Chicago's Inside Pitch

Doing some Double Duty Radcliffe action today by covering the White Sox. GM Kenny Williams made it official today on a couple of fronts. He traded infielders Josh Fields and Chris Getz to the Royals for third baseman Mark Teahen and cash. The Sox also bought out the final year of right fielder Jermaine Dye’s contract for $950,000 instead of paying him $12 million for 2010.

What the trade means is that Teahen will take over at third base, and Gordon Beckham will move from third to second.

The last thing Cubs GM Jim Hendry needs right now is uncertainty. Or should I say “more uncertainty.” With a new owner in town, Hendry appears to be on the clock even though his contract runs through 2012. Maybe that’s why he was a bit, shall we say, impatient, with questions yesterday in the wake of ace lefty Ted Lilly having his shoulder scoped.

Talk about uncertainty. Even though it’s early in the off-season, Hendry has uncertainty with his pitching picture. Right now, the Cubs’ starters who figure to open the season on the active list are Carlos Zambrano (do people still want to trade him now?), Ryan Dempster and Randy Wells plus your choice of Jeff Samardzija, Tom Gorzelanny and maybe Sean Marshall.

We’ll have more later today, but the Cubs announced that lefty Ted Lilly underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder yesterday in L.A. The procedure was performed by Dr. Lewis Yocum. In a release, the Cubs said Yocum “found no major damage to Lilly’s shoulder and the procedure consisted of a washout and cleanup of the shoulder” and that the surgery took about one hour.

The Cubs say Ted will begin a rehab program and will be evaluated after Jan. 1 to see when he can begin a throwing program. They say they're hopeful he can be in the rotation within the month of April.

We’re scheduled to talk with Ted and with Jim Hendry this afternoon. If you remember, Ted had some shoulder issues this year, along with knee surgery.

There's a report out of Toronto talking about a possible Cubs trade of Milton Bradley to the Blue Jays for Vernon Wells:

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/columnists/bob_elliott/2009/10/31/11588...

There's even a quote in the story from a "Cubs official": "It's early on, but we think this one has legs. But they aren't the only team we're talking with."

Big day at Wrigley Field today, and it felt like a breath of fresh air to have a family, rather than a conglomerate, finally running the Cubs. A few of us from the Daily Herald had a chance to sit down with Tom Ricketts a couple of weeks ago, and Tom was quite gracious in answering questions for an hour.

Check out our stories, and the columns by Mike Imrem and Burt Constable on our Web site.

Today was the coming-out party for the Ricketts family. It drew a big crowd of media and one player: Ryan Dempster. He was asked what improvement he’d like to see the Ricketts family make to Wrigley Field.

Heading to Wrigley this morning through the rain to attend the news conference to introduce Tom Ricketts and his family. They want to hold it on the field, but that may not be possible.

Anyway, check back at dailyherald.com about 11 this morning for some stories. We'll have more here at the blog later and in Saturday's paper. For now, it's off to the ballpark.

Back in 2001, the Cubs made a terrible baseball decision when they put infielder Miguel Cairo and outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. on waivers and kept infielder Augie Ojeda on the active roster. Cairo and Matthews were quickly snapped up by other teams, and Ojeda was of little help as the Cubs fell short in their bid to win the NL Central.

Fast-forward to 2009. It seems Matthews wants to move out from the L.A. Angels with two years and $23 million left on the five-year, $50 million contract he signed before the 2007 season:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-angels28-2009oct28,0,3353674.story

Now that the sale of the Cubs from the Tribune Co. to Tom Ricketts and his family is finally done _ it took only three baseball seasons _ I’m sure Tom will be inundated with advice, which I’m sure already has poured in.

With that in mind, what’s a few more bits of free advice, which is always worth the price? So here we go, and feel free to add your own:

The White Sox announced Dayan Viciedo will no longer play in the Arizona Fall League due to inflammation in his right elbow.
Viciedo, 20, batted .333 (6-for-18) with 1 home run and 6 RBI in 4 games with the Peoria Javelinas. A teenage star in his native Cuba before signing with the Sox last winter, Viciedo played third base for Class AA Birmingham and batted .280 with 12 HR and 78 RBI in 130 games.
Brent Morel, who batted .281 with 16 HR and 79 RBI in 128 games with Class A Winston-Salem, takes Viciedo’s spot in the AFL.

After being voted American League Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News last week (the award was voted on by 338 major-league players), White Sox third baseman Gordon Beckham on Monday was named the league’s Outstanding Rookie in Players Choice Awards voting.
Beckham beat out Texas Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus and Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher James Niemann for his latest honor.
In 103 games with the Sox, Beckham, 23, batted .270 and led AL rookies in doubles (28), RBI (63) and extra-base hits (43) while ranking second in home runs (14) and on-base percentage (.347).