OK, so given the stuff from the last thread and taking into account what we’ve already considered for the just-prior-to-Cactus-League-finale roster guess, I think we might just have it this time! So while we wait for Shohei Ohtani (and possibly his new, vetted non-gambling interpreter) to read a statement or whatever, here we go: Catchers (2) Yan Gomes – primary …
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. …
Dreamcast 84: A Fun Guy On Third
RC & AC talk around Oscars night, which featured a lot of Oppenheimer and a pretty awesome musical number, as we also discuss the happenings around Cubs spring training and MLB: You can check out the podcast page or just click on the embedded players below. You can also use the sidebar to get to our Apple Podcast pages and leave a …
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 …
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 …
Arbitrary 24-Games-In Cubs Assessment
Once upon a time in the ancient days of January 2023, I made some quasi-predictions of how the Cubs would fare throughout this season since they’d be playing against all 29 other MLB clubs. Suffice it to say that these Cubs have banked a few extra wins than I anticipated en route to their (as of this writing) 14-10 record …
Maybe It’s Time For Some New Blood
Perhaps this is premature, and with the caveat that this is why the Cubs pay Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins and David Ross to think about this stuff while I’m just another keyboard warrior, but I think the Cubs have some, shall we say, roster inefficiencies that need to be taken care of. For the most part, the bullpen is …
One Last Roster Prediction Attempt Before the Official Announcement (UPDATES)
The Cubs have completed the official Cactus League slate, with two more random exhibitions against the White Sox (allegedly still at Sloan Park per the ticket buying thingy on the Cubs dot com website) as the final tuneup before Opening Day on Thursday. I think most of the decisions have been made by now, and while rosters aren’t due in …
More Off Day Thoughts
This represents the final scheduled off day for the Cubs in the Cactus League until the one right before Opening day, and by this time we’re expecting the starting rotation guys to be able to comfortably go five innings, and hoping that the hitters have better performances for the most part, small sample size be damned. There’s also the World …
Taking Stock of the Roster (So Far)
The Cubs have been riding a win streak since we last blogged that would be impressive if these games actually mattered. They don’t get an official off day until next week, but so far it seems everyone is just taking it easy, and a few have already left camp to participate in WBC play so that will give a few …