All-Star Thoughts on the Cubs, Jeter, Wainwright, and Other Bullets

Jul 16, 2014

Is it unreasonable to dream about the 2019 All-Star Game, at a fully-renovated Wrigley Field, featuring eight Chicago Cubs starters from a club that has lost just four times in the first half of the season (two of which came on blown calls that were not reversed because the replay system was buried back in 2017)?

The Cubs’ All-Stars undoubtedly had a good experience in Minneapolis this year, even though their in-game experience was a bit thin. Each of Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo got just one plate appearance in last night’s All-Star Game, and each wound up striking out on a foul tip courtesy of Sean Doolittle (who sports a 31.50 K/BB ratio (that’s not a typo) on the year). Castro got to play a few innings in the field, but Rizzo’s PA was his only game action. Hopefully in the future, the Cubs will feature more prominently in the All-Star story.

Because this one was all about the superstars of the game, and also Derek Jeter. The Captain got a nice send-off from all corners in the game last night, with extensive introductory material, a warm greeting, and a lengthy farewell when he was pulled from the game. It was nice. It was also nice to see Jeter smack a double the other way off of Adam Wainwright to start the game.

And then, while the game was still going on, Wainwright did his part to completely sour that nice moment by telling reporters that he grooved a fastball for Jeter to hit. Pretty classy: you were a good enough guy to want to see Jeter have success in his final All-Star Game, and give fans a cool moment, but you were not a good enough guy to do it without making it about you? The point of grooving one is to give the guy a chance to do something with it – and if you then tell the world you grooved it, the moment is completely undercut (so that you can, what? look like you weren’t such a bad pitcher for that one pitch? was it really worth it?). After Wainwright’s comments blew up, he later reportedly said he was just joking or that he misspoke or something.

For a moment back in 2010 – just a moment – Jeff Samardzija told his agent he needed to figure out how to get back into football. Fun read from MMQB. And then another great Samardzija read from Fox Sports, about his time at Notre Dame and coming up through the minors.

Jesse Rogers with a profile on Kyle Schwarber, which includes a fun section on Schwarber talking about how it’s all been a whirlwind and he’s just now settling in … three hours before he got the call that he’d been promoted to Daytona. I can’t wait to see how the young man acquits himself at High-A. It’s impressive enough that the organization felt like he was already ready for that challenge. (And then you start wondering if he’ll follow the Kris Bryant path of AFL, then AA/AAA next year, and pushing for the bigs in 2016 … but you have to step back and remember that that’s just about as fast as these things can possibly go, and pull back the reins on any expectations you might have. Just enjoy.)

David Price clarified his “winning with the Cubs would be the coolest” comments to the Tribune, but they pretty much read like the exact same comments to me. No one ever thought Price was saying he wants to be traded to the Cubs or plans to sign with them. He was simply saying, of all the teams, given the history, it would probably be the coolest to win it all with the Cubs right now. And it would be. But the fact that Price brought them up unprompted was certainly interesting, and it’s reasonable to have a discussion that follows from that.

As the Astros are getting drilled from all corners for their Brady Aiken situation, they’re also getting a long-form praise piece from Sports Illustrated.

Your visual BN Blogathon update:

Nearly $8000 raised for @MakeAWish @WishIllinois &close to getting another #BNBlogathon hour: http://t.co/MrSSg9wRqK pic.twitter.com/6iLvuZbOr5

— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) July 16, 2014

written by

Brett Taylor

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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