Cub Tracks watches and waits

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.

We have some good reading today, people. Mooney and Sharma leave some marks with their analysis, and Brett Taylor gets ‘nerdy’. Others come up with careful considerations worth thinking about. And who knows? Perhaps we will have baseball this year, against all apparent odds. Tim Stebbins has some ideas about how circus-like that would be.

Cubbies Crib’s Jake Misener, who writes more articles than anyone else this side of Al Yellon, contributes a couple of pieces about young players. And we have an article about the ancillary effects of the lockout on the town of Mesa. Happy reading, and welcome to the weekend.

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• Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Have you missed the Cubs or even noticed they went away? The state of the team as the lockout drags on. “... this recent labor battle reflected some of the long-simmering tensions around Wrigley Field.”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): MLB Negotiations could take place daily as deadline to salvage full season nears. “... the delay in negotiations was clearly orchestrated to get players sweating.” Ronald Blum elaborates.
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): What Cubs have left to do post-lockout: A lot — and fast. “... whenever the work stoppage ends, the Cubs and the league’s other 29 teams will face a frenetic, action-packed finish to the offseason leading up to camps opening.” They’ve postponed the first week.
• Kiley McDaniel (ESPN+ {$}): Kiley McDaniel’s 2022 MLB farm system rankings for all 30 teams. “...the farm system has lots of potential variance, but with that comes the word fans want to hear — upside!” Also — top 100 prospects. #28 is Brennen Davis.
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): 1 Cubs pitching prospect to keep an eye on in 2022. “... there’s no one with more intrigue around him than Caleb Kilian, who’s ready to build off his standout AFL showing in 2022.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): A nerdy reason to be encouraged on Nico Hoerner and Nick Madrigal’s bats in 2022? “... whether they will consistently generate a batting average on balls in play (BABIP) that will support overall production.”
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): Cubs need to make sure they deploy Rafael Ortega effectively in 2022. “... Ortega played a key role for David Ross’ club – and he could very well do so again in 2022, even with a crowded outfield picture.”
• Danny Shapiro (KTAR.com*): Mesa mayor expecting ‘noticeable’ effect if spring training delayed for Cubs, Athletics. “... John Giles wants Major League Baseball and its players to remember that the lockout will affect more than just them if it causes a significant delay or cancellation of spring training.”
• Dean Karou (Kewanee Star-Courier*): Was Kewanee’s Florance Norman Major League Baseball’s first female scout? “Florance’s sojourns to Wrigley Field usually were on the weekends...”

Cubs birthdays: Jim Cosman.

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.