Kyle and Jed Birthday Fun, Reason to Bet on Lance Lynn, and Other Bullets

Dec 07, 2017

I see you, new ‘The Last Jedi’ spot, I see you. I see you, and I love you.

In VIII days, see Star Wars: #TheLastJedi.

Get tickets now: https://t.co/6vE5KUSv1f pic.twitter.com/kb1NeHFITQ

— Star Wars (@starwars) December 7, 2017

Look. Even as I remain someone who, especially in retrospect, was deeply disappointed with ‘The Force Awakens,’ I’m still extremely geeked for TLJ. My hope is that they’ll move on completely in this one from regurgitating familiar storylines and plot tropes, and take us along for an entirely new ride in a world that we love. That’s always been the potential of the additional moves outside the original trilogy. The prequels accomplished it, but sooooo many other flaws dragged them down, and they just felt wrong. Maybe TLJ will bring together that newness with the improved feel of TFA.

I guess you could say I’ve got … a new hope.

*pulls shades down, screams*

Hey, happy birthday to Kyle Hendricks, who gets the hilarious treatment from #AtCubs:

A live look-in at @kylehendricks28's birthday celebration: pic.twitter.com/ldyfMpzrJv

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) December 7, 2017

Hendricks is overcome:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KYLE! pic.twitter.com/AxVIrXJboj

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) December 7, 2017

It’s also Jed Hoyer’s birthday, so I’m imagining the two of them having a real rager of a combined birthday party.

Happy birthday to #Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer! pic.twitter.com/jw346CpyFO

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) December 7, 2017

Lance Lynn has been mentioned intermittently as a Cubs pitching target, and we aren’t necessarily the biggest fans. As a guy with enormous splits who has succeeded almost exclusively on contact management, I don’t love the idea that he’s pretty much a fastball-only guy headed into his 30s. That just feels like a recipe to start getting destroyed even more by lefties, and eventually, righties, too. Interestingly, Eno Sarris noticed that Lynn’s changeup (which would be a weapon against lefties, in particular) underwent the biggest change by velocity/movement in all of the NL in the second half. The rub? He threw it only 36 times and didn’t get a single whiff on it. That’s not good, and suggests he wasn’t commanding it worth a plop, even if it had great movement and good spread from his fastball. Maybe he masters it a bit more next year and really breaks out. It’s totally possible. But would you bet a four-year, $60 million deal on it?

Jeff Sullivan started down a rabbit hole, wondering about players who were better in team losses than in wins (it’s rare, of course, because in the aggregate, players tend to have performed better in wins – hence the win). That wound up taking him somewhere pretty unbelievable, and I don’t want to spoil it. I think you’ll find it’s worth the read.

If you missed it earlier, I wrote about why we obsess so much over Shohei Ohtani, and why – for that same reason – last night’s trades might not mean as much as we initially thought.

Oh, Michael:

Soon. pic.twitter.com/LR5T9T3lJO

— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) December 7, 2017

This is fun:

A Redditor found these old Texas Rangers Spring Training signs in a used gear bag. Pretty awesome. pic.twitter.com/Fxh8i6dxBs

— Baseball is Fun (@flippingbats) December 7, 2017

Amazon’s 12 Days of Deals today is for gamers, so check that out if you’re into the gaming, you know, stuff.

Hey, big sale at the MLB Shop today – 25% off all orders with the code SWING25 – so get some holiday shopping done, support BN, and I thank you very much for indulging us:

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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