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 …
New Year Boredom
So here we are, the first post on this here website in the year of our lord 2024. As has been indicated by many media outlets and online personalities, the Cubs have still not made a major league transaction, whether trade or signing, and we are probably a week or so away from torches and pitchforks at the Cubs Convention. …
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 …
Dreamcast 79: Yellow Journalism
Nothing much happened during the Winter Meetings, and then Shohei Ohtani did his thing and the journalistic shit hit the fan, so we got together to talk about the aftermath of the Ohtani decision, the timeline of free agent excitement (or lack thereof), the various media failures that led to Bob Nightengale of all people calling them out on their …
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 …
Eat at Arby’s: Or Just a Quick Look at the Cubs Arbitration Guys
This Friday is the Cubs Convention, and also happens to be the deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to submit their salary figures for 2023 (other key dates remain but this is probably the biggest one coming up). The gist is that if they can’t come to a compromise, the team submits one number, the player submits another, and then …
Diving Into the Bargain Bin
The Cubs have probably finished building their roster via free agency for the most part, and we covered the biggest signing plus the basic plan for 2023 in our last podcast. Based on the official signings and Cots Contracts, the Cubs still have about $20MM to spend (if they choose to) before they hit the first luxury tax threshold, but …
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 …
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 …