It’s a travel day for me, which means typical-ish posting, but I won’t be around as much in the comments/Twitter/Facebook. Be good.
I’m headed to Wrigley Field tonight for Social Media Night (I’ll be wearing my blue BN shirt and wearing my beautiful and distinctive blue and yellow kicks), and I hope to see/meet many of you there. I’ll also be at the game tomorrow (bleachers, right field corner near the LED board), and hanging at Casey Moran’s after the game. Join, say hello, and be merry.
Although the Cubs’ official release on the David DeJesus trade didn’t explicitly say that the deal was of the dreaded “for a player to be named later or cash” variety (the universal signal that the return is going to be akin to bupkis), it sounds like it was. And, according to Bruce Levine, the Cubs will indeed be receiving a “nominal amount” of cash for DeJesus. If you needed any further confirmation that the move was primarily dictated by the cost savings ($2.5 million), as well as peripheral benefits (roster limitations, seeing Bogusevic and Sweeney, etc.), there you have it.
Dale Sveum and Anthony Rizzo talk about the first baseman’s sophomore struggles. (Although this is technically his third year in the bigs (partial), it really does feel more like his second, yes?)
Speaking of Rizzo, he tells Mark Gonzales that DeJesus being traded “doesn’t make the best sense, but it’s a business.” He shares some additional thoughts on the trade and on the nature of the business of baseball. Interesting thoughts from Ryan Sweeney in that piece, too, on his eventual return to the outfield.
Starlin Castro said he wasn’t happy about batting 8th, but it doesn’t sound like he’s angry with Dale Sveum for the decision, per ESPN. Castro says he just has to stop thinking so much at the plate, and go back to the guy he was before – i.e., before the Cubs worked with him on his approach – and be more aggressive early in the count.
An analysis at FanGraphs agreed with my assessment of that Donnie Murphy non-check-swing-strikeout call the other day. It was the most egregiously bad umpiring of a day full of egregiously bad umpiring.
I won’t be able to dig into it until tomorrow because of the travels, but you should check out this CCO transcript of a recent MLBN interview with Theo Epstein. In short, the good news is, with TV deal changes and the Wrigley renovation, Epstein is expecting payroll to eventually return to the 2011 levels ($140 million) and climb from there. The bad news is that the various city/neighborhood/alderman/rooftop delays in the renovation approval process has probably pushed construction back another year (meaning, the Cubs probably won’t be able to start construction until after next season – maybe Epstein is just playing the game, but it’s possible that we’ve really now reached that point).
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
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