What a time it is to run a Chicago sports site that focuses on the Cubs, Bears, and Bulls, AMIRITE!??!?!? (Hey, but seriously, thanks a lot for reading our stuff despite the current states of the at-issue organizations. We still like doing what we do, and we really appreciate that there are fellow fans out there interested in tracking these teams through the ups AND the downs.)
It brings me absolutely no joy to report that the Brewers’ new logos and uniforms are fine and good and sometimes awesome:
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – when other teams do these kinds of uniform and logo updates, I get the real FOMO when it comes to the Cubs. They have so many great historic jerseys and logos to choose from to incorporate, and by and large, they don’t. I get why, but I also think they are missing an opportunity. I mean, people have come to love the video board, for crying out loud! There’s room to modernize (by going classic … ).
You are reminded that tomorrow is the deadline by which teams must add eligible prospects to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft in December. Bryan has been cruising through the decisions the Cubs must make, behind the plate, in the reliever ranks, in the infield, and there is more to come.
A point I wanted to add somewhere – so why not here? – is that rosters expand to 26 next year. Could that make selections in the Rule 5 Draft slightly more aggressive? For rebuilding clubs, in particular, the possibility of stashing a guy on the big league roster is going to get just a bit more doable next year. Something to watch out for in advance of tomorrow’s deadline, because the flip side is that you might see teams getting more aggressive in protecting their players.
This is awesome – Bruce Miles will still be doing some writing:
Already miss @BruceMiles2112 on the Cubs? He'll be writing pieces for us here and there this season. Here's his first on the HOF ballot: https://t.co/vs9hq3v3F3
As Edwards writes, it’s good to know that Commissioner Manfred is very much aware of this being a long-term problem for the sport, but his public quotes are all about this being a natural cycle that will kinda work itself out. I’m not so sure that’s going to happen when the current structures incentivize aggressive rebuilds (it doesn’t hurt you much financially to do it, and acquiring the most impactful talent is nearly impossible without doing it).
Alfonso Soriano is not a Hall of Famer, but dang if he wasn’t a lot better than a lot of Cubs fans remember (including his time with the Cubs!):
When you sign a 30+ year-old guy to the kind of deal Soriano signed with the Cubs (8 years, $136 million), you’re doing it largely because you want to compete immediately, and get the most value out of the guy in the first couple years. And in those two years, Soriano was worth a combined 10.5 WAR, and the Cubs made the postseason both years. From there, before he was traded to the Yankees, Soriano had one brutal year, one bad year, and three solidly above-average years. That’s what it looks like when a monster free agent contract like his *works out*. That the Cubs didn’t win a dang playoff game in 2007/08 was hardly his fault alone, and the fact that the organization was intentionally constructed to go balls out for those two years and then fall off a damn cliff was also not his fault.
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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