2008-12-19T18:16:11-05:00 2008-11-18T12:11:14-05:00 2 2008-11-18T12:11:14-05:00 1 1 10 2008-11-18T19:30:20-05:00 190 IL Maddux Chicago 33875 2 Jason Marquis is gone, he will not be on this team come Spring 3377805 2008-11-18T13:11:41-05:00 1 AZ Axl Rose Phoenix 610764 1 The Cubs absolutely need to sign Dempster. While I'm not sure how he will hold up over 4 years, this is a team that is built to win now. With the fragile Rich Harden and the workhorse amount of innings that Zambrano has logged over the last 6 years, either could go down at any given time. Add into that mix good Ted Lilly, bad Ted Lilly, and the always unreliable Jason Marquis, this signing is a must. I'll also add, that I think they need to give up somebody good to get Peavy here to really solidify this thing and finally win it all. 3372199 2 <p>Indications are that the Cubs and star pitcher Ryan Dempster are making progress on a deal that would keep Dempster on the North Side team.</p> <div>"We went him back and he wants to stay with us,'' a Cubs person told SI.com. "Hopefully we can get this done quickly and move on from there.''</div> <div>While they've expressed interest in star Padres pitcher <strong>Jake Peavy</strong>, there's no indication of any potential deal with San Diego, which is said to be less than enamored with the Cubs' prospects.</div> <div>Foxsports.com reported the deal with Dempster would be for slightly more than $50 million over four years for the pitcher who went 17-6 with a 2.96 ERA for them in his first year as a starting pitcher since 2003.</div> <div>Cubs GM <strong>Jim Hendry</strong> couldn't immediately be reached this morning but Hendry, citing the team's long-running success with keeping players they wanted to keep, expressed faith to SI in September that they could reach an agreement with Dempster.</div> http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/100/64/thumb/Heyman_Jon.png 0 NY Jon Heyman New York 10084 24421