Cub Tracks dials it up

Aren’t you glad you used Dial? Don’t wish everybody did?

The simCubs have dialed up another opponent in the Pittsburgh Pirates, who they’ve been dominating all year, still firmly seated on the dizzying heights at the top of the NL Central and 3-1 on the current road trip after a thorough unfrocking of the San Diego Padres.

Ageless warrior Jon Lester (7-2, 1.77) will oppose Joe Musgrove (1-5, 1.90) in his home port for the first of three bouts. Both men are all over the National League leader boards, as are a goodly number of Cubs.

The Pirates looked like they were phoning it in the last time they played in Wrigley, and they’ve made a couple of trades since then, and they also picked up former Cub James Norwood when the Cubs tried to slip him through waivers. They’re still busy on the trade market, tryin to shed contracts, so expect more changes any time. Last week they offered Gregory Polanco for Steven Souza, Jr. That’s a pretty fair trade, except when you consider that Souza makes $584,000 per annum and Polanco makes $8.2 million. Hard pass.

We’ll see how it goes, today. Al will have more in the game post (at 2:30 p.m. CT, for our 3 p.m. start). I’ll drop the specific URL to the contest in the game thread, but you can lurk at the BCB Media Center and catch it there as well. All past games and highlights reels are available there too, if you want the full #simCubs experience.

And now, here’s Cub Tracks 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.

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): It’s a step: the first MLB team to permit players to work out at their spring training facilities. “Remember, everything is proceeding in a just-in-case manner right now, both on the operations side of things, and the health and safety side of things.” Also, California and Texas announce teams can return soon.
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): Cubs among biggest losers in MLB’s revenue projections, impact on players still murky. “... the battle between the league and players over revenue isn’t going to end anytime soon.” AP says $199 million.
• Manny Randhawa (MLB.com*): Watch: Javier Báez, Residente talk PR, baseball, music. “In the debut episode of MLB’s new show, “The Tryout ...”
• Matthew Wheaton (Peoria Journal Star*): Meet the guy who is collecting 1 million Chicago Cubs cards. “Beau Thompson is nearly halfway toward his goal.”
• Cubs birthdays: Ed Hutchinson, Pop Williams, Curt Simmons, Luis Salazar, Fritzie Connally, Turk Wendell, Scott McClain, Josh Paul.

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading!