I will start by saying that social media is great for many things, despite the efforts by certain proprietors of websites to destroy it or make it totally not fun. It helps us connect with friends and fellow fans, it makes folks of authority and celebrities more accessible to us mere peasants, and it allows us to learn more about …
Avoid Being Average
There was a tweet from Marquee’s Tony Andracki (cool dude) that probably caused several aneurysms the other day, and Brad on Twitter attempted to put it into context: If we assume that Seiya Suzuki takes a step forward after an adjustment year and Cody Bellinger can at least find some kind of a groove, then it does look a bit …
Let the Dominos Fall…Please?
Among other rumors flying around, the big one that got everyone’s interest was this bit from Kaplan (and others): Whether you believe it is because the Cubs don’t want to deal with another season of losing/biblical losses, or that Papa Ricketts’ heart grew three sizes that day and Tom got an advance on his allowance, the consensus once again is …
2022 MLB Winter Meetings Reset
The Winter Meetings go from Sunday to Wednesday this week and I’m guessing plenty of texts and conversations have been conducted even before everyone arrives in San Diego. Ken Rosenthal on his Athletic mailbag podcast suggested that the new CBA seemed to give teams more confidence to spend, which accounts for the higher-than-usual price tags we’ve seen for the relievers, …
First Names Off the Board
Here we are, the week after Thanksgiving and before the Winter Meetings, and very little has happened not just for the Cubs, but for all of MLB. I think we don’t have to officially freak out until after the Winter Meetings have concluded, or maybe not even until Spring Training since the rhymes-with-schmollusion is delaying free agent deals in recent …
About Spending…
I know AC (and others) are very antsy for the Cubs, and anyone in MLB for that matter, to stop their faux collusion and start spending already, but the calendar is the calendar and both the agents/players and the owners/front offices are in a staring contest at the moment before the Winter Meetings in a couple weeks. I was going …
Bending the Rules
Towards the end of the previous post, in between waiting for the Cubs (and really all of MLB) to show signs of life on the transactional front, AC and I started pondering how batters might mess with pitchers with the new pitch clock rule coming in 2023. As a reminder, in addition to the defensive shift restrictions and the larger …
Dreamcast 53: Ode to an Overhaul
Berselius joined me tonight to talk some Cubs free agency (or at least we fantasized about spending all the Ricketts’ money) and we also built a relatively realistic dream team should Jed Hoyer remember how to be aggressive in building a good team we actually want to watch. Hopefully some signings happen soon after the Friday nontender deadline, lest the …
Quick Cubs Roster Check
By the time this publishes the Cubs might decide to finally designate Jason Heyward for assignment, but for now he’s safe on the 40-man roster, which will likely also be updated soon: Per the prior status check, the roster should be at 36, but for some reason I’m counting 37, and if we remove Esteban Quiroz and Jared Young as …
Redefining Expectations Vs. The Flow of Stupid Money
We are at the lull between Major League Baseball contests, where winter leagues are not always accessible to the lay person, where we sit just under 100 days until spring training and 140ish days from Opening Day. While the GM meetings go forward in Vegas, we’ve already gotten a few snippets of what the Cubs are likely to do (at …