It’s a new week here at BCB After Dark: the coolest spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and join us. We’re so happy to see you. There’s no cover charge. The dress code is casual. We still have a couple of tables available. 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.
Last week I asked you if you thought Pete Crow-Armstrong will win the home run crown. With six games to go, he’s now tied with Kyle Schwarber with 45. When I wrote this last week, PCA “only” had 44.
It was close, but 52 percent of you think that Crow-Armstrong will either win the title outright or tie with Schwarber and share the crown.
Here’s the part with the music and movies. You can skip that if you want. It’s not like I’ll know.
We’re just two days away from the 100th anniversary of saxophonist John Coltrane’s birthday. Of course, Coltrane was a part of the first great Miles Davis Quintet (or Sextet) and played on the seminal jazz album, Kind of Blue in 1959.
Here’s Davis and Coltrane playing “So What” from that album live in New York in 1959. Trane’s solo starts around the 2-minute mark and you’ll notice that other than pianist Wynton Kelly and drummer Jimmy Cobb who provide the beat, the rest of the band just leaves the stage and just lets Coltrane do his thing.
It’s not like I haven’t been watching movies this past weekend. I’ve finally watched director Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye (1973) with Elliot Gould as detective Philip Marlowe, moved from the ‘40s to the ‘70s, but still portrayed as an anachronism. I’ve also been trying to keep up with Turner Classic Movies rundown of every film director Stanley Kubrick ever made.
So what I’m trying to say that I’ve spent too much time watching films and not enough time writing about films. I didn’t have to time to give these films that I’ve seen the attention they deserve.
So I just thought I’d throw it over to you to talk about your favorite films from either Kubrick or Altman. Do you like Spartacus or Dr. Strangelove better? M*A*S*H or The Player? Are you still in awe of 2001: A Space Odyssey? Do you love Nashville? Or compare the two: Eyes Wide Shut or A Prairie Home Companion, to mark their respective final films.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.
First, an announcement from the Double-A Southern League.
Just in case you can’t see that, three Smokies were named to the Southern League All-Star team. Catcher Owen Ayers hit .304/.417/.591 with 16 home runs in 65 games in Knoxville before moving up to Triple-A Iowa.
Dawson Netz made 17 starts and seven relief appearances for the Smokies, totaling 85.2 innings. He struck out 103 and walked 35 en route to a record of 7-4 and an ERA of 2.94.
Brooks Caple joined the Smokies in May after five starts in Low-A South Bend. He made 16 starts and one relief appearance. He went 4-4 with a 3.24 ERA in Double-A. Caple pitched 86 innings and struck out 82 while walking just 25.
With the minor league season now over, I’m going to ask you for your pick for the Cubs Minor League Player of the Year. I’m just including position players in this vote and I’ll try to let you vote on the Minor League Pitcher of the Year either tomorrow or Wednesday.
As I see it, there are three candidates for Cubs Minor League Player of the Year. The official award that the Cubs will announce shortly is named after Buck O’Neil, so if you want, this is your vote for the Buck O’Neill Award.
The first is one I’ve already mentioned, 25-year-old catcher Owen Ayers. Ayers started the year in High-A South Bend (having spent the first two years of his professional career entirely in Low-A Myrtle Beach) and blew threw that level in just 11 games. He hit six home runs in those 11 games.
Ayers spent the middle part of the season in Double-A, and I’ve listed his numbers for Knoxville above. That got him promoted to Triple-A Iowa for his final 49 games, where he slowed down a little with the major league balls that didn’t fly quite as far. But he still did well in Iowa, posting a line of .247/.365/.356 with three home runs. Ayers also made big strides with his defense behind the plate, going from someone we hoped could stick behind the plate to someone we know can catch, even if we don’t know ultimately how good he’ll be defensively. We do know he has a strong arm as he threw out 41 out of 146 batters trying to steal over the three levels.
Between the three levels, Ayers’ final line was .289/403/.526 with 25 home runs and 13 steals.
The next candidate went through three levels this season, going from Myrtle Beach to Knoxville. Outfielder/first baseman Josiah Hartshorn was a sixth-round pick out of high school last year and didn’t make his professional debut until this year. At only 19, he was a dominating hitter through the two levels of A ball. Hartshorn only played 11 games in Myrtle Beach before his promotion and only three regular-season games in Double-A.
So Hartshorn spent most of the year in High-A, where he was named to the Midwest League All-Star Team. For South Bend, Hartshorn hit .297/.405/.560 with 18 home runs and 12 steals in 83 games.
Hartshorn’s overall line between the three levels was .284/.407/.518 with 26 doubles, five triples and 23 home runs. He stole 17 bases. He set a South Bend Cubs record with 85 RBI and he had 112 RBI total.
The third candidate only played in two levels, 22-year-old outfielder Kane Kepley. Kepley was an absolute menace in South Bend, hitting .254/.435/.424 with seven home runs and 50 steals over 93 games. He did pretty much the same thing in Double-A. He only hit .212 with the batting average, but he had a .382 OBP and three home runs and 20 steals over just 32 games.
Overall, Kepley hit .243/.422/.401 with with ten home runs and 70 steals. He was only caught stealing six times. Kepley struck out way more than he walked with 120 walks to 89 strikeouts over 595 plate appearances. (You can add his 22 hit-by-pitches to his walk total if you’d like.) He’s also a very good defensive center fielder.
So who is your pick for the Buck O’Neill Cubs Minor League Player of the Year?
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