Introducing BCB After Dark

Last week, I goofed up on a story. I meant to schedule an article on prospects at 2 p.m., but instead I accidentally scheduled it for 2 a.m. So an article that was meant to attract eyeballs in the middle of the afternoon got buried in the middle of the night.

The funny thing was, it didn’t get buried. People found it anyway and it actually got some good attention. The Deputy Mayor of Rush Street called it “BCB After Dark” and Al and I got to talking and we thought that sounded good. We don’t know whether it will work, but we decided to give it a try.

So here it is: BCB After Dark: Your space for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re not going to run a big story or any breaking news in the middle of the night. That would be silly. In fact, most of the time we’re just going to post a question for discussion. Maybe sometimes it will be a minor news story worthy of attention. We’re really not sure how this is going to go yet. This is an experiment.

We’ll run these stories at 1 a.m. Chicago time. Those of you still up are encouraged to start the discussion. The rest of you can join in when you wake up, if you want. We plan on running it twice a week to start and then go to four or five nights a week when the season starts, if it catches on. If it doesn’t catch on, then we’ll just discontinue it.

So here’s tonight’s first question: Imagine you’ve been hired to replace Jed Hoyer. Tom Ricketts has told you to sign one, but only one, of the Cubs' three core players about to hit free agency to a longterm contract extension. Javier Baez, Kris Bryant or Anthony Rizzo. Which one would you sign and why?

We know that your answer would depend upon what contract the player would agree to sign. For the purposes of discussion, assume that all three players will agree to a market-rate contract, whatever you think that is, both in dollars and years.

So which one of these beloved Cubs do you keep and which two do you say goodbye to?