Cub Tracks gets in the ring

I don’t know about you, but the season has tko’d my wallet. I’ll recover after the holidays. I need a vacation from my vacation. I’m so happy I can hardly count. I have taken leave of my census.

And so it goes. Happy Boxing Day to those of you who celebrate the occasion.

Here’s Cub Tracks News and Notes, your every-other-day-except-on-weekends escape from the humdrum. 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 on this page as sarcasm font. (In the comments section, use @ before and after your remarks @ to produce sarcasm font.)

• Will Leitch (MLB.com*): 1 holiday wish for all 30 MLB teams. “Decisions on all the impending free agents, and soon ...”
• Anthony Witrado (Forbes*): Trading Yu Darvish only makes sense if the Chicago Cubs want to save money before winning. “... the team is entering a retooling phase, where playoff contention is sort of a “meh” priority.”
• Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Mike Rosenbaum (MLB.com*): Each team’s best prospect ‘gift’. “Anthony Rizzo quickly became the heart of the Cubs ...”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): It tends to get quiet in the baseball transaction world right around now. “Baseball is populated by humans, and many humans are focused on other things this time of year.”
• Scott Allen (Washington Post* {$}): A Cubs fan needed one ticket to complete his epic collection. A Nats fan came through. “I’m glad I was able to help him out,” Jimmy Meyers said.
• Jeff Agrest (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs should get their Boog-ie on to replace Len Kasper. “Jon “Boog” Sciambi of ESPN.”

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading!