Here we are at the end of January, trying to avoid work while awaiting the coming of Spring Training. We’ve talked at length about the tall mountain the Cubs must climb to not just be plucky underdogs but actually get into the postseason, and a lot of that is because of the barely above average offense they have constructed. There …
Early-ish Preview of the 2023 Cubs Schedule
The 2023 Cubs schedule was released last August in the time before RC on OV, but the reveal was pretty cool in the time before Musk Melon destroyed Twitter (with a little help from its citizens, of course): I don’t think we can resurrect the Hope Monster just yet because the division is probably not a realistic goal this season, …
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 2023 Hall of Fame Announcement
As per usual, the Baseball Hall of Fame announcement show took two hours to ramp up before they finally announced the balloting results. You can see Ryan Thibodaux’s invaluable public-ish ballot tracker here, but it was unclear whether the leaders, Scott Rolen and Todd Helton, had enough to squeak in. Prior to the ballot announcement, we found out that former …
The Shifting Narrative
I’m bored because nothing major is really happening in terms of baseball transactions, Cubs or otherwise, and spring training is still a few weeks away, so I thought I’d explore the coming rules changes again. Last time, we discussed mostly the pitch clock and how either side could try to game the system to gain whatever advantages they can within …
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 …
Cubs Lineup Readjustment
See, I told you it was too early to set a lineup because just a few days after this post, the Cubs did a thing: The Cubs have agreed to sign Trey Mancini to a two-year contract, according to ESPN’s Jesse Rogers (Twitter link). Mancini, a client of the Frontline agency, can opt out of the deal following the 2023 season if …
Ate at Arby’s, On to the Next
Previously, we talked about the remaining arbitration-eligible Cubs and the impending deadline: That deadline has since passed, and you can see every arbitration case has been settled before they have to bring in the agents and front office bad-mouthers: Checking the Cots Contracts tracker, it would appear the Cubs are about $22MM below the first luxury tax threshold, and as …
A Little Realignment Exercise Because I’m Bored
I recall AC or some other jabroni did this once upon a time but I can’t find it. Anyway, let’s do the news bits first. The Challenges in Oakland and Tampa Bay As has been said numerous times by the oft-reviled commissioner of baseball, MLB expansion to 32 teams is inevitable, but first they have to resolve the situations with …
Probably Too Early Pre-Convention Cubs Lineup Construction
One reason this is probably too early is because of the overall feeling that the Cubs are done tinkering with the position players after they reportedly agreed to a deal with Eric Hosmer (yay) and won’t be in the running for Carlos Correa anymore since he signed with the Twins (dying laughing) and will likely just look for ways to …