The Wife has headed out to Boston for a conference (she’s a big timer), leaving me on solo daddy duty until Sunday. I crushed it this morning, getting both kids ready for school over a very calm, productive 45 minutes after they awoke. I arrived at school with my chest puffed out an extra inch or two, took the kids to their respective classrooms, unloaded the things they needed for the day, and … eff. I’d forgotten The Little Boy’s bottles at home. Chest: deflate. An unplanned 30 minutes later, and the morning was still a net success.
Alex Rodriguez walked out of his arbitration hearing yesterday, saying that he was done with the process if his lawyers couldn’t question Commissioner Bud Selig under oath as part of the process. From there, ARod and his lawyers took to the media, and absolutely blasted the process and MLB. It was truly bizarre, and makes you wonder if they know they are toast. Recall, Rodriguez has been suspended for 211 games (yes, that is an odd total, but it was tied to when he was suspended – it was basically the rest of 2013 and all of 2014) for his connection to the Biogenesis clinic in Miami, and MLB’s belief that the clinic supplied him with PEDs. MLB further believes that ARod hampered the process of them investigating his alleged PED usage. Add all that up, and somehow you get a 211-game suspension for ARod, rather than a 50-game suspension (which is what a first-time offender would receive under the joint drug agreement). I don’t really have a dog in the fight, though I’ve always thought it bizarre that Rodriguez’s counsel didn’t argue that, at a minimum, his suspension should be no longer than 50 games. Instead, they’ve always said 0 games (and ARod yesterday actually said that he never used PEDs (well, at least since his Texas days)). Much more on the drama from Wendy Thurm here.
It’s just a crazy story, and the Yankees connection – if ARod is suspended for the full 211 games, the Yankees stand to save a whole lot of money – makes it even crazier. It’s tenuous, but if you’re rooting from pure self-interest, you probably hope Rodriguez’s suspension is greatly reduced by the arbitrator, because then the Yankees will have less flexibility to spend in the next two years while trying to stay under the luxury tax cap.
With contracts exploding once again, Patrick Mooney says the Yankees are getting a great deal on Alfonso Soriano in 2014 (they’ll pay just $5 million for him, while the Cubs will be paying $13 million). Mooney’s piece has more from Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman on how the July trade that netted the Cubs pitching prospect Corey Black came about, and it’s a fascinating read. Cashman, who you may recall was publicly not crazy about the trade (then Soriano went off as a Yankee), insists he did believe Soriano was the best bat he could acquire. He simply believed that Soriano was going to use his no-trade rights to block a deal to anywhere but New York, and figured the Cubs could be squeezed even further. Apparently the Cubs asked for much more than Black when the negotiations started. Those no-trade rights, man. They really hamstring teams.
The Cubs are helping collect items for victims of the tornados on Sunday. You can make donations at Wrigley Field today and tomorrow – the details are here.
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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NEWSLETTER
The Wife has headed out to Boston for a conference (she’s a big timer), leaving me on solo daddy duty until Sunday. I crushed it this morning, getting both kids ready for school over a very calm, productive 45 minutes after they awoke. I arrived at school with my chest puffed out an extra inch or two, took the kids to their respective classrooms, unloaded the things they needed for the day, and … eff. I’d forgotten The Little Boy’s bottles at home. Chest: deflate. An unplanned 30 minutes later, and the morning was still a net success.
