Cub Tracks’ things are looking up

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.

In this data-driven age, the stolen base is a liability. But it’s one of the most exciting plays in the game, and I for one am fired up to see it make a comeback. I don’t necessarily want to see a return to the Whitey Herzog days but let’s see some action on the basepaths, preferably by someones who know how. The Cubs have a few players with the good wheels. Michael Cerami elaborates below.

Tommy La Stella is a Mariner. Aroldis Chapman is a Royal. This article was clearly not written by any intelligence, artificial or not.

(* 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.)

• Mike Lowe, Kevin Doellman (WGN9*): Chicago’s ‘Jack of all Trades’ Brickhouse was the face of WGN-TV for five decades. “... Brickhouse was WGN-TVs lead sportscaster, correspondent, and personality.”
• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation*): Just how much could stolen bases jump this year? “... increasing stolen base attempts is almost explicitly part of the idea here.”
• Tony Andracki (Marquee Sports Network*): As Eric Hosmer moves on from ‘crazy situation,’ he hopes to hit reset button with Cubs. “Yeah, maybe [I needed a mental reset],” Hosmer admitted. Meghan Montemurro has more.
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): This young Cub prepared to play anywhere. “I’m just preparing for whatever they throw at me,” Nick Madrigal said.
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): Cubs keeping things simple for Cody Bellinger, whose potential is based on confidence. “Maybe a rebound is as simple as not just being healthy, but truly believing he’s healthy.”
• Joey Mistretta (ClutchPoints*): Cubs’ Cody Bellinger drops truth bomb on the ‘shift’ going away in 2023. “I think it’s going to bring a lot of athleticism back into the game,” he said.
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): Jordan Wicks ranked as #6 pitching prospect in all of baseball. In MLB Pipeline’s preseason rankings...
• Sam Dykstra (MLB.com*): Here are the Top 10 1B prospects for 2023. “... Mervis wasn’t even ranked among the Cubs’ Top 30 prospects at the end of the 2021 season.” Cubs Insider has words about this.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Baseball Prospectus’s preseason Top 101 features three Cubs prospects, but maybe not the three you’d expect. PCA and...?
• Michael Avallone (MLB.com*): Explore the Cubs’ Minor League ballparks. “Here’s a look at each of the stops along the way to the Windy City.”

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.