Yeah this is pretty officially official now:
And also out on the Wrigley Field marquee:
While the Cubs couldn’t swoop in and sign Carlos Correa too because Steve Cohen is a rich crazy bastard, this roster has a chance to be more respectable than the last one we were led to believe would also be respectable (spoiler: it was not, but at least they finished the season in a more entertaining fashion). There needs to be more additions, but the Cubs at least have changed the narrative somewhat to broadcast that they have money to spend and that they intend to compete in one of the worst divisions in baseball, as they well should. Now we wait for spring training and Opening Day to see what this team ends up doing and whether there will be motivation to add at the trade deadline for a change. Taking a wait and see approach.
Cover image thanks to Marquee Sports Network.
UPDATE: The Marquee folks have a bunch of these snippets up and I’m sure there will be a video soon, here’s Dansby on being able to work in the same town as the wife:
UPDATE AGAIN: Oh hai video
Comments
Cubs are better at Photoshop than I am. I miss GBTS
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I miss our old “Welcome, who the fuck are you” banner we had for new signing posts here (dying laughing). Or maybe that was ACB. I went looking for it recently (in the OV sense) and couldn’t find it.
berseliusQuote Reply
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Oh man if you have it I don’t mind switching it out, seems like a worthwhile adventure to hunt down
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Hmm, I guess the other guys don’t mind that they got Zoom calls while Dansby gets the table and jersey ceremony
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
The Cubs probably offered, I bet it was up to them to decide if they really wanted to travel to Chicago in the middle of Winter (dying laughing).
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
It looks like his wife plays for the Chicago Red Stars, so maybe they already have a place in town.
berseliusQuote Reply
On the Correa situation
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/12/scott-boras-comments-on-carlos-correa-situation.html
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Updated with some shit
Rice CubeQuote Reply
They already did the conference and everything so Jon Heyman can’t hurt us anymore, but numbers are good
Rice CubeQuote Reply
He’s wearing #7 for those who care
Rice CubeQuote Reply
He did tell a cool story about his grandpa, who died the day after Dansby’s wedding, loving the Cubs because of WGN. That was pretty cool.
Crane Kenney later told reporters if it were up to him no child outside of the greater Chicago metropolitan area would ever be able to tell such a story again.
andcountingQuote Reply
As others have said, the WGN name drop while on Marquee is some mad irony
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I would love to get that Cubs player phone number spreadsheet to see if some of them want to hang out on our shitty podcast (dying laughing)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Heh, he did his own research*
*about the Cubs organization and stuff, not about vaccines (that’s a different story probably)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Cubs never retired Mark DeRosa’s number? Smdh.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Perkins,
#cursed
berseliusQuote Reply
There are yellow checkmarks and blue checkmarks on Twitter now and it’s squicking me out
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
What are you, a secret Ohio State fan? That’s against our TOS and will require a suspension.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Coincidentally, blue and gold are the colors of my alma mater
Rice CubeQuote Reply
So this is a thing that is available for our reference
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Good luck, please stay safe and healthy
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Good gravy, Correa was literally about to head to the conference before they canceled
https://twitter.com/emmabaccellieri/status/1605664566104449027?t=yf-9HAyYNTenKKtn5m6nmQ&s=19
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I don’t think, barring an injury or other physical development keeping Correa from playing this season, there’s any way the Giants emerge unscathed from this one. They just look so stupid. They look like they bid $350 million on a yacht but had to back out because they didn’t think they’d win the auction.
andcountingQuote Reply
I mean, if you’re a free agent right now, are you returning calls from the Giants? Granted, there’s nothing they can say about what gave them pause, but they’ve let the most media-savvy agent in the sport craft the narrative without any interference. And the story he’s telling matches what we all watched: total silence from the Giants from the cancellation of the press conference on. How embarrassing.
andcountingQuote Reply
Interesting article –> https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-pitchers-discuss-adapting-to-pitch-clock-in-2023
I do wonder how it will affect the hitters now when they don’t have as much time to adjust their batting gloves and cups, didn’t think about it as much before even though it was sort of there in the back of my mind
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
As a regular MiLB attendee, I’m 100% behind the pitch clock. It’s a vast improvement not just for time of game, but for pace and action.
Might have even made Steve Trachsel watchable.
