Cub Tracks’ tardigrade A

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.

I’m not sure there’s much more to be said right now about changing the strike zone or lowering the mound. We’re not going to have robot umps any time soon, and I’m convinced that the umpires are going to continue to try to run the game from behind the plate, while players and owners are pulling in different directions.

It’s a sad state of affairs. There are rumors of talks starting up again, but the when is nebulous and the outcome is far from certain. Ownership has already said that it won’t negotiate any of the things the players want.

Casual fans are already drifting away. There’s more juice in following the NBA, NHL, or NFL right now. Hell, writers are drifting away. It’s hard to keep interested when I don’t think there’s going to be a season. I’ve thought this for a very long time, and I see nothing to change my mind. I’m not alone, at least on this point. The ledge has permanent residents these days.

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.

“We had brought to them our three major points from years ago. Talking like 2-3 years ago. Three major points being competitive balance, service time manipulation, and player compensation – when players are going to get paid and how. And to each point, they pretty much just said, no, we’re not going to budge or adjust on that. We’ve brought them countless different ways to adjust it, and we’ve given them reasons why it needs to be adjusted and why it benefits not only the players, but the ownership group to adjust these points.

Again, they’ve pretty much just came out and said no. So that’s difficult to negotiate with and that’s not how negotiations go, especially when we’ve proven that it’s beneficial to not only us, but ownership, to adjust these in ways we’ve proposed. They’ve come back with nothing, so we’re at the point where we’re not going to keep throwing stuff out there against the wall. We’re going to wait for them to come to us with something, and they just haven’t done it yet.” — Whit Merrifield.

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Can the data tell us whether the Cubs are getting better at player development? “... it’s really hard to quantify in a meaningful way how player development – at an org level – is improving or degrading.”
• Richard Johnson (Cubbies Crib*): 3 reasons why the Chicago Cubs were so horrible for so long. “... the Cubs’ long slog through the valley of the shadow of ‘meh’ provides some lessons for how to build, or not, a winning franchise.”
• Matt Weyrich (NBC Sports Washington*): Retooling Cubs, Nationals reach pivot point of parallel paths. “... these are still two very different rosters.”
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): Schwindel earns 2022 shot after breakout with Cubs. “Frank is going to be a big part of our team next year,” Cubs president Jed Hoyer said of Schwindel after the season.
• Gordon Wittenmyer (NBC Sports Chicago*): How Anthony Rizzo became Cubs’ core player of the decade. “... talent, success and child-like spirit...”
• Bill Felber (Call to the Pen*): Hey Chicago Cubs, forget Carlos Correa and get Kris Bryant back. “There are several reasons why this approach makes far more sense for the Cubs than pursuing Correa.”
• Todd Johnson (North Side Bound): Baseball Prospectus Top 10 Cubs list goes really young. “Brennen Davis is number one. No shocker there.”
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): Ranking the top 5 free agent signings in Chicago Cubs history. “You can’t have this list and not have Andre ‘The Hawk’ Dawson at or near the top of it.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Another mock draft sends the top high school pitching prospect to the Cubs. “When you get to envision a relatively small pool of players being there for “your” team, it makes the draft prep a lot more enjoyable.”

Cubs birthdays: Walker Cooper, Marv Rickert, Bruce Sutter HOF*, Geremi Gonzalez, James Russell.

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.

*pictured