As per usual, the Baseball Hall of Fame announcement show took two hours to ramp up before they finally announced the balloting results. You can see Ryan Thibodaux’s invaluable public-ish ballot tracker here, but it was unclear whether the leaders, Scott Rolen and Todd Helton, had enough to squeak in. Prior to the ballot announcement, we found out that former …
The Shifting Narrative
I’m bored because nothing major is really happening in terms of baseball transactions, Cubs or otherwise, and spring training is still a few weeks away, so I thought I’d explore the coming rules changes again. Last time, we discussed mostly the pitch clock and how either side could try to game the system to gain whatever advantages they can within …
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 …
Cohen You Crazy Bastard
I’m sure you know by now, but just in case you just woke up, the New York Mets swooped in to sign Carlos Correa because why the fuck not: In a shocking development, Carlos Correa has agreed to join the Mets for a 12-year, $315MM contract, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports. Correa had previously agreed to a 13-year, $350MM deal with …
Where We Stand: Cubs Roster Reset
As you all saw the other day, the Cubs reportedly agreed to a contract with sort-of-consolation-prize shortshop Dansby Swanson, and now have a few more things they need to do if they want to at least pretend to contend. So let’s see what we’ve got! The 40-Man Roster If you look on the official website’s roster page, there are 38 …
Dansby Swanson Rumors?
Just an FYI, sometimes Kaplan knows things… Update: Passan confirms Update, with numbers
Is There a Plan?
At the beginning of this offseason, we knew the Cubs needed the following: And that was just the bare minimum. A few weeks later, with many big names coming off the board, the Cubs still need: That really depends on how much you think Cody Bellinger bounces back to at least solid-to-All-Star level production, what you make of Jameson Taillon’s …
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 …
The Roster Check Before the Storm
The Cubs did make their transactions prior to the nontender deadline, and the 40-man roster is at 37 for the moment: As we said in prior posts and in the latest Dreamcast, there were some very obvious nontender candidates, and it wasn’t too surprising to see the three names on the announcement. As stated in Bastian’s rundown, Vizcaíno was on …