Cub Tracks’ TV or not TV

A beautiful night at the old ballyard, and look at all of them runs! Seattle pitching did a great job of hitting the sweet spot. But Ryan Rowland-Smith’s commentary is offputting as hell. I had a hard time dealing with his accent announcing the sport and kept expecting him to holler “Goal!”

He’s actually decent at his job. But he sounds just like William Snow, the guy that does the Outback commercials, who was great on The Lost World. I love that series — it’s in regular rotation in my Sunday Sci-Fi lineup...but New South Wales is not well-known as a location from which to develop baseball color men. Just sayin’.

It makes as much sense on the face of it as the average Rick Morrissey column. But Rick has been trying hard this pre-season and has been in regular rotation here. He returns to plead the case for Javier Baez at shortstop.

Cub pitching looked pretty good — now that the late telecast hath murdered sleep, here’s today’s Cubs News and Notes. As always * means autoplay on, or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome).

The Cubs are hoping the YouTube channel will promote the team’s brand in coming years, as WGN-9 helped build the franchise back in the 1980s and ’90s when it was a superstation. There will be no live telecasts of Cubs games on the YouTube channel, though it will have highlights.

“We’re beneficiaries. This whole empire is a product of the WGN superstation and Harry Caray,” Kenney said. “Seventy million homes outside of Chicago watching our games, day baseball games, the ’84 Cubs … we all got the benefit of that.

“That’s lost. We don’t have that massive footprint. But social media allows us to do that.” — Paul Sullivan.

• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider): Cubs Meatloaf tastes better when eaten like Bat out of Hell. “Meatloaf tastes good all season long. By the end of the season, it might be your favorite meal of all time,” says Joe Maddon. Meatloaf is everywhere!

• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): The Cubs are launching a YouTube channel as a ‘precursor’ to their TV network: ‘It’s a chance for us to do long-form programming’. “...starting Monday morning...”
• Dave Sheinen (Washington Post {$}): If success cost the Cubs their edge, will failure and tumult bring it back? “I just think there’s a big disconnect between the results and the narrative right now,” said Maddon.
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Forget the zoo animals and bounce houses, it’s business time at Cubs camp. “The truth is some Cubs may have outgrown these stunts, and the team had already begun to phase them out gradually.”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider): Jed Hoyer hints Cubs could be close to extending some young players, progress ‘Under the Radar’. “Any time you have ongoing discussions, it’s a positive,” Hoyer said. Score interview audio included in article.
• Gordon Wittenmyer (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Will Jon Lester add some ‘Grandpa Lester’ to what he does for Cubs in 2019? “He’s one of those anchor kind of guys,” Maddon said of his Opening Day starter. “And he’s really taken to this leadership thing.” Paul Sullivan adds on. Anthony Castrovince offers thoughts.
• Brendan Miller (Cubs Insider): Jon Lester hasn’t been getting outside strikes since David Ross retired. “Willson Contreras does not have that same deft touch for framing pitches.”
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): From ‘boo’ to ‘Yu’: Darvish wants to win over Cubs fans after rocky 2018 season. “I don’t want ‘boo’ anymore,” he said Friday. Gordon Wittenmyer espouses similar sentiments. Anthony Castrovince, too.
• Tony Andracki (NBC Sports Chicago*): New bullpen addition George Kontos is happy the Cubs finally won the World Series in 2016...but he didn’t want them to. “...2016 was a little bit difficult because they went through us in the first round and we had that bit of a collapse in Game 4 with our bullpen.”
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Jacob deGrom, Dakota Mekkes and the draft class that may define the future of Cubs pitching. “We want to try to draft and develop starting pitching,” amateur scouting director Matt Dorey said.
• David Laurila (Fangraphs): Rowan Wick has a short. quick arm and a good back story. “He has one of the shortest, quickest arms I’ve ever seen,” said Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy.
• Anthony Castrovince (MLB.com*): Contreras preoccupied by turmoil at home. “...once I get out of the ballpark, everything that comes to my mind is Venezuela and my family still living there,” he said.
• Carrie Muskat (Daily Herald {$}): Cubs prospect traces love of catching to 1st visit to field. “When he was 4 years old, Miguel Amaya remembers going to a baseball field for the first time.”
• Rick Morrissey (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Javy Baez deserves to be the Cubs’ shortstop, even after Addison Russell returns. “...whenever Baez runs onto the field to play shortstop, the Cubs automatically have one of the best shortstops in the majors.”
• Anthony Castrovince (MLB.com*): High-contact Nico Hoerner impresses Maddon. “He’s not far away,” Maddon prescribed. “If he catches the ball as well as everybody says he does and is able to work at-bats like we’ve seen, he’s not far off.”
• Tony Andracki (NBC Sports Chicago*): How Daniel Descalso plans to win over Cubs locker room. “Descalso isn’t trying to be the next Ross. He’ll settle for the next Jon Jay...”
• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation): Albert Almora, Jr. doesn’t want to talk about platoon splits (but we kinda have to). “Almora has been *far* more successful against left-handed pitchers...”
• Cubs birthdays:

Food for thought: