FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Pitcher Ryan Dempster has guaranteed that the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series this year - a bold statement that Orioles first baseman Kevin Millar couldn't ignore. And Millar rarely passes up a chance to dish out some good-natured ribbing, even if the recipient is playing across the country in Mesa, Ariz.

"I'm guaranteeing a 2008 World Series. Everybody else is," Millar said while standing at this locker before yesterday's first full-squad workout.

"I'm going on the record right now. We're going to shock the world. I don't know who Dempster is in Chicago, but if he thinks he's going to win the World Series, he has to come through us first."

Millar had one more prediction: "I'm going deep off Ryan Dempster," he said.

With the laughter building, Millar began impersonating former Maryland linebacker Shawne Merriman's sack dance.