Brock Beauchamp

This is an excellent article on seam-shifted wake from Brewer Fanatic. Really detailed, fascinating stuff about pitching. https://brewerfanatic.com/news-rumors/milwaukee-brewers/the-most-impactful-pitching-advancement-of-this-decade-understanding-seam-shifted-wake-r3992/

Reporting for The Athletic, Patrick Mooney reported that the Cubs are interested in right-handed reliever Ryan Helsley, formerly of the Mets. Across seven MLB seasons, Helsley has worked 319 2/3 innings with a 2.96 ERA and a 3.17 FIP, striking out 10.6 batters per nine innings with 3.7 walks per nine and allowing 0.84 home runs per nine. He has 105 career saves and 6.0 WAR. Helsley’s peak came in a three-year run from 2022 through 2024. In that span, his ERA and FIP were under 3.00, and he ranked among the top relievers in WAR, ERA, strikeout rate, and WHIP for pitchers with at least 200 innings. He was an All-Star in 2022 and 2024 and in 2024 led the majors with 49 saves while posting a 2.04 ERA with 79 strikeouts and 23 walks in 66 1/3 innings, winning the National League Reliever of the Year Award and making the All-MLB First Team. In 2025, Helsley opened as St. Louis’s closer, converting 21 of 26 save chances before being traded to the Mets at the deadline. He threw 56 innings between the two clubs with a 4.50 ERA and a 3.89 FIP, with 10.1 strikeouts and 4.0 walks per nine. His two-month stint with New York included a 7.20 ERA over 20 innings, with 25 hits and 11 walks allowed, and four home runs allowed. Helsley’s four-seam fastball still averaged 99.3 miles per hour in 2025. The Cubs, who have already agreed to a two-year contract with Phil Maton, are now among the clubs showing interest in Helsley as they explore ways to add another late-inning option. What do you think, is Helsley a good complement to Maton? View full rumor

Shota Imanaga accepted the qualifying offer to return to the Chicago Cubs. What does it mean for the rotation and could Chicago still go big game hunting for another arm? Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-north-side-baseball-podcast/id1798599313 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/75wMGhBwlrDDYPt3kaF453 Listen on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-north-side-baseball-po-268998437/ Listen on Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/eey7h6ih Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@northsidebaseball View full article

Bubic for Alcantara; do you pull the trigger? Three Trade Market Candidates That Might Be A Fit For The Royals' Kris Bubic - MLB - DiamondCentric DIAMONDCENTRIC.NET The Royals need outfield help, and Kris Bubic could be a good fit with these four teams.

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images Every offseason, we offer our You’re The GM! tool to build your ideal Cubs roster. This year, we’ve updated and streamlined the tool a bit to improve the experience. The idea behind this feature is to give fans a chance to play the role of General Manager (or CBO or PoBO… you get the idea) for their favorite team, the Chicago Cubs. It’s meant to give fans the opportunity to discuss (and, let’s be honest, argue) how they would approach the long, dark MLB offseason. This tool is intended to be informal and fun, so we’ve left it as open as possible. There is a payroll “budget” that loosely resembles the Cubs' 2025 payroll, but there is no penalty for going over that number. It’s a guideline, nothing more. Second, you can submit as many blueprints as you like throughout the offseason. As the offseason landscape changes, users often return multiple times over the winter and create new blueprints. Before we get into the breakdown of the tool, you can save your blueprint and come back to it at any time. The only restriction is that you must register an account on the site to create a blueprint (so we can save a draft for you and also post the blueprint for others to discuss). Let’s get into the tool itself. It has four quadrants that work best if addressed in a counter-clockwise order (this tool works much better on a desktop due to its complexity, but it will work on mobile devices if need be). Top Left: The 26-Man Roster We have created a rough guideline for the Cubs' 26-man roster today. The roster is flexible; you can add or remove players as you see fit. We’ve also included either guaranteed salaries or, in the case of arbitration and contract options, the recommendations of MLB Trade Rumors. This section is where you build your roster and make changes based on the following two sections. As you make changes to players and salaries, the total payroll number (right side of the screen) will change, allowing you to track your budget on the fly. The bottom field in both columns is for any dead money you assume during the course of your offseason. Acquiring dead money should be uncommon, but we want to give users the option to take on dead salary if it suits their purposes. Bottom Left: Arbitration & Trade Decisions Here, you will find a selection of arbitration options and internal options (usually from the 40-man roster or minor leagues) to assist in building your offseason roster. On the right-hand side of this column, you will see Trade Candidates, a list of the 40 players most likely to be traded this offseason, per MLB Trade Rumors. To help you get up to speed with these candidates, we offer a direct link to the MLBTR write-up on trade candidates. Bottom Right: Free Agents Here, you will find the top 50 free agents, again per MLB Trade Rumors. These are sorted by position to facilitate quickly finding your desired free agent and include the recommended salary for that player. Because this is a blueprint for a single year, we only include their projected salary for the coming season, not the number of years or anything else. To help you get up to speed with these free agents, we offer a direct link to the MLBTR write-up on the best 50 free agents available this winter. Top Right: Dead Money, Your Total Payroll, & Commentary The only unalterable field on the page is Dead Money; it is players to whom the team has committed money but has no reasonable way to get out of the contract. Below that, you will see the recommended budget, your current total, and the percentage you are over or under that budget. Again, keep in mind the budget is only a guideline, and you can go above it as much as you like… But defend your choices, coward! The following field is Title, which gives other users an idea of what to expect with your blueprint (e.g., Be Unreasonable, Sign Kyle Tucker!). When your blueprint posts for other users, it will read “Your Username’s 2025 Payroll Blueprint: Be Unreasonable, Sign Kyle Tucker!”. The following field is Your Comments & Explanation, a long-form field meant to type out the rationale behind your decisions. Here is the place to fully explain your trades (including which players are leaving the Cubs to bring in new players), why you targeted specific free agents, and any promotions from the minors you advocate or any options you declined to extend to a specific player. This is often multiple paragraphs; you can write up as much detail as you desire. That’s it, you’re done! At this point, you can either publish your blueprint to the forums or save it for later if you feel it’s incomplete. Thank you for joining us at North Side Baseball. I hope you enjoy playing the role of general manager, at least for a moment! Start Your Payroll Blueprint Now View full article

