Bertz

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.

Yeah I hadn't thought too much about the Mo/Caissie decision being about contact vs. power, but it's a good point and the team has almost always chosen contact when forced to choose the last few years. I'd guess too they have fewer hangups about Mo likely being a Mitch Garver style DH/C/1B type than we do.

The Mets' non-Soto OF/DH situation sucks. Tauchman has a golden opportunity to hold down an everyday spot until Benge is ready, and by then there's a decent chance Luis Robert or Mark Vientos will have played themselves out of everyday at bats.

My read is that the team likes Ballesteros more than Caissie, maybe even a lot more. I'm sure there's a Marlins component to this too, they did essentially trade for him two offseasons in a row. Caissie is also super similar to Kyle Stowers so they certainly seem to have a type. For 2026 Mo and Caissie were mostly redundant. Caissie's glove mainly only would have mattered in the event of a Happ/Suzuki injury, and maybe not even then so much if Shaw takes well to the grass. After '26 it does suck to lose that ready made Happ replacement, but my guess is corner outfield is easy enough to backfill that the team isn't sweating it too hard.

Looks like he was #80 on their midseason list, so my guess is he fell off but not by a ton. I think I saw him as a Just Missed/Honorable mention on one of the earlier lists (Keith Law?) and I'd guess that's similar here.

55 - Jefferson Rojas 60 - Kevin Alcantara 72 - Jaxon Wiggins 84 - Moises Ballesteros Owen Caissie actually made the list this year at 62, Fangraphs has generally been low on him.

. Great year to pick in the 20's and have an extra second rounder

A little weird they're DFAing an infielder rather than just throwing Justin Steele on the 60 day IL. I wonder if Steele is being obstinate and doesn't want to commit to being out til Memorial Day.

Sounds like Collin Snider's already got his 2024 velo back, and the team has some specific ideas for keeping Harvey healthy.