Jefferson Rojas – Picture by Todd Johnson

Opening week is always fun and getting to see the first couple games of the year is equally exciting! It was fun getting to see the final rosters this week as most players wound up where we expected them except for a few, I was surprised that Ty Johnson did not make it to South Bend, and I was surprised Sam Armstrong did. Two other surprises were seeing Felix Stevens and Luis Devers not being on an active roster. Both Stevens and Devers are on the Development List. Stevens at Tennessee, Devers with South Bend.

Tweets of the Week

Our own Greg Huss made a graphic for each team as they posted their opening day rosters.

MLB Pipeline News

Both Kohl Franklin and Christian Franklin made it onto the MLB Pipeline’ top 30 Cubs prospect list this week. Michael Busch and Jordan Wicks graduated. I don’t expect too much other movement for a while.

Bonus Pools Announced

Major League Baseball also announced the bonus pools for the MLB draft and international free agency for 2024.

The Cubs have $9,802,300 to spend in the draft which is a lot of money that they can spread around. They can find a lot of nice talent with that amount of change. Their first round pick at 14 has a slot value of $5,070,700 and the Cubs IFA pool for 2025 is set at $6,261,600. it’s hard to believe one is three months away and the other is eight.

Needless to Say

It’s been a lot of fun checking out what Iowa has been doing every day this week. Some of that came from Owen Caissie in week one. For week two, PCA had a going on as a base runner. MLB.com did a cool article about the havoc he instills on the basepaths

Transactions

There were several transactions this week. Catcher Yoanis Aleksandrov and OF Daniel Benschio were released from the Dominican after two seasons there. Aleksandrov, who is from Bulgaria, could not get it done at the plate. The Cubs also re-signed pitcher Carl Edwards to a minor league deal along with catcher Ali Sanchez. I understand signing Carl Edwards as insurance, but the Cubs have plenty of catchers. Chris Kachmar went back to Tennessee while Dalton Stambaugh announced his retirement. Good luck to Dalton in whatever is next.

As well, there were a ton of DL and IL moves.

Pic of the Week

Ferris Wheel shots in the Quad Cities never get old. I took this one on Friday night.

Drew Gray – Pic by Todd Johnson

Coming Up This Week at North Side Bound

Greg Huss will be back with a new Cubs On Deck on Tuesday. Starting on Wednesday, and running through Friday, you’ll see a three parts series on stat predictions for the 2024 season. I will break it down by hitters, starting pitchers, and relievers.

Interview of the Week

I just love 1980s King Crimson with Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Bill Buford. This week, it was announced that Belew and Levin will be touring with legendary guitarist and former Frank Zappa sideman Steve Vai and Tool drummer Danny Carey. Oh, I am pumped!

It’s an hour long but what a great hour!