Le Journal

Experts and first responders say now is the time to winterize your home ahead of the weekend winter storm. ABC13 spoke with Cy-Fair Fire Lt. Eddy Cruz, who shared some advice on how you can prepare.

Ted Sarandos convoqué au Sénat pour défendre l’accord Netflix–Warner Bros. Ted Sarandos sera auditionné au Sénat sur les enjeux de concurrence liés au rachat de Warner Bros par Netflix. Netflix fera face à un examen politique renforcé aux États-Unis après l’annonce de la convocation de Ted Sarandos devant une commission du Sénat. Le co-PDG de la plateforme interviendra en février devant la sous-commission judiciaire chargée […] Eklecty-City - L'actualité Pop Culture : Analyse et décryptage Cinéma, Séries et Jeux Vidéo

Amaya needs a little more proofing but is penciled in as the full-time starter for 2027. He’ll start more as the season goes on and he is healthy and having success. View Link Miguel Amaya, a 26-year-old Panamanian native (he turns 27 on March 9) was well on his way to winning the job outright when he was injured, and from there his season went completely sideways, with a late-season return aborted by another injury. He’ll be looking to make good on some of his tremendous promise and solidify his claim on a position on the 2027 roster while helping his team chase the October Dream. View Link Amaya has a lifetime 3.4 bWAR as a batter, with 1.1 of that coming in 2025, when he turned in a line of ,281/.314/.500 with an OPS of .814 in only 96 at-bats, with four home runs and 25 RBI, improving his decent-for-a-catcher 2024 line by quite a bit. Indeed his projected line at BBRef is .244/.309/.407 in 288 at-bats, which seems low. 9 HR, 41 RBI, 105 total bases. Fangraphs has similar numbers.. He was extremely successful at improving his caught-stealing rate, which mushroomed from 18.8 percent to a solid 25 percent, with the possibility of improving that with some judicious work. The Cubs’ 2025 staff wasn’t very helpful in that regard as they were generally slow to the plate — Carson Kelly, seen as a plus defensive catcher, had a 27 percent CS rate. Amaya isn’t eligible for free agency until 2030. He’s arb-eligible in 2027. So his financial path isn’t an onerous one for the team. He just needs to stay healthy. Moises Ballesteros would be his backup in a scenario in which Kelly exits at the end of the year, when his deal expires. Kelly turns 32 around mid-season and is getting a little long in the tooth by baseball standards, but he could change the picture by having a season like 2025, given Ballesteros’ noted defensive inability at this point. Owen Ayers is a year or two out of this conversation, and break-glass catcher Christian Bethancourt probably isn’t going to last another season. The path is clear for Amaya to assume the role and mentor Ayers when that player arrives to The Show. That’s the best-case scenario, in-house. Who the backup would be is still in the air.

Jaxon Wiggins | Baseball America announced their preseason Top 100 prospects for 2026 and two Cubs prospects were named to the list. Catcher Moisés Ballesteros was named the 36th-ranked prospect and right-handed pitcher Jaxon Wiggins was named the 78th-best prospect. Recently-traded outfielder Owen Caissie, now of the Marlins, was named the 43rd-best prospect in the game. Additionally. two Cubs outfield prospects, Ethan Conrad and Kane Kepley, were listed among the “20 MLB prospects who just missed.” Conrad and Kepley were the Cubs’ first- and second-round picks in the 2025 draft. A third Cubs prospect, shortstop Jefferson Rojas, also made their “Just Missed” list. In their comments on Ballesteros, they reiterated that he’s a special hitter with defensive questions. On Wiggins, they said that he is one of the hardest-throwing starters in the minors but with durability issues. Clearly the Cubs system is down a bit from the same time last year. Cade Horton and Matt Shaw graduated. Owen Caissie was traded to Miami. Kevin Alcántara, who was in the preseason Top 100 last year, had a rough season and dropped out. However, Ballesteros jumped from 62 to 36 and Wiggins went from unranked last year to 78th this year. Conrad hasn’t made his professional debut yet because of injury, but Baseball America is very excited to see him play this year. Kepley made a big splash in Low-A Myrtle Beach which was enough for a second-round pick to get some consideration for the top 100. So the cupboard isn’t completely empty.

The Sheraton Grand Hotel in downtown Chicago | | Getty Images I’ll preface this by saying I was not at this year’s Cubs Convention. BCB’s Sara Sanchez was, though, and wrote up this informative article earlier this week about how overcrowded the event was, and it seems clear to me that this event is far too large for a venue like the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, where it has been held since 2013. I have a suggestion for where this annual gathering could be moved, but first I wanted to add some further remarks on this year’s event, directly from event attendees. This comment was found on Facebook — Sara posted it in the comments to her article, but I think it needs more prominence: I’ve only gone twice, this year and last year. The APP prior to updating to 2026 showed roughly 3,500 signed in from last year, and the APP at times showed 8,000+ this year and it felt massively crowded. This also impacted staff and process and Cubs staff (terrific people through and through) just couldn’t consistently manage anything from crowds to autograph line steps, to really anything. We made the best of it, but we’re also going to think long and hard about making this an annual event unfortunately. I felt bad for people with high expectations that traveled across state lines for this. Eight thousand-plus people. This page from the Sheraton’s website says that the maximum capacity of their “largest space” is 4,600. So that means this year’s event had nearly twice that many crowding hallways, elevators, escalators and smaller spaces. Here are some other comments I received, all from people who attended this convention. Warning! This is gonna be long. Here’s one from someone who’s been at nearly every one of the Cubs Conventions: Except for the opening ceremony, I avoid the really massive events, have no interest in the Bingo, Carayoke etc. Also, having attended 38 of the 39 Conventions, I know what I have to do to get into the venues.  Yes, the opening ceremony was very badly crowded, had to stand at the back two and a quarter hours, no seats, and I did what I usually do to try to find a seat in back. I can readily understand that a lot of people must have been badly disappointed, having paid that much and actually seen that little. For years now, Convention attendees have needed to plan and attack the venues like a military campaign. Even the STH exclusive venues were wall-to-wall people.  I long ago gave up on the autograph lines. There were long lines Thursday afternoon for the player meet-and-greet signups (those open at 1 p.m. Friday), but that has been the case for many years. The Saturday main ballroom events mean getting there ungodly early and staying several hours straight to the end. Don’t drink anything before you go. I always thought it was a mistake to abandon the Hilton, but even that larger venue might not have helped much. All the same, I’d hate to have the Convention turned into an Auto Show or commercial show of the sort you have at McCormick Place. I am familiar with the Rosemont convention center, that would be a much better choice. Of course, all this means that they deliberately oversold, have been doing so for years, and did so to a bigger degree this year than ever. It has always been in the back of my mind that it’s becoming dangerous, it would not have taken much, at certain times, to ignite a real disaster. I’ll continue to come, it’s still fun, and I know the lay of the land. You will pardon the profanity from this person, who has also been to dozens of Cubs Conventions: It was an absolute shitshow. We were told by staff that they sold an additional 3,000 tickets. It was ridiculous trying to go anywhere or get in anywhere. I never was able to get into the STH lounge because of the line and just trying to get around. I always try and have a good time but this year really pushed me to my limit. Somebody in our group got seats at 9:30 a.m. and we had to have someone stay and hold them until we were done…