The post-Thanksgiving malaise. I just want to eat more food and sleep and watch football and see some baseball transactions finally break through. Let’s do it, folks.

Can we at least get some Cubs coaching news? …

• More perspective on the Cubs’ pitching coach search, which looks to have the team interviewing a couple big names, but also strongly considering in-house candidate Tommy Hottovy (discussed more here yesterday):

#Cubs continue search for a new pitching coach, with Tommy Hottovy emerging as an in-house candidate and John Farrell and Bryan Price expected to get interviewshttps://t.co/M6E2250wHP via @MLBBruceLevine pic.twitter.com/cqd3UyiX6Y

— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) November 24, 2018

• Read Levine’s piece for the full rundown of possible candidates, but one other in-house option is minor league pitching coordinator Brendan Sagara. The jump from minor league pitching coordinator to big league coach feels like it’s become much more common in recent years (the Cubs’ last two minor league pitching coordinators were poached to become big league coaches in other organizations).
• Another coaching loss for the Cubs, per the Tribune: 2017 AA hitting coach and 2018 hitting coordinator Jacob Cruz is off to become the assistant hitting coach with the Pirates. Cruz oversaw the offensive breakouts of guys like David Bote and Trent Giambrone. You wonder if the Cubs gave Cruz serious consideration for their own open assistant hitting coach slot.
• Apropos of my thoughts on the Cubs going after utility man Derek Dietrich, here’s a note that he’s the hit-by-pitching-est batter of all-time. He’s been hit so many times that, in terms of Win Probability Added, his HBPs have been worth about three wins! Heh.
• Missed this the other day – a nice Thanksgiving video from the Cubs:

Thankful for #Cubs fans! pic.twitter.com/AExprADXH0

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) November 22, 2018

• Bryce gonna grab a Cubs had and commit on the air:

We’re excited to have @Bharper3407 as our guest picker on set tomorrow in Columbus! pic.twitter.com/qlQpTTLezf

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) November 24, 2018

• Dang. He’s signing with the Bucks:

Buckeye Bryce. pic.twitter.com/eVNE9ODJdU

— Cut4 (@Cut4) November 24, 2018

• That’s a fit:

The #Royals announced that they've hired Mike Matheny as a special adviser for player development. Not a managing gig, but he'll be involved on both the scouting and development side.

— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) November 23, 2018

• I love that there are like three guys on the Bears for whom you could make a credible argument here:

Eddie Jackson Is Making His Case for Defensive Player of the Year https://t.co/NrUnBi8Xim pic.twitter.com/4CVpsQ81YF

— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) November 23, 2018

• Amazon devices are on sale this weekend, including an Echo Dot for just twenty bucks.