We are in like month three of the great Jed Hoyer game of chicken with regard to the big name free agents, though I am still quite confident that this isn’t *it* for the Cubs, they’re just waiting out Scott Boras and other assorted agents in bidding for the remaining free agents, if they’re even interested. Chances are they’re for …
Cubs do the thing, sign Shota Imanaga
The Cubs finally broke the seal and made a major league transaction, signing Japanese lefty starting pitcher Shota Imanaga. The news broke earlier this week, but the details of the Rube Goldberg machine of a contract didn’t take shape until late this evening. Here’s the rundown, with all the conditionals Nominal contract: If no one does anything, Shota Imanaga is …
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 …
Don’t give up. Or do, I can’t tell you what to do.
The Cubs are as on the brink of elimination as they can be. That the E hasn’t been posted next to their name in the Wild Card standings entering the penultimate game of the season is bittersweet. This officially official do-or-die moment comes at an earlier point than I could have imagined three weeks ago yet much later than I …
The Critical Stretch
Well well, folks, another set of series that were not lost! At 69-61 (nice), I believe this is the first time all season the Cubs have been eight games over the mythical .500 mark. I’m looking at the breakdown and it would seem that other than that abysmal month of May, which somewhat coincidentally was when Cody Bellinger went on …
The Season Does Not End Today
The Cubs enter this week having won a hard-fought series against the literal best team in baseball. They also did, once upon a time, win another series against the current best team in the American League as well. They also lost a bunch of winnable series but at this point, if you look at the breakdown, the only bad month …
Fun Cubs Facts After the Reds Series
That was a fun series. Here’s some silly facts after the Cubs significantly improved their run differential. Somehow, those 150 runs represents the most in the National League or maybe even the majors, I forgot which, but it’s a lot. Beating the hell out of the team that used to lead the division up until you beat the snot out …
The Final Countdown (UPDATES)
I think we would all have liked the Cubs to sweep the Cardinals, but sweeps are hard no matter the team, and winning the season series while basically forcing the other guys to sell off all their good players is fun too. But it hasn’t been just the bad teams that the Cubs have done well against, as I remarked …