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
I suppose my follow up question is whether you noticed any apprehension on the part of the batter since, relatively speaking, every pitch is now a quick pitch? Or since they’re brought up on this pitch clock early anyway, they’re used to it and it doesn’t matter?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I noticed a lot less preening from batters.
Their pads magically stayed tight enough between pitches.
None of the pitchers had issues that I saw. But it was all low A. However, I announce HS bball without a pitch clock, and MiLB pitchers work faster than some HS pitchers. I think the conditioning thing that Suter talked about in the link is legit.
BVSQuote Reply
berselius,
O – H!
BVSQuote Reply
Made some cosmetic changes to the Podbean site –> https://worldseriesdreaming.podbean.com/
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Aaaaaaand just saving this for myself so I don’t forget once we get this one done before the holidays…
IIRC whatever podcast plugin we have on wordpress did the heavy lifting.I think all I had to do to get the first of the new podcasts to show up was
1. Mark it as a ‘podcast’ category in the post
2. Upload the mp3 of the podcast to our media library
3. Add that mp3 file to the post content body (I think I just dragged it in or something?)
Then apple podcasts picked it up.
It looks like Rice’s PodBean embedder code does not get picked up by apple – I think that wordpress needs to know where it is and be the one that hosts it to appear in the RSS. I tried doing this after the fact with the last podcast and the feed didn’t catch it – I think it must get triggered with a new post.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
BVS,
I imagine if they now have the advance warning and they have all of spring training to work out the kinks, that should alleviate some of the issues and growing pains, so to speak.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
*hiss*
berseliusQuote Reply
This was good ($)
https://theathletic.com/4024383/2022/12/21/giants-carlos-correa-disaster/
berseliusQuote Reply
IO
My mom was born and raised in Columbus. Nothing I could do.
Now I have a nephew playing at Michigan. It’s kind of bizarre.
andcountingQuote Reply
Best hack I ever heard is that you can read any athletic article in full in safari by clicking “show in reader”
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
Shhhhh, they do need to make some money you know
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I do not know that.
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
In all seriousness a subscription based model is what newspapers used to rely on and if one is to have a media not completely beholden to corporate overlords, they do need some support (dying laughing)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
In all seriousness, they are beholden to corporate overlords.
andcountingQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
The Athletic is owned by the New York Times. It was founded with the unmasked intent to put local papers and their sports pages out of business.
The sportswriting is good. You might be confusing that with the company being a good business or its writers depending on your subscription money.
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
Ah, I recall the NYT buyout but not the other part. Steal away!
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
(dying laughing)
andcountingQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
It’s very disorienting. It really is a great source of journalism. I very recently let my subscription expire. It’s no moral objection I’m just broke. (dying laughing)
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
I always wanted to subscribe to them and BPro and Baseball America, but family priorities dictate I get streaming services instead, plus I have to support my not-totally-ludicrous LEGO habit
Rice CubeQuote Reply
The Orioles just traded for James McCann to…back up Rutschman, I guess?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
McCann owed 24M over next 2 yr. Orioles pay only 5M which saves Mets 9.5M after tax. The remaining 19M (36.1M) is still part of the Mets AAV for luxury tax, right?
BVSQuote Reply
Only had one C on the 40man, so yes, I guess.
Honestly I’d have taken McCann as a backup or timeshare with Gomes for $5M, especially since I’d only be sending a PTBNL to the Mets.
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
For that matter, I’d take Eduardo Escobar to split time at 3B for $10M over the next 2 years.
They can have Yohendrick Piñango.
BVSQuote Reply
andcounting,
I didn’t know that history from the Athletic either. But if their goal is to kill local sportswriting, they have a ways to go. They don’t cover Coastal Carolina worth squat, and that’s our local team. So is the Pelicans and the Athletic doesn’t cover MiLB. Plus SC is crazy about HS sports and that isn’t covered, but the local paper covers it almost more than other news.
Sure, the local paper has little coverage on Clemson or USC or the Carolina Panthers and whatever NBA team is in Charlotte, but you can get that online lots of places. I think most rabid CU Tiger fans follow blogs.
