BCB After Dark: Young guns

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the coolest dive for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. So glad you could stop in tonight. There are still a few good tables available. We’re celebrating the present and mourning for the future. Either way, have a tasty beverage that you brought yourself. The show will start shortly.

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 won their sixth-straight game today, 4-2 over the Pirates. It feels wrong to celebrate when the doom of the trade deadline and the departure of such fan favorites as Willson Contreras and Ian Happ is nigh, but we should celebrate the time we had together as much as we mourn the end. So in honor of the six-game winning streak and all the Cubs players who will no longer be Cubs after this week, here’s Judy.

Last night I asked you who will be the new closer for the Cubs after David Robertson departs. It was a runaway vote as 69 percent of you said that Scott Effross would get the most saves. In second place was Rowan Wick with 12 percent.

One personal note. I may not be able to have an After Dark tomorrow night. That’s not definite—I may be able to do one. But I promise you there will be another one this week, either on Wednesday night/Thursday morning or on Thursday night/Friday morning. But if one doesn’t show up tomorrow, don’t worry. I’m (probably) not sick.

On Tuesday nights/Wednesday mornings, I don’t do a full After Dark with movie talk. I did write up two a little something on two films last night, Moontide (1942) and The Hitch-Hiker (1953). So please check that out if you haven’t already. But I always have time for some jazz, so those of you who skip that can do so now. You won’t hurt my feelings.

Here’s a little gem from bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding, performing the Stevie Wonder song “Overjoyed” at the White House in 2015. I guess one of the prime benefits of being president is that you can get the best musicians in America and the world to come to your house and do a concert for you and your guests.

Welcome back to those of you who skip all that jazz.

Keegan Thompson had a great start today in the Cubs win. While the 2022 season has been quite disappointing for Cubs fans, probably the brightest development has been the emergence of two quality starting pitchers: right-hander Thompson and left-hander Justin Steele. After years of failure by the Cubs to develop any homegrown pitching, it seems like they’ve finally drafted and developed two quality major league starters.

So instead of enjoying both of them, lets pit them against each other in on-line combat. Today’s question is which pitcher will have the better career with the Cubs: Steele or Thompson?

Both pitchers are 27 years old. Both came up last year and mostly pitched out of the bullpen (with a few starts here and there) before earning spots in the starting rotation this year. Steele has three more career innings than Thompson. Thompson’s old-school stats (8-4, 3.16 ERA) look superficially better than Steele’s (4-6, 4.02 ERA), but if you look at their advanced stats, the FIP and xFIP are much closer. Steele actually leads Thompson in both categories: 3.64 FIP to 3.70 and 3.94 xFIP to 4.16.

So when all is said and done, which one of these two young pitchers will have the better Cubs career?

Thank you so very much for stopping by. Be sure to tip the waitstaff. Get home safely. Bus your own table if you can—we’re short on staff tonight. And join us again for another edition of BCB After Dark.