BCB After Dark: More work to do?

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. ‘Twas the night before the trade deadline, and all through the club, everyone is bopping to the beat. Come on in and join us. There’s no cover charge. There’s still one or two tables available. Let us know if we can do anything to make your stay more pleasant. 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.

The Reds beat the Cubs tonight 6-5 and I’m officially worried about Marcus Stroman. The Cubs need to get him right if they’re going to make a dash for the playoffs over the final two months. I don’t want to diagnose what’s wrong with him, but it seems to me that he’s catching way too much of the plate lately. Or he’s just missing and hitters are laying off those pitches.

Last week, I asked you if the Cubs should pursue Rockies first baseman C.J. Cron at the trade deadline. You were against it as 73 percent of you voted “no.” As it turned out, you didn’t have to worry as the Rockies sent Cron and Randal Grichuk to the Angels on Sunday.

I do want to point out that at the All-Star Break, I asked how many games would the Cubs have to win out of their next 16 to be buyers at the trade deadline. The winning vote was ten, but because I only included even numbers in the poll, a lot of you in the comments said the real answer was eleven. Well, the Cubs went 11-5 over the next 16 games after that and they are buying at the trade deadline. So pat yourselves on the back.

Also, if anyone wants to talk about tonight’s USWNT match with Portugal in this space, feel free. It’s a late night for those of you in the east. Heck, it’s a late night for those of us in the west. But I’m staying up.

Here’s the part where I talk about jazz and and movies. You’re free to skip ahead to the baseball question at the end. You won’t hurt my feelings.

Last week when we were celebrating the life of Tony Bennett, I mentioned his popular duets with Lady Gaga, although I chose a duet with Amy Winehouse to feature instead.

But I thought tonight I’d feature one of those duets, so here’s Cole Porter’s “I Get A Kick Out of You.” And yes, Lady Gaga can sing jazz. Not every pop star can.

Tonight I was planning on trying to write a non-spoiler review of Oppenheimer, but some other things got in the way. (Ha! I wonder what?) I will say that I loved Oppenheimer and I thought it was a masterful piece of filmmaking. Director Christopher Nolan even (mostly) abandons his signature time and space tricks for a pretty old-fashioned biopic. Yes, there are two parallel storylines, but it’s not hard to keep them separated. In fact, Nolan films one in color and one in black-and-white to make things easy on you.

It’s also pretty historically accurate for a biopic, although there are some fictional events, important events left out and at least one event that was rumored to be true but for which there isn’t much evidence that it was. But while the final scene was entirely fictional, it’s also totally chilling. Those of you who have seen the picture know what I’m talking about.

I don’t know that anyone is going to want to talk movies with the trade deadline upon us, but I feel like I owe it to you to have this space twice a week. So the question for discussion today is to recommend any other biopics that you love. An extra 50 BCB points goes to anyone who tries to make the case for The Life of Emile Zola, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1937. Personally, I’ve had trouble getting through it—and I’m quite familiar with the events of the Dreyfus Affair.

Other biopics to win Best Picture were The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), A Man for All Seasons (1966—I guess that counts), Patton (1970), Gandhi (1982), Amadeus (1984—again, sort of), The Last Emperor (1987), Schindler’s List (1993), A Beautiful Mind (2001), The King’s Speech (2010) and 12 Years a Slave (2013). Although I do wonder if A Man for All Seasons, Amadeus, Schindler’s List and The King’s Speech really qualify as biopics or are just historical dramas.

I would not be surprised to see Oppenheimer join this list next year.

But if you want to talk movies, give us your favorite biopics. Or you can talk about the USWNT. Or just the trade deadline and the Cubs.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.

Today is the trade deadline—well, tomorrow for those of you on the West Coast. The Cubs have already made two moves—getting third baseman Jeimer Candelario back and picking up right-handed reliever José Cuas.

So tonight’s question is “Will the Cubs add any more?” The problem with the trade deadline this year is that there are a lot more teams buying than there are teams selling. The Athletic’s Keith Law called Candelario “likely . . .the best position player to change teams at the deadline” (sub. req.) so there probably isn’t any more help coming for the lineup. Although as former Cardinals pitcher Joaquin Andujar used to say “You can sum up the game of baseball in one word: you-never-know.”

So the question tonight is there another deal coming for the Cubs today? This doesn’t seem like the season to empty the farm system to make a major deal, although if it were for a player with two or three years of control, then it might make sense. The Cubs are more likely looking to sneak into the playoffs and hope for a stroke of lightning rather than what happened in 2016, when they were a favorite to win it all and if Aroldis Chapman put them over the top, then it was worth it to give up an elite prospect like Gleyber Torres. Still—you-never-know.

There are three options. The Cubs will make a major deal, a minor deal and stand pat. You can define a “major deal” however you’d like, but I’d consider Jeimer Candelario to be a major deal in this market. In fact, I’d consider any starter, starting pitcher or closer/setup-man to be a “major” deal. I’d consider the Cuas trade to be a “minor” deal, along with any other bench player or reliever who would not be expected to get high-leverage innings.

Thanks for stopping in this evening. We’re all waiting to see what happens later today—it’s kind of like Christmas Eve for baseball fans. Let’s hope for no coal. Please get home safely. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow for more BCB After Dark.