Yeah, a few of the moderators thought it was time for it to go, and I agreed.

We made some significant changes to logins this morning; most of you will not notice a difference, but some of you might see your passwords "change" or other oddities pop up. That's because we just rolled out a new parent site, DiamondCentric.net. Here is a quick rundown on what it is and why it exists. Introducing The All-New DiamondCentric! - DiamondCentric - DiamondCentric DIAMONDCENTRIC.NET You've used one of our team sites; now we have an MLB site!

Homes.com? Again?

Let’s talk Cubs offseason! Will Shota Imanaga take his qualifying offer? Odds are, Kyle Tucker will be elsewhere in 2026, so where might Chicago go big game hunting in free agency? Could Dylan Cease be an option? Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-north-side-baseball-podcast/id1798599313 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/75wMGhBwlrDDYPt3kaF453 Listen on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-north-side-baseball-po-268998437/ Listen on Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/eey7h6ih Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@northsidebaseball View full article

What are your thoughts on him? Who Will Land This Offseason's Biggest International Free Agent? - Padres - Padres Mission PADRESMISSION.COM Munetaka Murakami is ready to make his highly anticipated move to Major League Baseball in 2026. Who makes the most sense to land the star slugger?

Let us know your thoughts!

I think it's unlikely the Cubs will pursue Okamoto given Michael Busch and Seiya Suzuki, but it's an interesting idea to think about. Could This Star Slugger From Japan Be The Next Hideki Matsui? - Red Sox - Talk Sox TALKSOX.COM In an intriguing free agent class, Kazuma Okamoto could stand out as the Sox look to add a power bat to their young lineup. Should they make a move for the international star slugger?

The Cubs' season has concluded, but do you need your next baseball fix over the long winter? Fans that follow the Cubs know the thrill of building a team from the ground up — from scouting promising talent to developing all-stars. But what if you could experience that same excitement firsthand, managing every detail of your own franchise? That’s where Franchise Ball steps up to the plate. It’s a free online baseball simulation game that lets you become the general manager of your own team, competing in real-time leagues against other passionate baseball minds around the world. In Franchise Ball, you’re not just watching the game — you’re building it. You’ll draft players, negotiate trades, and fine-tune lineups to maximize performance. Each simulated game unfolds with advanced stats and analytics that reflect real baseball logic, making every managerial decision matter. Whether you prefer to model your team after the [blog team name] balanced strategy or carve out your own unique identity, Franchise Ball gives you the tools to do it. The experience runs 24/7, with games played daily across competitive divisions and playoff seasons. As you progress, you can develop player depth charts, scout prospects, and manage your team’s finances for long-term success. The system rewards strategy, patience, and smart decision-making — the same skills that front offices use in Major League Baseball. Unlike many sports games, Franchise Ball doesn’t rely on flashy graphics or pay-to-win mechanics. It's a pure test of baseball management and intellect. You can join leagues, form rivalries, and climb the global rankings while keeping tabs on your stats through the game’s detailed dashboard. Every box score and scouting report feels like a genuine piece of baseball management history in the making. Franchise Ball is completely free to play, with membership upgrade options, and we're constantly listening to our community to bring new features to the game as they come in. So if you’re inspired by the way the Cubs rebuild, retool, and compete year after year — now’s your chance to run your own team and see if your baseball instincts can match up. Visit Franchise Ball today, start your own franchise, and take your first swing at baseball greatness.

Ahhhh, that's helpful. Thanks. I didn't write the email popup, that's a template provided by Mailchimp.

Okay, please let me know if it comes back. I've tried a variety of searches to uncover this problem, and haven't come up with much in the way of real answers as to why it's happening.

@mul21 this has worked for someone at Twins Daily:

Still blinking? And what happens if you clear cache?

Oh yeah, that's the same thing. It's actually graphical hardware acceleration.

Try disabling hardware acceleration, see if the problem disappears. Go to Settings > System. Toggle off Use hardware acceleration when available. Relaunch the browser when prompted.

K, I found someone on Twins Daily who is having this problem, though it's Chrome for Mac. Are you running any plugins or extensions or whatever?