Mark Prior officially announced his retirement today at the winter meetings. Sadly, this was a move a long time coming. Prior threw his last big league pitch over seven years ago and has been trying to make it back ever since, but his body just couldn't hold up. Despite everything that has happened since the 2003 season, Prior and Sosa have remained …
NPB Posting Fee system changes and Masahiro Tanaka
Word on the virtual street from NPBTracker's Patrick Newman says that MLB and NPB are coming to an agreement on the new posting fees for Japanese players, with a hard limit of $20m. I'm kind of surprised that the NPB owners agreed to this, and wonder where their slice is. Maybe they'll get a percentage of whatever the contract is as …
“Daily” Facepalm 11.26.13
Anything happening with Samardzija? Tom Loxas reported that the Cubs and Jays might be close last weekend, but since then nothing as happened, and other sources (i.e. Julie's) say not much is happening. I don't really see much happening either. Still, Loxas's sources seem to think that the Cubs want to get some resolution on Samardzija before Thanksgiving/the Winter Meetings Cubs …
“Daily” Facepalm – Samardzija Rumors A’Plenty
Diamondbacks interested in Samardzija Buster Olney got the Samardzija trade train rolling with a tweet last week saying that the Cubs and D-Backs would keep talking about a Jeff Samardzija deal. There were vague rumors around the trade deadline that the D-Backs were interested in Shark, but the Superfriends were (rightly) asking for a king's ransom in return, so things …
Cubs (officially) putting their WGN broadcast rights up for auction
In a move widely expected for some time, the Cubs excercised a contractual option to end their TV deal with WGN following next season, according to the Chicago Tribune. TV deals are where the big money is these days and while it's not the whole Cubs package (70 games or so) the Cubs will likely be able to get much more …
“Daily” Facepalm – 11.3.13 : Deckchair removed from Titanic
Brad Ausmus to manage Tigers Ausmus is currently in Detroit finalizing the deal. Hopefully the contact includes a clause requiring Ausmus to smoke five packs a day to ensure continuity with previous leadership. Gammons originally quasi-connected the Cubs with Ausmus weeks ago, though it was unclear whether there was actually any interest or if it was just Gammons making an …
Cubs shopping Castro for pitching?
Matthew Cerrone of Metsblog is reporting that the Cubs are looking for pitching in a Starlin Castro trade, 'according to people familiar with the organization'. With Javier Baez breathing down his neck much more quickly than expected and the equally fast-moving Kris Bryant blocking Baez from moving to 3b, the Cubs might have to make up their mind sooner than they planned …
Cubs to make a run at Brian McCann?
Tim Dierkes from MLBTR tweets: Have talked to multiple agents who think Cubs will spend good money on FA catcher this winter. They are underestimating Welington Castillo! — timdierkes (@timdierkes) October 2, 2013 Seeing how agents are always the most reliable source for this kind of thing, this has to mean Brian McCann, right? The only other catching free agents …
Dale Sveum fired
Per Ken Rosenthal, the Cubs fired Dale Sveum today. Honestly, I would have been okay with this whichever way it went. I was never super enamored with Sveum, but I don't think he's awful either. The best guess is that Sveum was fired due to some combination of: Starlin Castro regressed big time this year Anthony Rizzo did not improve …