The Latest as the GM Meetings Close

• The GM Meetings ended at noon today.
• Adrian Gonzalez won the NL Gold Glove for first base today. Derrek Lee did not get the award, so no Cubs received Gold Gloves.
• Tomorrow the Silver Sluggers will be announced.
• Rich Harden's agent, Arn Tellem, said today that he has not seem Jim Hendry at the GM Meetings, but they have talked. "I'm sure we'll be talking more in the next week or two," he told Bruce Miles.
• A report from Ken Rosenthal yesterday started the speculation that Marlon Byrd is on the Cubs radar. Byrd could be the Cubs new center fielder in 2010 once Bradley is traded, with Kosuke moving to right.
• Mike Cameron is another outfield option for the Cubs.
• Accoring to a Report from FoxSports.com the Cubs are nearing a deal with LHP John Grabow. The deal could be for 2 years.
• Jim Hendry would like to have a couple of deals done in the next few weeks before the winter meetings begin on December 7.
• The Cubs and Rangers continued talks yesterday on a deal that would send Milton Bradley back to his former team, according to the Chicago Tribune.
• The Giants are not willing to do a bad contract sway for Bradley.
• The Mets and Rays are also options for the Cubs to deal their right fielder.
• The Cubs are in no hurry to open up talks with Derrek Lee on a contract extension.
• The Cubs and White Sox will battle in Vegas again in Spring Training 2010. The Cubs will be returning to Cashman Field for the 6th straight year. The games will be March 12 and 13 this year, and they will be split-squads for both teams.
• The full White Sox Spring Training schedule is out. The Cubs and Sox have 3 other meetings: Saturday March 6 in Mesa, Sunday March 7 in Glendale, and Friday March 19 in Glendale.
• The Cleveland Indians also have their schedule out, so we know that the Cubs will play them on March 22 in Mesa.
• The South Siders start their Spring Training on March 5, so expect to the Cubs start around that date (a little later then last year). The full Cubs Spring Training Schedule has not yet been released.
• Bruce Miles notes that the Cubs have a lot of arbitration-eligible players this offseason.
• Carlos Marmol, Jeff Baker, Sean Marshall, Ryan Thriot, Koyie Hill, and Angel Guzman are all on the arb list.
• Jim Hendry is not looking for a short stop. He's very happy with Theriot and he expects Fontenot and Miles to have bounce back year. Also, Jim likes Andres Blanco's defense.
• There's been no talk with Carlos Zambrano about waiving his no trade clause.
• Mike Fontenot has earned "Super Two" status, which means he could get a big raise.

The latest from Bruce Levine's chat yesterday:

• Right now, the teams most interested in Milton Bradley are Tampa, the Mets, Texas, and possibly the Angels. Hendry talked with Tampa Bay a lot this week.
• The Cubs will most likely pick up a player that another team wants to get rid of in the Bradley trade like Lyle Overbay, Luis Castillo, or Pat Burrell.
• The Cubs are counting on Rudy Jaramillo to get the very best out of guys that slumped in 2009.
• Jim Hendry has no money to spend on Free Agents at this point. If the Cubs add someone, it will most likely be via trade.
• Mike Cameron is the Cubs "Plan D out of A, B, C, and D according to Levine.
• The Bradley for Castillo trade talks are not strong.
• The Cubs are looking to get a better player, whether he is right handed or left handed.
• Sam Fuld is a diabetic, so the Cubs are hesitant to make him a full-time player because of his disease.
• An Orlando Cabrera type signing would be "difficult to fit in the budget right now".
• The Cubs are trying to project their own guys like Caridad for roles in the bullpen next year.
• They do have some interest in Mike Gonzalez, but they should be able to finish negotiations with John Grabow in the next 10 days.
• Jake Fox is a 24th or 25th player on a good team in Bruce's opinion.
• He thinks Bradley will end up on an AL team.
• Dan Uggla is not a good fit for the Cubs because of his lack of defensive skill.
• Levine gives it a 5% chance that Milton will be on the Cubs roster on Opening Day.
• The only way the Cubs will add a guy like Roy Halladay is if they trade Zambrano, and at this point that doesn't appear to be happening.
• His guess is that the Cubs will eat about $5 million of Bradley's salary.
• Rich Hill is not a good alternative for the Cubs. (Um Duh..)
• Alfonso Soriano is working hard in the Dominican right now.
• If the Cubs get Kevin Millwood in a Bradley, they could turn around and try to trade him again, or they could keep even though he's injury prone.
• Levine shoots down the idea of Mark DeRosa returning to the Cubs.
• The Cubs don't want Pat Burrell, but they want Milton Bradley a lot less.
• Bruce like Marlo0n Byrd.
• The Cubs could be interested in Ramon Troncosa, a power arm from the Dodgers.

Bruce's chats have a lot of great info. He does one every Tuesday, so each week I will try to get a recap up with Cubs related highlights.

That's it for now, I'll keep you posted as the hot stove continues to burn...