Brandon Glick

After being sidelined by a back injury to start the season, Jameson Taillon delivered a strong debut against the Marlins on Friday. With Justin Steele injured, the Cubs are going to need many more performances like it from the right-hander. Image courtesy of © David Banks-USA TODAY Sports Jameson Taillon was the Chicago Cubs’ biggest offseason pitching addition in the 2022-2023 offseason, signing a four-year, $68-million contract to serve as a mid-rotation arm and insurance in case of Marcus Stroman opting out of his contract and departing in free agency. In retrospect, his first season in a Cubs uniform wasn’t as bad as it often felt. His 4.84 ERA was a pretty big jump from a 4.00 mark for his career, but that was due to an extraordinarily slow start wherein the righty posted a 6.93 ERA in his first 14 appearances. Taillon still managed to throw 154 ⅓ innings last season, which ranked second on the team behind only ace Justin Steele. The struggles the veteran did have in 2023 can be chalked up to one thing: increased damage by left-handed hitters. Lefties hammered Taillon to the tune of a .363 wOBA, according to FanGraphs. For reference, a .320 wOBA is considered average, and Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley posted a .363 wOBA last year. Essentially, every left-handed hitter that stepped into the box against Taillon last year was as productive as Riley. While struggling against opposite-handed batters isn’t a new thing for the Cubs, it is for Taillon. The righty was roughly split-neutral in his two seasons prior to coming to Chicago, though his overall performance in those two seasons was simply better, as well. In 2021, lefties had a .316 wOBA against him, while righties were at .304. In 2022, lefties were at .309 and righties .307. With that context in mind, it was reported that Taillon was tinkering with a re-worked pitch mix this offseason, including a new and improved curveball and changeup. He threw his cutter far too often last year, given its mixed results, and hope was high that the well-paid starter would right the ship in 2024. Then, Taillon got hurt early in Spring Training, dealing with a back strain (the same injury that knocked Patrick Wisdom out for the same time frame). He was out for a month, returned to pitch in two rehab starts, and then made his season debut on Friday. If that seems like a rushed timeline, that’s because it was. The rotation has been decimated by injuries early in the season, and the bullpen has been taxed since the beginning of the West Coast trip two weeks ago. Taillon needed to come back to provide the innings. If they were high-quality innings, then all the better. Well, so far, so good on that front. In the Cubs’ 8-3 victory over the Marlins in the first game of their weekend series, Taillon allowed three hits, walked none and struck out four, while tossing 73 pitches in five innings of work. He threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 18 hitters he faced. He got 12 whiffs, generated by four of his six pitches. The re-worked curve looked dominant, and he attacked hitters once he got ahead in the count. Manager Craig Counsell had high praise for Taillon after the start, per Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic: “I thought he was very sharp. He came out with lots of strikes, pounding the zone. It’s an aggressive team, so he just got ahead and finished at-bats very quickly. Really did as much as we could have expected and what we hoped for.” Taillon himself was pleased with the start, referencing his improvement in the latter half of last season as the turning point in his Cubs career: “It just helps confirm a little bit some of the things we worked on and some of the things we thought went right in the second half. Just confirms it’s not luck. We feel like we have a real formula for when I’m at my best what it should look like. In the first half [of 2023], we weren’t seeing that. I don’t think they knew what I looked like at my best, I don’t think the catchers did, I kind of forgot what it was like.” The Cubs are going to need Taillon to be at his best if they hope to live up to expectations this season. Shota Imanaga has looked excellent atop the rotation and rookie Ben Brown has been lights-out when called upon, but Kyle Hendricks looks cooked and Steele is out until at least mid-May. Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks can continue to hold down the back end of the rotation going forward, but they’re using up a lot of bullets as the Cubs’ starting pitching depth is pushed to its limits. If Taillon can live up to his contract, it’ll go a long way to helping the Cubs survive these Steele-less weeks. If he continues pitching like he did Friday, the Cubs will do a lot more than just survive this season. View full article

Brandon and Ethan discuss the top outfield prospects and what they need to do for the Cubs to be competitive this season. View full video

The Cubs' breakout pitchers from 2023 continue to impress early in the 2024 season. Brandon and Ethan discuss how Javier Assad and Mark Leiter Jr. can make the Cubs a threat with their performance. View full video

