Cub Tracks’ new and improved?

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.

By now you know that Spring Training is officially delayed, and that the MLBPA and MLB are squaring off to have nearly-daily meetings. I also expect that, instead of throwing hands, they’ll heave great sighs and make excuses for quite some time still. I’d be very surprised to see spring training in the spring. I’d love to be wrong, but this stuff was so obvious that I wrote about it last year. There IS scrying in baseball, Virginia.

Bold predictions: 120 game regular season, expanded playoffs. NL DH.

Most of today’s articles concern the minor leagues, who are still active, save those players who are on the 40-man rosters, but we have some contributions by actual players and a few things about the Majors. Josh Timmers and some other guy also contribute to this episode.

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).

• Bill Chuck (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Baseball quiz: This quiz is no joke. “Neither is the lockout. Here are more questions to tide you over involving the Super Bowl, presidents and “Jeopardy.””
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): MLB Lockout Day 79: An officially Bad Day, how short the offseason might be, pain points, more. “... something completely expected was formalized...”
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): As history tells us, the longer MLB owners’ lockout of players continues, the more damage baseball will incur. “The only certainty is that the patience of lifelong fans is being tested once again.”
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): MLB players embrace ‘completely new age’ to send message during lockout. “... fans’ frustrations with the lockout are escalating, which makes communication with those fans all the more important for the players association and MLB.”
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): What to know as baseball is officially delayed. “The two sides are far apart on key issues, including the biggest issue: the luxury tax. The union reportedly was underwhelmed by the league’s last proposal.”
• Moshe Wilensky (Cubs Insider*): MLB Draft not best incentive to curb tanking. “... would the Cubs have acted differently if their bad second half hurt, rather than helped, their draft position?”
• Josh Timmers (Chicago Magazine*): The Cubs’ Rebuild. “That painful roster dump could produce a title contender — just not until 2025.”
• Duane Pesice (Cubbies Crib*): We’re all missing the Cubs an awful lot right about now. A response of sorts to this Athletic article {$}.
• Alexander Patt (Cubbies Crib*): These Cubs prospects find themselves in limbo as the lockout continues. “For prospects on the current 40-man roster, there will be no spring training or season for them until the lockout is resolved.”
• Bryan Smith (Bleacher Nation*): The 2022 BN Top Cubs Prospect List: 26-50, depth upon depth upon depth. “... the depth of the organization is suddenly in hard-throwing pitchers...”
• Todd Johnson (North Side Bound*): The Instagram effect is reshaping Dominican and International coverage. “This Instagram trend is probably not going to be going away anytime soon.”

Cubs birthdays: Frankie Gustine, Jesus Figueroa, Ryan Sweeney, Julio Borbon, Spencer Patton. Also notable: Sam Rice 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.