Cub Tracks’ pastime management

Welcome to today’s episode 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.

Cub Tracks wishes to announce the commencement of yet another baseball noir novel, our third. We are ever so happy and hope to move this one over to a second draft. The other two haven’t gotten that far, yet. The inner editor would love to take on the task, but the inner treasurer says “not so fast, sport.”

Alas, so it is, with the creative life. You are a prisoner of expectations, a victim of circumstances, even though those circumstances are necessarily stochastic, i.e., plagued with stubborn streaks of randomness that make them hard to predict.

sto·chas·tic

/stəˈkastik/

adjective TECHNICAL

randomly determined; having a random probability distribution or pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely.

So it is with baseball, Coach. In life, as in baseball, things happen for no reason whatsoever. And there’s nothing you can do about except to induce redundancy, like the third part that NASA likes to build in, the fail-safe for the fail-safe.

This, by the way, is why trying to predict baseball statistically makes me gnash my teeth. My scrying glass says “Mattel” on the side of it. Hey, it works for the NHL..

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

You can talk to me.

*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.

Here’s the entire Craig Counsell presser if you haven’t seen it. [VIDEO]

Here are some highlights if you don’t have time for the whole thing. [VIDEO]

• Rick Morrissey (Chicago Sun-Times*): Craig Counsell-for-David Ross cleansing means Cubs can’t talk about family, culture anymore. “Not that any professional sports team should. It’s strange when you think about it. Why is teamwork in sports conflated with family?”
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Unlike most former Chicago Cubs managers, David Ross has kept most of his thoughts on firing to himself. “In the end, firing Ross seemed more like a roster transaction — almost like designating Eric Hosmer for assignment — than a patented Cubs managerial dismissal.”
• Jesse Rogers (ESPN*): Craig Counsell said he couldn’t pass up chance to manage Cubs. No problem with redundancy here. Alex Shapiro has some of this. And of course Jordan Bastian covers it.
• Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Craig Counsell’s arrival signals return of huge expectations for what Cubs could do next. “Counsell’s deep reservoir of experience and occasionally grumpy demeanor should counterbalance the optimism the Cubs often project...”
• Todd Johnson (North Side Bound*): Rule 5 deadline is near and Cubs have some tough choices to make. “In the big scheme of things, the hardest thing to project is who other teams value.” Evan Altman protects his prospects.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Keep Rhys Hoskins on your radar, because the Cubs are keeping him on theirs. Due diligence if nothing else, so yes. Hoskins is a good fit, says Evan Altman.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Cubs may have “Other Priorities” than Cody Bellinger at the moment. The hell you say. Everything Bellinger. More from the New York Post. And Mike Axisa. Evan Altman weighs in. James Neveau likewise.
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): Jed Hoyer leaves the door open for a Christopher Morel trade. “Without a clear defensive home, all options remain on the table as the offseason begins.”

Food for Thought:

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the contents of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series. Thanks for reading.