Maddon Down With La Russa to the Sox, Cubs Prospect Debuts, Marlins Part with President, and Other Cubs Bullets

The Little Boy and I took a weekend trip to Chicago, and while here, Michael stopped by to let us try out his VR headset since I mentioned it in the Bullets the other day. Michael is the man. Because, I gotta say, I did not expect it to be even half as cool as it is. I kinda thought it would be like, whatever, kinda interesting for a minute, but huge holes in the tech would be obvious enough to take you out of it. But, uh, holy sh*t. To say that it is immersive really does not do justice for how unbelievable this thing is. I am definitely getting an Oculus now, which is an #ad because it’s a link to Amazon and that’s how I got down this path in the first place, but I’m just blown away. Michael had me play this Darth Vader game, and I was an effing Jedi, man.

•   Tony La Russa is currently in the Angels’ front office, which means he has a fair bit of interaction with current Angels manager, and former Cubs manager, Joe Maddon. That made Maddon, also on the older side for a manager, a good guy to talk to about the possibility that the White Sox really are gonna bring in La Russa as the next manager:

•   Maddon acknowledges La Russa’s age (76), but sees a guy who is still very engaged and eager. He hasn’t spoken to La Russa about this gig specifically, but I gotta tell you, it sure feels like all the messages are getting sent out there that La Russa really wants it. Like everyone else, I’m guessing he can see what an obviously great setup the team has right now, he knows it’s a win-now job, and he knows it’s probably his last shot.

•   Maddon with general thoughts on doing this job (or any, I reckon) at an advanced age: “Staying contemporary, creating balance, and a real healthy routine. I think that is the three things for me. Diet and exercise as well are important aspects for me. Let’s go the other way. Springsteen just released a new album at 71. The Rolling Stones are still getting it done. That creates motivation for me. The last part is the most important thing. You got to still want to do this. You can never do this for the money, because that will absolutely get away from you. You have to really, really wake up each day and want to do this. If the answers are yes and you retain good health, yes you can do it well.” Sounds like I’ve got another 40 years running BN Cubs ….

•   Cubs Instructs info from Arizona Phil here, including Manny Rodriquez making his first game appearance since Spring Training (biceps strain after emerging as a dark horse for the bullpen). One of the top 2019 IFA signings, Kevin Made, made his debut. And the Morel brothers got to play together, which is fun.

•   Enjoy some of the mic’d-up-ness from the 2020 Cubs season:

https://twitter.com/WatchMarquee/status/1315449098695213056

•   Kinda figured the Marlins would do this eventually after the ownership change – it just took a little longer than expected:

•   Given the Marlins’ finances and the current environment, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this was partly (largely?) a financial decision. Hill, with his long tenure and high-level work, couldn’t have been cheap. I suspect Hill is probably good at what he does (to have survived atop the Marlins’ many changes for so long, and to have built up a really strong young organizational base with no payroll support), and wherever he goes next, is going to be an asset.

•   Remember it, hate it, thanks:

•   This is great stuff on the connection between launch angle, attacking in certain counts, and adjusting with two strikes (and all within a couple minutes explanation):

•   Absolutely ICE COLD move, but so rare that you get a chance to do it and pull it off so well. Thus, I love it:

https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1317479843156680704

written by

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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