So, it appears that you’re interested in the Winter Meetings and Jon Lester and Jason Hammel and Miguel Montero. Yesterday was the second busiest day in site history, behind only this year’s Trade Deadline. I knew it was going to be busy, and there was a ton of interesting stuff to discuss, but I’m still taken aback by the crazy volume of visits yesterday. Thanks for reading, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with me, and everything to do with your own voracious appetite for MOAR RUMORZ.
To the extent you weren’t among that group yesterday, some of the high points you may have missed: Jason Hammel agreed to a (great) deal to return to the Cubs, there were Jon Lester rumors out the wazoo, there were a couple Lukewarm Stove-like updates from the Winter Meetings, Kris Bryant received an award, I felt a little bad for the A’s, and the Cubs and Diamondbacks started seriously discussing a Miguel Montero trade.
Oh, and if you’re just tuning in this morning, there has already been a great deal today, too: the White Sox have agreed to trade for Jeff Samardzija and agreed to sign David Robertson, that Miguel Montero trade may not be close, and the bidding on Jon Lester might be getting crazy.
Jed Hoyer met with the media last evening, and Mark Gonzales has a good rundown of his comments here. You know that he’s not going to give up much – Hoyer even mentioned on the radio recently that, as much as the front office likes to be candid and transparent most of the time, this time of year, they like to close up shop a bit – but Hoyer did reiterate that the Cubs are looking to pick up multiple starting pitchers this offseason, and he indicated that he expects there to be a lot of trade activity at the meetings (not necessarily just the Cubs). Hoyer also mentioned that the front office does keep apprised of all of the rumors going around by reading what’s out there – they’re just like people! – but there’s so much misinformation this time of year that you can’t let it sway you. We should also probably try and remember that.
The Joe Maddon/Cubs tampering investigation is ongoing, and Rays president of baseball operations Matt Silverman had no update yesterday, other than to say that MLB is handling it (Marc Topkin).
A great read from Patrick Mooney on the state of the Cubs’ financial resources vis a vis their TV deal, with interesting quotes from Theo Epstein.
I enjoy this very much:
Scott Lindholm took a look at Jon Lester’s aging curve over at Beyond the Box Score, and he liked what he found.
The Cubs have the best farm system in baseball, according to Jim Callis. It’s fairly early in the rankings season for him to be saying that, so it must be pretty obvious, to him, at least.
Speaking of which, want to read a bunch of love for the Cubs’ collection of shortstops? Vine Line has you covered.
The Veteran’s Committee didn’t elect anyone to the Hall of Fame yesterday. Speaking of which, Lynn Henning is joining Buster Olney in abstaining from voting for the Hall of Fame this year as a way of calling attention to the arbitrary 10-player limit.
An important antitrust suit to be following involving minor league player salaries (which are basically peanuts).