Bertz

I'm not sure if I'm more surprised Grace did it or more surprised none of the superstars from the golden era Yankees did it. Looks like Berra came really close. And Gehrig/Dimaggio did it every year after their rookie year.

Spring training, don't believe its lies, etc., etc. But god damn Rojas looks good

One of the most notable things about Rojas is that even when he's struggled he's generally had healthy K/BB/GB numbers. Given his age you hope that as he gets older he stops getting the bat knocked out of his hand so often. If this is a sign that his "man strength" came in this winter you can dream on him really taking off this season. On a similar note Pedro Ramirez hit a ball almost 112 MPH on Friday. I've for a while thought he's tracking towards a Tommy La Stella kind of outcome with better defense. If Ramirez had better defense AND his power is a couple grades higher suddenly you're talking about a pretty complete player.

From the Athletic this AM. For reference Shota's at about the same level of IVB amd that's a big part of how he misses so many bats even at just 92-93.

Game isn't on Marquee today but the Giants are broadcasting and it's the MLB.tv free game of the day.

No break I'm hoping means we're in the clear. I wonder if he can still play in the WBC?

Luke Little has his velocity back!

He got Derrek Lee'd playing defense where the runner ran into his wrist. Didn't look as bad though so fingers crossed for no break.

I didn't realize Pedro Ramirez hit a ball almost 112 yesterday. That's a really great sign from a guy for whom our biggest worry is power.

Connor Noland sitting 92-93?

Not going to get worked up over mid February but Taillon’s velo...less than ideal

Murray and Long are on teams too. Like you said PCA's not in but otherwise this is about as WBC-full as they can get.

He's the lightest prospect of the three but I'm really looking forward to seeing Kipp in a Statcast environment. That breaking ball is his money pitch and I want to be able to see just how good it is. He's also a guy that at his size you can dream on continuing to add velo, and knowing that was a point of emphasis for a lot of younger arms this winter I have my fingers crossed he can be one of the beneficiaries.

LFG!

Yeah I expect the rules to be pretty different team by team: - How much more aggressive are you with the first challenge than the second? - Do you let guys challenge any pitch, or only pitches that end a PA? - Do you let guys challenge during any PA, or only those at a proper level of leverage? - For the prior two questions, how egregious does a call have to be to throw the rules out the window? - How much different are the rules for a guy like Bregman vs. a guy like PCA? - On defense do you let pitchers challenge at all, or just catchers? I think every team will be different, but I expect the league will be far too conservative for at least a few months, maybe a few years.

I believe I saw it say something like the "initial call" comes from the bench. I assume with the pitch clock the back-and-forth had to be purely between the catcher and pitcher. But at the same time I'd assume pitchers have much less latitude to shake off coaches as opposed to catchers. A 35 year old All Star like Boyd might be allowed to but I doubt any 1st/2nd year guy would have much choice.

A lot of it is the novelty. Fangraphs says he had the 3rd hardest changeup in the league last year, and the two guys in front of him threw their's 0.1% of the time, meaning they were probably mislabeled fastballs. Pete Fairbanks is the only guy who threw his changeup a meaningful amount (roughly 5%) with a changeup as hard as Cabrera. Among starters Jacob Misiorowski was the only guy within even 2 MPH of him. Setting aside the novelty, the key takeaway from the explosion of pitch models the last five years is you want pitches that are weird. The best pitches have outlier velocity, outlier movement, or come in at a weird ass angle.

The Cubs have *really* valued game calling the last several years. I wonder if that makes them more or less likely to jump on a trend like this. I also wonder if at minimum there's a consideration of having the coaching staff call the game when Mo's behind the plate. Feels like between this and ABS the floor for catcher defense is being raised considerably.

Really good read from Sharma on Brown/Wicks/Assad. Headline is probably Brown adding a sinker.

You kind of have to wonder if we get to the last week of March and the Cubs' depth is still looking strong if the team doesn't try and make a trade from a position of leverage with a team like the Braves who's rolled snake eyes. You have to figure even someone marginal like an Assad starts looking worthwhile if you're down 2-3 starters before the season starts.

I'd go with an A, probably an A- if we're being a little finer with it. Things I liked: - I like that they finally pulled the trigger on a Caissie trade. It was definitely at least 6 months overdue and probably a year overdue, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm really into Cabrera (and I already dinged them for their inaction at the deadline) - Bregman was a good middle ground between replacing Tucker's offensive production, keeping costs in a place that didn't torpedoe the rest of the offseason, and preparing for Hoerner's free agency. I didn't love the idea in November but it grew on me a lot as the offseason progressed - I like that they actually invested in the pen. In prior years it would have been just like Harvey/Milner/Webb and then some NRIs. There's a mix of certainty and upside this year. It still feels one guy short but that's not horrible - I love that they're leaving room for the kids to break in. It's a tightrope between giving opportunity and not leaving yourself exposed and I think they've successfully walked it Things I didn't like: - Given that it sounds like they came in under budget a bit, they probably should have added one more reliever with some oomf. Honestly something as simple as not trading Kittredge and only adding one of Milner/Thielbar makes a noticeable difference IMO - I'm fine with each contract in isolation, but the team is spending $45M on the combo of Shota/Taillon/Rea. That feels....not great. Especially given the much discussed roster cliff - Related to the above, the team really went nuts on SP depth, likely to the detriment of the frontline talent. The team currently has 11 viable MLB starters, which is great. But they've only needed 8-9 each of the last three years. And sure there's no guarantee it won't swell to 10 (or 11 or 12) this year, but at the same time it feels counterproductive to put out a lesser top 5 in order to make the 8-12 guys marginally better Overall it was a good offseason and this is a good and deep team. Hard not to be excited.

It's hard to be too confident in the impacts of ABS ahead of time but I feel like we've got a lineup that seems as likely as any to get a boost from it.

This is either awful timing or incredible timing depending on whether Tony Clark is actually good at his job.