Cub Tracks hangs on

16 days now to spring training with David Ross and the Cubs. Not much happening today besides the imminent signing of Stephen Souza Jr. to be a right-handed bench bat.

Here’s today’s episode of Cubs News and Notes, the only links column that really matters. 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.

• Chris Emma (670 The Score*): Cubs counting on Ross to reveal their best. “It’s a perfect position for him,” Kyle Hendricks says of David Ross.
• 670 The Score: Crane Kenney talks Marquee and more [AUDIO].
• Nick Pollack (The Pitcher List): Player Profiles 2020: Chicago Cubs Starting Pitchers. “The Cubs were blessed in 2019 to have just twelve games started by pitchers outside their core five...”
• Brendan Miller (Cubs Insider*): New Statcast Leaderboard rates David Bote’s defensive value in top third of MLB. “... why does Statcast like Bote while UZR doesn’t?”
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): 4 Cubs crack MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects list. “Nico Hoerner (SS; No. 51), Brailyn Marquez (LHP; 68), Brennen Davis (OF; 78) and Miguel Amaya (C; 95) cracked the list for the North Siders.” Todd Johnson elaborates.
• Randy Kindred (Bloomington Pantagraph*): Normal West, Illinois State grad Nate Whitney back in baseball, doing what he can to keep Cubs healthy, winning. “He is entering his third year as the team’s physical therapist.”
• Victoria Hansen (Freeport Journal-Standard*): Coffee & Conversation: Generations of Cubs fans. Bus trip notification.
• Cubs birthdays: Rip Russell, Kevin Blankenship.Also notable: Kaiser Wilhelm, Bob Uecker.

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading.