Brandon Glick

I refrained from brining other teams into this since it was just a focus on the A's, but yes, I ultimately agree. Even if not publicly owned, teams should have a much greater stake in the cities they're rooted in. It's harmful to the sport over the long term when loyal fanbases keep getting burned, even if the short-term bottom line looks better.

The Cubs went 5-1 in a week in which they swept the Rockies and took two of three from the Dodgers at Wrigley Field. I also got to meet Tommy Wiseau. That and more in this week’s MMNS. Image courtesy of © David Banks-USA TODAY Sports It was an impressive showing from the Cubs this week. They looked dominant for all but one inning against the lowly Colorado Rockies, and they competed fiercely all weekend with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Were it not for the heart of the order blowing a couple of bases-loaded opportunities against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the early innings on Saturday, the Cubs may have pulled off back-to-back sweeps. The Cubs won all three of their games against the Rockies. The final scores: 5-0 on Monday, 12-2 on Tuesday, and 9-8 on Wednesday. In the first game, Shota Imanaga was incredible in his Cubs debut, shutting the Rockies out over six innings. It was as good of a debut as any Cubs pitcher has had in a long time, and then he followed that up by owning the best lineup in baseball over the weekend. Imanaga, after blanking the Dodgers over four innings on Sunday (pulled because of the long rain delay), is at 10 innings pitched for the young season, with 12 strikeouts, four hits allowed, and no walks or runs against him. It is exceedingly difficult to imagine a better start to the season for the Japanese rookie. In the second game of that Rockies series, the Cubs got to Kyle Freeland early and often. Seiya Suzuki and Christopher Morel, the team’s two hottest bats over these first few weeks of the season, crushed home runs. They both look more comfortable at the plate than they ever have previously, and their continued ascendence in the second and fourth slots in the lineup (sandwiching Cody Bellinger) will go a long way toward solidifying the Cubs as legitimate contenders this season. If you missed it, the Cubs faithful chanted Bellinger’s name in the seventh inning of that blowout, to which he responded by hitting a home run. What an incredibly awesome moment. And then, as I’m writing this, he did it AGAIN on Sunday. Perhaps Bellinger simply requires audible fanfare to produce at an MVP level. In the weekend series, the Cubs won two games against the mighty Dodgers. The final scores: 9-7 on Friday, 1-4 on Saturday, and 8-1 on Sunday. Michael Busch hit his first homer as a Cub against his former team in that first game. It’s been a relatively slow start to the year, but manager Craig Counsell believes in the first basemen. There’s plenty of time for him to develop into a middle-of-the-order slugger. The defense was much improved this weekend. Nico Hoerner, especially, showed out with the glove. Outside of third base (and, depending on how Busch evolves defensively, first base), the Cubs have Gold Glove-caliber talent everywhere on the diamond. Good defense has to be a hallmark of this team going forward. In case you missed them, some updates on the Cubs roster: Julian Merryweather was placed on the Injured List, with Daniel Palencia getting called up in his place; Patrick Wisdom and Jameson Taillon began their rehab assignments, with the former going to Triple-A Iowa and the latter heading to Double-A Tennessee; the team re-signed relief pitcher Carl Edwards Jr. after he elected to opt out of his contract toward the end of Spring Training. Lastly, old friend Codi Heuer joined the Texas Rangers on a minor-league deal this week. It’s a sad end to a Cubs tenure that never really got off the ground, but he was one of the most enjoyable guys on the team to be around. Best of luck to him in his new organization. Elsewhere around MLB, things have already gotten crazy in early April. We’ve had our first no-hitter of 2024, and the pitching injuries have continued to mount. Ronel Blanco of the Houston Astros threw a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays on Apr. 1. What’s truly crazy about the circumstances is that if any of Justin Verlander, Luis García, Lance McCullers Jr. or José Urquidy weren't on the IL, Blanco would be in the bullpen or the minor leagues. Instead, he answered the call, retiring 26 straight hitters after walking the leadoff batter. Houston, by the way, now has four of the last seven no-hitters in baseball, including Game 4 of the 2022 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Anthony Rendon has finally gotten a hit in 2024, though his 0-21 start to the season atop the Los Angeles Angels' batting order will not be soon forgotten. He’s a mercurial person and a controversial figure among Angels fans, and his seven-year, $245-million contract will go down as perhaps the worst of all time in any sport. He has yet to play more than 58 games in a single season in an Angels uniform. Tanner Scott, a rumored Cubs’ trade target this winter, became the Miami Marlins’ closer this year after AJ Puk converted to a starting role. In 2023, he logged 78 innings with a 2.31 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP. This year, he’s walked six batters in four innings and was the first pitcher to be saddled with multiple losses on the young season. Mookie Betts is leading the entire league in most hitting categories so far. Even adjusting his counting numbers for the two-game head start he had because of the “Seoul Series”, he’s been otherworldly to start the 2024 season. If he, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani find their MVP forms at the same time, the Dodgers lineup will be impossible to navigate. Lastly, pitching injuries have risen in a disturbing crescendo this year, beyond almost anything else we’ve seen in the past. Shane Bieber now needs Tommy John surgery after a dominant start to the year, and Eury Pérez will join him in the operating room (not literally, we assume) despite being handled with the utmost care thus far in his career. The cherry on top is Spencer Strider, who was just placed on the IL with a UCL sprain. It’s starting to feel like elbow injuries for pitchers are a matter of “when”, rather than “if”. Whew. That was a lot of baseball chatter. I don’t have any administrative bullets this time around, so let’s jump right into some other sports & entertainment. The men’s March Madness finale is tonight. The game is between UConn, the defending national champions, and Purdue, who notably became only the second No. 1 seed in history to lose to a 16 seed in the tournament last year. Of course, Virginia was the first school to suffer that embarrassment in 2018, and they went on to win the National Championship the next season. That being said, UConn is and should be the heavy favorite in this matchup. For the second straight year, they’ve looked unstoppable in the 68-team tournament. Zach Edey, the (soon-to-be) two-time reigning National Player of the Year is a formidable force in the paint, but Purdue hasn’t seen a team of UConn’s caliber all season. This one will be over quickly. The women’s championship game happened yesterday, with South Carolina smacking Iowa 87-75. Iowa and Caitlin Clark got off to a blazing 20-9 start, but SC just kept coming at them. They had 37 bench points, compared to Iowa’s 0, speaking to just how much Clark has carried her team all season. The final week of the NBA season is here! The 4-9 seeds in the Western Conference are all separated by five games or fewer, and the 1-3 seeds are still up for grabs. It’ll be a photo finish, even if the Bulls appear to be on a collision course with the Atlanta Hawks for the 9 vs. 10 play-in game. A few weeks ago, I discussed Amazon’s Invincible: Season 2. The season finale just aired, and it was something else. In keeping with the show’s habit of earth-shattering revelations in big episodes, the finale doesn’t disappoint. The season as a whole isn’t on par with Season 1 of the show, but it still leaves plenty of room for some exciting developments in the future. The Room (2003) directed, written by, and starring Tommy Wiseau is THE cult classic film, and I finally got to experience the insanity of that cult this weekend. In NYC, Wiseau is doing a partnership with Angelika Theaters, and he held a signing and Q&A on Saturday night before a screening of The Room. You could barely hear the movie half the time, since some of the more eclectic members of the audience were clearly superfans of Wiseau and the film. Famously, audiences throw spoons at the screen when a certain picture frame is shown in the film, and the total number of spoons in my theater must have exceeded 1,000. That is not a joke, by the way. I don’t know where these people got all these spoons, but boy did they have a lot of them. Wiseau himself is, naturally, a bizarre guy. The Q&A was as disjointed and incoherent as the film, and it made the night that much more memorable. As badly as he wanted to be a respected director in the film world, he’s seemingly really taken to being beloved for his (many) flaws as a filmmaker. The Room, if you somehow haven’t seen it, is the ultimate “so bad, it’s good” movie. It is among the most poorly written, poorly shot pieces of art ever conceived by humankind, and that it got released at all is nothing short of a miracle. If you ever need a really good laugh, I can’t recommend it enough--even if you can’t meet Wiseau beforehand. That about wraps it up for last week, folks. The Cubs are heading West this week, as they’ll do battle with the Padres Monday through Wednesday before drawing the Mariners Friday through Sunday. (Thursday is a scheduled day off.) Both teams are hovering around .500 in the early going this season, though they come equipped with offensive stars and ace-caliber arms. The Cubs will have to bring their A-game to the West Coast if they hope to continue their hot start to 2024. Have a great week, everyone! Go, Cubs, Go! View full article

I'd rather just see him out of baseball. But, yes, totally agreed that it'd be better if he was dealing with an expansion team in a new market.

On Thursday, Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher - the most hated man in baseball - announced the team would be moving to a minor-league ballpark in Sacramento as their future home stadium in Las Vegas is built. Image courtesy of © D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports Let’s get one thing straight: what is happening to the Athletics and their fanbase is a tragedy. It’s an abject failure on the part of Major League Baseball, and a disgusting display of greed from a billionaire who long ago forgot what it means to own a sports team that is beloved by millions. There’s no use in pretending we, as Cubs fans, can relate to our favorite franchise getting abruptly displaced because of the actions of an avaricious, self-serving owner (the Cubs are never leaving Chicago, no matter what stunt the Ricketts family tries to pull). All we can do is sympathize with another passionate fanbase, who must now accept that their team is relocating after putting them through one of the most blatant, disrespectful tank jobs in history. NORTH SIDE BASEBALL Key Stat: The Oakland Athletics lead all of Major League Baseball with 221 losses (and counting) since the start of the 2022 season. The city of Oakland has had a rough go of it in recent years. The Raiders departed back in 2020, also for Las Vegas, citing the conditions of the Oakland Coliseum. One summer before that, the Golden State Warriors moved across the Bay and returned to their roots in San Francisco, officially leaving Oakland with just one major sports team. Now, with the Athletics set to depart for Sacramento while their new home in Las Vegas is built, a proud city with a rich sporting history is without a team for which to root. The villain in all of this is, of course, John Fisher. Despite accumulating a net worth of roughly $3.1 billion, per Forbes, the A’s owner has supported a payroll that ranks dead last over the last three seasons. This year has been especially egregious, as the team’s Opening Day payroll of $47.9 million is almost $25 million shy of the 29th-place Pittsburgh Pirates ($72 million). For all the griping we do when the Cubs won’t exceed the luxury tax threshold (which is fair, given the size of the Chicago market and the Ricketts family’s $4.5 billion net worth), their payroll currently stands at 451% of the Athletics’. By moving the team to Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California, the Athletics will go from playing in a run-down major-league stadium to a literal minor-league ballpark. There’s almost never a good solution when a team is between homes, but playing in a stadium that cost less than half the price of their Triple-A affiliate’s home is a joke. When making the announcement, Fisher called Sutter Health Park the “most intimate park in Major League Baseball”. Ignoring the fact that Wrigley Field seats more people per square inch for a second, that quote is a not-so-subtle code for “the most pathetic park in the league”. Fisher knows his interim home doesn’t hold a candle to even the worst stadiums across the league, which is perhaps fitting for an owner who has pushed away a fiercely loyal fanbase. In one particularly appalling moment during his press conference, Fisher couldn’t come up with a single Athletics player, instead citing his excitement to watch MLB’s top stars, like Aaron Judge, hit home runs (off his own pitchers) at SHP. Fisher is an embarrassment unto himself, and for all owners in Major League baseball. That any of the other 29 owners would even want to be associated with a man as pernicious and self-absorbed as Fisher is a disgrace. There’s a conversation to be had about the complete removal from normal, everyday society that billionaires experience, but this is a discussion about baseball. The Athletics gained 44,450 fans in 2023, relative to 2022’s attendance, and they still finished dead last in baseball with a pathetic total of 832,352. In a time in which baseball is desperately pushing to attract the attention of fans, the A’s have served as the league’s black sheep for the better part of Fisher’s tenure. There’s no real way to wrap this up with a bow. Major League Baseball also deserves plenty of blame for what’s happening to Oakland, though Rob Manfred hasn’t exactly earned a sterling reputation as commissioner up to this point, anyway. The MLBPA has made formal complaints about the A's and other low-spending teams, but only in the context of that lack of payroll expenditure. Moments like this offer perspective as a fan--not that Cubs fans need much of it. As bad as things can get, whether it be an injury to an ace or a 108-year-long World Series drought, the Cubs will always be in our lives. The Ricketts may not be the epitome of great ownership, but they aren’t John Fisher. Our hearts go out to you, A’s fans. You deserve so much better than this. View full article

As the Cubs try to weather the storm following Justin Steele's injury, Ethan and Brandon discuss recovery timelines and Ben Brown's potential impact. View full video

Brandon and Ethan discuss the highs and lows of the Cubs' 2-2 start through the first four games of the regular season. View full video

In the wake of Justin Steele's injury, Shota Imanaga delivered a dazzling debut that should give confidence to every Cubs fan. Brandon and Ethan break down his first career MLB start, as well as how Imanaga compares to other Japanese baseball luminaries. View full video

Compared to the other sports games on the market, I think it's easy to say the Show is the best when it comes to actually rewarding you for playing the game (helps that it's not developed by EA). Still, the grind to get good players is infuriating at times. It feels like the game doesn't really respect your time. Alas, such is the nature of "live service games".

As much as I agree on taking Jed to task, I'm not sure I'd give him the boot based on MLB the Show diamond dynasty rankings. ALTHOUGH, that would be an objectively hilarious reason for an exec to get fired.

They've definitely been encouraging some more micro-transactions on the periphery to get a better team, but beyond that, the game is as fundamentally solid as ever. Would love to see an actual update to franchise mode though once in a while...

For what it's worth, almost no one has a George Kirby in their rotation. But, without Steele, the Cubs definitely don't have that guy who you feel confident in every time he takes the mound.

Brandon and Ethan discuss this year's version of the popular video game, and which Cubs are rated fairly or are being underrated by Sony San Diego Studios. View full video

With Opening Week in the books, the Cubs season is officially underway. Let’s take a look at all that happened this week in the world of baseball. Image courtesy of © Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports Happy Monday, everyone! Admittedly, it’s a lot easier to say that now that the weather is getting nicer and baseball is being played again. I hope you all had a good holiday weekend and got to spend time with family or enjoy some R & R. Just a quick note up front: I’m going to slash the back-end stuff for this week (i.e., the administrative bullets and entertainment section), since there’s so much baseball stuff to talk about. Those sections will make their triumphant return in next week’s column, and we’ll have plenty to talk about, since by that time, the March Madness Finals matchup will be set. For now: onward, with baseball! The Chicago Cubs went 1-2 in their Opening Weekend series with the Texas Rangers, which, on the surface, isn’t a terrible outcome against the defending World Series champions. Of course, if you watched any of the games, you know that record barely explains the quality of play (or lack thereof) the Cubs exhibited this week. Even Game 3, which the Cubs won by a final score of 9-5, was marred by rage-inducing defensive blunders. Let’s start with the positives though. Craig Counsell did an excellent job with lineup construction, moving Ian Happ all over the place and keeping Seiya Suzuki and Cody Bellinger as the big boppers in the two and three holes in the lineup. After years of watching David Ross stubbornly craft the same batting orders day in and day out, it’s nice to see a manager who likes to play matchups and give different guys more opportunities. So far, only six players have more than one hit on offense: Miguel Amaya (in four at-bats), Dansby Swanson (nine ABs), Cody Bellinger (10 ABs), Seiya Suzuki (15 ABs), Christopher Morel (14 ABs), and Ian Happ (12 ABs). Only the latter three have at least three hits, with Morel and Happ tied for the team lead with five. The Cubs had eight extra-base hits in the Rangers series, though only two of those were homers (one by Morel, one by Swanson). The Cubs don’t expect to hit dingers at a league-leading clip this year, but this series was living proof that hitting the ball over the wall can be the great equalizer in baseball (the Rangers had five home runs in the series). Before we get into his defensive struggles, it’s worth praising Morel’s bat. He’s struck out just once so far, and his plate approach looks calmer than ever. The next step for the young slugger was always going to be about growth with his discipline (i.e., could he go from just “try to swing at strikes” to “swing only at pitches you can do damage on"), and this series was a very positive sign in that regard. Alas, those defensive struggles were real for Morel, who played the latter two games of the series at third base. He had a costly throwing error in the second inning of Game 3, which forced starter Jordan Wicks to throw 18 additional pitches in the inning (on top of giving up two unearned runs). Morel’s athleticism, arm strength and speed are all off the charts. If his instincts and ability to slow the game down ever improve at the hot corner, he could be more than just an “average” defensive third baseman. Who knows if or when that will happen, though. And as long as the Cubs keep giving him runway to play there, they’ll have to live through the growing pains. Speaking of Wicks, he looked plenty good in his first start of the season against a loaded lineup on Sunday. His final line of five runs, five hits, and three walks surrendered in four innings doesn’t tell the whole story, as only two of those runs were earned and he struck out six Rangers. He got a whopping 19(!!) whiffs in 85 pitches, folks. This kid has the stuff to be a fixture in this rotation for a long time. In case you can’t tell, I’ve been putting off discussing the Justin Steele injury. I honestly don’t know what to say that hasn’t been said. It sucks, plain and simple. Thankfully, it’s only a Grade 1 hamstring strain, so he should be back sometime in May, but hamstrings are notoriously fickle for athletes requiring explosive movements. Steele is as irreplaceable as anyone on the roster, so we’ll just have to hope the Cubs can weather the storm for the next six weeks or so. That entire Opening Day game was heart-wrenching. It started off fun, with Morel smoking a triple against Nathan Eovaldi early and Steele looking to be in midseason form. Then Steele got hurt. And, after the Cubs got an extraordinarily lucky call from the umpire on a foul ball in the ninth, they immediately blew the lead in the bottom of the inning. Ultimately, it ended on a Jonah Heim walkoff single. Even in the darkest days, there are silver linings, and thankfully, the Cubs made the move to call up pitching prospect Ben Brown to take Steele’s place. We don’t know exactly what capacity he’ll be appearing in just yet, but boy would it be fun to see him take some starts while Jameson Taillon rehabs his back injury. I also have no interest in discussing the Saturday game, in which the Cubs got blown out 11-2. If you want to read up on it, and dive deep into Kyle Hendricks’ performance in the game, you can do so here. Kind of a sour note to end on, but all in all, the Cubs looked competent this weekend against a very strong opponent. There were a lot of silly mistakes, and the team desperately needs the middle infield tandem of Swanson and Nico Hoerner to clean up its act in the field and at the plate, but the sky isn’t falling after just three games. There’s plenty of season left: April is just beginning. Elsewhere in baseball, Opening Week was plenty eventful. Major injuries, prospect call-ups, and blowouts may have defined this late-March stretch for the Cubs, but they were truly just a microcosm of what’s been going on around the league. Who had the New York Yankees sweeping the Houston Astros in a four-game series in dominant fashion? As much as I hate to say it, Juan Soto looks pretty good in pinstripes. The Detroit Tigers swept the Chicago White Sox, all in low-scoring, one-run games. The White Sox's competitive window closed almost before it was ever really open, and it’s almost hard not to feel bad for their crappy fortune. Almost. The Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates also swept their Opening Weekend series, with the Brewers utterly dominating the Mets (eight runs given up in three games), and the Pirates posting a +14 run differential against the Miami Marlins in a four-game sample. The St. Louis Cardinals gave up 23 runs in four games against the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers, so while it’s too early to completely mock their rebuilt rotation, it’s probably safe to say the Cardinals are going to need to score a lot of runs in order to be competitive this year. Lastly, and I’m really just sharing this because I took him at +2000 to win AL CY Young: George Kirby is ridiculous. Everyone talks about Spencer Strider as the best young ace in the game, but I’m telling you all, Kirby is the real deal. He’ll be the best pitcher in baseball over the next decade. We’ll wrap it up there, folks. The Cubs play six games this week: a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies and a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, both at the Friendly Confines. Those two teams represent the polar opposites of the competitive baseball spectrum, so going .500 this week wouldn’t be the worst outcome, but it’s also not unreasonable to hope for something better. Either way, I’m looking forward to some April baseball! Have a great week, everyone! Go, Cubs, Go! View full article