The Cubs' rookie first baseman is off to a scorching start at the plate, and Branon and Ethan chat about his potential to be a long-term cornerstone in Chicago. View full video

The Cubs' solid start to the 2024 season continued this week, as they went 3-3 against the Padres and Mariners on a West Coast trip. They also welcomed Keegan Thompson back to the fold as Brandon and Ethan discuss his potential role with the team going forward. View full video

The 9-6 Cubs are recalling one of the most prodigious power bats from their farm system. Image courtesy of © Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports Alexander Canario, the 12th-ranked prospect on North Side Baseball, technically got the call last year. Still, after being sporadically used by former manager David Ross, he hasn’t been given an opportunity to show out at the big league level yet. The good news is that it sounds like that opportunity is about to come, as Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported Monday morning that Canario would join the Cubs in Arizona for their series against the Diamondbacks. He fills a void on this team--namely, monstrous, gargantuan power--that should, at the very least, position him as a valuable platoon option. He’s hit at a fine clip in Triple-A Iowa this season, too: a triple-slash of .269/.377/.481, which is good for a 123 wRC+, with a 13.1% walk rate and 24.6% strikeout rate. There should be no doubt that Canario is ready for the big leagues, and his ability to play all three outfield spots should give the team greater versatility, assuming everyone is healthy. That last bit, of course, is the catch to all of this. Exactly why Canario is being recalled now is still being determined, as the team will have to open up a 26-man roster spot for him. That could be as simple as sending someone down to the minor leagues in exchange (Miles Mastrobuoni is struggling to start the season at the plate). Still, it could also mean an unexpected injured list announcement is coming. Astute fans will notice the Cubs are scheduled to play several left-handed pitchers this week (Tommy Henry on Tuesday, and the Miami Marlins are loaded with them in the weekend series). Canario may be a matchup-based call-up as the Cubs try to give manager Craig Counsell as many options as possible for his lineup. However, if the team merely wanted a right-handed masher, they could have just as easily recalled Patrick Wisdom, who’s at the tail end of his rehab assignment from a back injury. He’s hitting great (.391/.483/783) and looks back to full health. Though his nearly 50% strikeout rate is cause for concern, that’ll always be a part of Wisdom’s game (and should tone down as he gets his timing back at the plate). And if the team is merely swapping Mastrobuoni for another player, Wisdom would be the better choice since he can also play the infield. As such, an ill-timed injured list stint may be coming. People in the forums are hypothesizing that it may be Seiya Suzuki after he looked tender running out a groundout on Sunday. That would be a worst-case scenario, given Suzuki’s importance to this team as the two-hole hitter, but it would present Canario with the clearest path to playing time. Another possibility is Mike Tauchman going on the IL, as he has appeared to be playing at 80% capacity all season. Canario could step in for him and immediately become the reserve outfielder at all three spots. Or perhaps the team wants to give a struggling Ian Happ (30.8% strikeout rate over his last six games) a few days to rest before returning home to Wrigley later this week. Regardless of why Canario is coming up, he should be expected to actually play this time around. He gets lost in the shuffle in the glut of blue-chip outfield prospects that the Cubs have, but the Dominican Republic native wields a legitimate bat and has the chops to play a solid right field. He’s a valuable player on the major league team, and should he take advantage of this opportunity, don’t expect him to return to Iowa any time soon. View full article

