Bellinger has exercised his option to stay with the Cubs.

Cody Bellinger opts in for 2025 season with Cubs

Kind of mixed on Bellinger. I think the dollars could have been used elsewhere, however he does bring a good skill set overall and was a good clubhouse guy. Just likely not a ~30M kind of guy obviously. I am not really sure what the path forward is this offseason. Seems like the roster and farm system is ripe for a big trade or two.

Completely agree

Prayers for Ryno.

F cancer

Amen

If anybody can beat it, he can.

This Tucker trade has me confused on what the Cubs are doing.

It's felt like they're in a rebuilding mode. They've got some young guys but I didn't feel like they were just one big bopper away.

So are they playing to win now and will Tuck be more than a 1 year rental? Or did they go get him specifically so they could maximize trade value coming in at the deadline when they dump him to a contender?

It is a bit confusing to me also. However Jed has one more year on his contract and seems to me he is really trying to push some chips in for 2025.

Lots of rumors connecting the Cubs to Castillo of the Mariners and Luzardo of the Marlins. Looking for that top half of the rotation guy.

Seems like they are definitely open to spending the prospect capital this off-season.

They do seem to be all over the place at the end of the day.

Bellinger to Yankees for basically salary dump

Well, that I guess they won't be dumping Tuck to the Yanks at the deadline

If the Cubs are in that position, they need to burn the whole thing to the ground.

Looks like the Cubs and Sammy are finally moving forward

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2024/12/19/sammy-sosa-cubs-convention-steroids/77089794007/

Sammy issued an apology and the Cubs have now invited him to the Cubs Convention

AgRyan04 said:

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Looks like the Cubs and Sammy are finally moving forward

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2024/12/19/sammy-sosa-cubs-convention-steroids/77089794007/

Sammy issued an apology and the Cubs have now invited him to the Cubs Convention

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Good. No need to apologize. He was one of the 90% who were doing it.

I always thought that was what the entire spat was about between the club and him.....they would bring him back into the fold if he apologized

AgRyan04 said:

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I always thought that was what the entire spat was about between the club and him.....they would bring him back into the fold if he apologized

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men and egos

Now that football season is over, I've gone full blown winter blues.

I bought Strat-O-Matic....somehow I missed this in my childhood and I have ZERO idea how that happened....I can't even imagine how many hours I would have spent playing it as a kid. I guess Ryne Sandberg Plays Bases Loaded 3 on my Nintendo won out at that age?

I have resumed my childhood effort to collect baseball cards of every Cub player that I can. I've tweaked it a bit and am started with Topps since its the only brand that has run continuously so I'm going to work on each years Cubs team sets. I just secured the last card yesterday for the '69 team....waiting for the mailman now!

And I've been going through watching old YouTube clips and documentaries. I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan as well and just came across this video of Ed's "clubhouse" - he's basically got a museum, with lots of cool Cubs stuff.

Vedder is a huge Cubs fan.

Thanks for sharing the link.

I'm generally not a big fan of the money grab alternate jerseys, but these looks pretty good

As part of my winter doldrums, I started reading The Plan by David Kaplan.....it's about the Ricketts buying the club and everything that lead up to the 2016 World Series.

I read The Cubs Way by Tom Verducci a few years ago - similar premise, but The Plan dives in deeper with the Ricketts side - I think Kaplan has some good access within the organization.

I do feel like every 5 or 6 pages I read a paragraph that I feel like I've already read. It's like some weird little deja vu trip. Never experienced that in a book before.

I'm about a third of the way through it now and my biggest takeaway so far is how much of an influence my personal arch nemisis, Bud Selig, had. Ricketts reached out to him constantly for advice - both before and after buying the club.

Also interesting to read stories from Steve Stone that Larry Walker would have come to Chicago in '95 at a discount but MacPhail didn't think the team was close to a playoff potential and didn't want to add a salary. Similarly, Astros were looking to dump salary and Biggio's name got floated but Ed Lynch's response was, "We have Rey Sanchez locked up for three years real cheap." I pulled up his Baseball Reference page and it looks like his contract expired after '07 so this would have been in '95 - in Biggio's peak prime.

In case anyone is interested, Ryno will be making an appearance at the TriStar Collector's show in Houston on Sunday

https://www.tristarproductions.com/houston/index.html

Just finished the book, The Chicago Cubs - Story of a Curse by Rich Cohen.

Good read....takes you through a couple handfuls of Cubs history stories and then the lead up to and through the 2016 season.

Good mailbox day....all the scattered cards I needed to complete all the 1980-1990 Topps and Topps Traded team sets.

EXCEPT I just realized I missed Mitch Webster on my 1990 list.....soooo close!

The 1970s are going to be a bit slower because they're not as inexpensive

Finished Ron Santo's autobiography, For the Love of Ivy

I enjoyed it because I loved Santo, but its not ever going to be in the conversation for a Pulitzer

Cubbies have a playoff caliber team this year?

NL Central isn't very good, but they are predicted to win the division as of now.

10andBOUNCE said:

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NL Central isn't very good, but they are predicted to win the division as of now.

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I saw that. I just don't think they did enough. Might win the Central, but they will not be able to compete with West or East

AgShaun00 said:

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10andBOUNCE said:

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NL Central isn't very good, but they are predicted to win the division as of now.

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I saw that. I just don't think they did enough. Might win the Central, but they will not be able to compete with West or East

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I agree....I think they're missing another bat and another arm in the pen

I think for me, a lot will depend on how far the trio of young guys can take them.
Can Busch take another legitimate step forward?

Can PCA be a league average hitter while also playing GG defense and stealing 50 bags?

Can Matt Shaw break into the big leagues and grab that 3B job?

A lot riding on those guys - if they get those contributions it could be a really exciting season. I'm looking forward to it.

10andBOUNCE said:

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I think for me, a lot will depend on how far the trio of young guys can take them.
Can Busch take another legitimate step forward?

Can PCA be a league average hitter while also playing GG defense and stealing 50 bags?

Can Matt Shaw break into the big leagues and grab that 3B job?

A lot riding on those guys - if they get those contributions it could be a really exciting season. I'm looking forward to it.

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Good point. I still feel like we're in this weird rebuild but also trying to figure out if we can legitimately make some noise.

I love PCA - reminds me of El Mago for the excitement he brings.....but if you're going to hit .230 and have more strikeouts than hits, you've got to have a SLG higher than .380. His glove makes up for some of that - but I'm very hopeful he takes the next step because I'd like him to stick around for a long time

Yes, PCA definitely has some Javy Baez in him! He was really turning a corner mid to late season last year, so I am hoping he continues to make the adjustments and avoids any prolonged slumps at the plate.