This offseason the Chicago Cubs, every other team, and every Major League Baseball fan on the planet will be focusing on the free agencies of Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. They are two all-world talents, who can alter the course of whichever team(s) gets them to sign on the dotted line. Imagining a Cubs lineup […]
Tag: Free Agency
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 […]
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 […]
Jake Arrieta and a Path to a Resolution
The first days of spring training are always ripe with storylines. A player is suddenly in the best shape of their life. Some are looked on as potential breakout stars or prospects. Others, like Arrieta, turn to their increasingly murky contract situations. Over the next few months, the idea of an extension will loom over […]
Arthur Goldberg and The Reserve Clause
“After 12 years in the major leagues, I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes” – Curt Flood Arthur Goldberg was born in Chicago to immigrant Jewish parents from Ukraine. Although his father was highly educated, he could only find work as a […]
C.J. Wilson: Potential Offseason Target
Pitching rotations can appear to be sure things when it’s the offseason or even when it’s spring training, but they have a nagging penchant for never finishing the same way that they started. Teams need depth in this way, and sometimes it comes from within the organization, and sometimes it must be acquired from without. The […]
Travis Wood: Potential Offseason Target
Position: Left-Handed Reliever 2016 Stats: 61 IP, 18.7 K%, 9.5 BB%, 2.95 ERA, 5.75 DRA, -0.5 WARP How He Fits: Travis Wood was the longest-tenured Cub on the 2016 championship team, and he was arguably one of the leaders in establishing the team-first culture of flexibility that Joe Maddon instilled in Chicago upon arriving in […]
Kenley Jansen: Potential Offseason Target
Position: Closer 2016 Stats: 1.83 ERA, 1.48 FIP, 1.95 DRA, 104/11 K/BB, 2.4 WARP How He Fits: Highlight 2016 Stats. CNTL-C. CNTL-V. Done. Big news, guys. I’ve crunched the numbers, run the simulations, and it turns out that the Cubs can probably find a place for the best relief pitcher in baseball. Kenley Jansen’s statistics […]
Controllable SP Trade Targets: The Affordable Edition
For the past couple of years, many of us have pointed out the lack of controllable starting pitchers in the Cubs organization. With the minor league system still lacking impact arms at the upper levels, the Cubs might have to look outside the organization to acquire controlled arms. Given the extremely steep price of proven […]
The Cubs and the Next Few Offseasons
Cubs fans are rightly excited about the upcoming season. It’s all that most want to think about, and, really, after years of thinking about the future, it absolutely makes sense to enjoy the present. Front offices don’t have that luxury, though. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned about the Cubs’ brain trust over the past several years, it […]