BCB After Dark: Has El Mago lost the magic?

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the virtual speakeasy for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. As always, we’ll save the best table for you. Enjoy your favorite beverage responsibly.

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.

The Cubs broke their losing streak tonight with some clutch hitting by Willson Contreras and some clutch pitching by Craig Kimbrel. Let us also not overlook the fine job Alec Mills did on short notice filling in for the ill Kyle Hendricks.

The Tuesday night/Wednesday morning After Dark is the abbreviated one where I skip the discussion of classic film and keep the jazz to a minimum. But you can feel free to discuss those topics if you want. Or you can keep the discussion going on tonight’s win.

Yesterday I asked you about your impression of the new extra innings rule where a runner starts on second base. Sixty-one percent of those who answered said you did not like the rule and only twenty percent voted in favor of it. Some, including me, supported the idea of ties after 12 innings as an alternative.

Before I get to tonight’s music and poll question, I do have a confession to make. I lied last time. I really do want to see a small indy film where Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hope Davis and Godzilla are all down-on-their-luck roommates in a Manhattan apartment.

I was looking for a jazz piece to feature tonight and I found this great video of Coleman Hawkins and Charlie “Bird” Parker, two of the greatest saxophonists ever, showing to each other what they could do. Coleman is on his trademark tenor sax and Parker is playing the alto sax. It’s a soft, mellow piece that fits right in with the late-night vibe of our club. But if you’re really a fan of Bird playing hard bebop, just keep watching until the second song on this clip starts. Then Parker goes at it with drummer Buddy Rich and they get loud and fast.

The Cubs offense has been pretty worrisome over the first two weeks of the season and no one has really covered themselves in glory. I could probably pick on anyone in the lineup, but I’m going to mention Javier Baez because of this article that Kevin Goldstein published in Fangraphs on Tuesday. It’s entitled “It’s Probably Time To Be Concerned about Javier Baez” and Goldstein makes the case that what Baez is experiencing is more than just a small-sample-size slump. Baez is swinging at a lot of pitches outside the zone, even by his previous standards. But more concerning is that Baez is missing fastballs in the zone. He’s never had problems catching up to velocity before, but now he seems to be swinging and missing at a lot of strikes that he previously would have clobbered.

So read the article (or don’t) and tell us: How worried should we be about Javier Baez? I’m obviously just referring to his hitting here. I don’t think anyone is too concerned about his glove at the moment.

I’m putting it on a scale of 1 (least concerned) to 5 (most concerned). If you think he’s snapping out of this soon, vote 1 or 2. If you’re worried that he’s going to be like this all season and that he could play his way out of a job, vote 4 or 5.

Thanks for stopping by. We’ll see you again tomorrow.