The Chicago Cubs went 3-3 this week on the first two legs of a West Coast trip. A couple of players are close to returning from injury. The Masters just wrapped up. Oh yeah, it’s mid-April alright. Image courtesy of © Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports This week’s showing wasn’t nearly as impressive as last week’s 5-1 performance against the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers, but the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners are formidable opponents. There’s not a ton of shame in going .500 when traveling to the Pacific Standard Time Zone all week, and there’s also some good news on the injury front, as Jameson Taillon and Patrick Wisdom near their respective returns to Wrigley. The biggest story in the Cubs' world right now is Michael Busch. The first baseman, who was the primary return in the Jackson Ferris trade, has gone scorched-Earth over the last few days. He’s hit a homer in four consecutive games, which puts him one shy of the Cubs record. He leads the team in numerous notable offensive categories, from home runs (5) to OPS (1.087). He still has rookie eligibility, despite being a 26-year-old prospect, and his development as a middle-of-the-order bat is imperative to the Cubs' short-term and long-term success. Busch was happy to play on the West Coast again after coming over from the Los Angeles Dodgers over the offseason. If the Cubs can get him rolling like this at Wrigley when the wind is blowing out… oh boy. The power problem in the lineup may be solved. On the pitching side of things, Keegan Thompson made his return to the majors this week after Julian Merryweather was placed on the 15-day IL with a stress fracture in his ribcage. The expectation is that Merryweather may be out of commission until June, which should give Thompson plenty of runway to prove he still has the stuff to pitch in the big leagues. Thompson threw two shutout innings in his season debut on Saturday. He looked good (as he did in a few appearances at Triple-A Iowa to open the season), but his stuff doesn’t look the same as it did in 2022. His velocity is down, and his breaking stuff is lacking the late bite that allowed him to tunnel his pitches effectively. As long as Thompson keeps runs off the board, he’ll have a place in the Cubs’ pen, but don’t expect the leash to be overly long. Speaking of keeping runs off the board, how about Javier Assad and Shota Imanaga, ladies and gentlemen? Effectively the Cubs top two starters following Justin Steele’s injury and Kyle Hendricks’ apparent nosedive in efficiency, Assadmanaga (can I coin that?) has given up four runs in 32 innings over their first six starts. They both are striking out more than one batter per inning, their WHIPs are both below 1.00, and they’ve walked just a total of seven batters. They may be an unlikely duo to lead the rotation, but there aren’t two starting pitchers whom fans feel more confident in than Assad and Imanaga right now. Let’s see how long they can make this last. That starting rotation may soon get some (much-needed) reinforcements, as Jameson Taillon is nearing his return from a back injury. He climbed over 60 pitches in his latest rehab start at Triple-A Iowa, and if he makes his next appearance with no nagging issues, he should be in the Cubs rotation by next week. Patrick Wisdom is also rehabbing in Iowa right now, and he looks plenty healthy, with a triple slash of .333/.389/.800 and a 1.189 OPS through 18 plate appearances. There’s questions about whose roster spot he’d take once he’s ready (Garrett Cooper is far too hot to remove from the roster, and Miles Mastrobouni has a ton of defensive versatility), but expect the power-hitting righty to be back at Wrigley before long. If you missed it, Top 30 prospect Kohl Franklin left his most recent start with arm troubles. There’s no word on what the injury is just yet, but it didn’t look good. Wishing all the best to Franklin and hoping for a speedy recovery. Elsewhere around baseball, the Brewers remain (unfortunately) hot, Justin Verlander and the Houston Astros are not, and Angel Hernandez continues to make an unimpeded campaign for the title of “worst umpire ever”. The Houston Astros, fresh off their seventh consecutive American League Championship Series appearances, find themselves at the bottom of the AL West standings in the early running here. Houston is scoring plenty of runs (they’ve put up 80 in 17 games so far), but they simply can’t keep opponents off the board. The 93 runs they’ve surrendered are the worst in the American League as of April 15. Sometimes, when it rains, it pours. Justin Verlander is on a rehab assignment as he recovers from shoulder inflammation. The expectation was that he’d make his next start in the majors after his most recent appearance, but after surrendering six runs (five earned) in four innings, the