As of this writing, today marks the final official Cactus League game for the Cubs. They’ll do a two-game exhibition against the Cardinals, who are traveling west to face the Dodgers amidst all their drama, before the Cubs themselves head a tad east to deal with the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers. Opening Day is just a few days …
New Cuts, New Roster Projections
One week until Opening Day, and we have another set of cuts that helps us clarify the roster situation: Of note, and I don’t remember where I read this now, the emergency catcher situation is clarified as the two non-roster catchers won’t make the team anyway. Various outlets have reported that Jordan Wicks and Javier Assad will make the rotation. …
An Early Attempt at Guessing the 2024 Cubs Opening Day Roster
This stems partly from the news that has trickled in between practice games and this post by Berselius way back in the ancient times a couple blogs ago: berselius: I don’t think the Cubs do anything else major (though A+ to Jed for patience), so here’s a stab at the lineup and roster 2B Hoerner LF Happ (S) SS Swanson …
Cody vs ACME: Will Cubs Delete Playoff Hopes?
What’s worse than being a Cubs fan with a World Series addiction? How about being a Looney Tunes fan with a hankering for new movies. Today we heard reports Warner Bros. is shelving straight-up deleting the no-longer-forthcoming film Coyote Vs. ACME. Nostalgia? Joy? Hope? Heartbreak? Pursuit of the incessantly elusive prize? Delete it all, say the lucre-sucking suits. Sorry, fans, …
The Price is Right?
We are in like month three of the great Jed Hoyer game of chicken with regard to the big name free agents, though I am still quite confident that this isn’t *it* for the Cubs, they’re just waiting out Scott Boras and other assorted agents in bidding for the remaining free agents, if they’re even interested. Chances are they’re for …
Cubs do the thing, sign Shota Imanaga
The Cubs finally broke the seal and made a major league transaction, signing Japanese lefty starting pitcher Shota Imanaga. The news broke earlier this week, but the details of the Rube Goldberg machine of a contract didn’t take shape until late this evening. Here’s the rundown, with all the conditionals Nominal contract: If no one does anything, Shota Imanaga is …
Delayed Gratification, Or Why Haven’t the Cubs Spent Money Yet?
There are a million things we can probably rehash about the whole thing where Shohei Ohtani basically wasted everyone’s time, but aside from acknowledging that the most consequential free agent in MLB history was the rate-limiting reagent for the offseason reaction here, let’s not do that rehash and instead figure out what the Cubs are doing (or not doing). Of …
The “Deferred Spending” Plan
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 …
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 …
Don’t give up. Or do, I can’t tell you what to do.
The Cubs are as on the brink of elimination as they can be. That the E hasn’t been posted next to their name in the Wild Card standings entering the penultimate game of the season is bittersweet. This officially official do-or-die moment comes at an earlier point than I could have imagined three weeks ago yet much later than I …