Behind Justin Steele, Kyle Hendricks and Shota Imanaga will be the most important starters on the North Side this season. Ethan and Brandon discuss just how vital they are to the Cubs' success. View full video

On the morning of Opening Day, the Chicago Cubs are but one of 30 teams trying to do the impossible. Image courtesy of © Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports Ever since 2016, Opening Day has felt a little more liberating, hasn’t it? The pressure that once came with having the longest championship drought in professional sports is now gone; in its place is the lesser, lighter pressure that comes with being a professional sports team at all. There’s a concrete but agreeably remote expectation to win, rather than just an abstract hope that it will one day happen. And yet, this Opening Day feels different than most. Maybe it’s the lingering hype from the Cubs re-signing Cody Bellinger, well after pitchers and catchers first reported to camp. Perhaps it’s leftover angst from the team’s collapse down the stretch last season, when they ultimately missed out on the final Wild Card spot by one game after entering September with more than a 90% chance of making the playoffs. It could also be excitement for Craig Counsell’s first season as the manager, or the development of a budding farm system filled with impact prospects. It’s impossible to say exactly what makes this year feel so rejuvenating. The last few seasons have been a slog for the Cubs (remember Frank Schwindel being the story of the second half in 2021?), and there’s no guarantee 2024 will be different. Hopefully, this team will rise to meet the expectations set before it, which start with an NL Central crown and end with another World Series trophy on the mantle. No matter how this season unfolds, this moment is always fun. There’s always that little bit of hope that things might break our way. Combine that with the blind faith that fanaticism creates, and you have a recipe for over-the-top belief that this team, despite all of its flaws, can go all the way. That’s the Promise of A New Baseball Season. No team has been truly ravaged by injuries yet, nor has any one franchise established itself as an oppressively dominant force. As star-studded as the Los Angeles Dodgers are, or as deep as the Atlanta Braves go, there’s no guarantee they can handle the pressure that comes with being the championship favorites. On paper, the Cubs don’t quite stack up to the titans of the National League, but in practice… well, that’s the Promise of A New Baseball Season. In 2024, the Cubs will have plenty of concerns to assuage if they want to be taken seriously. Their depth is enviable around the diamond, but do they have the star-level contributors to get them over the hump of mediocrity? Can they withstand an injury to Justin Steele, or a few down months from Dansby Swanson? Are Michael Busch and Christopher Morel capable of handling the infield corners, offensively and defensively? Is their bullpen capable of holding down the fort for an entire 162-game season? Only time will tell if the answer to those questions is affirmative or negative, but for now, it’s easy to hope for the best; that’s the Promise of A New Baseball Season. There are many trials and tribulations yet to beset the Cubs in 2024, and potentially even more memorable moments that have yet to happen. No one - no fan, player, front office staffer, national pundit, or even local beat writer - has any clue what’s going to happen this season. There’s a reason they play the games, after all. And it’s that shared fog - the universal unknown enveloping all of baseball - that makes everything so exhilarating. All of us, perhaps against our better judgment, can squint just hard enough to see a future where the Cubs really do pull it off and win the 2024 World Series. That’s the Promise of A New Baseball Season. For now, today is Game One of 162. The Cubs are playing the defending World Series champions: the Texas Rangers. On paper, they’ll probably lose this series. Can they handle the offensive onslaught of Cory Seager and Marcus Semien? Can the lineup score enough runs in a hostile environment to keep up with the reigning champs? Even if it feels impossible, no one really knows if they’ll win or lose. They have to actually play the games for us to find that out. If things break their way, maybe the Cubs will steal a game this series. Maybe, just maybe, it all starts with one win. That’s the Promise of A New Baseball Season. View full article

I think the question was asked in the case of an "all hell breaks loose" emergency. If things go even 1% according to plan this year, Happ will be the left fielder.