Astros may delay his season debut. Including Verlander, the Astros have five starting pitchers on the injured list: Verlander (shoulder inflammation), Luis Garcia (Tommy John surgery), Lance McCullers Jr. (flexor surgery), José Urquidy (forearm strain), and Framber Valdez (elbow inflammation). It’s been a tough start to 2024 for the American League’s modern dynasty. On the opposite end of the spectrum are the Brewers, who sit atop the NL Central with a 10-4 record. Their offense has been steady as their revamped pitching staff (sans Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff) continues to dominate. It’s very frustrating, even after the Cubs poached Craig Counsell, that the Brewers won’t go away. Major League Baseball’s top prospect, Jackson Holliday, has had a rough start to his career, going 0-for-11 in his first few games. On Sunday, though, he notched his first hit (against the Brewers), and he’ll likely be a star before long. Lastly, let’s take a look at everyone’s favorite punching bag: umpire Angel Hernandez. You don’t need the debrief on the game’s most frustrating officiator at this point, but Hernandez entered himself back into the spotlight this week during an affair between the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. We all know the jokes. At this point, if you fire up MLB The Show and the umpire misses a call, you can be sure that someone will bring up Angel Hernandez’s name. For goodness sake he tried suing the MLB for “discriminatory practices” and the judge ruled in the league’s favor because he’s such a bad umpire. It’s long, long past time that Hernandez be forced into an “early retirement”. He’s single-handedly making me question the necessity of unions at this point. There is no referee worse at his job in any sport worldwide that continues to be gainfully employed. Angel Hernandez is a blight on modern baseball, and it’s time that he goes (or, alternatively, continues being so bad that robot umpires are put into use faster). Even on that sour note, it’s important to remember April is really baseball’s time to shine, as the other sports leagues are wrapping up their regular seasons (NBA, NHL) or preparing for the draft (NFL). Still, it’s exciting as the playoffs approach for basketball and hockey, and The Masters also wrapped up yesterday. No entertainment bullets this week, but please do stay tuned for a personal announcement next week - I’ll be sharing the official trailer to my upcoming directorial debut. The NBA Playoffs are set after a wild final week in the season. The Celtics are first in the Eastern Conference, and the Knicks somehow stole the second seed despite Julius Randle’s season-ending injury. As expected, the Bulls and Hawks are set to play in the 9 vs. 10 play-in game, and should they win that (they’ll be at home for that affair), they’ll draw the loser of the 76ers-Heat matchup in the 7 vs. 8 play-in game. Neither projects as a particularly strong matchup for the Bulls (especially since Joel Embiid is back for Philadelphia), but maybe Diar DeRozan will propel the Bulls to another playoff victory or two. In the Western Conference, the Thunder won the top seed over the Nuggets via a tiebreaker, and each of the top three seeds (including the Timberwolves) were separated by only a game in the final standings. The Lakers also stole the eighth seed in the final day of the regular season, and if they can beat the Pelicans in the 7 vs. 8 play-in game, they’ll grab the same seed they made a run to the Western Conference Finals as last year. Scottie Scheffler won The Masters this weekend as he ran away with the tournament over the weekend, finishing -11, or four strokes better than second-place Ludvig Åberg. He became the fourth-youngest golfer ever to claim multiple Green Jackets. A cool bit of history was made by Tiger Woods on Friday, as he made the weekend cut for the 24th consecutive time at the Major, which now stands as the all-time record. Even as he nears his 50th birthday, Woods continues to amaze on the biggest stage. Lastly, though it feels like a lifetime ago, UConn won the College Men’s Basketball National Championship, beating Purdue and Zach Edey 75-60. It’s a back-to-back romp from Dan Hurley’s squad, and UConn became the first school to win consecutive titles since the 2006-07 Florida Gators. That about wraps it up for last week, folks. The Cubs remain out West to begin the week, playing the reigning NL pennant winners - the Arizona Diamondbacks - in a three-game series before coming back home to do battle with a wildly disappointing Miami Marlins team for four games. It’ll be the first time all season the Cubs play every day of the week (barring inclement weather), with their next scheduled day off coming on Monday, April 22. Let’s hope they stroll into that rest day with some momentum! Have a great week, everyone! Go, Cubs, Go! View full article

