Time to start planning my Beer / White Claw options for tonight. I couldn’t get too far ahead!
• The Cubs want to wake you up with some HYPE today:
I came here to win. @ Wintrust pic.twitter.com/3CjkrJQMmZ
– Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) July 24, 2020
• In the extended postseason, David Ross said this (before it was official, technically): “I have mixed opinions about it. I understand that perhaps the best thing for baseball and the 60 game season is to put more teams in the postseason and see how it unfolds. But, I think baseball is a game about overcoming adversity, and this is as great an adversity as I think you can get. And the team that did the best job in the downtime of being prepared and staying ready should be rewarded, whether it’s the big-market teams or a team that wasn’t even on the radar to make the playoffs. If they play well in these two months, they deserve to enter and fight for a championship. I’m probably a little bit against expanding it. Let’s make it mean something. Let’s go. Let’s go forward from day 1. I think everyone is into this sprint mindset and I am into it. Every game matters. Let’s not dilute anything. We are going for it from day 1 “.
• An understandable perspective. Although the flip side is that we already know that 60 games are not enough to tell us who the REALLY best teams are (only the teams that have performed the best so far (although 60 is actually surprisingly close to “enough”)), for therefore, if the playoff group is too small, you can sideline the “best” team. For me, in this particular season, I think it’s a good idea. But I do understand Ross’s point.
• The Cubs have been without quality control coach Mike Napoli during camp because it tested positive for COVID-19 before camp began. The Cubs hope he can get back to them soon.
• How’s this for fun on the Cubs’ roster: 40% of his rotation was in his minor leagues, and 27% of his bullpen was entirely homegrown. Cubs basically have a lot of home throwers now! Right?!
• Interesting note on how a pair of final launchers were selected for the bullpen:
Theo said Ross fought for Maples, the staff fought for Brothers left-handed with swing things and miss
– Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) July 23, 2020
• I’m not saying that this COMPLETELY exploits what I wrote about the Mookie Betts deal, but this is a very, very significant value change that no one is talking about:
Betts’ contract includes $ 115 million in deferrals (from 8 million to 11 million each for 12 years). There is no interest. The contract is valued by the union at a total of $ 306,657,882. Therefore, deferrals decrease the contract value from $ 365,000,000 by $ 53,342,118.
– Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 23, 2020
• I mean, that makes the effective AAV in the deal just $ 25.5 million, or just a little more than the AAV in Bryce Harper’s 13-year contract. Does anyone think that Mookie Betts get less than Bryce Harper in a normal market? No possibility. So all of that talks about the Dodgers doing something that seemed absolutely crazy in the midst of a pandemic and regardless of the financial consequences? Hey, we can smooth that out considerably.
• The Betts and Dodgers made their debut last night, by the way, with the Yankees beating the Nationals in a rain-delayed first game. It was really great to watch baseball, particularly just seeing Max Scherzer and Gerrit Cole dealing with their ridiculous stuff. Oh, and seeing Giancarlo Stanton hit the season’s first home run, 459-foot dang:
And so it begins 💪 #NYYforNY pic.twitter.com/ya2UY3kF0w
– New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 23, 2020
• Dylan Carlson was not on the Cardinals roster, leading to service time complaints, as expected:
“Honestly, I’m disappointed. I know this is a business and it is a decision that was out of my control. … I’m sure my time will come, and in the meantime, I’ll be in Springfield doing everything in my power to get ready. “- Dylan Carlson, OF https://t.co/WNsHE6XRjl
– Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) July 23, 2020
• Carlson, 21, is probably ready to contribute, but he’s also only 18 games ahead of AA, so the Cardinals aren’t OUT of bounds here. What sucks about this particular season is that the way service time is calculated in the shortened season, a prospect like Carlson may lose only the first eight days and then the team gets an extra year of control … and It’s not like the team can say, oh he really needed that time in our backup facility. They’re not even real minor leagues. We’ve done this dance relative to Kris Bryant, so I don’t have much to add more to say that I really hope that the way players get to arbitration and free agency changes radically in the new CBA. Younger players have become too disproportionately valuable for the current system to continue.
• Get ready for a big sale in Obvious Shirts for Opening Day:
• The well-deserved festival of love for David Ross continues:
Nine months after being hired, David Ross is still the right manager right now for these Cubs, writes @PJ_Mooney @sahadevsharma: https://t.co/dX00NdcadW pic.twitter.com/vh4CSE54LU
– The Athletic Chicago (@TheAthleticCHI) July 24, 2020
• What a fantastic story about Eddie Vedder’s Ernie Banks:
Tomorrow night at @WatchMarquee is the first of 2 shows with Eddie Vedder from @PearlJam! Side A of the album airs on @OffTheMound presented by @Sloan_Valve right after Cubs Postgame Live! Baseball, music and more! #HOF #Gigaton @Cubs pic.twitter.com/kNc6thwUZz
– RyanDempster (@ Dempster46) July 23, 2020
• For my friends from Indiana and Iowa who want to start betting on the Cubs, there is a special event underway:
The fun is aimed at our friends specifically in Indiana or Iowa. Jump on this: https://t.co/nYbX282RUs
– Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) July 23, 2020
• And to everyone else in Illinois if you want to get into sports betting, look at that page.
