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 …
Arbitrary 24-Games-In Cubs Assessment
Once upon a time in the ancient days of January 2023, I made some quasi-predictions of how the Cubs would fare throughout this season since they’d be playing against all 29 other MLB clubs. Suffice it to say that these Cubs have banked a few extra wins than I anticipated en route to their (as of this writing) 14-10 record …
Maybe It’s Time For Some New Blood
Perhaps this is premature, and with the caveat that this is why the Cubs pay Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins and David Ross to think about this stuff while I’m just another keyboard warrior, but I think the Cubs have some, shall we say, roster inefficiencies that need to be taken care of. For the most part, the bullpen is …
One Last Roster Prediction Attempt Before the Official Announcement (UPDATES)
The Cubs have completed the official Cactus League slate, with two more random exhibitions against the White Sox (allegedly still at Sloan Park per the ticket buying thingy on the Cubs dot com website) as the final tuneup before Opening Day on Thursday. I think most of the decisions have been made by now, and while rosters aren’t due in …
More Off Day Thoughts
This represents the final scheduled off day for the Cubs in the Cactus League until the one right before Opening day, and by this time we’re expecting the starting rotation guys to be able to comfortably go five innings, and hoping that the hitters have better performances for the most part, small sample size be damned. There’s also the World …
Taking Stock of the Roster (So Far)
The Cubs have been riding a win streak since we last blogged that would be impressive if these games actually mattered. They don’t get an official off day until next week, but so far it seems everyone is just taking it easy, and a few have already left camp to participate in WBC play so that will give a few …
Where We Stand: Cubs Roster Reset
As you all saw the other day, the Cubs reportedly agreed to a contract with sort-of-consolation-prize shortshop Dansby Swanson, and now have a few more things they need to do if they want to at least pretend to contend. So let’s see what we’ve got! The 40-Man Roster If you look on the official website’s roster page, there are 38 …
The Roster Check Before the Storm
The Cubs did make their transactions prior to the nontender deadline, and the 40-man roster is at 37 for the moment: As we said in prior posts and in the latest Dreamcast, there were some very obvious nontender candidates, and it wasn’t too surprising to see the three names on the announcement. As stated in Bastian’s rundown, Vizcaíno was on …
Quick Cubs Roster Check
By the time this publishes the Cubs might decide to finally designate Jason Heyward for assignment, but for now he’s safe on the 40-man roster, which will likely also be updated soon: Per the prior status check, the roster should be at 36, but for some reason I’m counting 37, and if we remove Esteban Quiroz and Jared Young as …
Cubs opening day roster finalized
Alberto Cabrera DFA, Brian Schlitter takes final spot With the bullpen sorted out (for now), the Cubs opening day roster looks like: C Welington Castillo C John Baker 1B Anthony Rizzo 2B/SS Darwin Barney SS Starlin Castro 3B Mike Olt 2B/3B Luis Valbuena 2B/SS/3B/CF Emilio Bonifacio OF Ryan Kalish OF Ryan Sweeney OF Junior Lake RF Nate Schierholtz RF Justin …