BVSQuote Reply
Yeah, I think it was a bit of bravado to think they would really do it. Mainly I think they just poached a lot of good talent from a lot of major markets. It’s almost like the road to the good place was paved with bad intentions. (dying laughing)
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
The quote above is barf, but hard to quantify how much is poaching. IIRC a lot of folks were laid off before the athletic hired them, including Robothal. ESPN at least is much more video focused than it used to be, and it’s not like people went to Fox Sports to read anything. To me it felt like TA was moving in to fill a niche that most of the other media companies didn’t seem to value that much anymore, and has been a lifeline for a lot of reporters.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Ah yes, I know that Sahadev and Mooney for example were laid off from their respective outlets before they found footholds at the Athletic
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Getting bought by NYT was great for them but I’m still not sure of the long term viability. It’s not like I can open their books but it sure feels like they’re doing the usual SV model of operating at a gigantic loss for a few years and hoping they grab enough audience share that they can squeeze later. I’m still not convinced of its long term viability at the scale they are operating at even with the much larger NYT as a buffer. I’d be happy to be wrong though!
berseliusQuote Reply
Speaking of the Athletic, rhymes with schmollusion
https://twitter.com/StephenMeyerRDC/status/1605922099670839296?t=31imrWd9JpUSci250EfAwA&s=19
Rice CubeQuote Reply
berselius,
Yeah, I didn’t mean to imply poaching writers was the sole recruitment tactic, just that it was the closest thing to “bleeding local papers dry” that happened.
Overall I think it’s a great product in a sports journalism world that largely pivoted to video and hasn’t looked back. I don’t think they’re the worst people in the world, and a subscription with them is a fair exchange. I just don’t ever look at them as someone I would or should support and won’t ever lose a blink of sleep over reading the occasional article for free.
andcountingQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Why would anyone ever say that out loud? (dying laughing)
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
They were speaking on condition of anonymity allegedly, I don’t know, I didn’t pay to read the rest of it
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
“No, it’s not a collusion. It’s a cartel. Totally different thing.”
PerkinsQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I get that, but if this person identifies as a collusion denier, why would they, even anonymously, say any of the rest of that? I have severe abdominal laughing cramps. That’s like saying, “There’s no climate change, but there’s a reason the polar ice caps are melting.” Or, “No, we didn’t have an affair, but there’s a reason she’s pregnant.”
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
I’m probably their dream subscriber – I signed on way back in the day as a show of support for Sahadev and have mostly kept it up, but barely read anything and only really consume their free podcasts (dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
Like, if it were a person who was disgusted with the whole thing I would understand. It’s the “there’s no collusion” part that is throwing me because it doesn’t sound like intentional irony, you know? This sounds like someone who is simultaneously licking the owners’ boots and unintentionally stabbing them in the back with a quote that could end up doing more damage to them than he foresees being done to Cohen. It’s wild.
andcountingQuote Reply
berselius,
If you wish to share your login info for us then we can start reading and commenting at will #TotallyNotIdentityTheft
Rice CubeQuote Reply
andcounting,
Given the persuasion of most front office people I imagine their philosophy for saying the quiet stuff out loud reflects that of the current iteration of their political party
Rice CubeQuote Reply
*SNORT*
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Just got the “Dansby Swanson is here” email from the Cubs, guess they want my money again
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Perkins,
Choose your favorite
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Obligatory comment #69
#nice
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Just another form of collusion.
BVSQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I gotta start working “fraudulent artifice” into everyday conversation.
PerkinsQuote Reply
The nice things about the Athletic picking up Sahadev is that it kept his voice in the game. Bruce Miles retired. Rick Morrisey was still blathering on. Meanwhile, the Tribune continued to employ whatever hack they had, who we complained about re MB21, Jacque Jones, etc.
BVSQuote Reply
andcounting,
Rice Cube,
Reminds me of an old Mandinka proverb:
Minning minning tafal tafal (dying laughing)ube labanna.
Roughly, one by one the stars come out, or the truth eventually reveals itself/true colors show.
BVSQuote Reply
Perkins,
After comments 69-70 I read this as “fraudulent orifice” (dying laughing). Smh at myself.
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
I think it was Meghan Montemurro for a bit before she moved on and now it’s Maddie Lee, I can’t read because most of the time it’s behind a paywall but I don’t see nearly as much complaining about them as I think they both do a fine job
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Freshly deposited excrement –> http://www.obstructedview.net/rhymes-with-schmollusion/
Rice CubeQuote Reply