Add Theriot to Cubs' mix in center field  —  Lou Piniella has spent the week getting to know Chicago's icy weather up close and personal, meeting some of his new Cubs players and doing a little house hunting.  Too bad the Cubs Convention opened Friday with the new manager feeling as if there is one piece of unfinished business.

Talk timing key for 'Z'  —  All-Star pitcher Carlos Zambrano — sporting a new curly hairdo — was one of the main attractions Friday as the weekend Cubs Convention kicked off downtown.  Zambrano's first order of business: Setting a deadline on reaching a multiyear contract with the Cubs.

Zambrano trying to get 'business' taken care of  —  It's a seller's market for the rare pitcher of Carlos Zambrano's ability, and the Cubs ace knows it.  —  Zambrano received some of the loudest cheers Friday evening during the opening ceremonies of the Cubs convention.  —  He'll also be receiving bigger paychecks.

LaRoche's sweet swing signed and sealed  —  Slugger 'excited' by reaction to his joining Pirates  —  By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  —  Maybe the most jarring admission Adam LaRoche could have made yesterday, when the Pirates officially acquired him, came with these two words:

Thorman solo at first base; Gonzalez 'pumped up'  —  After the Braves announced Friday the trade of first baseman Adam LaRoche to Pittsburgh for flamethrowing left-hander Mike Gonzalez, a few noteworthy statements came out of the news conference with general manager John Schuerholz and a phone call to Gonzalez:

Blast from the past  —  Here's a curious case for all sides of the steroid debate, for the amateur lawyers who have bastardized the concept of innocent until proven guilty, the hard-liners who view performance-enhancing drugs as Satan's elixir and the majority that cares not to blacken or whiten a gray issue.