BCB After Dark: Get Happy! (and an open thread)

It’s a special edition of BCB After Dark: the happiest club for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re throwing the doors open to everyone tonight and hoping the fire marshal doesn’t shut us down. Bring your own beverage and one for everyone else. Cover all the furniture with plastic because we’re going to uncork the bubbly. We’re going to party until dawn.

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.

Last night I asked you what you thought about an international draft and 64 percent of you thought that it was a bad idea. Fourteen percent of you wanted to see it in this collective bargaining agreement and 21 percent took the David Ortiz position: good idea in theory but nowhere near ready to be implemented.

So tonight is a special edition of After Dark in honor of the end of the lockout. There’s going to be some music, but I don’t have any movie stuff prepared. But also consider this an open thread for any possible transaction rumors that happen this evening. Players need to report to Spring Training on Sunday, so a lot of players are going to find new teams before then. I don’t know that anyone is going to sign late this evening, but it’s certainly possible. Everyone is promising that the Hot Stove is going to be wild.

Here’s a musical interlude that you can skip if you want. You won’t hurt my feelings.

It’s tradition around here to play Judy Garland singing “Get Happy” from Summer Stock when we have really good news, and honestly, I can’t think of any better news than we got today. Except maybe the Cubs winning another World Series, but that couldn’t happen until what happened today came to pass.

If you want a little movie trivia, this was the last film that Garland made for MGM. This famous scene was filmed three months after the rest of the film, which gave Garland a chance to lose 20 pounds (so she’d look better in that outfit) and sober up somewhat. She turned in a magnificent performance here.

She did start to work on one more film for the studio, Royal Wedding, but was fired after she repeatedly failed to show up for work. Addiction and mental health problems are a bitch.

Since I’ve played that film clip before, here’s a version of the same song, written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. This time it’s performed by Ella Fitzgerald.

And if you just want the music and not the words, here’s a contemporary version (well, 2004) by the Brad Mehldau Trio. It’s got Mehldau on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass and Jorge Rossy on drums.

Everyone is saying that the period between now and the start of camps is going to be wild, with teams scrambling to sign the free agents who haven’t signed yet.

So this is an open thread about what is going on in the three-day Hot Stove. OK, some players will not sign until after the camps open so the Hot Stove will take longer than that, but I would think most remaining free agents will try to sign as quickly as possible. And now that the teams know the terms of the CBA, every front office should know their budget for next year and how much money they have to spend.

Also, since we always have a poll question here, tell us which of these free agents will sign with the Cubs? Our polls only allow for one answer, so if you think that the Cubs will sign more than one of these players, vote for whomever you think will be the best player the Cubs sign. It’s up to you to determine who will be the “best” one if you think the Cubs will sign more than one.

If you don’t think they’ll sign any of them, then there’s a spot for that too.

Also, there are a lot of players on this list that you’re probably pretty familiar with.

So which current remaining free agent will the Cubs sign before the start of the 2022 season? The names are in alphabetical order.

Thank you again so much for stopping by and celebrating with us. Come again and be sure to tell your friends to stop by all season long. Let’s hope we have a lot of celebrating to do. Tip the waitstaff and join us again on Monday night/Tuesday morning for another edition of BCB After Dark.