BCB After Dark: An impressive debut

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the happening spot for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Everyone is in a good mood after a Cubs win, so come on in and celebrate with us. Keep your Cubs jersey on. There’s a nice table still available off to the left. Make yourself at home. Bring your own beverage.

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 time I asked you if taking two out of three from the Brewers in the Opening Series made you more optimistic about the Cubs or whether you dismissed it as just one series. By a vote of 56 to 44 percent, you felt that the Cubs’ good play made you more optimistic, despite the small sample size.

On Tuesday nights/Wednesday mornings, I don’t do any movie talk. But I always have time for some jazz, so those of you who skip that can do so now.

Here’s a lovely little piece that bassist Christian McBride and the Christian McBride trio recorded for KNKX Seattle Public Radio back in 2015.

So with Christian Sands on piano and Ulysses Owen Jr. on drums, here’s “I Guess I’ll Have to Forget.”

Welcome back to everyone who skips the jazz.

I think most of us expected Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki to be pretty good when it was announced that he was joining the Cubs. He’s been the best player in Japan for the past few seasons and NPB is, in general, a better level of baseball that Triple-A baseball.

But there are some real differences between Japanese baseball and MLB. Few pitchers in Japan throw with the kind of velocity that MLB pitchers have these days. And it is generally considered to be much easier to hit home runs over there than it is in North America. So it was fair to build some adjustments into our expectations of Suzuki. He might struggle a bit until he adjusts to the faster pace of MLB. We might also expect that some of those home runs over in Japan might turn into doubles or even fly outs.

A lot of people may have told you that. I may have been one of the people who told you that. But so far, MLB seems to be no more of a challenge for Suzuki than NPB was. He’s 5 for 12 with two home runs and four walks through four games. That’s a line of .417/.529/1.167.

Now of course Suzuki is not going to finish the year with that line and he’s free to prove me wrong on that point. But he does look very good so far. So today I’m just going to ask you how many home runs will Seiya Suzuki hit this year? Let’s see how giddy we all are after four games.

Thank you again so much for stopping by. Please tip your waitstaff. Get home safely. And join us again tomorrow night for another edition of BCB After Dark.