We’ve gotten to the part of the Winter Meetings where some news (like, actual maybe sort of legitimate news) might be finally leaking out and making the various beat folks confident enough to say that the Cubs are likely out on Shohei Ohtani (who’s probably going to be a Dodger but let’s wait and see) and Juan Soto (who looks …
Whither TV Money?
There’s been a growing discontent over the fact that about half the teams in MLB may be affected by their regional sports networks crapping out financially. Even the Sonny Gray deal by the Cardinals, who should be a financially well-off historic franchise, is heavily backloaded, while the Padres are not-so-discretely signaling that they’re going to dump salary, among the other …
An Offseason Reset Before the World Series Ends
Depending on your point of view, because this is the last MLB action we will have until next Spring Training, but also because the offseason starts basically when the World Series ends, you either want one of the teams still in it to win in five or for it to go the full seven. This means the start of true …
Welcome to March
The Cubs are winless since their spring training opener, but since this is all practice, the scores don’t so much matter as the part where most everyone we care about stay healthy…ah nuts, but we’ll cover that later. Anyway, we are heading into March with less than a month to go until Opening Day when the games actually do matter, …
Ate at Arby’s, On to the Next
Previously, we talked about the remaining arbitration-eligible Cubs and the impending deadline: That deadline has since passed, and you can see every arbitration case has been settled before they have to bring in the agents and front office bad-mouthers: Checking the Cots Contracts tracker, it would appear the Cubs are about $22MM below the first luxury tax threshold, and as …
Rhymes With Schmollusion
The Athletic (I think it was Evan Drellich) published a piece today about owners complaining that Steve Cohen is a rich bastard, and for those of us blocked by the paywall, this was the snippet that was being floated around: It actually is kind of hilarious when we basically know that there are something like 20 owners (including the bottom …
The Evolving Narrative
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 …
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 …
Do Something!
I think I want to see another few years of this version of the postseason before I start lobbying for one of AC’s fun ideas to change things up. What I am sure of, at this time, is that the NLCS was a lot of fun to watch. Even if I’ve been a little bored with three-true-outcomes baseball, when the …