Cub Tracks working on it

Welcome to today’s episode of Cub Tracks news and notes™. Here we have material from current beat writers, bloggers, and the occasional in-house habitué, moonlighting. These pieces center around #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball.

News is still a trickle. I suspect that’s the way it’s going to be. Quality content is our goal and we’ll search far and wide for it, like Metron in his Mobius Chair.

Ken Rosenthal has Andrew Heaney signing with LAD for $8 million.

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. In the text body. It doesn’t work in the headlines).

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Is the threat of a salary floor going to prevent teams like the A’s from dumping players right now? “You’d rather there were rules and structures in place that would MAKE small payroll teams want to spend a little more, not force them to put another contract on the books for a guy they might not actually want.”
• Todd Johnson (Northside Bound*): Free agency begins quietly — will it stay that way today? “... it could be a quiet day..”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): Cubs viewed as fit for several top Free Agents, contract predictions vary wildly. “Let’s establish right out of the gate that some of the free agency predictions you’ll see out there are simply meant to titillate and create controversy.”
• Gordon Wittenmyer (NBC Sports Chicago*): What top free agents say about Cubs as hot stove fires up. “... NBC Sports Chicago spoke over the past 12 weeks with many of the top free agents...”
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): A Chicago Cubs pursuit of Steven Matz just picked up some traction. “Matz is a sinker-baller whose sinker sits just a tick below 95 MPH on average.”
• Mia Perlman (Cubbies Crib*): How will the Chicago Cubs utilize Nico Hoerner next season? “Hoerner plans to work at both middle infield positions and in center field...”
• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): From Cory Abbott to Brandon Workman: 69 thoughts on the MLB-record 69 players to play for the Chicago Cubs this year. “Some of these players might have been forgotten over the course of the six-month season.”
• Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Inside Carter Hawkins’ road to becoming Cubs GM: ‘He was going to do things in baseball’. ““You could sort of see the writing on the wall that he was going to do things in baseball if he wanted to,” said Derek Johnson.”

Today in Cubs history:

• 1976 - The Oakland Athletics give future Hall of Famer Billy Williams his unconditional release, ending his 18-year major league career. Williams, who spent all but two seasons with the Chicago Cubs, retires with 426 home runs, 1,475 RBI, 2,711 hits, and a .290 batting average.
• 2004 - Hoping to fill the void created by Steve Stone’s resignation, the Chicago Cubs hire former Arizona Diamondbacks manager and current FOX TV analyst Bob Brenly to broadcast games on WGN. After spending twenty years in the broadcast booth, Stone left Chicago after his on-air comments concerning the team’s swoon in the wild card race angered manager Dusty Baker and some of the players.

Cubs birthdays: Harvey Hendrick, Walt Lanfranconi, Tony Barnette, Rowan Wick.

Food for Thought: