Cub Tracks’ work in progress

Welcome to today’s edition of Cub Tracks news and notes™, a greatest-hits collection of Chicago-style beat writers and bloggers, ground from #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball, overheated, and then cold-brewed overnight for maximum flavor.

I don’t think we need any more Jason Heyward coverage. He’s gone, I wish him well... I can see him returning in a front-office role (as I’ve written of previously) somewhere down the road but it sounds like he’d like to try to play for someone. There are places where he’d be of value.

Let’s move on. Not that there’s a ton of other stuff to talk about, but I think the front page has more than covered Heyward’s exit.

Soon we’ll have real trades to gnash our teeth over.

* 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. The powers that be have enabled sarcasm font in the comments.

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Kyle Hendricks will try to train his way into more velocity this offseason. “Why not try at this point, right?” Evan Altman has more. Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma haver final wisdom {$}.
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): Rays expected to make multiple trades soon, Cubs have checked on available pitchers. Jon Morosi started it.
• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation*): Could the Cubs go out and trade for a starting catcher? “The Cubs have some enormous shoes to fill behind the plate.”
• Alexander Patt (Cubbies Crib*): Could Sean Murphy be an option? “Oakland Athletics’ catcher Sean Murphy has quietly been one of baseball’s finest catchers and may be a target for the Chicago Cubs.”
• Luke Parrish (Fan Nation*): Does Matt Mervis have a chance against the Cubs’ free agent aspirations? “If the Cubs are going to make any splashes in free agency, they should be elsewhere on the roster.”
• Aldo Soto (Sports Mockery*): Cubs currently big betting favorites to sign Carlos Correa. “... they have the best odds by A LOT to sign the free agent shortstop.”
• Jordan Miller (Cubs Insider*): Cubs Prospect All-Season Team: Pete Crow-Armstrong makes statement in center. “... Crow-Armstrong made a huge statement proving that he was not only one of the best prospects in the Cubs system, but all of baseball.”
• John Racanelli (SABR): Stan Hack: A Pilot’s Pilot. ““Smiling Stan” was literally an airplane pilot, quite possibly the first player ever to fly himself to spring training.”

Food for Thought:

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the opinions of writers whose work is linked to in this series of articles. Thanks for reading!