Cub Tracks’ games with frontiers

The morning after the morning after. Some chewables, some recycling. Welcome to 2020, where the delusions of grandeur give way to the illusion of adequacy.

Here’s today’s Cubs News and Notes. As always, * means autoplay on, or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used here as sarcasm font.

• Craig Calcaterra (NBC Sports*): Top 25 Baseball Stories of the Decade — No. 1: Chicago Cubs finally win it all. Of course it is. The rest are in the sidebar. Madeleine Kenney has similar thoughts. Even Time Magazine agrees.
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): What’s in store for Cubs under Ross in 2020? “Chicago’s front office is trying to thread the needle between contending now and taking steps to keep the World Series window open for years to come.”
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): 10 Cubs predictions for 2020: Kris Bryant’s future, Yu Darvish’s success and more. Cited in a few of today’s analyses.
• Brendan Miller (Cubs Insider*): Small changes could unlock James Norwood’s high-leverage potential. “... the 26-year-old righty needs to prove he has competent secondary pitches.”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): In need of cheap lefty-hitting infield help, Cubs reportedly pursuing Carlos Asuaje. According to Sahadev Sharma, the Cubs are pursuing the 28-year-old Asuaje.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Nationals “May be ready to make a run at trading for Kris Bryant”. “It’s one big ouroboros...”
• Cubs birthdays: Ray Jacobs, Nick Dumovich, Dave Sappelt. Also notable: Edgar Martinez (HoF).

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading.