— here are all the dates you need to know"Welcome to the long dark. The official period between baseball and other baseball Brandon Kintzler Jersey , otherwise known as winter, or the MLB offseason. This year, the Cleveland Indians will be tasked with keeping together a group of players that have helped build the current run of success, while also keeping an eye on the future. They’ll do so over an offseason schedule that should look familiar to baseball fan veterans, but for those who are new to the sport, just started watching the Indians because of Jose Ramirez’s Mario Kart skills, or otherwise don’t know when the Rule 5 draft takes place, here’s the post for you. November 2, 2018 (five days after World Series): Contract option deadline Today is the day that teams and players must make final decisions on contract options. As of this writing, the Indians still have club options on the table for Carlos Carrasco ($9.75 million) and Brandon Guyer ($3 million). Carrasco’s option was originally for $9 million, but he received a cool $750,000 boost thanks to his fourth place finish in the 2017 AL Cy Young race. November 2, 2018 (five days after World Series): Qualifying offer deadlineIf the Indians wish to extend qualifying offers to outgoing free agents who have spent at least the entire 2018 season with them, November 2 is the day to do it. The Indians have a lot of outgoing free agents, some more notable than others. The ones eligible for a qualifying offer include longtime staples Michael Brantley, Lonnie Chisenhall, Cody Allen, and Josh Tomlin. This year, the qualifying offer sits at $17.9 million. Meaning if the Indians wanted to extend the offer to Andrew Miller, for example, he could either take that money for a one-year deal or hit the free agent market. If he believes he can get more on the open market and chooses the latter, the Indians get a draft pick back from the team that signs him. Josh Donaldson is not eligible for a qualifying offer because he came over mid-season via a trade. November 3, 2018: Free agency beginsThis is likely to be one of the biggest free agent seasons ever... but will the Indians go in on anybody? Manny Machado and Bryce Harper are going to make ridiculous amounts of money — most likely not from the Indians — but there’s always a value buy that the Indians like to poke around with later on in the offseason. Don’t expect Cleveland (or anyone, for that matter) to make a splash early in free agency. Even with the biggest names it still takes a while for the dominoes to start falling. Patience is how the Indians got Edwin Encarnacion for such a bargain, after all. November 4, 2018: Gold Glove award winners announcedFour Indians players are up for Gold Glove awards this year: Corey Kluber Tanner Roark Jersey , Yan Gomes, Francisco Lindor, and Jose Ramirez as a third baseman. Only Francisco Lindor has one to his name to date — for the other three, it’d be new hardware for their mantle. November 5, 2018: Finalists for all of the other awardsOn November 5, finalists for every award not named Gold Glove or Silver Slugger will be announced. That means Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and the big kahuna, Most Valuable Player. The Indians should at least have two Cy Young candidates in Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer, and two MVP candidates in Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez. Unless MLB enjoyed Shane Bieber’s perfectly groomed beard, it’s likely the Indians will not have a Rookie of the Year finalist this year. November 6-8, 2018: General manager meetingsALRIGHT HERE WE GO BOYS WINTER MEETINGS TIME LET’S GET TRAD-... wait, no. Wrong meetings. These ones are boring and mostly deal with rules and other off-field stuff. Surely this will be a good time for the Indians to slam a folder called “Astros are big dirty cheaters” on the desk and wait for the gasps. November 8, 2018: Silver Slugger winners announcedThe heavy-hitters get their due on November 8. Here’s where some key Indians players rank in wRC+ at their position among players with at least 300 plate appearances in the AL: C: Yan Gomes, 5th (101 wRC+)1B: Yonder Alonso, 10th (97 wRC+)2B: Jason Kipnis, 14th (89 wRC+)SS: Francisco Lindor, 3rd (130 wRC+)3B: Jose Ramirez, 2nd (146 wRC+)OF: Michael Brantley, 10th (124 wRC+)OF: lolOF: nopeDH: Edwin Encarnacion, 8th (115 wRC+)There’s a chance Lindor or Ramirez squeak by at their positions, but the rest... woof. November 12, 2018: Qualifying offer acceptance deadlineYo, Andrew. Do you want $17.9 million, or do you want to be a free agent and let the Indians get a draft pick out of it? Come on Khris Davis Jersey , be a sport. Today’s the day he has to decide. November 12, 2018: Rookie of the Year winners announcedHave I mentioned Shane Bieber’s beard? November 13, 2018: Manager of the Year winners announcedThis didn’t feel like a great year for Tito, so I wouldn’t get excited. At least Paul Molitor can’t win