"Very quietly, while you were stockpiling New Year's Eve provisions or watching your favorite directional state university in the Go Daddy.com Bowl from Progressive Insurance Stadium, the Cubs struck a preliminary blow on baseball's new battleground.

They signed a pair of young Cubans — 19-year-old center fielder Yasiel Balaguert and 20-year-old right-hander Carlos Martinez.

Don't feel badly if you haven't heard much about them. They are inexpensive lottery tickets who may or not translate into significant prospects.

Balaguert and Martinez have played on Cuban junior teams alongside 19-year-old Jorge Soler, who like the more widely advertised fellow center-fielder Yoenis Cespedes is expected to be declared a signing-eligible free agent by the end of the month. Balaguert, like Soler, is from Habana province, outside Havana, and they are considered friends."