Cub Tracks Feels Secure

Today's links in a song lyric: It's all about the money, money, money.

Lots to discuss today, so let's get chatty.

From Comcast SportsNet

• David Kaplan's sources say the Cubs will be spenders this coming winter. But who to spend it on?
• Anthony Rizzo's extension has the club looking to the future. I thought that's what the whole season was about.
• The team will build around Rizzo.
• Even though a sell-off seems iminent, Alfonso Soriano still believes in this team.
• Castro and Rizzo have been extended. But GM Jed Hoyer is still looking for a building block on the mound like the Washington Nationals have with Gio Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg.
• Hoyer also laid out a Washington-esque blueprint.
• Matt Garza is about to make the club make a tough choice.
• The Cubs don't want the big contract to weigh on Edwin Jackson.

From Cubs Den

• Rizzo? Check. Castro? Check. Are Jeff Samardzija and Matt Garza next in line for extensions?
• Some college pitchers who might be 2nd round possibilities.
• Tim linked to this earlier, but feel free to discuss it again. The Cubs are viewed as favorites to sign two of the top international talents later this summer.

• Taking a series from the Nationals showed Dale Sveum something about his club.
• Rizzo describes his new contract as surreal.
• Signing Rizzo is a quick decision on his worth from Cub management.

From the Chicago Sun-Times (can read a paragraph, register to read the rest)

• The Cubs' dreams are alive again after trumping a pair of aces.
• On the other hand, don't expect the Cubs to duplicate the Nats' ascension.
• But the Cubs will try and build piece-by-piece, just like the Nats, anyway.

From the Daily Herald (registry required for all)

• What would Len Kasper do if he were commissioner? So who is going to start manufacturing the WWLKDIHWC bracelets?

Today's food for thought

• An astronaut channels his inner David Bowie.