Even after getting through the BN Dogathon for Make-A-Wish, I anticipated that there would be certain after-effects. No, they aren’t as bad as the fog and general body disregulation that follows the 40-hour Blogathon, but they are … not enjoyable. Kids: don’t eat 17 hot dogs in 36 hours unless you have a good reason to do it, and unless you don’t have to be near – or impress – anyone for the next few days after that.
• Given the disproportionate importance of your own division this year, I find it notable and important to the Cubs that the Reds were the only other NL Central team to make any deadline additions (and they made a couple good ones). Having pushed way in for this year, the Reds arguably had the most incentive to make additions, but it’s not as if the Brewers and Cardinals are out of the race or anything. Yet the Cardinals made no additions, and the Brewers actually sold off a reliever (David Phelps).
• The Cardinals did not sound like a club that feels great about their chances in a condensed scheduled down the stretch. “Ideally the [Trade] Deadline would have been two weeks from now, because then we would have been a little bit more certain of where we are, but unfortunately, we can’t control the clock,” Cardinals President John Mozeliak said of the inactive deadline. “[So many doubleheaders ahead] was part of the problem for doing something now, because if we had acquired someone, then all of a sudden you would have lost the depth likely. Our hope is that there’s going to be either some players that we can get through waivers or that, as we get closer, maybe we can be active on the waiver side. Or at that point, if there are players looking for work, maybe we can help there.”
• As for the Brewers, Craig Counsell had to handle the spin (Brewers.com): “David Stearns found a deal he thought he couldn’t pass up, that he felt like was important for the franchise to make. I don’t think it says anything about the future of the team. We have to go out there and win a baseball game today. That’s how the guys in there are going to treat it. You lose players at times. Guys get hurt. Guys get traded. That doesn’t stop you from trying to win the baseball game that day. We’re sitting a game out of the playoffs right now. We know we have to play better to get there, but we’re not in a bad position at all.”
• Amid the madness of the Trade Deadline, the league announced that the A’s, like the Reds and Mets before them, are going to be shut down through Wednesday to allow lots of time for testing and contact tracing following their positive test over the weekend. And, as with the Reds and Mets, you just hope it was an isolated infection that didn’t get a chance to spread among teammates and staff.
• Oh hello there NL ERA leader Yu Darvish:
After Max Fried gave up 2 runs in Boston tonight, we have a change atop the NL ERA leaderboard.
Ladies and gentleman, allows us to introduce the current ERA leader in the National League: YU DARVISH pic.twitter.com/fUOUybQipf
— Cubs Insider (@realcubsinsider) September 1, 2020
• At 1.47, Darvish’s ERA trails only Shane Bieber (1.20) in all of baseball. His 1.8 WAR is tied with Fried for the NL lead, though Fried has made an additional start. Darvish has been so awesome this year. (Also … my god, Shane Bieber. Picked in the 4th round (122 overall) in 2016, immediately scorched the minors and reached the big leagues in just two years. And four years after being a 4th rounder, he’s the best pitcher in baseball. Cubs: do some of that.)
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• Jordan Bastian chides me on this one (he knows I was kidding), but more importantly takes a deeper look at Jason Heyward’s extremely impressive start to the 2020 season:
If @BleacherNation says Jason Heyward = Mike Trout, who are we to argue?
Seriously, though, Heyward has been awesome going on the past month. Here's a look at what he's been doing.
Hint: He's stopped swinging. Sort of.https://t.co/ExUNtjV9a8
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) September 1, 2020
• Among the fascinating bits in there, Heyward’s discipline against breaking and offspeed stuff – specifically, the locations where he is and isn’t swinging at it – is incredible. It’s like, one specific spot where he’s willing to swing at your junk, and it’s where he can crush it (middle-down). Hence, his results against those pitches – which were abysmal last year – are through the roof this year. Heyward attributes a lot of his success this year to being in a good place with his timing at the plate, giving himself a longer look, so to speak, and more margin for error. Great read there from Bastian.
• Oh, and just saying:
UPDATE!
Mike Trout: .268/.359/.602, 149 wRC+
Jason Heyward: .286/.402/.560, 156 wRC+
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) September 1, 2020
• For the moment, I don’t quite know what to highlight from this, because I just found the whole read so fascinating – if you’ve got an Athletic subscription, take some time, because I highly recommend:
"The fact that, you know, I don’t wear an ‘I love baseball’ tattoo on my forehead doesn’t mean that I don’t love the game."@EvanDrellich went long on the legacy of Rob Manfred. https://t.co/1tvlKBCJmK
— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) September 1, 2020
• Sinclair has an interest in more than half of the RSNs that carry MLB games – including the Cubs’ Marquee Sports Network – and their efforts to snag more continue:
https://twitter.com/Ourand_SBJ/status/1300596697404497920
• The additional four RSNs at stake are AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh (Pirates), AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Rockies), AT&T SportsNet Southwest (Astros), and Root Sports Northwest (Mariners). If Sinclair lands those networks, they’d have an interest in RSNs for 20 of the 30 MLB teams, which would give them – and, in turn, those 20 clubs – significant negotiating leverage for whatever the future of broadcasting looks like.
• It knocks his body backwards, my word:
What it looks like to catch 111 mph. pic.twitter.com/o2RLHubHel
— Baseball is Fun (@flippingbats) September 1, 2020
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