Please Stop Re-Litigating Certain Old Trades, Scoring Change, Terrible Minor League Pay, and Other Cubs Bullets

October 8, 2019, by Brett Taylor Chicago Cubs

It was elimination day in the playoffs, with literally all four LDS series potentially ending. To the fun of the sport, only one did, with the Yankees sweeping away the Twins in one of the most comfortable sweeps I’ve seen since the 2007-08 Cubs …

Meanwhile, the Rays forced a Game 4 against the Astros by winning in St. Pete, and each of the Nationals and Cardinals forced a Game 5 with their wins yesterday. Those Wednesday NLDS games are going to be half fun, half unnerving: the Cardinals get Jack Flaherty to try to move to the NLCS … crud. But on the other hand, in the other series, if the Dodgers lose, that’s funny because they keep failing to win it all despite being so dang good and dominant (petty). If the Nationals lose, that’s funny because they’ve STILL never won a postseason series (petty). Being petty is all I have left.
The Yankees are doing good things in the postseason, and Gleyber Torres is helping, which means people say stupid things. If you’ve managed to avoid it this time around, I bless you, and wish you continued good fortune in the ALCS to come.

If you’re like me and haven’t been able to avoid the idiocy, though, I would like to purchase a skywriter to put this tweet up where everyone in the baseball universe can see it:

The notion that the Cubs shouldn't have traded Gleyber is floating around. The trade benefited both sides. The Cubs won their World Series, at long last, and Torres has approached his ceiling. If I could go back in time with all this knowledge, I'd implore Theo to do it again.
— Harry Pavlidis and one dog (@harrypav) October 8, 2019

Just like the Orioles:

And this deal was worth every last drop because the Baltimore Orioles won the 2013 World Series. People forget that. https://t.co/eAcdCwSGT8
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) October 8, 2019

Just a few more scoring changes and the Cubs can lead the league in errors:

Breaking Cubs news that only Salt (Kintzler) and David Bote will care about but sort of is appropriate considering the season: League changed a hit off of Kintzler by Marcell Ozuna on Sept. 27 to an error by Bote, the Cubs 118th of the season (3 behind the Pirates for most in NL)
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) October 7, 2019

I do wonder how a scoring decision like that is prompted for change. Like, did Kintzler’s agent reach out to have it reviewed? Did the Cubs? Surely it wasn’t Bote! The play did not lead to any runs, by the way. Just a hit or error on the ledger.
This thread is just so spot on and again underscores how completely absurd minor league pay is:

https://twitter.com/tycyr93/status/1181238079824154624?s=21

https://twitter.com/tycyr93/status/1181240359814193153

Safe to say I’ve had it a lot easier than some people I know. But at the same time it’s embarrassing this is what has to happen in order to make smart money choices. I am also backed by a @ERAUBaseball education which helps a lot.
— Tyler Cyr (@tycyr93) October 7, 2019

I understand the big boy reality that teams are loathe to be the ones to fundamentally change the minor league pay system, because then other clubs might have to follow suit, and no one wants to really break the dam (though the Blue Jays reportedly did before the season, at least in some small way). But how on earth is there not a club out there will to devote just $5 dang million to provide living wages for their minor league players? Do they believe it will somehow harm the development of these guys? That they won’t be “hungry” enough if they don’t have to work side jobs and eat crackers for meals? I really don’t get how there isn’t an organization out there willing to spend big to ensure class-of-the-class treatment of all their minor leaguers, and I also don’t get how that wouldn’t be a long-term advantage in player development *AND* player recruitment. If someone out there is smarter than I am, and knows why teams don’t do this (other than “because they don’t have to”), please tell me. I’ve just gotta be missing something at this point. brett at bleacher nation dot com. If you’re in an MLB org and want to explain, I’ll keep it anonymous if you want. I just want to know the damn answer at this point.
I make jokes:

Not pictured, off screen, is the baby dolphin Yadi hit with that bat. https://t.co/s6OaLEr5L4
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) October 7, 2019

Folks got really ticked about the bat chuck after Yadi’s game winner, which, I mean, I guess. But it didn’t bother me. The guy just won a win-or-go-home playoff game, and I *presume* he looked to see there was no one in the area where he was chucking. I don’t have a problem with it. Got a beef? Don’t put the winning run on third base.
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