Various Works in Progress and Other Bullets

There’s actually going to be a fair bit going on here today (for a Saturday, anyway). Among other things, we’ll take an early look at the non-tenders from last night that might interest the Cubs. Until then, Bullets …

  • Casey Coleman, who was DFA’d earlier this week to make room for Scott Feldman, was waived, cleared waivers, and has been outrighted to AAA Iowa. Like I said when he was DFA’d, I wouldn’t mind seeing him make a full-time conversion to the bullpen at this point. The Iowa rotation could be mighty crowded anyway, with guys like Arodys Vizcaino, Chris Rusin, Brooks Raley, Michael Bowden, Alberto Cabrera, Nick Struck, Dae-Eun Rhee, and others depending on how the rosters shake out throughout the offseason.
  • Still no formal comment from the front office on last night’s non-tender/non-renewals. I’m sure there won’t be anything earth-shattering, but I’d still like to hear their thoughts on why they thought dropping Putnam and Chapman (now, as opposed to two weeks ago, for example) was the right risk/move. I also want to hear where things stand on efforts to re-sign them and/or Ian Stewart. Not a huge deal either way – just curious.
  • Doug Padilla is no more. Well, that is to say, he’s covering the Cubs for ESPNChicago no more, as former Blackhawks beat guy Jesse Rogers is taking over the Cubs beat, and Padilla is heading back to the White Sox. Given that he’s already covered the Cubs in recent years, and given that I like the cut of his writing jib, I would have preferred that Sahadev Sharma get the gig, but I’m open to Rogers. I thought Doug did a fine job when he took over the day-to-day from Bruce Levine, so we’ll see how Jesse does.
  • To the extent we needed confirmation, Jed Hoyer yesterday confirmed that the Cubs have indeed spoken with (and visited with) Japanese free agent pitcher Kyuji Fujikawa, who is reportedly down to the Cubs, Angels, and possibly Diamondbacks.
  • Hoyer on trade talks: “We have a lot of good players, [but] we don’t have a ton of surplus. Because of that there is no one particular area people are hitting us on.” That pretty much sums it up, eh? The roster remains a work in progress.
  • Some members of the Cubs’ front office participated in Movember (a month-long event for those who like mustaches, raising awareness for prostate cancer and other male cancers, and portmanteaus), and took a class photo before, presumably, doing some shaving. It’s like a Where’s Waldo of mustaches.
  • You know that posting system that forces MLB teams to bid against themselves and pay ungodly sums of money for the right to negotiate with Japanese players? Well, MLB and the NPB are working to try and fix the system, perhaps making it more of an open auction.
  • BN’er Dave on Facebook (are you a part of the BN Facebook community yet?) shared a couple photos from his visit to Wrigley Field for a season ticket holders event. It looks like they’re working on the Old Scoreboard (cleanup and maintenance, it looks like):
  • And it also looks like the Cubs are installing a greenhouse in the bleachers:
  • 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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