Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the hippest hangout for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and join us for a while. We’re always glad to see a friendly face. We’re waiving the cover charge tonight. There are still a few tables available. 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 Blue Jays tonight 4-1 and more importantly, Cade Horton is looking like maybe he’s that top-of-the rotation starting pitcher that the Cubs haven’t had since the glory days of Jake Arrieta. Yes, Horton gave up a run, but it came after he left the game. I’m not willing to call him a number-one starter yet—that’s something you have to earn with consistency over a longer period of time—but I’m beginning to think he’s got a good chance of getting there.
Last night I asked you who should be the Cubs’ fifth starter going forward. Seventy percent of you think that Colin Rea should hang on to the job, so the vote wasn’t really close. Another 23 percent said the job should go to Javier Assad.
In all the commotion over the switchover in our site last week, I missed that Latin jazz great Eddie Palmieri died last week at the age of 88. I’m always a bit embarrassed that I don’t feature more Latin jazz (other than bossa nova) in this space, so here’s my apologies for that and a NPR Tiny Desk concert from 2016 with Palmieri. This is a little different look for Palmieri as it’s just him and his piano. Normally he’s being backed by a big band.
I don’t really have a movie essay ready to go tonight and to be honest, I’m fighting with the new CMS software too much to actually have had time to come up with something.
So I thought I’d throw the floor open to you with any suggestions of things you think I should watch and write about. I also want to know if you have any ideas for our offseason events. For the past three years, we’ve done a movie tournament: first was noir, the second was Westerns and the third was the films of Alfred Hitchcock. I’m taking suggestions for what we should do this winter. Remember, however, that I prefer to deal with films pre-1980. My immediate idea was science fiction, but I also know that most of the good ones are more recent than that. After The Day the Earth Stood Still, Fantastic Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars: A New Hope, what are we looking at per-1980? Two versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers? I suppose Alphaville would be a good one.
So suggestions are welcome.
Welcome back to everyone who skipped all that stuff.
The Cubs got some terrible news tonight as Miguel Amaya, who was playing his first game off the 60-day injured list, hurt himself beating out an infield single. The good news is that it looked worse than it apparently was and x-rays on Amaya came up negative. The bad news is that Amaya is hurt and he is going to go on the injured list. We won’t know for how long until the swelling goes down and they can do some more tests.
When Amaya went down, I thought that a good question for tonight would be would you call up Moisés Ballesteros or Owen Caissie from Iowa to take Amaya’s spot on the roster? Or someone else like Kevin Alcántara or Jonathon Long? But that question was answered earlier this evening as it’s been widely-reported that Caissie will make his major league debut tomorrow—assuming he can make it to Toronto in time. I hope he has the necessary papers to enter Canada.
(That’s a joke. If you don’t know, Caissie is Canadian.)
But just because the Cubs are calling up Caissie doesn’t mean that you have to agree with the decision. The reason that Caissie hasn’t been called up already is that the Cubs already have three very capable corner outfielders in Ian Happ, Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki. Ballesteros would have given the Cubs more cover behind the plate. Ballesteros also has some major league experience already, which is always a plus. He only hit .222 in his first two major-league call-ups, but he also only struck out once in 18 at bats. He even walked twice. Ballesteros was very unlucky, in my mind, not to have a few more hits and a higher batting average.
Both Ballesteros and Caissie are left-handed hitters and they have very similar levels of offensive production this year. Ballesteros is hitting .325/.389/.489 with ten home runs and Caissie is hitting .289/.389/.566 with 22 home runs. Caissie has been hot since the All-Star Break with a .339 batting average and 11 home runs, but Ballesteros has been very good too, hitting .309 with only 2 home runs, but 13 doubles to Caissie’s eight.
So tell me if you were Jed Hoyer, who would you call up to fill in for Miguel Amaya?
(And of course, it was quite fortunate that the Cubs decided to designate Jon Berti for assignment yesterday instead of Reese McGuire.)
Thank you so much for stopping by. It’s been a rough week, but it’s better when you stop by. Please get home safely. Don’t throw recyclables in the trash. Tell your friends about us. And join us again next time for more BCB After Dark.
