Cubbies Gazette

 Well, well, well. The Astros have shown themselves as dominant as ever, punching their ticket to the World Series in a win against the Red Sox. Braves and Dodgers will have Game 6 tonight, and Braves fans will hope that this year is not a repeat of 2020, when the Braves were up in the series 3-0 and the Dodgers game back to win 4 games in a row. I'm hoping so too... Now on to some Cubs news: The Cubs' Senor Vice President of Player Personnel, Jason McLeod is departing the Cubs' organization. Here is the exact tweet: That is indeed big news, as he was in the Cubs' organization for 10 years, starting in 2011 with Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer. This shows the direction the Cubs are going in. They do not intend on rebuilding as they did in 2011, but a quick rebuild, focused on a couple main things: Free agents and trades that are lower-cost (although the Cubs will likely spend big on one or two players), have good zone control, and are consistent hitters. Building up current

  The latest news from a source (not official yet) is that the Cubs have signed infielder Alejandro Rivero to a minor league deal. Rivero is from Cuba and was playing in the Indy League. Although Major League players cannot be signed until the World Series ends, Independent League players can be signed since their season is over. Here is the exact tweet: Francys Romero @francysromero10 Source: Cuban INF Alejandro Rivero (24) signed with the Chicago Cubs as an undrafted free agent a few minutes ago. Rivero had 3 seasons in Baseball College with @StThomasUniv and destroyed the Pioneer League with @BoiseHawks in 2021 with .352, 20 HR, 70 RBI. He left Cuba in 2015. 8:11 PM · Oct 20, 2021 258 7 Share this Twee t   

  Hard to believe the playoffs will be over before long. Dodgers came back on Tuesday to beat the Braves 6-5, and then lost on Wednesday to give the Braves a 3-1 series lead. Astros' offence has been hot the last couple days, winning 9-2 on Tuesday and 9-1 on Wednesday to get the 3-2 lead. Anyway, the Trade Deadline seems a long time ago...and it took a bit to get over the fact that the Cubs traded away their core players- Bryant, Baez and Rizzo, plus a bunch of other players. But it happened, and the Cubs got a decent amount of prospects in return. So, we're going to evaluate the Baez, Bryant, and Rizzo trades, and discuss if the Cubs won or lost the trade, and what kind of prospects they have in return. The Baez Trade El Mago is gone from the Cubs, where he spread his playing "magic" for many years; including helping the Cubs win the 2016 World Series, plus dozens of other ways he affected the team. He was still "El Mago" in 2021, but his defensive level d

 Kyle Schwarber (former Cubs player, of course) played hero in the Red Sox's rout over the Astros, hitting a grand slam in the third inning and leading to the Red Sox's 2-1 lead over the Astros in the ALCS. Great stuff (although still not sure why the Cubs just let Schwarber go over last offseason), and good to see Schwarber back to playing in October.  Cubs Roster Moves The Cubs made a few roster moves today...here they are Catchers Tyler Payne and Erick Castillo were DFA'd (designated for assignment), and will likely become free agents. Other teams will likely sign them to minor league deals, and it is unlikely the Cubs will resign them, seeing they are pretty set with catchers in their farm system.  Righty Joe Biagini, infielder Tyler Ladendorf, and outfielder Johneshwy Fargas were outrighted to Iowa. All three are eligible to become minor league free agents at the end of the season. Out of the three, I think Biagini is the most likely to be resigned.  David Bote, Patric

  To start off, it was unbelievable to see that the Braves walked-off the Dodgers AGAIN- and by none other than Joc Pederson, former Cubs player and the "Joctober Legend" starting with the Dodgers. A quick update about Cubbies Gazette : I will be posting only 3-4 articles a week until baseball starts up again in February with Spring Training, unless there is some breaking news such as a trade, FA signing, etc. So yes, I will still be posting articles, whether it be rumors, evaluations, ideas or whatever is interesting or pertinent, but not as many as I have been. This is starting this week, so expect articles Mon-Tue-Thu and bonus articles on Friday or Saturday. Now, the Cubs used a grand total of 69 players in 2022, and there's NO WAY we'll see all of them back on the Cubs in 2022. Some were traded, some are free agents, some were claimed off waivers, and some will probably stay in Triple A in 2022. So, I don't expect the Cubs to use as many players at all next

  Just to start off, it was good to see the Braves beat the Dodgers, and even more satisfying seeing it was a walk-off hit by Austin Riley. Still hoping for a Red Sox/Braves World Series- it'd be a nice change of pace. Anyway, back to our topic for today: The Cubs' Defense. Overall ranking for defensive efficiency, the Cubs ranked no.20, just ahead of the Marlins and just behind the Twins, so certainly not good, but hey, the Cubs aren't number 30! Since a lot of fielding stats are confusing and probably won't mean much to you, I'm just going to highlight a few areas and explain them in everyday terms. 1. Shortstop and Second were a BIG Problem. A total of 41 errors of the teams' 87 errors were made at second or shortstop. That's almost half of the teams' errors at two positions! Javier Baez made an obnoxious total of 18 errors at shortstop before he left (strange for a guy who was a gold glove finalist in 2020), and Sergio Alcantara made 9 errors in his