Chicago's Inside Pitch

For 12 years, Andy MacPhail was the top guy at Wrigley Field as president and CEO of the Cubs. He also spent two years with general manager as his title, from the middle of the 2000 season through July 2002.

The Tribune Co. hired MacPhail to bring credibility back to a team that had fallen into chaos in the early 1990s. They also thought MacPhail could bring a World Series title to the North Side after overseeing two world championships with the Minnesota Twins.

One of the most respected men in baseball for his integrity, MacPhail could not get the Cubs over the hump, and he resigned in October 2006.

As the general managers meetings get set to wrap up at about noon today at the O’Hare Hilton, the star of the lobby this morning was agent Arn Tellem. A dozen or so Japanese reporters surrounded Tellem, who represents Hideki Matsui, the MVP of the World Series and a free agent.

Tellem also represents pitcher Rich Harden, who is unlikely to return to the Cubs after filing for free agency.

“I didn’t see Jim Hendry here,” Tellem said of the Cubs’ GM. “I have talked to him, and I know we’ll continue to talk. I know he’s just trying to gather information and assess his team’s needs and what’s out there. So I’m sure we’ll be talking more in the next week or two.”

Question of the day, Cubs fans: Would you be comfortable with Marlon Byrd in center field and Kosuke Fukudome in right? We’re a long way from that now, but the Cubs will have their eyes on Byrd when he hits the open market later this month. Of course, it would help GM Jim Hendry if he can trade Milton Bradley sooner rather than later, and apparently he’s moving slowly in that direction.

Byrd, 32, had a hitting line of .283/.329/.479 for an OPS of .808 with the Texas Rangers this year, his free-agent season. His OPS-plus was 106. The Bill James Handbook projects Byrd at .279/.340/.438 for an OPS of .778 next season. New Cubs hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, also late of Texas, is said to like Byrd, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Things are quiet here at the lovely O’Hare Hilton, as the GMs are safely ensconced in one room for meetings until about 12:30 Chicago time. After that, they’ll have some time for trade talk before meeting with us media types later in the afternoon.

We have a few Cubs and Sox leftovers from yesterday and some new takes on things:

Spending the day and evening at the lovely O'Hare Hilton for the GM meetings. Spent many an hour here back in the 1990s covering baseball labor disputes. Anyway, Cubs GM Jim Hendry and Sox GM Kenny Williams arrived and did impromptu sessions.

Also ran into Barry Praver, the agent for Carlos Zambrano and now for Carlos Marmol, who is eligible for salary arbitration for the first time. And just so the speculation doesn't start, Praver said the Cubs and Big Z have not discussed Big Z waiving his no-trade clause. "It's a non-story," Praver said. In other words, the Cubs are not trading Zambrano this winter.

We'll have the long of it online later and in the paper tomorrow. The short of it to get you going and then I'll be back out here in the morning:

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.