Ibanez
Milton Bradley
Jason Jennings
Brad Wilkerson
Juan Cruz
Will Ohman
Mark Loretta
Joe Beimel
Casey Blake
Derek Lowe
Greg Maddux
Manny Ramirez
Eric Gagne
Gabe Kapler
Ben Sheets
Cesar Izturis

A Complete List of the 65 Free-Agents from ESPN.com

Players have until November 13th to sign a new contract with their current team. After the 13th, players may negotiate and sign new deals with other organizations.

Tony D.

I think you might want to sign Texiera. He is the left handed bat with pop that the Cubs need. If we get him then we can explore trading Lee while he still might have some value. If we don't get Tex, then we keep Lee. But Peavy is a must!!! Either way, I have faith that JH will make some good moves early.

jake

i like roberts or fucal or figgins or hudson any those guys are great i prefer roberts best and outfield i like dunn he would be a monster at wrigley just dream of him in cubby blue and a underated player is ibanez from seatlle he continued to put up great numbers last year and pitcher always a fan of jake peavy put him in rotation and dempster wow best rotation in mlb and maybe one of bets in history

roguesqr09

More news from the Peavy talks: According to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, the Padres intend to explore a possible Jake Peavy trade with the Cubs and Dodgers at next week's GM meetings. Apparently Padres GM Kevin Towers would like to exhaust his possibilities with Peavy's five preferred NL clubs before engaging others.

Rosenthal notes that the Cubs do not have the quality young pitching the Padres crave. They still have interest in Peavy, especially if they fail to re-sign Ryan Dempster.

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Joe S. (San Diego)

Barry....

I agree 100% with your comments. I hope we let Wood go (or he's able to start again)...as I've said before...we need a LIGHTS OUT closer...someone teams know the game is over when he comes in. Woody is NOT that.

I agree with Roberts and Peavy. Although, Roberts might be difficult. The O's are trying to sign him to a new long term deal. If it falls apart, we can jump in, but he does love Baltimore so I see him staying.

JimK

It's after the November 13th date,when free agents can negotiate deals with teams other than their own, that we amateur GM's can get really serious about our work. Unlike the Royals--Marlins deal, I don't see us dealing until after Nov. 13th--probably well after that date.

It would be a plus if JH can resign D and Wood before the 13th, but that doesn't seem likely as the competing money wars aspects of baseball have to play out. Because we likely have to trade higher priced contracts to gain others, and because we lose top draft choices when we sign free agents, I see our free agent signings involving our own players and another or two involving small contracts. It will likely be trades that account for most of our roster changes.

Barry

Gentlemen,

I have the following views on potential FAs and other aqusitions.

First let me get this out of the way with regard to Woody. I say if he can get more money playing for another team with a multiyear contract then let him go. He will always be a Cub just as Mark Grace is. We should not get into a bidding war and I don't think JH will.

Dempster: I feel like not resigning him would be foolish. I believe he is exploring FA to guage what he can expect from the Cubs with a hometown discount of course. Demps is fantastic in the clubhouse, loves the organization and has a few more productive years I believe. Work this one very hard JH.

Ward, Howry, Edmonds, Fox and Lieber should be shown the front door.

Now before I go into my vision for aquisitions please understand that I am a simpleton. I am not here to show my baseball insider knowledge or lack thereof. I am aware enough to know what can happen and what will never happen. So here are some of my thoughts and I am prepared to take the rolling of the eyes and exhaustive breaths from my nay sayers.

Get Brian Roberts and Jake Peavy and fill out the rest of the bench. Move Soriano to 3rd in the order and watch us take off!!

Be easy on me CUBDOM!! LOL

Here's to the HOTSTOVE!!