A Cub Tracks Christmas

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, two of which have coal in their stockings at the moment.

Here’s a progress report on the CBA negotiations:

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Here’s NORAD’s Santa Tracker.

We’ll keep you updated on both.

The 12 Days of Cubsmas*

On the twelfth day of Cubsmas, Jed Hoyer gave to me:

One starting pitcher

Two hitting coaches

Three glove-first fielders

Four bullpen arms

FIVE COLLEGE SCOUTS

Six righty hurlers

Seven NRIs

Eight roster fillers

Nine men a side

Ten Hall of Famers**

Eleven failed starters

Twelve RSNs

and a beer

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). #IStandWithThePlayers.

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Digging into the Cubs new pitching development practices, velocity gains, and injury issues. Building on Athletic article {$}. Evan Altman has thoughts.
• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation*): Cubs will reportedly “try to convince” Carlos Correa to take a seven-year deal. “the Chicago Cubs may indeed be the ones to step up and step forward” — Bruce Levine. Evan Altman says end of Story. Tim Stebbins adds on.
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): Trevor Story could be a better fit than Carlos Correa. ‘‘... he’s one of the last free agent shortstops left standing...” Tim Stebbins speculates.
• Ryan O’Rourke (Cubbies Crib*): Ha-Seong Kim is a solid backup plan at shortstop. “Kim was a 2.1 WAR player with plenty of positives to pull from his first season in the majors.”
• RJ Anderson (CBS Sports*): Cubs top prospects 2022: Outfielder Brennen Davis could lead the way for Chicago’s new core. “Chicago’s top three prospects could all be meaningful contributors at the big-league level in 2022.”
• Mark Gonzales (Daily Herald* {$}): Will new voices be the impetus Cubs hitters need? “Instructors like Greg Brown have helped putting the finishing touches on their prospects.”
• Todd Johnson ( Cubs Insider*): Chicago Cubs Organizational Breakdown, Pt 6: Right-handed starting pitchers need to get back on track in 2022. “Injuries have taken their toll, development has stalled for some, and one pitcher from last year’s group of hopefuls even retired.”
• Andy Martinez (Marquee Sports Network*): Cubs greats remember some of their favorite Billy Williams stories. “... the Hall of Famer would liven up any room, or any conversation he was a part of.”

Cubs birthdays: Barry McCormick, Herb Hunter, Greek George, Dick Manville, Chris Krug, Scott Bullett, Tarrik Brock. Also notable: Pud Galvin HOF, Nellie Fox HOF, Rickey Henderson HOF.

Food for Thought:

Thanks for reading. Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the opinions of writers whose work is linked in this series of articles. We try to present a balanced view, and let the facts speak for themselves.

*Concept borrowed from previous episodes and editions of BCB.

**Actually, the Cubs have sixteen players in the Hall.