Cub Tracks: Of Relievers, Doctors, And Accountants

To sum:

1. The Cubs like their new pen.
2. Modern medicine could be the new Moneyball.
3. The Cubs are either cheap, not, thrifty, or smart investors. Or all of them?
   
4. Anthony Rizzo put some accountants to work in the name of a charitable cause close to his heart.

From Comcast SportsNet

• The Cubs say they will wait to put Kyuji Fujikawa in the 9th inning spotlight.

From the Chicago Tribune

• The Cubs shopped in the budget aisle at the winter meetings.
• Phil Rogers 'whispers' should usually stay quiet. But he had an interesting nugget on the Cubs' pursuit of Brandon McCarthy. Turns out the Cubs were disappointed to lose the SP to Arizona since the north-siders offered him the chance to earn more money. But McCarthy chose the higher guaranteed money from Arizona. To me... that tells me even McCarthy isn't confident he can stay healthy. If he thought he was physically sound, wouldn't he have the confidence in himself to earn more cash?

From the Chicago Sun-Times

• The Cubs hope "Mount Fuji" is part of the 'solution'.
• Gordo says the Cubs have ditched Moneyball in favor of....... Medicine Ball.
• The team also saved some cash by acting fast this off-season.
• Cubs' 1B Anthony Rizzo hosted his first fundraiser this weekend... and the support brought him to tears.

From Cubs.com

• The team introduced Kyuji Fujikawa.
• The winter meetings are over and looking over the Cubs' roster probably doesn't inspire much confidence. But Carrie Muskat reminds us the season doesn't start tomorrow... there's still time to make moves.
• The team is optimistic about Rule 5 pick Hector Rondon. Perhaps most encouraging? They plan on him being a big part of the pen, not another Lendy Castillo.
• Here's a bit more on the Rizzo fundraiser, including a video of Anthony speaking.

From ESPNChicago.com

• Carlos Marmol is ready to welcome his new bullpen mate from Japan. Right. Sure he is.
  
• The Cubs left the winter meetings with few new pieces, in part because they did some work beforehand.
• The new beat guy, Jesse Rogers, clearly has the pulse of the fans as he goes on this poorly argued rant. But there was one intriguing thought: the fate of the rebuild isn't on Theo... it rests on Jason McLeod.

From Cubs Den

• If you need a little help getting over the winter meeting blues since the Cubs didn't outspend the Dodgers, you could try reading this.
• A collection of Cub notes.
• The Cubs are cheap! They are tanking! Why can't we win now? If we only add five expensive players, we can compete! Did I cover all the memes? Actually, you don't need big name FAs to try and win.
• After the winter meetings, there are still holes in the Cub roster (you knew that). So where do they go from here?
• And how might recent signings and dealings by teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City Royals, and Tampa Bay Rays impact the Cubs?

From the Daily Herald

• Jim Deshaies dishes unfiltered.
• Barry Rozner "honors" the 20-year anniversary of the Cubs showing Greg Maddux the door.

Today's food for thought

• I thought this was an interesting experiment. It looks at how parents interact with their kids on Facebook.