it again. November 14, 2018: Cy Young award winners announcedThis is a date to watch for Indians fans. As stated above, they’ll probably have two contenders with a pretty good shot. If Trevor Bauer didn’t go down with a freak injury, he’d almost be a lock with his outstanding 2018 campaign. November 14-15, 2018: Owners meetingsALRIGHT HERE WE GO FOR REAL THIS TIME WINTER MEETINGS BRING ME BRYCE HARP-... oh, wait. No. Not this one either. This is the one where a group of massively rich owners get to together and talk about yachts (I assume). November 15, 2018: Most Valuable Player award winners announcedFrankie?! Jose?! Someone else?! November 19, 2018: Comeback Player of the Year winners announcedDon’t expect any Indians here.November 20, 2018: Rule 5 draft protected list deadlineThis is the day that the Indians have to decide who will be left to the wolves of the Rule 5 draft in the Winter Meetings, and who will get to stay in the nice cozy cabin that is the 40-man roster. Any player not on the 40-man who roster who either a) was drafted out of college in or before the 2015 draft or b) were signed as international free agents under the age of 19 in or before 2014 can be taken by another team in the Rule 5 draft at the end of the Winter Meetings. Here’s a good summary from Twitter on the state of the roster ahead of the deadline that I’ll just embed instead of trying to summarize: We’ll dig into the full ramifications of the draft and who the Indians might leave exposed as the date approaches, but for now it’s hard to imagine more than four can’t-miss prospects being left off. So I wouldn’t worry too much.November 30, 2018: Non-tender deadlineFor players entering arbitration, this is the day that the Indians can offer them a contract and avoid the whole messy court system. Here’s a look at who is entering what levels of arbitration this offseason: Arbitration 1: Cody Anderson (RP), Brandon Barnes (CF), Jon Edwards (RP), Nick Goody (RP), Francisco Lindor (SS)Arbitration 2: NoneArbitration 3: Trevor Bauer (SP), Neil Ramirez (RP), Danny Salazar (SP)Arbitration 4: Leonys Martin (CF)Thus begins the long, slow march of Francisco Lindor towards free agency. The Indians have, historically, liked to avoid arbitration altogether, but if Trevor Bauer wants to continue his le epic trolling XD from last year http://www.athleticsfanproshop.com/authentic-khris-davis-jersey , he’ll probably decline what they offer and try for something involving 69 and 420. December 9-13, 2018: Winter MeetingsFool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I’m not falling for it again. No wait, this one is it. This is the big focal point of the offseason where the world starts to care about baseball again for a brief, glorious week. Most of the wheeling and dealing of the offseason will take place in this five-day stretch, concluding with the Rule 5 draft at 9:00 a.m. ET on the 13th. January 11, 2019: Arbitration figures deadlineIf the Indians plan to take any players to arbitration salary court, January 11 is when they must begin the process by exchanging figures. February 1-20, 2019: Arbitration hearings take placeHopefully we won’t have any Indians-related news in this space. February 23, 2019: Spring training beginsWe’re so close at this point I can almost smell the Twins disappointment from here. The Indians open spring training with a preview of the Ohio Cup as they take on the Cincinnati Reds. Games will take place at Goodyear Park and run through March 26, until...March 28, 2019: OPENING DAY!That’s right, the season is starting on March 28 next year — the earliest Opening Day ever. Every team will also be playing on this Opening Day, so there will be no built-in weather delay day and a faux-Opening Day. The Indians will open the season facing the Minnesota Twins, where they play without a dome for some stupid reason. Walk-A-Thons are no fun."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Chicago Cubs recapsChicago Cubs minor leaguesChicago Cubs essaysChicago Cubs game threadsWrigley Field renovationsFull archiveLibrary Bleed Cubbie Blue Community GuidelinesCurrent time in ChicagoBCB Specials & Site InfoWinter 2019 music threadsCubs StoriesScheduleRosterStatsYahoo Cubs newsYahoo Cubs team pageYahoo Cubs reportYahoo Cubs depth chartYahoo Cubs transactionsYahoo Cubs photosOdds Shop About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub 鉁旵hicago Cubs recaps2019 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 2New,7commentsWalk-A-Thons are no fun.CDTShareTweetShareShare2019 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 2Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY SportsI’m going to make an earnest effort to take a lot less time than that game did. For a while, this one looked like it might have a chance at an MLB record long nine inning game. Unfortunately, the Cubs offense slowed down as the game wore on and the game sped up. Doubly unfortunate was that the Cubs pitchers by and large never commanded the strike zone. I know there was some chatter about the strike zone during the game on social media. To be fair, the home plate umpire definitely was missing calls in both directions for both teams throughout. But Cubs pitchers weren’t doing themselves any favors. It was surely a cold night in Texas. Rangers players were mostly wearing those ski mask/hood thingies, But it was not the frigid type of night where pitchers lose grip on the ball. Pitchers were not allowed to blow into their hand or anything like that. So I’m not giving the Cubs pitchers any free passes. Though they gave out a whopping 12 of them. And that’s all of the half-hearted attempt at humor I’m going to make. This one got away. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. Bringing Jose Quintana into a March game probably passes for urgency, but if one were looking for an exhibit on killer instinct and letting one get away, this one might fit the bill. With that, we turn our attention to yesterday’s game as we look at what WPA had to say about Heroes and Goats. As always the Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA (Win Probability Added — here’s a good explanation of how WPA works) and are not in any way subjective. Many days WPA will not tell the story of what happened, but often it can give at least a glimpse to who rose to the occasion in a high leverage moment or who didn’t get the job done in that moment. Also note Jake Smolinski Jersey , for the purposes of Heroes and Goats, we ignore the results of pitchers while they are batting and hitters while they are pitching. With that, we get to the results.Game 2, March 30: Cubs 6 at Rangers 8 (1-1)Source: FanGraphsThree Heroes:Superhero: Kyle Schwarber (.180). Kyle had a strong night at the plate in his first start of the season. He had three hits on the night including a first-inning RBI-single and a fifth inning solo homer. His bunt single in the ninth was a smart play and highlights the downside of shifting in the ninth inning with a two-run lead. A solo homer had little value, but getting the tying run to the plate had enormous value. Kudos to Kyle.Hero: Javier Baez (.112). Javy makes back to back appearances on the Hero side of the ledger to start the season. He had singles in his first two at bats, stole a base, drove in a run, scored twice and even drew a walk in five plate appearances. Way to fill up a box score.Sidekick: Willson Contreras (.111). The middle of the Cubs lineup combined for eight hits, four runs and five RBI and all three of them land on the positive side. Contreras had a pair of doubles, a single, a run and two runs batted in on the day. Three Goats: Billy Goat: Carl Edwards Jr. (-.606). Last year in the second game of the season, Eddie Butler turned in one of the largest positive WPA games of the year. This year it is Carl in a negative direction. Edwards faced four batters, walked two, allowed two hits, including a long home run and was charged with three devastating runs. Goat: Yu Darvish (-.121). I always worry about a starter who has to wait 20 minutes or more between the time they finish warming up and the time they enter the game. The Cubs spotted him a three run lead in a long first inning. Yu simply didn’t have any command of his impressive array of pitches in this one. In 2鈪?innings, he walked seven, allowed two hits, including a home run, struck out four and was charged with three runs. Kid: Anthony Rizzo (-.096). His walk in the first inning contributed to the rally to open the game. But that was the only time he reached base in five plate appearances. WPA Play of the Game: Carl Edwards Jr. allowed a single and a walk to the first two batters he faced to start the eighth inning. That brought Joey Gallo to the plate. Joey Gallo destroyed one for a three-run homer (.368). That turned what had been a 6-5 Cub lead into the 8-6 score that would be the final score. Gallo had a three true outcome day with a walk, a strikeout and a homer. *Cubs Play of the Game: Kyle Schwarber’s one-out solo homer in the fifth inning made it 5-3 Cubs. (.114)Cumulative Top 3/Bottom 3:Javier Baez 5Kyle Schwarber 3Ben Zobrist 2Yu Darvish -2Albert Almora Jr. -3Carl Edwards Jr. -3Up Next: With each team winning one of the first two games, they will each have a chance to win the series on Sunday. The Cubs will send ex-Ranger Cole Hamels to the mound. Cole has a grand total of one major league, regular season start against the Rangers. For what little it is worth, he is 1-0 with a 5.14 ERA against them. He’ll be opposed by Lance Lynn. The long time Cardinal has quite a bit more experience against Cubs hitters. In 20 lifetime starts against the Cubs, Lynn is 6-7 with a 4.62 ERA in 101鈪?innings of work. The line against Lynn isn’t super imposing though at .241/.335/.398. In his first year in the American League, Lance had a 10-10 record with a 4.77 ERA in 156鈪?innings of work for the Twins and Yankees last year.