Three Years Ago It Happened, Rule 5 Decisions Coming, Doolittle’s Decision, and Other Cubs Bullets

The heated pilates class I go to is easily the most sweat-making exercise class I’ve ever experienced. You cannot leave without every single inch of your clothing completely soaked. It’s a great class – just took it with The Wife! – but it does leave you awfully uncomfortable afterwards if, like me, you want to work a bit at the nearby coffee shop before heading home. Worse, now that it’s literally freezing out, my soaked shirt grabs to me horribly as soon as I step outside. I’m gonna have to start bringing a change of clothes. You know, like a reasonably intelligent adult. I’ll probably keep forgetting, though.

  • The happiest of memories, three years ago – it still makes me emotional:
  • Can I admit that I’ve always found it moderately annoying that Game 7 started on November 2, but, in the Eastern Time Zone where the game was played, ended on November 3. So … is 11-2-16 the sacred date, or is it 11-3-16? It bothers me!
  • I choose to go with today, November 2, by the way. For one thing, that’s the official date of the game, and for another thing, it was still November 2 in Chicago – where I was – when the magic moment happened. Thus: today is a very special day.
  • This was my final out experience, by the way. Together with about a thousand friends (and 10 really close ones) at the Metro across from Wrigley, watching on the big screen. The play. The eruption. The swirling chaos. Then a black screen as I went to the ground:
  • Lots of tricky Rule 5 Draft decisions coming for the Cubs, though I think for many they’re just going to have to roll the dice that the league has a whole lotta guys like this, and the odds are low that a guy like Mekkes, specifically, will get plucked:
  • Of course, another point is underscored there: it would be nice to know what’s going to happen to the juiced ball next year, because its presence in AAA this year sure made player evaluation a near impossibility.
  • Amazon has kicked off their HoliDeals time period, so I expect tons of deals now through Christmas. There are deals in every category, plus the Deals of the Day (lots of fancy clothes). #ad
  • MLB Pipeline ranked the prospects in the Arizona Fall League this year, and Miguel Amaya shows up at number 17 with this comment: “He’s still a work in progress offensively and defensively, yet he’s also just 20 and could be a standout on both sides of the ball. He rivaled [Joey] Bart as the best defensive catcher in the Fall League.” You are reminded that Amaya has long been considered a glove-first catching prospect, yet he has been above average offensively the last two full-season years, despite being very young for his leagues. He is special – the very rare 20-year-old catching prospect whom you can already project as at least reaching the big leagues in some capacity, with obvious upside from there – and no one will have an excuse for sleeping on him. Apparently the AFL was especially loaded with top prospects this fall, according to MLB Pipeline.
  • As you might have been able to project, Sean Doolittle will not be going to the White House when the Nationals attend the Presidential ceremony, and he’s doing his best to explain that he put a lot of thought into the decision (there’s considerably more in the article):
  • Obvious Shirts giving away sweatshirts (you can enter on their Twitter, IG, and/or Facebook):
  • https://twitter.com/obvious_shirts/status/1190384554927890436

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    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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