NEWSLETTER
The Wife sent me a great article from The Atlantic on getting older, and it included this set that really stuck with me: “There is no such thing as other people. There’s just all of us, with our secret or public burdens, muddling through the best we can, many of us not doing an especially good job of it.”
• If you missed it early this morning, the Detroit Tigers kicked off major signing season by inking Eduardo Rodriguez to a five-year deal (opt out after two). So at least one team and at least one player was willing to lock down a major deal before the CBA expiration in two weeks. A sign of what’s to come, or a one-off? Stay tuned. My guess is we’re about to see a modest volume of signings the next couple days, and then a bit of a lull for the rostering deadline on Friday, and then another little wave before Thanksgiving. At least, that’s what it would look like in years past. But, as everyone knows, the last few years have been very weird, and this year is no different.
• The Rays made another trade, sending reliever Louis Head to the Marlins for a PTBNL or cash. It was their second trade of the weekend after the Mike Brosseau swap with the Brewers, and notably, their second trade the moved someone off of the 40-man roster. Note that Friday is the deadline to add prospects to the 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 Draft in order to protect them, so the Rays are clearly making some space available by moving out guys who otherwise had a little bit of value.
• You would expect more of that this week across baseball, and you wonder if the Cubs might take advantage. It seems less likely that the Cubs would be on the other side of that equation – the guys who are on the 40-man bubble right now don’t look like they’d have obvious trade value – but you never know if a team out there wants your fringe reliever more than you value that spot on the 40-man. The Cubs currently have 34 on their 40-man, so there is no realistic need for them to clear additional space this week before Friday’s rostering deadline – they will not be protecting more than a few prospects, I suspect. So, to that end, I think it’s more likely that if the Cubs make trades (or waiver moves) tied to the rostering deadline, it’ll be them adding, rather than subtracting.
• As for Head, he was the prototypical modern Rays reliever: broke out late (age 30/31) after stints in other orgs, was extremely useful as an up-down guy, and then gets sent out for value elsewhere.
• It’s not new or a surprise to Cubs fans who were watching – and I wouldn’t really call it a downtrend so much as a disaster in 2021 – but Kyle Hendricks’ signature changeup was simply not there for him in 2021:
We noticed a downward trend with the changeup for Kyle Hendricks.
Hendricks also struggled in the heart of the zone in 2021 with a +6 Run-Value. Look for a deeper breakdown in an upcoming buy or sell installment on @Fantrax #FantasyBaseball pic.twitter.com/tnpeF7j5cB
— Corbin (@corbin_young21) November 13, 2021
• Speaking of changeups, this is fun to watch:
This view of a changeup is another reminder that hitting a baseball is very hard to do pic.twitter.com/wTgpRk3Jj3
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) November 15, 2021
• Yuuuuup that’s pretty:
https://twitter.com/mlb/status/1460000292859224072?s=12
• And it’s not that this isn’t pretty, it’s just that I’m not down with snow on November 14/15:
Obligatory first snow photo.
❄️🌨☃️ pic.twitter.com/ykY5VF3txL— South Bend Cubs (@SBCubs) November 15, 2021
• The Bulls won again last night, against a hot team on the road, even without Nikola Vucevic:
https://twitter.com/BN_Bulls/status/1460126543519399942
Enhanced Box Score: Bulls 100, Clippers 90 — November 14, 2021https://t.co/Pn9R9DH8v4
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) November 15, 2021
