Jeimer Candelario Lands in a Couple Fall Stars Highlights and Other Bullets

jeimer candelario smokiesToday’s the last day for the 20% off sale at the BN store on orders of $30 or more. Just use the code JOY20 when you check out.

  • Jeimer Candelario was the Cubs’ lone positional rep in the Fall Stars Game last night with Willson Contreras’s season ended thanks to a hamstring injury. Corey Black appeared on the pitching side, giving up three runs (on three hits, including a homer, and a walk) while striking out one in his inning of work. Candelario had himself a night, though, including this nifty catch:
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  • And this crushed double:
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  • Although I’m not saying this on the basis of his Fall Stars Game performance, or even his AFL performance, but it feels like an appropriate place to say: I don’t think the Cubs can risk leaving Candelario unprotected for the Rule 5 Draft, even though he’s only just about to turn 22, and even though he’s played only 46 games above High-A. I just think he’s got too much talent for some rebuilding team not to grab and stash. The deadline to add players to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 is November 20.
  • Jed Hoyer looks back and looks ahead.
  • Korean first baseman and slugger Byung-Ho Park’s team accepted a $12.85 million posting bid on Friday, but it’s still a mystery which MLB team won his rights (and will have 30 days to work out a contract). That posting amount, undoubtedly increased by Jung-Ho Kang’s success last year with the Pirates, suggests teams (well, at least one team) believe Park’s power will translate to the bigs. Park is believed to be a first base/DH type, so it’s highly unlikely the Cubs are involved. But it’s still an interesting mystery to follow. Also, he has at least one important skill in addition to power:
  • Crashing through the outfield wall to try and make a catch is laudable and a little insane, especially when you destroy the wall like this.
  • META: Sometimes you don’t know exactly what you’re doing until you’re doing it. As I was doing my periodic posts for BN Baseball – a new, small side project I mentioned in the Bullets a few days ago – and thinking more about what it is supposed to be, I kept prompting my self to drill it down to the simple version of what I was trying to do with the site. Why I thought it should exist. I wasn’t trying to create a “baseball-wide” version of what we do here at BN. This place is about obsessing about the Cubs in a comprehensive way.

    Here at BN, we definitely enjoy the Cubs and the sport, but there’s inarguably a seriousness to the way we treat things – analysis, statistics, finances, etc. I don’t intend to get away from that, but I also don’t want to forget the silly, child-like fun that drew us all to the game when we were younger: baseball is fun. That’s what I wanted BN Baseball to be – a place to curate and enjoy the moments of and about baseball that remind us how fun it is. And the more I thought about it, and the more the specific goal crystalized in my mind, the more I felt like “BN Baseball” wasn’t really consistent with what I was going for. Why not just call the place what I want it to be? Say what you mean.

    So, that’s a very long way of saying BN Baseball is now Baseball Is Fun. Same site, same concept, different name. I’m working on a new logo. You’ll have to give me a little time on that one.

    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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