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Kerry Lee Wood (born June 16, 1977 in Irving, Texas) is an American baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he plays professional baseball for the Chicago Cubs. Wood has recorded over two hundred strikeouts in four different seasons between 1998-2003, with a high water mark of 266 K's in 2003. In recent years, he has had three serious arm injuries, and has only started a total of 14 major league games from Opening Day 2005 through the middle of 2006. Wood returned to the Cubs during the 2007 season as a relief pitcher and is currently serving as the team's closer.

Marquis, Cubs complete sweep of Pirates
Jason Marquis threw seven scoreless innings and combined with two relievers on a five-hit shutout, as the Chicago Cubs completed a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 2-0 victory at PNC Park.

Ronny Cedeno and Henry Blanco knocked in runs for the Cubs, who have won five in a row and increased their lead in the NL Central to 5 1/2 games over the Milwaukee Brewers. Chicago swept Pittsburgh for the third time this year and finished 14-4 against the cellar-dwelling Pirates for the season.

Dempster bats and throws right-handed. He has a win-loss record of 69-78 and an earned run average of 4.67 in 406 games (181 starts) as of July 8, 2008. He has played for the Florida Marlins (1998-2002), the Cincinnati Reds (2002-2003), and the Chicago Cubs (2004-present).



What separates Fukudome is his eye.
From the beginning of spring training Cubs pitchers noticed something odd about Fukudome when they threw him batting practice. He took an inordinate amount of pitches. When games began, his approach was not much different. Most major league hitters, if behind in the count, will swing at any pitch they believe is a strike. Fukudome will only swing at a pitch he believes he can hit. The difference is subtle but significant. "I just try to focus on the pitches I can handle," Fukudome says. "If it's an outside strike that I can't reach, I won't swing at it. I'll just say, 'I'm sorry,' and walk away."



Theodore Roosevelt "Ted" Lilly III (born January 4, 1976 in Torrance, California), is a starting pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. He bats and throws left-handed. Lilly attended Yosemite High School in Oakhurst, California, and Fresno City College.




Latest addition to the Cubs
Jeffrey Alan Samardzija (born January 23, 1985 in Merrillville, Indiana) is an American baseball pitcher with the Chicago Cubs. He is also a former American football wide receiver at the University of Notre Dame. Samardzija majored in marketing.

Jim Edmonds is now a Cub.

Minnesota's Justin Morneau slides in safe at home plate with the winning run in the longest All-Star Game in the history of the event. The 79th Midsummer Classic, and the final one at Yankee Stadium, lasts 15 innings and a record four hours and 50 minutes.

