BCB After Dark: Not safe at home

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the nightclub for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Thanks for stopping by again tonight. We’ve saved you a table in the second row. Bring your own beverage. Shoes, shirt and even pants are optional as long as you promise not to turn on the camera to whatever device you’re on.

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 lost to the Mets again tonight by a 3-2 score with pinch-runner Jake Marisnick thrown out at the plate in the top of the ninth. At least the Brewers lost so the Cubs remain in a tie for first place, although the Reds are now just three games back in third place.

If you want to continue the discussion of tonight’s game here, feel free. Just watch the language, OK?

Last night I asked you who you thought was the greatest Cubs closer of the expansion era and with 52% of the vote you went with Bruce Sutter. His fellow Hall-of-Famer Lee Smith was second with 43%.

So we’ve now completed the voting for the greatest Cubs at each position since 1962. And your lineup is as follows:

C: Willson Contreras

1B: Anthony Rizzo

2B: Ryne Sandberg*

SS: Javier Baéz

3B: Ron Santo

LF: Billy Williams*

CF: Dexter Fowler

RF: Sammy Sosa*

SP: Ferguson Jenkins

CL: Bruce Sutter

The asterisked players are ones I didn’t put up for a vote because there really isn’t an honest debate at those three positions. Sandberg, Williams and Sosa are so far ahead of every other Cubs player of the expansion era at those positions.

So of the ten players, four were on the 2016 Cubs and three were on the 1969 Cubs. And Randy Hundley just missed out over Contreras by one percent, so the voting between the two teams was extremely close.

Tuesdays are the day with the abbreviated After Dark, so there’s no movie talk and I just present a jazz tune. I’ve said before that I think it’s easier for most people to appreciate jazz music if it is a song that you are already familiar with. So with that said, here’s the Dexter Gordon Quartet with “Georgia on My Mind.” [VIDEO]

The talk of last night and today in Cubsland is almost certainly the decision of third base coach Willie Harris to waive Jake Marisnick home on Eric Sogard’s single to right-center field. Marisnick was out by about ten feet and the Cubs best chance to tie up the game fizzled.

After the game, manager David Ross defended the send, saying that he’d rather be aggressive in that situation and that it took two perfect throws from center fielder Kevin Pillar and cut-off man Luis Guillorme to nail Marisnick. Mets first baseman Pete Alonso also agreed that it took a perfect play by the Mets.

Marquee Sports reporter Tony Andracki also defended the send in a series of Tweets.

A few points here. Yes, the Mets turned in two very good throws to make the out. Yes, if Marisnick stops at third base, there is no guarantee that the Cubs get him home. Jason Heyward was up next and then Sergio Alcantara after that. Both were solid candidates to strike out. (Heyward walked and Alcantara struck out to end the game.) Pillar was running to his left and it’s not easy for a right-hander to make a throw from that position.

Marisnick is also very fast. If anyone on the Cubs could make it from first to home on a single, it was him.

But on the other hand, Pillar has had a nine-year major league career despite a career .298 OBP and 89 OPS+ primarily because he’s a very good defensive outfielder. And Guillorme also has a strong defensive reputation. There was only one out. Seth Lugo pitches to Heyward and Alcatara differently if there are runners on the corners and one out.

Finally, the play at the plate wasn’t really close. Yes, the Mets turned in two perfect throws, but Marisnick was out by a lot.

So the quesiton is, despite how it worked out, was the decision to send Marisnick home a good one? If you had Willie Harris’s job, would you have sent him?

We’ll see you again tomorrow night. Thanks for coming in.