As the hot stove remains relatively frigid, and rumors swirl of the Cubs potentially pursuing Christian Yelich or Lorenzo Cain in the right deal, there are still elements of a potential 2018 roster to examine. And as things stand right now, the player that is most likely qualified to man the position in which either of […]
Category: Articles
American Baseball Continues To Mirror Its Home
Seemingly every winter, we are inundated with stories and curiosity about how the free agent market has developed. With this one being particularly slow, and involving a rather unimpressive crop of free agents, there has been amazement at just how little is going on. We have seen the GM Meetings and Winter meetings pass, and […]
Collusion by Any Other Name Would Smell as Foul
It’s January 8th, and hardly any free agents have inked contracts with teams, new or old. It’s January 8th, and the Cubs have a Jake Arrieta-sized hole in their rotation. It’s January 8th, and all of the biggest names on the market have been left in the cold by a slow-developing offseason. Really, the offseason […]
Slow market could bring Jake Arrieta back to Cubs
Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is gone, and the New Year has begun, yet none of the top-tier free agent starting pitchers or position players have been signed. Many around the game believed that after the Giancarlo Stanton and Shohei Otani sweepstakes resolved the market would open up and some of these players would come off […]
Cubs Offseason Target: Austin Jackson
The calendar has turned over into 2018, and the Chicago Cubs have made solid moves to bolster their starting rotation and bullpen. However, even after those additions, the front office still has not addressed the smaller, less pressing gaps on the bench. One of those gaps is the role of extra outfielder, a job occupied successfully by […]
A Game With The 1890s Cubs
On January 31st, 1898, writing about Cap Anson’s retirement from baseball, the Chicago Tribune declared, “an epoc of baseball is finished,” and, like the great prophets, Anson was “left without honor in his own land.” Though the decade obviously continued for another two years, the 1890s Chicago baseball team was, in the eyes of the […]
Yu Darvish: 2500 Leagues (and Innings) Under The Sea
After a brief spasm of activity where the Cubs filled out a spot in the rotation with Tyler Chatwood and a couple spots in the bullpen, we’re all sitting around watching the water boil again. Or not boil, however that phrase goes. I guess not boil, which is even more boring than watching it boil. […]
2017 Player Profile: Adbert Alzolay
The Cubs minor leagues have produced some great bats in recent years: Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Ian Happ, Albert Almora, Javy Baez. Where the Cubs have struggled to develop talent has been on the pitching staff. Where that might change is top prospect Adbert Alzolay. The right-hander, who signed out of Venezuela in 2012, has […]
The Double-A Test Is Coming for 6 Touted Cubs Prospects in 2018
Advancing to the Class AA Southern League is a huge test for many of the Cubs’ top prospects. It is a place where the prospects are a little bit more polished than the levels before. In the past 10 years, there has been a trend in the majors of players skipping Triple-A after success at […]
Mike Montgomery Might Have a Point
With the exception of anyone prescient enough to copyright “#2ELLOFF” or “#DEBT2ERVICE,” MLB’s offseason has been a glacially slow one thus far. But there has been one undeniable benefit for all fans: we now have the most accurate metric in baseball history for measuring the excitement level of a given year’s winter meetings… Year Number […]