{"id":33904,"date":"2025-02-13T13:52:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T13:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=33904"},"modified":"2025-02-13T13:52:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T13:52:41","slug":"cub-tracks-is-ready-for-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=33904","title":{"rendered":"Cub Tracks is ready for spring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"vGUuFI\"><strong>WELCOME<\/strong> to today\u2019s episode of Cub Tracks news and notes\u2122, a greatest-hits collection of <strong>Chicago-style<\/strong> beat writers and bloggers, ground from #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball, overheated, steeped in writers\u2019 tears, and then cold-brewed overnight for maximum flavor. No artificial intelligences were deployed, employed, entranced, or embalmed in the commission of this missive (apparently I might be training some though). <strong>Cub Tracks<\/strong> eagerly awaits the advent of robotic umpires and has already amended the three laws. The going is weird. <strong>Cub Tracks<\/strong> turned pro a long time ago.<\/p>\n<p id=\"eEBkYH\"><strong>Cub Tracks<\/strong>. Where the great ones run<em> away.<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"nNIRTI\">The Alex Bregman circus is still on tour and we don\u2019t know yet about a Chicago stop. It\u2019s about a week until the first real games of 2025 and I am here for that.<\/p>\n<p id=\"u6H0ZS\">*means <em>autoplay on<\/em>, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). <strong>{$} <\/strong>means paywall. {$} means limited views. <em>Italics <\/em>are often used on this page as<em> sarcasm font. <\/em>The powers that be have enabled <em>real sarcasm font<\/em> in the comments.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li id=\"XlIIdO\">Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation*): A reminder of how much money the Cubs have coming off the books the next two years. \u201c&#8230; most of their free-agent deals and contract extensions run through the next two seasons.\u201d<\/li>\n<li id=\"OcPFS7\">Karli Bell (Marquee Sports Network*): Cubs starter Justin Steele aiming for consistency in 2025 season. \u201cI\u2019ve been down here for quite some time so that\u2019s probably my 15th-20th bullpen at this point. I\u2019m feeling really good. I like where I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/li>\n<li id=\"3HGHmP\">Sean Leahy (Yahoo Sports*): R\u014dki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shota Imanaga expected to pitch for Dodgers, Cubs during Japan trip. \u201cShota\u2019s going to pitch in Japan,\u201d Cubs manager Craig Counsell said this week. \u201cI think that\u2019s mandated, kind of. I don\u2019t think I have a choice, actually.\u201d Meghan Montemurro has more* {$}.<\/li>\n<li id=\"FyHzfL\">Matthew Trueblood (North Side Baseball*): What can the Cubs reasonably expect from Jameson Taillon in 2025? \u201cTaillon keeps finding ways to succeed, so far, and he\u2019s only 33 years old, so there\u2019s no reason he ought to break down or steeply decline in 2025.\u201d<\/li>\n<li id=\"XkE3Bq\">Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Assad shut down after MRI reveals oblique strain. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be many days that we\u2019re without throwing, so good news,\u201d Counsell said.<\/li>\n<li id=\"0q9lBk\">Andy Martinez (Marquee Sports Network*): Cubs spring training notebook: An injury update, plus some fun workouts. \u201cCubs catchers took part in some interesting drills on the 12-pack bullpen at Sloan Park on Tuesday.\u201d<\/li>\n<li id=\"UPM3bH\">Andy Martinez (Marquee Sports Network*): How Jon Berti fits into the Cubs\u2019 first base mix in 2025. \u201cCertainly an option,\u201d Counsell said.<\/li>\n<li id=\"ZcFFVf\">Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): As Cubs explore options behind Michael Busch, a surprise player may get a chance at first base. \u201cCubs outfielder Alexander Canario took reps at first base on Tuesday.\u201d<\/li>\n<li id=\"AuO9Gi\">Patrick Mooney (The Athletic<strong> {$}<\/strong>): Cubs farm system heat check: What\u2019s the immediate and future outlook for Cubs? \u201cYou\u2019re always going to have your depth tested at some point during the season,\u201d Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"JFmooH\"><strong>Food for Thought:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"O3uRIE\">Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series. We are 100% in favor of human sportswriting and will not wittingly publish A. I. driven articles or content. Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>#Cubs, #MLB, and #MiLB news, notes, and commentary, four days a week, rain or shine. Real games are coming soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":33905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cub Tracks is ready for spring - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=33904\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cub Tracks is ready for spring - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"#Cubs, #MLB, and #MiLB news, notes, and commentary, four days a week, rain or shine. 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