Ruben Amaro as a First Base Coach? And Other Bullets

boston red sox logoWe celebrated The Sister-In-Law’s birthday last night by pedaling a table – like, literally, a table attached to a bunch of bicycle seats and wheels and cranks and stuff – around downtown Cincinnati, and drinking as we did it. Apparently that’s a real thing that people do. It was surprisingly fun, and good exercise!

  • Although it’s not yet official, it sounds like former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. has a new job: first base coach for the Red Sox. Obviously that’s not a common move for a former front office exec, and Amaro has been the target of a great deal of (probably deserved) criticism as a GM over the years, but, hey, I commend Amaro on getting out there and getting back onto the field if that’s what he wants to do. Clearly he’s not a guy who’s going to let ego stand in the way, and I respect that.
  • And speaking of the Phillies, they’ve got Amaro’s replacement now: it’ll be Angels AGM Matt Klentak, who will serve under new Phillies president Andy MacPhail.
  • A reminder from Gordon Wittenmyer, and from Theo Epstein, that the road ahead for the Cubs will continue to be extremely difficult, as the NL has so many strong teams right now. To my eye, the Pirates look to be at least as good on paper next year as they were this year, and the Cardinals will probably be right there as well.
  • Doug Glanville reflects on his time with the 2003 Cubs, and how he views the 2015 club. Great read.
  • David Laurila’s Sunday Notes are always a good read, and there are plenty of Cubs bits in it this week. I love the quote from Theo Epstein in there about Kris Bryant struggling a bit with changeups from righties in the postseason … until the final one he saw, which wound up a monster shot out of the park.
  • Earlier: Luis looked at Jorge Soler’s crazy postseason, and I checked in on the AFL.
  • 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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