The Best Last Place Team? And Other Bullets

javier baez aflBy the time The Little Girl was the age that The Little Boy is now (just about seven months), I had taken her to the doctor a half dozen times or more for non-routine visits. Nothing serious, mind you, but she had constant ear infections, terrible reflux, and inordinately sensitive skin. This morning, I’ll be taking The Little Boy to the doctor for the first time for a non-routine visit – again, nothing serious. I’ve taken The Little Girl to the doctor more since The Little Boy was born than The Little Boy, himself. It’s just funny. They really do come in all shapes and sizes.

  • Jim Callis says that, although the Astros have the best farm system in baseball (over the Twins and Cubs, it would seem), the Cubs are the last place team in the best position to turn things around and compete soon. His rationale includes not only the organization’s robust farm system, but also because, in his opinion, the Cubs are the most desirable destination of the last place teams for free agents, and the Cubs will have more spending ability (when the time is right) over the other five last place teams (Houston, Colorado, Miami, Toronto, Chicago White Sox). I think that’s probably right, but it’s obviously a limited pool of teams to be compared against. Callis confirms, by the way, that he believes no team has a better foursome of positional prospects than the Cubs.
  • The Cubs are better at watching clinching parties than any other team out there. They’ve already watched the Pirates and Braves celebrate (on consecutive days), and now they’re highly likely to watch the Cardinals do the same thing in St. Louis. The Cardinals are making the playoffs for the 11th time in 18 years. Jealous? Jealous.
  • Can changing a team’s logo actually help them win? A Time article kinda says yes, even if anecdotally (and in a piece ravaged by sports cliches). The classic “C” for the Cubs can never go away – don’t you do it – but maybe some other change is due. The problem is that a cub, by definition, is the weakest, most harmless form of a bear. Well, except maybe the zygote. “The 2014 Cubs: Fiercer Than A Zygote!”
  • Jon Greenberg writes about Old Style’s efforts to stay at Wrigley Field in light of the Budweiser marketing deal (which will see Anheuser-Busch become the sole beer sponsor of the Cubs, and will pay the Cubs $14 million annually, according to Greenberg). You may have noticed that I haven’t said much about the Old Style thing. That’s mostly because, as Cubs VP of Communications and Community Affairs Julian Green reiterates in the piece, Old Style hasn’t yet been excluded from the beer offerings going forward at Wrigley. That’s up to the park’s concession company, and there are indications that there will still be Old Style available in some capacity at Wrigley next year.
  • Carrie Muskat on Hector Rondon, Logan Watkins, and J.C. Boscan. I don’t quite get the connection between the three, but they make for interesting reads nonetheless.
  • written by

    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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