Cub Tracks Parks It

Pregame:

• Sortable Stat Tracker.
• Spring Training Countdown.
• fangraphs cubs.
• baseball reference cubs.
• Today in baseball history.

The Battery:

• Patrick Mooney (CSN Chicago): How the Cubs rebuilt their pitching staff without David Price. "You can have impact pitching without necessarily having all household names (or) bona fide top-of-the-rotation guys," Theo Epstein said.
• Michael Clair (Cut4): The top 10 slowest pitches of 2015.  Chris Denorfia makes the list, and checks it twice. The knuckleball, a gift that keeps on giving.
• Ted Berg (USA Today): Cubs have #1 starting staff in MLB. All 30 staffs ranked.
• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation): Jason Hammel worked to be ready to take off again in 2016. He's in the best shape of his life. "Hopefully, the changes he’s making this offseason show up at the end of the year and Hammel can finish the season strong."
• Shawn Ramsey (Fox Sports): Cubs still determining Kyle Schwarber's best fit defensively. While everyone seems to have an opinion on where Schwarber would be best suited on the field, Cubs catching coach Mike Borzello believes his future is behind the plate.
• Chicago Cubs Online: Long days on tap for Kyle Schwarber. He reports with the pitchers and catchers.
• Rob Willer (DRays Bay): Rays trade target: Cubs catcher Willson Contreras. Doesn't discuss what bodies might exchange locations but talks about Contreras' value.

Infield:

• Tony Andracki (CSN Chicago): Dan Vogelbach can't worry about the DH or Anthony Rizzo. "Since losing weight that year, it's really helped me in every aspect of the game. I'm healthy, I feel good and I'm ready for the season." He's in the best shape of his life, and raring to go.
• Tony Andracki (CSN Chicago): Anthony Rizzo is spending his offseason hanging out with the Rock and Flo Rida. Rizzo's also in the best shape of his life (tm), and obviously wrestling with the repercussions of his fame.
• Rizzo pulls off epic videobomb of Flo Rida. Even though the cameras focused front and center, that didn’t mean Rizzo was going to stay out of the spotlight.
• Ben Zobrist joins David Kaplan and Dan Dakich [AUDIO].
• Kyle Thele (Chicago Sun-Times): 34 years ago today, the Cubs traded for a Hall of Famer. Remembering #23.
• Jim Callis (MLB.com): 2016 prospect watch: top ten shortstops. Gleyber Torres makes the list.
• Mike Rosenbaum (MLB.com): 2016 prospect watch: top ten third basemen. Jeimer Candelario makes the list.
• Kyle Thele (Chicago Sun-Times): Kris Bryant is one of the best-looking players in baseball. Anthony Rizzo also makes the list.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Anthony Rizzo ranked fourth among MLB first basemen. Discussion of Rizzo's position and "new" CBS rating system.

Outfield:

• Bruce Levine (CBS Chicago): Cubs, White Sox continue to express interest in Dexter Fowler. "The Cubs are still the most likely landing spot for Fowler," one baseball executive whose club has also followed the Fowler free-agent process said. "He should have taken the Cubs’ qualifying offer and moved into the free agent class of 2017."
• Anthony Castrovince (MLB.com): Dexter Fowler's five best fits in free agency. "Cubs: Kind of a wild card, but still a realistic one."
• Doug Mittler (ESPN): The market for Dexter Fowler. Building on Castrovince's article.
• David N. Wilson (Baseball Essential): Who will Jorge Soler be in 2016? "On a team where nearly every player is a star in his own right, Jorge Soler could be the sleeper break-out player of the year." That would be nice. I would like that plenty.

In the dugout:

• Jesse Rogers (ESPN): Good news for Joe Maddon: DH not likely coming to NL soon. "I like NL rules," he said via text on Monday evening. "Always have. Never been worried about pitcher hitting or not."

Front office:

• Patrick Mooney (CSN Chicago): Why the Cubs spent big this winter (and won't be major players next offseason). "Next winter doesn’t look that great," Theo Epstein said. "(That’s) one of the reasons (why) we were aggressive this winter with bringing in the free agents that we did."
• Jim Bowden (ESPN Insider -- $): 10 players who deserve extensions. "The Cubs created a big fuss when they delayed Kris Bryant's start to last season to gain an extra year of contract control. So why does Bowden say Chicago should sign him big now?"
• George Castle (Chicago Baseball Museum): The Cubs' TV rights bubble [.pdf file].
• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation): Cubs will add second Dominican summer team. This helps to offset the loss of the Venezuelan league.

In the broadcast booth:

• Phil Thompson (Chicago Tribune): Harry Caray featured in MLB Network documentary. "CSI" actor and die-hard Cubs fan William Petersen will narrate "Holy Cow! The Story of Harry Caray, 8 p.m. CT Feb. 2."

Miscellaneous:

• Kyle Thele (Chicago Sun-Times): The Cubs could put Las Vegas in a world of hurt.  "Our biggest risk so far in World Series futures has been on the Cubs and then the Giants," said Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook assistant manager Jeff Sherman…
• North Side Irish (Cubs Den): Around the league: More changes? Kyle Schwarber at third base, Gleyber Torres, Jeimer Candelario, Lazarito, Bronson Arroyo, Ian Desmond and more. Wide-ranging discussion of a number of subjects.
• The expansion of Cubs Park. "Here’s a May 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics detailing the slicing and moving of the stands to create a larger ballpark."
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider): 10 bold predictions for 2016. "Keep in mind that I’m not getting Baylessian on you here." They're all possible. Some are more likely than others.
• Craig Edwards (Viva El Birdos): Cardinals -- Cubs is now the best rivalry in baseball. "No single factor makes a rivalry great, but competition is certainly key in increasing the attention and intensity of that rivalry."
• Fox Sports: Why the Cubs are favored in the National League. [VIDEO]

Food for thought:

• Entanglement is spooky, but not action at a distance. No, not a come-on from Craigslist. Particle physics. Two-part article about the phenomenon of quantum entanglement.
• Consciousness may be the result of carefully-managed chaos. "There is new meaning created by the interaction of things," says Enzo Tagliazucchi, a physicist at the Institute for Medical Psychology in Kiel, Germany.
• Scientists have discovered the largest known solar system. This 'lonely planet' orbits its star at a distance of approximately 1 trillion kilometers. But it orbits, and is still therefore entangled.
  

We're all in this together. You go first.