Am I Crazy About the Cubs and Rangers? Rizzo’s New Bromance? And Other Bullets?

It’s pretty incredible how you don’t realize the full gravity of the tactile importance of your dominant hand’s thumb until it’s covered by a bandaid. I guess I’ve never had a bandaid all around my right thumb in recent years, because dang, it really effs up a lot of stuff not to have the front of that thumb available to touch stuff.

  • I really enjoyed this from Sahadev Sharma, not just for the insights tied to individuals in the organizations, but for the overall sense of how an organization like the Cubs deals with its player development machine constantly being disrupted by coaches and coordinators being poached and promoted:
  • Also, this was a total aside in Sharma’s piece, and it made me laugh, but then it made me think:
  • We joke about all the deals the Cubs have done with the Rangers in recent years – when the higher-ups in the front offices were the same – and also the crossover of execs (Shiraz Rehman, for example) and coaches (Anthony Iapoce, for example), but what if you could actually have an organization in the other league that you totally trusted to talk to a little more deeply than you would normally talk to another org? Isn’t it possible that you could each get an edge, sharing efficiencies, trading players where there’s a good fit for one but not the other, etc.? If you believed the org had something to offer you, and if you truly trusted them … why not, right? Tell me I’m crazy. I don’t think I’m crazy.
  • Anthony Rizzo did an AMA on Reddit (via Fanatics), and although it’s obviously not hard-hitting (Javy Baez and Pedro Strop are the jokesters on the team), there was one revelatory bit. When asked about who he’d most want to take a road trip with, Rizzo SHOCKED THE WORLD and did not go with Kris Bryant: “Most likely – Definitely Ian Happ. Him and I have gotten really close this last season. We’ve gone on a few trips and I know I can count on him.” HIZZO.
  • (Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images)

  • Watches, bedding, PNY, and more are your deals of the day at Amazon.
  • This bobblehead is awesome:
  • The decline in the current CBA era is so freaking stark:
  • Bad news for the Indians, as star shortstop Francisco Lindor suffered a strained calf, and will miss all of Spring Training, and possibly the start of the regular season, too. There might not be a single position player outside of Mike Trout who means as much individually to his club’s potential success, so they’ll need him back and clicking ASAP. This is a reminder that the dreaded Spring Training injuries are coming as guys start to ramp back up. A pitcher *will* blow out his arm. A position guy *will* roll his ankle. Just be ready for it now, and you’ll be in a better place regardless of what actually happens …
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    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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