Weekend Catch-Up: Cobb Battles, Stanton Offers, Ohtani Plans, and More

The Thanksgiving holiday comes later this week, but with a roster deadline today and an Ohtani deadline today, we could see some movement soon.

Meanwhile, if you missed anything this weekend …

Friday, November 17

  • Kris Bryant got a first place vote in the MVP race, which folks thought was weird (it kind of was), but it opened up an interesting discussion on how we value consistency.
  • The battle over Shohei Ohtani’s posting rages on, with the MLBPA setting a Monday deadline to come to a new posting agreement – that, and much more on the Ohtani front.
  • Although Alex Cobb gets the bulk of free agent starter attention thanks to his obvious connections to the Cubs, we wanted to look at a similarly compelling next tier starter in Tyler Chatwood.
  • Cubs tickets will be increasing again for 2018, but not by nearly as much as the last two years.
  • The first round of projections are out, and we can view the Cubs’ free agent targets through that lens. It’s not pretty.
  • The Cubs’ farm system is not viewed as among the best, say, 25 in baseball … but I can still muster up some optimism.
  • Friday’s Lukewarm Stove has the Mariners apparently trying to push for Ohtani, with lots of teams in on Tyler Chatwood, and more.
  • The Marlins are officially accepting offers for Giancarlo Stanton, so that whole thing is off to the races.
  • Saturday, November 18

  • Wondering about which Cubs young player you’d most hate to see them lose.
  • Some fun on the Alex Cobb front on Saturday, with a report that the Cubs and Yankees could be in a “showdown” over the righty free agent.
  • And then the Orioles came out as a pursuer of Cobb, too, which led to a discussion of where you draw the contract line.
  • Sunday, November 19

  • Among Sunday’s Bullets, I got into the re-emerging debate about WAR, and some of the latent problems we can’t keep ignoring.
  • On the Shohei Ohtani front, the Yankees are apparently viewed as an extremely strong favorite to land the Japanese star.
  • And the day closed down with a mildly unsettling report that the Cardinals had made an official offer for Giancarlo Stanton.
  • 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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