I’ll be hitting the road this afternoon, headed to Chicago for the weekend. It’s the first time I’ve been able to go since the Trade Deadline, as I was staying close to home for the impending – now past – arrival of The Littlest Girl. I have some anxiety about heading out, even for a few days, so soon after she was born (three weeks tomorrow), but The Wife is incredible, and I can’t thank her enough for being such a huge part of allowing me to do this gig. And I know that she, The Little Girl, The Little Boy, and The Littlest Girl will be donning their Cubs gear this weekend.
Remember when Johnny Cueto said this?
Well, then. Let’s find out about those coconuts.
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Speaking of the Giants’ game one starter, you’ll probably hear more about Cueto than you ever thought possible in the next two days, so I won’t go nuts here in these Bullets. Instead, I’ll just point out that he has consistently been a guy in his career whose results out-perform his peripherals, and it is almost certainly because of the kind of contact he induces (he’s hard to square up). He doesn’t get a ton of strikeouts, but he also doesn’t walk anyone. He’s just a guy who works in the zone, and demands that you do the damage yourself if you’re going to beat him. Usually, teams fail. The tricky part for the Cubs will be trying to work up the pitch count of a guy like that so they can get into the bullpen. It’s not going to be easy.
For more on the impending playoff match-up, if you didn’t check it out this morning, see the Playoff Miscellany.
The construction of the Cubs’ roster is overwhelmingly trade-heavy, which is not necessarily surprising, but I also bet that’s not true for most teams in baseball. The Cubs have just five players – Jon Lester, David Ross, John Lackey, Ben Zobrist, and Jason Heyward – on their expected 25-man roster who originally came to the Cubs via free agency (you could add Jason Hammel to that group, too, though he may not ultimately make the postseason 25-man roster).
The Cubs’ veterans have been taking care of the younger guys all year.
A truly extensive dive into Aroldis Chapman’s defection from Cuba – and so much of what surrounded it – by the Chicago Tribune.
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The city is indeed looking good:
Good take from last night’s dominating, but ultimately unsuccessful, starter:
This is going to generate many lulz, but it’s also just a really interesting story about health, vanity, broadcasting, and more (and pretty incredible that he’s actually sharing this now):
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Any Reddit users among you? Someone created a BN subreddit a couple years ago, which I happened to notice last night when I randomly typed in the URL. I don’t necessarily plan on doing anything with it, and it is completely inactive right now, but if you’re hardcore redditor and wanted to have a BN-related Reddit space, there it is!
A reminder: Michael, Luis, and I will be at Yak-Zies on Clark across from Wrigley Field before tomorrow night’s game (and then Michael and I are staying there to watch the game, while Luis goes off to be cool). Stop by. Hang out. Watch the game if you aren’t going. I can make no promises on how crowded it will be, but I’m planning to get there before 3pm to try and set up shop. My guess is that by 5pm it’ll be packed, and then fall a bit in the hour before the game, and then get crowded again for the game. But that’s based on intelligent speculation and last year. We don’t have a whole lot of data to go off of for these things.
Strength products are on sale at Amazon this week, so if you were lookin’ to get pumped …
NEWSLETTER
