Cubs Stuff

I was in Chicago for work last month. Sadly, the conference organizers selected a date before the season started, but at least it was soon enough that they had started up the Wrigley tours again! I kicked myself for not thinking of doing this last summer, when I was in [...]

After a much-needed early-season Cubs series victory, and of course we would’ve liked more, and also seeing what’s been going on around the league, I had some random thoughts that could be fun to ponder in the comments and/or the pod, whichever works better… ABS Shenanigans – We know the league [...]

Sporadic previewing is even more sporadic due to travel, natch. The Angels are coming off a split in Houston, and like the Nats they are not projected to be particularly good this year. Case in point, in Saturday’s loss, one of their relievers put up a fun 1 IP, 6 [...]

OK, so by now you know that PCA got extended and at some point the Cubs will also officially announce that Nico Hoerner was extended. These aren’t exactly cheap either, and through both inflation and the nature of these types of contracts, both of these guys will have gotten more [...]

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Money doesn’t solve everything. But it might make moving past an Opening Day loss to the Washington Nationals a bit easier for second baseman Nico Hoerner and the Chicago Cubs. Hoerner, 28, finished Thursday’s opener 0-for-4 before word of an agreed-upon six-year contract extension broke shortly after the Cubs’ 10-4 loss. [...]

So I guess the roster decisions weren’t a complete surprise relative to what I figured most of the offseason since the Cubs brought most of the band back. The only real monkey wrench was Seiya Suzuki getting hurt in the WBC and essentially missing the first home stand. With the [...]

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I’ve started reading Project Hail Mary (I guess I’ll watch the movie eventually, everyone seems to like it so far) and I find it to be a fun science fiction tale though I’m only about a fifth of the way through. Less than a fifth into what we hope is [...]

On a 2-1 count with a runner on and two outs in the fourth inning, Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong let loose on a hanging curveball from St. Louis Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas and sent it 396-feet – about 14 rows deep into the right-center bleachers. It was his fifth career [...]

So Team USA defeated Team Dominican Republic last night, but it was not without controversy. It would seem most folks agree they’ll implement ABS challenges in the next WBC in 2029, and while I don’t know this for sure, I’m guessing they didn’t do WBC because a lot of the [...]

It’s not often that you get to credit Ken Griffey Jr. for something that isn’t a baseball feat, but like his former teammate Randy Johnson, Griffey has become a photographer and the featured image here is his, in service of Getty Images. Great job, Junior! Anyway, World Baseball Classic stuff… We’ll [...]

MESA, Ariz. — There’s growing hype around Cubs shortstop prospect Jefferson Rojas, and roughly two weeks into spring training games, it’s well-earned. Rojas’ home run swing is drawing some comparisons to the likes of Justin Upton, and he’s making plays up the middle that Nico Hoerner has described as “Dansby-esque.” This [...]

On the last pod, other than the part where we can’t watch a fun WBC exhibition between Team Italy and the Cubs (but for some reason could watch the Reds broadcast of the destruction yesterday on Marquee), we did ponder the way the edges of the roster would shape out, [...]

MESA, Ariz. — The light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to show. Justin Steele shared on social media on Saturday that he had been cleared by Dr. Keith Meister for full baseball activities without restrictions. This weekend marked Steele’s final checkup with Dr. Meister, and it means [...]

I’m not even mad, just impressed (dying laughing). The short version:Suzuki is batting with Shaw on 2B and Bregman on 1B. Seiya bloops one to right that falls in. Shaw slows down thinking it might be caught and ends up on 3B. Bregman ends up there with him, thinking Shaw would [...]

With very little having been done since the Cubs got their last couple big pieces (there were a few minor league signings that were intriguing for the bench though), it would appear that the club is ready to just enter spring training as is, which honestly isn’t a disastrous plan [...]

This coming July, we already found out that Jeff Kent will be joining the hallowed halls of Cooperstown. Manny Ramirez is going to drop off the ballot, and some other steroid era guys are running out of time as well. But based on the ballot tracking all winter, it seems [...]

I swear to some deity if the Cubs trade Nico Hoerner or whatever right after I publish this… Anyway, we talked on the last pod about the addition of a couple of key pieces (berselius wrote it up here) and we now have a pretty good look at the roster that [...]