Cub Tracks’ New Year’s ‘revolutions’ and other stories

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, steeped in writers’ tears, and then cold-brewed overnight for maximum flavor.

Happy New Year, to those of you who celebrate. Here in the valley we’re hoping for a pleasant Sunday, but I’m afraid it’s going to rain. That isn’t going to stop me from throwing four or five bones’ worth of choice prime rib on the Weber, as the NYE meal moved to NYD years ago, when staying up until midnight became a less desirable option. I’ll just have to put the cover on while the coals heat up.

Those of you who are also olds might recognize this process. Anyway it’s a New Cubs Year, full of possibilities. Cub Tracks is into possibilities. The Cub Tracks Continuum is all about possibilities. Indeed we crave such neofuturism, as exemplified by Brunner, Ballard, and others of the British moderne sf school, and more recent exponents of such thinking as Cronenberg and Aronofsky, but that’s a different story, for a different time, and you are here for the baseball action.

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• NBC Sports Chicago*: Cubs Talk podcast [AUDIO].
• Vincenzo Mario Santoro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): The dismantlement of the 2016 Chicago Cubs was planned. “This team did not start with a player or a coach; it started with Epstein, Hoyer and scouting executive Jason McLeod.”
• Phil Rogers (Forbes* {$}): Cubs, Rangers pay price for not developing their own pitchers. “... the Cubs have produced only four pitchers delivering 1.0 WAR seasons for them since Epstein replaced Jim Hendry as the top baseball man.”
• Aldo Soto (Sports Mockery*): Padres open to trading two intriguing players. “The Athletic’s Dennis Lin is reporting that San Diego is open to talking about potential trades {$} for either outfielder Trent Grisham or infielder Ha-Seong Kim.” Michael Brakebill has some of this also.
• Mark Powell (Fansided*): Cubs could lose out on momentum-building move after Dansby Swanson high. “It’s far too early to suggest the Cubs lost out on a player the caliber of Mancini.” Confusing.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Carlos Correa double feature: The San Francisco Giants finally speak on what happened... and The Carlos Correa Saga: Other teams being told it’s still all about the Mets (For Now). “Unless it comes down today, 2022 is going to wrap up without Carlos Correa having been signed.”
• Todd Johnson (North Side Bound*): By the numbers — MLB roster count heading into 2023 is a little bit below 180 but changes will be coming. “it’s time to start looking ahead towards what the rosters are going to be for the Cubs minor league system in 2023.”

Food for Thought:

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