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This & That

Our "favorite site" (as we tagged it last fall when all sorts of wild-ass rumors were flying around), mlbtraderumors.com, has a pretty good analysis this week of who the Cubs might trade, and also who might actually be tradable, if it comes to fire-sale time.

The poster boy for idiot columnists -- you know who I'm talking about -- wrote today about the "possibility" of billionaire Mark Cuban buying the team. I put "possibility" in quotes because it appears that "possibility" came solely from the imagination of the columnist himself, as he wrote of Cuban's email back to him:

"Please ask Cubs fans to stop sending me e-mails asking me to buy the team," Cuban wrote. "Between Chicago, Pittsburgh and K.C., it's killing my inbox." He has interest in the Cubs and his hometown Pirates, another franchise aching for an ownership change.

He also writes, in saying that the price might be too high for Cuban:

As rumors continue to float about the Tribune's willingness to sell the Cubs, despite denials by chairman Dennis FitzSimons, early price estimates for the franchise and Wrigley have ranged from $600 million to $800 million. It's hard to believe Cuban, who quickly is becoming a major player in Hollywood, couldn't round up several big-money investors to help with the Cubs. For starters, call Bill Murray, once he is completely recovered from his recent night in San Diego with Rick Sutcliffe.

C'mon. Murray? Get serious. He's a mid-list actor, not a "big-money investor". And if Cuban is to be a baseball owner, wherever it is, I think he'd want to do it himself, as he has with the Dallas Mavericks. Incidentally, did you know Cuban has his own blog?

Anyway, I know others will probably jump all over this. It's just speculation on you-know-who's part. (Can't even bring myself to type his name!) The problem isn't ownership. The problem is that Jim Hendry hasn't spent the Tribune's pretty large budget wisely this year. If you want to blame someone, there's the guy.

Finally, did you know there's a story behind the tantrum you saw Greg Maddux throw in Miami last week?

Mike has the real story:

(as always, click on thumbnail to view full-size in new browser window. If you are using IE, you may have to click the lower-right corner of the image in the new window to expand it to its full size; in Firefox click anywhere on the image.)