Recapping a Busy Weekend: Roster Moves, Rotation, Daytona Cubs Roster, PEDs, More

bn-baseballIt was one of those busy weekends in the Cubs’ world, which is understandable given that today is Opening Day. More on that in a moment. Until then, here’s a look at what you may have missed if you checked out at the end of the week:

Friday Afternoon and Evening

  • It went up a little later in the day, so you may have missed a fairly important look at the impact of rolled over funds that the front office didn’t use this year, but could use next year.
  • Similarly, it was a late afternoon thing, but there was a set of prospect notes for those who can’t get enough Cubs prospect stuff.
  • Late on Friday, an odd time for such an important announcement (unless you didn’t want it to get much attention, but I would think MLB would want attention for this), MLB and the MLBPA announced new PED rules, including beefed up suspensions.
  • Carlos Villanueva won the fifth starter job, at least until Jake Arrieta is ready to go.
  • Saturday

  • The Angels agreed to a $144.5 million extension with Mike Trout, which might be the first time such a huge deal was such a huge bargain.
  • Brian Schlitter surprisingly won the last spot in the bullpen (together with Justin Grimm and Hector Rondon), and the Cubs DFA’d Alberto Cabrera.
  • Starlin Castro finally made his return to game action after missing pretty much all of Spring Training. I am very nervous for him today. But also excited.
  • Sunday

  • I took a look at the finalized Opening Day roster for the Cubs, and compared it to the Opening Day roster one year ago. The conclusion? Pretty similar talent level (which is troubling), but much greater upside potential and much greater versatility/flexibility. From top to bottom, I prefer this year’s iteration slightly, which is surprising, given the midseason sell-off last year and the lack of big moves this offseason.
  • The Daytona Cubs revealed their tentative Opening Day roster, which answers a lot of prospect questions.
  • And, finally, the Cubs made the roster moves necessary to set things up for Opening Day, including the surprise decision to send Kyuji Fujikawa to the 15-day DL and not the 60-day DL.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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