Less than a year ago, José Cuas was the return in an ill-fated deadline trade with the Royals. Now, his roster spot hangs by a thread. Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports José Cuas was expected to be a key part of the Cubs bullpen this year, after coming over from Kansas City in July 2023. In return, the Cubs surrendered slugging outfielder Nelson Velázquez, who hit 14 home runs while getting full playing time in the Royals’ outfield in the second half of last season. Cuas, to put it mildly, has been bad in the early part of the 2024 season. In Monday's devastating loss to the San Diego Padres, Cuas was the first man out of the bullpen following Javier Assad's start. Cuas only was able to record one out, while giving up four runs (two earned) on three hits. His season ERA is 9.00, and he’s somehow been worth -0.3 WAR in 5 innings pitched. Now, small sample caveats apply in spades here. After being acquired by the Cubs at last year’s trade deadline, Cuas was worth 0.6 WAR in 23 2/3 innings. As we’re seeing early on this year, however, a lot of that success was with smoke and mirrors. Cuas was walking too many batters even as he walked the tightrope in the second half of 2023, and although he's been in the zone so far in 2024, he’s been far more hittable (eight hits surrendered). What he’s given the Cubs in limited exposure this year has been outright disastrous. There’s no excuse for him to keep appearing in games that are within reach at this point, but having a reliever who is purely designated for mop-up duty isn’t ideal when the team is already down starting pitchers Justin Steele and Jameson Taillon. When reviewing the trade the Cubs made for Cuas, the first move that will likely pop into people’s minds is the Wade Davis-for-Jorge Soler swap following the 2016 World Series win. Though the teams and positions of the players are the same (which in and of itself is a crazy coincidence), there are plenty of differences. Soler was far more accomplished in his time in the big leagues at the time of that trade, while Davis was one of the best relief pitchers in all of baseball. On the flip side, Velázquez had received sporadic (at best) playing time while with the Cubs, and Cuas had shown elite stuff but frustrating inconsistencies. It is worth mentioning that, unlike Davis (who was a free agent after one year in Chicago), Cuas is under control through 2029. He’s not even eligible for arbitration until the 2026 season. To Cubs: RP José Cuas, 2023 Stats w/ KCR: 41.2 IP, 4.54 ERA, 4.43 FIP, 1.61 WHIP, 11.2 K/9, 4.5 BB/9 RP Wade Davis, 2016 Stats w/ KCR: 43.1 IP, 1.87 ERA, 2.29 FIP, 1.13 WHIP, 9.8 K/9, 3.8 BB/9 To Royals: OF Nelson Velázquez*, Stats w/ CHC: 238 PA, .210/.290/.407, 9 HR, 91 OPS+, -0.6 WAR OF Jorge Soler, 2016 Stats w/ CHC: 264 PA, .238/.333/.436, 12 HR, 103 OPS+, 0.2 WAR *Velázquez only had 32 plate appearances in 2023 before being traded, so it’s easier to cross-analyze when looking at his career stats with the Cubs (i.e., including 2022 in the picture). It’s hard to say the Cubs didn’t get what they paid for in Davis, who was an All-Star and pitched to a 2.30 ERA in 58 2/3 innings in his sole season in the Windy City. Still, Soler was a highly productive player (for some admittedly bad Royals teams), even leading the American League in home runs in 2019, with 48. The Cubs would redo that trade ten times out of ten, given that Davis secured the save in all four of the team’s wins that postseason, but Kansas City cashed in on a short-term asset by securing a long-term one. In contrast, the Cubs may be having a slight amount of buyer’s remorse regarding the Cuas trade. Velázquez is the everyday right fielder and/or designated hitter for the Royals, and performing well with that secure playing time, while Cuas has yet to find his footing as an ancillary arm in the North Siders’ bullpen. Nevertheless, this is still a reliever whose fastball had the ninth-best Stuff+ score last year (minimum 20 innings pitched), according to FanGraphs, and is still tinkering with some off-speed selections as he tries to find the right arsenal that works with his funky, sidearm delivery. The Cubs, especially since the hiring of Carter Hawkins as GM, have touted the proficiency of their Pitch Lab™, and they see a guy whose stuff and makeup suggest there’s more in store than just a league-average reliever. Manager Craig Counsell has long been praised for his effective bullpen usage, and he wouldn’t be giving Cuas so much exposure if he didn’t have faith that the reliever could turn it around quickly. Before people go shouting from the rooftops to have Cuas designated for assignment, it’s worth noting that he has option years remaining (i.e., he can be shuttled back and forth between the big leagues and the minors). With Julian Merryweather out for an undetermined amount of time following a rib injury, the team won’t be looking for reasons to ship Cuas out of town. Keegan Thompson is on the 40-man roster, and has looked good in a few appearances so far at Triple-A Iowa this season, but he’s coming off a lost year. Hayden Wesneski is likewise on the 40-man, but the Cubs appear determined to keep him stretched out as a starter in the early portion of the season. Beyond them, the Cubs would have to open up a 40-man spot for a reliever like Carl Edwards Jr.or Richard Lovelady. The team may be replete with bullpen depth, but it doesn’t have a guaranteed replacement for Cuas waiting in the wings. The Dominican Republic native can’t risk things by continuing to keep pitching the way he has, but amid a 7-4 start to the season, the Cubs can afford to be patient for a little while longer. View full article

That's a big point I was trying to articulate in the article, and I hope it came through. Fischer is effectively being rewarded for his horrific ownership and handling of the Oakland situation. Why is he going to get a state of the art stadium (funded mostly by the public of Vegas) in a bountiful market after refusing to do anything for A's fans? Just an awful situation.

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