Cub Tracks’ baseball’s back!

Grab your coffee! This is necessarily going to be a long one. Lots of tweets and text. Here’s a soundtrack starter!

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.

There’s a ton of information available. I tried to distill it as much as possible, and to minimize the crossover with Outside The Confines. I expanded CT’s palette some to have enough content but I suspect we’re in for a glut and I’ll narrow the focus a little. BCB readers are recommended to peruse both listicles as they provide a good picture of the current MLB/MiLB baseball scene, and are the source of a good deal of the news reported on the front page. It takes a lot of legwork to make these articles happen and we thank you for taking the time to read them.

Hey! That said, on with the Show! Carlos Correa and Kris Bryant are trending on the Twitters atm. The others will be more than happy to cover any signings, and we’ll be back with more of this tomorrow.

Another bit of team news, non-player division:

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. The powers that be have provided sarcasm font in the comments.

Silly Season is on, too. Always check those sources!

• Anthony Castrovince (MLB.com*): Everything you need to know about ‘22 season. “... here’s a handy FAQ to keep baseball fans up to date.”
• Kristin Conti (NBC Sports Chicago*): What to know about the new MLB playoff format. “In the 12-team format, there will be six playoff teams per league: the three division winners and three wild cards.”
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Baseball is back — though it might never be the same if MLB has its way. “Any rule that we have, we’ve talked about changing: Change the bats, change the balls, change the bases, change the geometry of the field, change the number of players on the field, change the batting order, change the number of innings, the number of balls and strikes,” Morgan Sword said.
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): How much is enough? Cubs face another shortened spring training. “Playing a full season, playing that many games in front of the fans is what it’s about,” Wisdom said when asked about the possibility of a full 162-game regular season. “I think my body’s ready for that, and I hope that we can get that done.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): There is a tentative expectation that the season will open with expanded rosters. “I would tentatively expect that we’ll see a 27 or 28-man roster to open the season, and then dropping back to the normal 26-man by sometime in May.”
• Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): What’s next for the Cubs now that the MLB lockout is ending? Willson Contreras and Carlos Correa decisions are on deck. “The hand-wringing about the game’s future will have to wait, anyway, because it will be a scramble for all 30 clubs to get to spring training and on the field for Opening Day.”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): Cubs still viewed among favorites to sign Carlos Correa. “MLB.com’s Jon Morosi wrote Friday that the two sides were engaged in heavy dialogue prior to the lockout and that those talks could pick up now that free agency has reopened.”
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): What Cubs have left to do as lockout ends: A lot — fast. “We’ll use roster filling here as a general term for additions via trade or free agency.” Meghan Montemurro had similar thoughts. Evan Altman thought similarly. Jake Misener did, too. Jordan Bastian answered all of the questions. Maddie Lee answered more.
• MIchael Cerami (Bleacher Nation*): Free Agent flurry timeline: Might the “Biggest Ones” take a little while? “We’re antsy, and spring training is starting in earnest this weekend.” David Schoenfield amplifies (ESPN+ {$}).
• Brittany Ghiroli (The Athletic {$}): The All-Unsigned Team: What a roster of the top remaining MLB free agents would look like. “... you could form a pretty formidable team right now of unsigned free agents.”
• Ryan O’Rourke (Cubbies Crib*): MLB streaming deal with Apple makes games even harder to watch. “Anyone not shelling out for Apple’s ever-growing streaming platform is inevitably going to lose games throughout the season.”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): How Rachel Folden is making an impact with Cubs’ Minor League hitters. “Folden said the players she has worked with have been welcoming and accepting of her from Day 1.”

Cubs birthdays: George Moolic, Doc Curley, George Maisel, Mrs. Maisel, Bud Tinning, Johnny Callison, Horacio Pina.

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.