Harden impressive in his debut at Wrigley

Not since Nomar Garciaparra's arrival from Boston in the summer of 2004 has a Cub debut been as anticipated as Rich Harden's first start Wrigley Field.And while he did everything he could Saturday to show the Cubs made the right move in acquiring him from Oakland, Harden ultimately was relegated to the role of innocent bystander before the end of a wild 8-7, 11-inning victory over San Francisco.After Carlos Marmol allowed five runs in the ninth to let the Giants rally from a 7-0 deficit, the Cubs bounced back on Reed Johnson's opposite-field, RBI single off Brian Wilson in the 11th."When you're growing up as a little kid, you're always '5, 4, 3, 2, 1 …' shooting the basketball, trying to make that game-winning shot or get that game-winning base hit," Johnson said. "So you put yourself in that situation since you've been in Little League and all the way up to [the majors]."The Cubs won for the fifth time in their last six games, improving to 37-11 at Wrigley with one game remaining before the All-Star break.Harden pitched 51/3 scoreless innings, striking out 10 and allowing five hits before leaving after 96 pitches. The Cubs had staked him to a 7-0 lead on a two-run homer and four RBIs from Jim Edmonds, and the crowd gave Harden a standing ovation to show its approval."It was a pretty cool feeling," Harden said. "I never really had anything like that pitching in Oakland."But Harden's exit opened the door to a major meltdown. The Giants scored two off Kevin Hart in the eighth before Bob Howry bailed them out of a jam, and with Kerry Wood unavailable because of a blister on his right index finger, manager Lou Piniella turned to the unpredictable Carlos Marmol.With a man on third and one out, Marmol botched the scoop a dribbler off the bat of Jose Castillo, allowing Castillo to reach on an infield hit because he didn't want the run to score."He boots the ball, instead of making a nice, easy play," Piniella said. "Let them get a run in and get the second out. That was the inning as far as I was concerned. I hope you learn from that. Forget the run. You have a five-run lead. All you want is outs in the eighth and ninth innings with leads. You don't need spectacular things."After two more singles and a walk, Marmol got a fielder's choice grounder for the second out as a run scored to make it 7-5. Sean Marshall was warming up, but Marmol hit Rich Aurilia to load the bases. With the crowd booing Piniella's decision to stick with Marmol, Eliezer Alfonzo reached on an infield hit to short, and Ryan Theriot made an ill-advised flip to second while on his rear as the second run scored on the hit to tie the game.Piniella pointed out that Theriot should "have eaten the ball." Theriot admitted that "looking back on it, it wasn't the right play."Marmol was booed off the mound, but Marshall saved the day with two innings of strong relief and a leadoff single off Wilson in the 11th. After a walk to Mark DeRosa and a force at third on a poor bunt by Mike Fontenot, Johnson singled DeRosa home to send the crowd of 41,555 into a state of delirium."You can't beat walk-off fashion," Marshall said. "That was a lot of fun."

ST. LOUIS -- Alfonso Soriano didn't want to go to New York for the All-Star Game if he couldn't play, saying he'd rather go home to the Dominican Republic and see the progress of the house he's having built there.But then Cubs teammate Aramis Ramirez made the National League squad, among a franchise-record seven Cubs selected, and Ramirez convinced Soriano they could do both.''I didn't think of that before,'' said Soriano, who now plans to enjoy the company of his teammates and his major-league roots at Yankee Stadium, then jet to the Dominican with Ramirez before joining the Cubs in Houston at the end of that week. ''He's very smart.''It's the last break the Cubs' injured left fielder plans to have anytime soon.Soriano, whose seven consecutive All-Star selections give him the fourth-longest active streak, said his left hand still felt weak during a batting-practice session Saturday that left him a little sore. He won't be able to play in the All-Star Game, but depending on how he feels this week, he said he might go on a rehabilitation assignment in time to be activated for the July 18 opener of the Astros series.''It's going to take maybe a week to feel good again, so I think I'll be able to play in the second half,'' Soriano said.Whether that includes a rehab assignment that he'll undoubtedly need remains to be seen.''I don't know what we're going to do with that,'' manager Lou Piniella said. ''I think it'll be advantageous for him. Whether he does it or not, we'll see.''

CHICAGO -- Cubs catcher Geovany Soto and outfielders Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome will be elected to start in the All-Star Game, barring a surprising surge in the final week of fan voting.
Four other Cubs must mount late comebacks in the polls to have a shot at cracking the starting lineup in New York on July 15.

Soto, Soriano and Fukudome have led at every voting checkpoint, including the fifth National League All-Star ballot update released Tuesday.
Soto is ahead of Atlanta's Brian McCann by about 500,000 votes, while Soriano is pacing all outfielders with a lead of about 280,000 votes. Fukudome is second, and Ken Griffey Jr. would be the third outfield starter based on current vote totals. Soriano is expected to be out through the All-Star break with a broken bone in his left hand, but he wants to return early to play at Yankee Stadium one more time. Soriano played for the Yankees from 1999-2003.
The 79th Major League Baseball All-Star Game, being held at Yankee Stadium in its final season, will be televised nationally by FOX, in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and Sportsnet HD, and televised around the world by Major League Baseball International, with pregame ceremonies beginning at 7 p.m. CT. ESPN Radio will provide exclusive national radio coverage, while MLB.com will provide extensive online coverage. XM will provide satellite radio play-by-play coverage of the XM All-Star Futures Game.
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