Oh, I’m about thirty feet tall right now...hey, welcome to Sunday morning at BCB. It’s still 1965 here, as I’m screening Svengoolie, who is showing the Tommy Kirk vehicle Village of the Giants, which begs for the MST3K treatment, except that I hate that. The movie also has Beau Bridges and Toni Basil, and the Beau Brummels. Fun stuff, if just awful bad. Sorta like watching the Cubs used to be, back when I was growing up. The first game I went to was in 1965. I also went to a concert at Comiskey Park that year, cuz my folks couldn’t get a babysitter on short notice. Yeah yeah yeah!
Weekends are better with a 1:20 first pitch. pic.twitter.com/w6P78vbem0
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) January 13, 2019
And on that note, we interrupt the Addison Russell Show to bring you today’s Cubs News and Notes, such as they are. As always * means autoplay on, or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). Let’s get small ;)
#Cubs infielder David Bote discusses some of the most interesting things he learned at the @MLB/@MLB_PLAYERS Rookie Career Development Program. Watch: https://t.co/iM1jWrICde pic.twitter.com/HNkOqt9aPB
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) January 13, 2019
#Cubs 2018 Pitch Quality
— MLB Quality of Pitch (@qopbaseball) January 13, 2019
2019 Rotation
Hendricks 4.73 QOPA
Hamels 4.65 QOPA
Quintana 4.35 QOPA
Lester 4.15 QOPA
Darvish 4.13 QOPA pic.twitter.com/a7fLtWzCkE
- Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Inbox: Do Cubs boast best starting 5 in game? “...it’s certainly within the top 10.”
- 679 TheScore: Kyle Hendricks on Cubs offseason [AUDIO].
- Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Jake Arrieta warns younger players about what’s going on in baseball: “You’re Next”. “...it’s jarring to see a player so plainly laying out one of the fundamental problems between the owners and the players.”
The MLBPA's chief negotiator tells @WSJSports that there is concern over teams using the luxury tax as a de facto salary cap. MLB says player share of league revenue hasn't changed. With free agency again in a deep freeze, here's where things stand. https://t.co/EnpnWVVHCY pic.twitter.com/GY7JRaVj89
— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) January 11, 2019
- Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): Where Cubs payroll stands after the arbitration deals. “...a little more than $225 million.”
- Gordon Wittenmyer (Chicago Sun-Times*): Cubs reach agreement on creative contract for suspended SS Russell. “Even on a day when the Cubs avoided arbitration with all seven of their eligible players, they couldn’t avoid another round of swift public backlash...”
- Todd Johnson (Cubs Insider): Cubs system position-by-position, pt 8: Righty starters aplenty in lower levels. “...this week we’ll examine the depth at three levels of class A and the rookie leagues in Arizona and the Dominican.”
- Gordon Engelhardt (Evansville Courier & Press*{$}): Jim Edmonds, Mark Grace resume Cardinals-Cubs rivalry at Night of Memories. “The Cubs and Cardinals is a great rivalry, it always has been, way before I got to the Cubs and Jimmy got to St. Louis,” said Grace.
- Cubs birthdays: Steve Mesner, Emmett O’Neill, Mike Tyson, Jose Nunez, Kevin Foster.
Today in 1960s Baseball: Charlie Grimm & Verlon Walker named to Cubs “College of Coaches” (1961) https://t.co/jvol0AzLoZ https://t.co/TkeXEE8yOy #Cubs pic.twitter.com/bnNsfY2Mca
— 1960s Baseball (@Baseball1960s) January 13, 2019
Food for thought:
Here's how blobs of worms behave like a liquid and a solid. https://t.co/U8COSg9W6u
— Science News (@ScienceNews) January 13, 2019
Clean all the stains. https://t.co/eWYVBXzhSH
— Popular Science (@PopSci) January 12, 2019
Our seafaring feathered friends literally go with the ocean flow – and that turns out to be useful. https://t.co/rzGMsWXZA0
— Science News (@ScienceNews) January 13, 2019
Thanks for reading.