RC and AC talk about the big thing that happened when we were all supposed to be asleep, and some stuff about Christopher Morel, Tom Ricketts, our expectations for this season, and more. 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 …
Tom Ricketts Talks Shop
Looks like Tom Ricketts has seen fit to talk to the media today. My vantage point is that the Cubs have drawn their line in the sand, and Scott Boras has drawn his, now they just have to compromise because Ricketts won’t undermine Jed Hoyer by directly negotiating with Boras. It also does sound like he would very much prefer …
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 …
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 …
Tom Ricketts’ Letter to Fans
Presented without comment, we just got the customary after-season letter from the Cubs chairman, Tom Ricketts, and we can analyze this later but the gist is that they’re going to do stuff to compete again, I suppose. Cubs Fans, This wasn’t the way we wanted the season to end and every year we miss the playoffs is a difficult one. …
The Plan, Revisited
I recall, nearly six months ago when the Cubs basically passed over every impact free agent save for Dansby Swanson (who was a consensus Plan B), we tried to figure out what the plan was even as the sound bytes were flying: The fear then was that this team would be hard pressed to go .500, but I guess most …
Cubs Opening Day 2023 Preview
Well, folks, after a month of generally entertaining (and brisk) Cactus League games, we have mere hours until first pitch on Opening Day at Wrigley Field. The Cubs will face off against the Milwaukee Brewers for a brief home opening series before they head on the road because schedules are wack, and while it is probably true that the Brewers …
A Winning Pitch (We Hope)
We’ve reached the phase right before Spring Training where it’s mostly claims and minor league contracts while the residue of the free agent barrel lingers until teams and agents finally settle on something. For all intents and purposes, the roster is set (very similar to what we did last time, minus some DFAs and outrights and what not) and the …
The Division is a Pipe Dream
Projections are just projections, and as they say, it’s in the hands of the players to play well and buck the narrative. Although it hasn’t been officially published yet, as we all surmised, the Cardinals are likely to repeat as NL Central division champs again: FanGraphs already has the projections for the other four teams in the division, including the …