I am currently blogging – here, on Facebook, and on Twitter – for 24 hours straight, until slightly past MLB’s July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. The plan is to do a little recap like this periodically through the day. We’ll see if the “plan” still holds by hour 20 when I’m starting to suspect my keyboard might be chocolate.
As I mentioned in the comments, today is my wife’s birthday. I’m working all day, except for a six-hour stretch in the middle of the day when I slept. I gave her a homemade card, stuck to a Chipotle burrito bowl for her birthday. The 24-hour divorce-athon could immediately follow the Blogathon.
Total Posts So Far:
Nine.
News and Rumors Since the Last Recap:
Carlos Pena looking unlikely to be dealt. Ditto Marlon Byrd. Oh, and Matt Holliday is a douche.
Most Interesting Tidbit Since the Last Recap:
The Indians and Rockies are apparently playing a game of chicken with Ubaldo Jiminez. A deal is reportedly in place, but not yet completed. So, the Rockies did the prudent thing and set Ubaldo out of his start tonight, right? Wrong. He’s pitching, and the Indians, no doubt, are watching.
Current Thoughts About the Chicago Cubs’ Trade Deadline Strategy/Execution:
If Carlos Pena is “untouchable,” will the Cubs trade *anybody*?
Current Beverage/Stimulant of Choice:
Cherry Coke Zero. Boom: cherry’d.
Strangest Thought Passing Through My Mind:
My daughter is currently in that phase (I’m told it’s normal) where a baby discovers her foot, and repeatedly jams it into her mouth. It’s making me wonder: if I could do that, would I? What would my foot taste like? It would almost certainly taste worse than hers, but, then again, I’ve never known a day of physical labor in my life. It might be nice.
Don’t unravel this early- stay strong!
And yes, yes you would. Are you saying you haven’t tried?
Yep, Matt Holliday is a giant douche. I don’t get why the Rockies/Indians are letting Jiminez pitch tonight. I thought the Indians might want him to pitch ASAP. And one final question. Who’s the bigger douche: Matt Holliday or Juan Pierre la Douchebag?
tastes prolly the same as the cubs season…..
prediction: sometime around 3 AM, you will be tasting your foot for lack of stuff to post about.
(I am just about flexible to lick it, but not put in my mouth. This is at least as sensible as not trading a guy who’s going to be a free agent and probably won’t actually get you any picks he might be better off taking arbitration.)
Ha. Just awesome.
Happy B-Day to your wife.
Thanks, awesome. That’s awesome.
I know it’s delayed, but Happy Birthday Mrs. Acett!
She will appreciate that.
I’m a lucky guy – she just got up a bit (when the baby woke up), and took the time to review my work, and admonish me about a typo in a comment I made. On her birthday. At 1 am.
You are punching way above your weight class with your wife, mate. Why risk it!?
Ha. I love international expressions.
We have a kid now: she’s stuck. (don’t tell her I said that, or at least let’s pretend I said it in the throes of sleeplessness)
Let me know if you need me to run over a 5-hour.
We’re a team at BN.
If you could cover the Professional Women’s Field Hockey trade deadline, which is also tomorrow, I’d be much obliged.
… as Jim Hendry is already in bed.
are they going to trade anyone brett?
Rich Harden to Red Sox… ah remember when he was suppose to be the final piece for us… memories ain’t they a bitch.
DLee to Pirates for an A-level hitter.
Makes you wonder what the offer for Pena was? And of course DLee will kill us, but bit be nice to see him again, he was a favorite of mine.
I for one, can’t wait to see the first on field meeting between Zambrano and Lee as opponents.
hey ace could u please explain to me that if pena isnt being traded same for byrd bc a new gm might want keep them why doesent ricketts then fire hendry and get on with hiring someone else why the wait and do nothing but keep losing mentality
Bringing in a new gm should mean an different team philosophy. That isn’t something that can be installed in a couple of weeks. Some of the guys they may be looking at are also in the middle of doing their jobs for other teams, so hiring someone in the middle of the year to oversee an overhaul of the system isn’t really plausible. If Hendry is a lame duck, it is a smart move to hold onto pieces that have value beyond this season. A new GM will want to trade for his guys, who play his style of baseball, not the remnants of Jim Hendry from his last couple of months on the job. If there is any good in the world, Ricketts is doing his research behind the scenes, looking to move the big money guys he can, and waiting for the right time to make a major change. Maybe Mike Quade isn’t really that crazy, maybe now isn’t the time for radical changes, maybe they start after the season, mabye they are all in on the plan that those changes have already started and we are just trying to get ahead of the schedule. Maybe I’m looking for anything that makes it seems like the Cubs or the Bears aren’t going to suck next year.
maybe you’re right.
Boston would have been better off with Z than Harden. Harden can go 5 and then his arm falls off.
True about but Harden is dirt cheap nowadays
Finally caught up, kids in bed, wife sleeping..where is everyone getting there info, nothing on TV.
Everybody gets their news from Twitter now a days, where have you been?
Awful early for confessions but…..I don’t have a twitter….account.
GODLESS BEING!
I was hesitant to use it at first, but turns out it’s pretty sweet. You get all the news and happenings you want, only the things you want, from the sources you want, and you get it instantly, you can even get the updates on your phone. Now use this gift we have bestowed upon you for the good of mankind.
This team is killing me. Brett are you hearing any chance of a deal for anyone? I am starting to question my loyality to the Cubs and if this direction keeps up I mayjust look for any other team until Hendry is gone. It just too hard to watch and everything I hear or read anything from Hendry I want the throw up.
It’s really quiet right now. I know that’s not what either one of us wants to hear.
I wonder if the Cubs were willing to trade the untouchable Jeff Baker to the Red Sox if they would have been able to get Lars Anderson, who could have been the future first baseman for the Cubs.
That’d be a pretty steep price to pay for Baker.
Your right, but maybe they could have gotten some ok prospects instead of hanging onto someone they could replace with Ryan Flaherty.
its too quiet. what do you predict?
If I had to guess, I’d say the Cubs make one or two small moves (dumping Grabow, maybe Johnson). I hope I’m wrong, and I don’t have any inside info in that regard right now.
something just doesn’t add up here….if Hendry is inactive due to the fact he knows he’s gone, then why is he not gone? Then if they fire him in October we wasted some chances for prospects….pretty stupid move by Ricketts….if Hendry is coming back, then why is he not making any moves?…either way, right now it looks pretty incompetant all around…
so WGN radio was wrong, sorry for the bad info guys.
I’d like to keep you company, Ace, but I went out for beer, I mean pizza. Good luck. I’ll be back a little after 5.
See you then. Enjoy the beerza.
Could it be that Hendry will take care of all the draft signing and basically concentrate on the minor leagues, get the paperwork in order and be gone by August 16th, the day after the deadline for signings? If Ricketts is making some moves behind the scenes maybe this makes sense. If Hendry stays around and finishes out the season then whoever takes over will probably have had time to put their own priorities in order and be ready to step in at season’s end. But in the meantime we’re stuck with what we have.
It’s possible. I think it’s more likely that Ricketts doesn’t see the good in having no one in charge – or an interim guy like Randy Bush (hi, Randy!) – when he can’t actually interview the folks he wants to interview until after the season.
Ha!!! Randy Bush reads BN…. I remember that post.
Hello West Coast! Welcome.
But he could make a move on the new president and have him in place if its the guy from the Phillies. That way he would have one person who could transition into the job while Hendry and Quade finish out the year.