All of the Stuff

After just missing out on Japanese SP Tatsuya Imai, the Cubs offseason finally emerged from its slumber with two big moves. The TLDR versions: Cubs acquire RHP Edward Cabrera from Miami for OF Owen Caissie, A-ball SS Cristian Hernandez, and DSL OF Edgardo De Leon. Cubs sign 3B Alex Bregman to [...]

Until late Wednesday, afternoon, the Cubs‘ offseason had been something of a snoozer. In need of pitching depth, especially on the starting staff, and an offensive boost, team president Jed Hoyer and his front office had thus far stuck to lower tier moves to the frustration and dismay of some [...]

There was a claim today as the Cubs finally seemed to make some use of their roster space, as Chicago North claimed pitcher Ryan Rolison off waivers from the South Siders. Far be it for me, a weakling, to say he’s a soft-tosser, but a lefty chucking low-90s can be [...]

Here we are in 2026 (barely), and very little has happened since we discussed all the things that the Cubs should probably do in the last podcast. We do know that the Cubs got beat out for Tatsuya Imai because the Astros would give yearly opt-outs, which Jed Hoyer seems [...]

Here we are at another holiday break, and as we talked about on the last pod, there really is no incentive for teams and players to sign early, so that’s why we’ve only really seen relievers go off the board so far. For the Cubs, they should probably sign Bregman, [...]

The Cubs had previously signed Phil Maton to a short deal, and now appear to be about to do the same for Hoby Milner. Since they barely did anything for the Rule 5 Draft and only took players in the minor league phases, the Cubs had plenty of roster space [...]

It is that time again, when the writers release their Hall of Fame Ballot. This is separate from the Veterans Committee considering the Contemporary ballot, so let’s take a look at both… Writers Ballot The new guys: Ryan Braun, Shin-Soo Choo, Edwin Encarnación, Gio González, Alex Gordon, Cole Hamels, Matt Kemp, Howie Kendrick, [...]

There was some speculation a while back and some media folks jumped the gun a bit, but it appears the decision is official now: Soft tossing pitchers don’t last very long in this era of velocity, but Kyle Hendricks found a way to make it work for most of his tenure [...]

By now we are a couple days into the baseball game drought between the championship series and the World Series. I assume this is to take advantage of Friday and Saturday, and to avoid Sunday due to the NFL, but that is a larger gap than I recall since there [...]

On April 3rd I posted some Over Unders for the heck of it. What good are those if you don’t follow up later. So here we go, with results for the regular season unless noted. Also I’m noting how well those who guessed did, because this site is accountable, folks! [...]

Tonight, the ALCS begins, and that should be exciting because of two teams that haven’t had a lot of postseason success in a while. One, the Toronto Blue Jays, hasn’t won the World Series in over 30 years. The other, the Seattle Mariners, have never been to one. But like [...]

MILWAUKEE — The last two games of the Cubs‘ 2025 season typified what this team could look like when they were at their best and what they could look like when they weren’t. Game 4 provided one of the most electric environments at Wrigley Field in close to a decade, [...]

I’m rather grateful that none of the divisional series in either league were sweeps, and particularly happy that the Cubs are still going. Friday is the final game for the AL side, as the Tigers try to advance to the championship series against the Mariners in Seattle after pissing away [...]

The Oxford English Dictionary‘s oldest recorded use of the word “resilience” is in a nearly 400-year old history book by Francis Bacon. The way the word has been used since then has evolved, and the OED tracks those updates, right up to the most recent, in an academic article from [...]

This being the final day of 2025 with four MLB contests, figured we would look at what’s going on… Tigers versus Mariners – going back to Seattle for the winner-take-all Game 5 after Detroit tied the series in the early game. Cubs versus Brewers – hoping for good news in Game [...]

TLDR: Maybe don’t start a guy on short rest who has pitched more innings this year than his past three years combined on short rest? Since time has no meaning, my brain didn’t twig to the fact that Boyd was starting on short rest until about an hour before game time, [...]

I mentioned that the Cubs were in an elimination game yesterday to a non-sportsball fan friend and they asked if this was for all the marbles. Well, it was just for one marble. The Cubs won and now they are on to the next marble. And the discourse. Personally I’ve [...]

I assume at some point berselius will do a preview for the NLDS matchup, or not, it could go either way, but the Cubs did earn a bus trip up to Milwaukee. Over the course of 2025, we’ve been partially annoyed about a trip to Tokyo, the pissing away of [...]

And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it Another version of me, I was in it I wave goodbye to the end of beginning -Djo, End of Beginning Chicago Cubs fans love to talk prospects and it’s known throughout the game about how driven this fanbase is discussing the entire organization. Cubs fans [...]

On Monday, Baseball America released their yearly minor league park factors update. If you’re a giant nerd like I am, it’s one of your favorite days of the long and cold offseason. The article, put together by Matt Eddy, takes a look at all 120 ballparks and sorts them into the [...]