It’s another night here at BCB After Dark: the grooviest dive for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and sit with us for a while. There’s no cover charge. The dress code is casual. We still have a few good tables. 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 night I asked you if the Cubs should sign catcher Carson Kelly to a two-year extension. The slight majority of you thought it was a good idea, as 51 percent of you said yes. Thirty-one percent were against it and the rest of you were “If he’ll sign for cheap,”
On Tuesdays I don’t do movie stuff, but I’m sure I can find some music in here somewhere.
International Jazz Day is April 30 and it’s almost here. As mentioned before, Chicago is the host city of this day that we all celebrate the most American of art forms. Here’s a piece from International Jazz Day in 2023 featuring pianist Emmet Cohen and vocalist Cyrille Aimée. Joining them are Philip Norris on bass and John Lumpkin. This is Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner jazz standard “Almost Like Being in Love.”
Feel free to sing along if you want.
Welcome back to those who skip all that jazz.
Last night we got to see Moisés Ballesteros start behind the plate for the first time this year. At the plate, he was great with his first career grand slam. Defensively, I thought he looked shaky. So did Al in his recap, noting that he had a passed ball, let Ty France steal a base on him and made a bad ABS challenge. I’m going to let the ABS challenge slide a little bit since I thought the pitch was close enough to challenge. The only problem was that Matthew Boyd had made an ill-advised challenge earlier in the game and that meant the Cubs were out of challenges. So I guess Ballesteros should have known that the Cubs were down to one challenge. Also, Matthew Boyd shouldn’t be allowed to challenge pitches anymore.
Of course, those two bad ABS challenges came back to bite the Cubs when Ben Brown had clearly struck out Ty France with two out in the fifth inning, only for home plate umpire Dan Merzel badly blow the call. That’s exactly what the ABS system was designed to fix, but the Cubs couldn’t use it. France ended up walking and the Padres ended up scoring two runs in the inning. The Padres beat the Cubs by two runs.
But that’s an aside. What I want to ask you is do you think Moisés Ballesteros should keep catching? The scouting report on Ballesteros throughout the minor leagues was that he was a great hitter but that he really wasn’t good enough behind the plate to catch. So far in his major league career, he’s lived up to his scouting report. He looks like an elite hitter but a poor catcher.
Is it worth it to try to keep Mo Baller behind the plate? Or would you rather he just concentrate on hitting and maybe getting an occasional start at first base? If Ballesteros is as good a hitter as he’s shown us so far, he’s definitely a good enough hitter to stick at DH. Might he be even better if he didn’t have to work on improving his defense behind the plate. Maybe! It’s certainly no guarantee because he’s already pretty darn great, but I’ve always believed (and many scouts agree with me) that hitting skills of catchers develop late because they spend so much time working on their defensive responsibilities. Maybe that’s what happened to Carson Kelly.
The other reason to make him a full-time DH is that catchers get hurt. It’s a brutal life back behind the plate from foul balls and whatnot. Not only that, but constantly getting up and down out of a crouch can damage the knees.
On the other hand, if Ballesteros can manage to be even a below-average defensive catcher, that makes him a lot more valuable than if he were just a full-time DH. Also, as far as I know, Mo Baller still wants to catch. There’s something to be said for letting a young star do what he wants.
The Cubs faced this same dilemma with Kyle Schwarber a little over a decade ago. Eventually, the Cubs tried to play him in left field. That worked for a while, but he was certainly well below-average out there. Nowadays, Schwarber just serves as the DH almost exclusively and no one is second-guessing that choice.
(Before anyone suggests it, I believe that Ballesteros would be much worse than Schwarber ever was in left field. He can play first base and not be terrible, but with both Busch and Ballesteros being left-handed hitters, that doesn’t work well for the Cubs.)
I’m also going to give you the option of trading Mo Baller and making this issue someone else’s problem. I don’t think many of you will vote for it, but I’ll throw it out there for anyone who wants to bring it up.
Thanks for stopping by tonight. We’ve enjoyed having you. Please get home safely. Call a ride if you need to. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow night for more BCB After Dark.
