It’s Tuesday evening here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and sit with us for a while. It’s good to see you. There’s no cover charge. No coat or tie required. The hostess will seat you now. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party
started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
The Cubs beat the Braves, 4-3 tonight. The good news is that Kyle Tucker hit a three-run home run. The bad news is that Tucker left the game with calf tightness. The Cubs are terming it “precautionary” for now, but they said that Tucker wouldn’t play on Wednesday.
The other good news is that the bullpen pitched well. Also, the Reds lost and the Cubs now have a ten-game lead for a playoff spot over the Reds and Giants (who won in Colorado) with just 23 games to play. The Brewers had an odd Tuesday off-day, so their lead over the Cubs for the National League Central title is now five. That’s a lot with just 23 games to play, but it’s not impossible for the Brewers to blow that. Also, the Padres are losing as I write this and should the Orioles hang on, the Cubs would be four games up on San Diego for the first Wild Card spot. Again, that’s a big but not insurmountable lead with 23 games to play.
Last night I asked you who you would have start at first base against left-handed pitching. Fifty percent of you want to give the job to Carlos Santana. Another 37 percent want Michael Busch to start even versus lefties. Only 14 percent of you said Justin Turner, but Craig Counsell is apparently one of those 14 percent.
Here’s the part with the music. I don’t normally talk movies on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. But you can still enjoy the jazz.
I had no idea who Thomas Quendler is and this video just got dropped in my YouTube front page. But I listened/watched it and decided it was pretty good. I liked it. Checking the internet, Quendler’s record label tells me he’s a 24-year-old Austrian pianist with a lifelong passion for jazz. His style reminds me a bit of Ethan Iverson, formerly of The Bad Plus.
Quendler is joined by Jakob Gönitzer on bass and Jonas Kocnik on drums. This is “Madness.”
Welcome back to everyone who skips all that jazz.
As I noted earlier, the Cubs appear to be a lock to make the playoffs. Fangraphs currently puts their odds of making the postseason at 99.8 percent. And as I noted earlier, it’s looking increasingly likely that they will be forced into the best-of-three Wild Card round, most likely as the top seed.
That means the Cubs need to start making plans for the playoffs. In particular, their increasing lead against the Padres might give them a chance to set up their rotation so they can start whomever they want in game one.
This article by Patrick Mooney in The Athletic reports that the Cubs are already thinking about who the best pitcher to start game one is. (sub. req.) So tonight’s question is: Who do you want to start game one of a Wild Card Series for the Cubs?
While obviously the Cubs could start Colin Rea or Javier Assad and it even looks like Jameson Taillon may be back by the playoffs, with all due respect to those three pitchers, the decision really comes down to these three:
- Left-hander Matthew Boyd
- Left-hander Shōta Imanaga
- Right-hander Cade Horton
Boyd has been the Cubs’ best starter all year long and he’s the only one of the three with MLB playoff experience, having made three starts for the Guardians last year and one relief appearance for the Mariners in 2022. He’s only allowed one run in 12 innings of playoff baseball.
The downside is that while Boyd has been the best pitcher for the Cubs over the course of this season, he’s been running out of steam a bit in the second half. He’s only one year removed from his return from Tommy John surgery and he’s just 26 innings short of a career-high for him.
Imanaga has been the Cubs’ most-steady starter over the course of the past two seasons and while he doesn’t have MLB playoff experience, Imanaga has pitched in the playoffs in NPB. Imanaga also missed a chunk of this season with an injury and therefore there are fewer innings on his arm this year. He’s pitched better than Boyd since his return from the injured list.
The biggest concern with Imanaga is that he is really homer-prone. Against a team with a lot of power hitters, that could be a problem.
Horton’s strong second-half has turned him into a Rookie-of-the-Year candidate. He’s been nearly unhittable since the All-Star Break, with an ERA of 0.86 over eight starts. It should also be noted that Horton has been a much better pitcher at Wrigley than he is on the road, which might be just dumb chance but since the Cubs are probably going to be the home team in the Wild Card round, that might make a difference.
The downside is Horton’s inexperience and the fact that he’s already well over his career-high for innings pitched in a season. That includes the minors and even college ball. Horton also is right-handed and if the Cubs face the Padres in the Wild Card round, the Padres are better against right-handed pitching than left-handed pitching.
So which one of these three starters would you have start Game 1? Or would you go off the board?
Thank you for stopping by. We always enjoy having you around. Please get home safely. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow night for more BCB After Dark.
