Irrelevant Dude

65 year old man announces he is retiring at 70. Umm... Ok?

Yeah, I get it, but don't feel bad about missing out. You are in an infinitely better and more flexible position not being tied to even a subset of games. Even the playoff perk isn't as valuable as it once was. I suspect if/when the Cubs make it back to the playoffs, it won't be difficult to find tickets at or near face value all the way up to the NLCS. The World Series is a different matter, but what are the chances we're actually going to see that again?

If you live in Arizona and are only going to be in Chicago for a handful of games, there is no reason whatsoever to even consider Season Tickets. Buy a small ticket package, buy individual games through the Cubs, or simply wait and pick up tickets below face value on StubHub... any of those are good options. I get that there is a certain pride in in being a Season TIcket Holder (I am one myself), but I really can't recommend the experience to anyone who doesn't plan to attend a large number of games. Trying to unload excess ticket inventory is a nightmare and gets more difficult every year.

Onto Waveland is pretty good, but hasn't released a new episode since November 14, so I'm not sure what is going on there. Maybe they will start back up when the season gets closer, or maybe they have abandoned it.

Honestly, I think every team is smarter than that now. The chances of a President/GM making an unwise long term deal because of a short term injury are slim to none. All it takes is one I guess, but I just don't see a team jumping up and meeting Boras' demands if they haven't been willing to do that up until this point. We can all accept that owners make too much money and they aren't exactly the "good guy" here, but there comes a point where the seller has to adjust to market demand. If you are a realtor with multiple nice houses sitting on the market with very little interest, there is only so long you can hold out before dropping the prices. In the end, maybe everyone will end up getting close to what they wanted, but that is looking less and less likely the longer this drags on.

It is impossible at this point to distinguish "The Cubs have a price in mind for Bellinger and are holding firm" from "The Cubs aren't interested in bringing him back," but it is entirely possible they have never seriously considered signing him. They may simply not feel he is the right fit for their roster at the expected cost/years, plus Jed is probably already counting on that extra draft pick. They would never come right out and say that though, both out of respect for Bellinger as well as to not upset the fanbase. Their best case scenario may be that another team ends up paying Bellinger close to the $200M asking price and then the Cubs can use that as cover for why they didn't re-sign him.

Meh

It's a tough watch, but a great ESPN piece on Steve McMichael.

A year or so out from the initial site relaunch, is it time to rethink the main forum categories again? Chicago Cubs Talk - The most popular Cubs-related category, but the way it is being used has made some of the other categories redundant Cubs Minor League Talk - Still makes sense as its own category North Side Baseball Front Page News - I get that there needs to be a place for articles to go, but some of them end up in Cubs Talk and some go in Front Page News. What is the difference? There is probably a simple answer, but I don't know what it is. Why not have all articles consolidated into one single forum, wherever that may be? Transaction Rumors & Proposals - Seems pointless since everyone keeps posting all transaction-related news in other threads in Cubs Talk. I liked the old Transactions forum where we would see threads created for any meaningful transactions and that made it easy to follow what was going on. Now a lot of the transactions are getting buried inside other threads. I guess this isn't a news site, so maybe that's fine, but I still think something has been lost there. MLB Draft, International Signings, Amateur Baseball - Mostly used around draft time, but I think it is fine General Baseball Talk - This used to be the place for all non-Cubs talk, but many of those posts are ending up in Cubs Talk now. I do still prefer having this separate forum for anything not Cubs, if people would use it that way. When I started typing out this thread I expected to have more complaints, but I guess they can mostly be consolidated down to the tendency for current posters to post everything inside large "catch-all" threads, and often in game threads as well (during the season). A lack of proper organization for transaction posts and the frequent mixing of Cubs/non-Cubs news are another variation of that same behavior. Maybe it is all working the way it is supposed to work for SEO purposes, and maybe (almost certainly) I'm too set in my ways, but I miss the days of more structured content. This might not be a forum structure issue at all and instead relates more to user behavior. That is probably hard to change outside of consistent heavy-handed moderating, which I'm not sure anyone wants to do or has time to do. So... what, if anything, can we do to make things better while still meeting the SEO requirements to maintain a healthy site?

That entire game was insane. Almost certainly the craziest game I have ever attended.

Maybe, but whether Cody signs the sub-200M deal in December or in mid-February, the end result is the same. Boras might not get the desired amounts for a few of his guys, but did he actually cost them money by waiting? That is hard to say, but I think they are going to get more or less what they are going to get, regardless of when they sign.

I can't wait to run it all back again next year.

I get that argument, but there's also how do want to spend your prime years? Do you want to waste your talent while cashing a paycheck, or put yourself in a position to get the most enjoyment and satisfaction out of your career (while cashing a slightly smaller paycheck). Ideally a player can have both, but that isn't always the case and I don't think maximizing money is the only factor.

I'm not buying it. Why would they be talking "exclusively"? There is no reason at this point on the off-season for any one team to be talking exclusively with one other team. That just doesn't make sense.

You don't not know what he's not saying.

On a semi-related note, has anyone read "A Fan's Guide to Baseball Analytics" by Anthony Castrovince? If so, is there anything worthwhile in there?

I just happened to check the standings and had no idea how far back the Blackhawks had fallen. They are all but assured of having one of the two worst records in the league. Obviously we know that is no guarantee of a top draft pick, but even if they keep stacking Top 5 picks year after year, how long will it take for this team to actually be competitive again? At some point, you just keep cycling through young players if there is nobody on the roster to support them.

The problem is the Cubs have plenty of roster and minor league depth at basically every position except 3B, and even at 3B they already multiple (albeit not great) options. These roster-filler/backup types don't really move the needle at all. They need impact bats and/or pitching. Spending money on bench guys just because there is money to spend isn't going to accomplish anything.

This was too much for me to read, as I think any idea of Smyly as a starter is a non-starter.

Until his hamstring explodes on April 20th.

#1 - The Cubs most likely already have 3 lefties in the rotation without Smyly. #2 - Did you watch Smyly's starts last year? If he is even in consideration for a starting spot, then what are we even doing here?

Don't give up the fight. It's a lonely hill to die on, but I'm with you!

This is where I'm starting to lean as well. All things being equal, I like Bellinger as a player better than Chapman. All things are not equal though. If Chapman can be signed to a shorter deal, he fills a need for the Cubs and they can let CF shake out between Tauchman, Canario, and PCA. I just don't think either of these guys are big enough difference makers for me to be comfortable with the potential downside of a bad long-term contract, knowing how those types of contracts have hamstrung (legitimately or not) the Cubs in the past.

Does a deal with early opt outs really make sense for the Cubs? There are two common outcomes with those types of deals - either the player is good and leaves or the player is bad and you're stuck with him. Either one of those benefits the player. In a case where the market for Bellinger is tepid, I don't think I would go out of my to give him multiple opt out opportunities.

My initial thought was that if Mark Grace had played his entire career in Colorado, his numbers would have looked really similar to Helton's. Maybe not quite the same home run totals, but certainly much closer to where he would be in the HOF conversation. https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/breaking/ct-baseball-hall-adrian-beltre-todd-helton-joe-mauer-20240123-u6c4xetqazacbkb5mnbypffvg4-story.html