NEWSLETTER
The adjustment back to normal life after the Blogathon is always a multi-day process. I’m lucky that I haven’t noticed it getting much worse as I get older, but I imagine that’s coming one of these years. For now, it’s just a matter feeling really hungover for a couple days, needing more caffeine than usual for a few days to try to come down carefully, and feeling extra tired when I try to get up in the morning. There is also considerable … bowel disruption … each year. I have never quite figured out why, but I guess it’s gotta be some combination of the overload of caffeinated drinks, and then eating so irregularly during those two days.
- Speaking of the Blogathon, in the heat of it – especially that second day as trades are going down – I can’t ever quite think of all the angles, so it can take me a few days, or an external prompt, to realize some other layer to a trade or non-trade. To that end, something I hadn’t thought of about the David Robertson trade: it isn’t just that the Cubs dealt him to the Phillies for Ben Brown shortly before the deadline, it’s that the Cubs didn’t trade him to the division rival Mets. I’d been thinking so much about the Mets balking at trading for Willson Contreras that I kinda didn’t think about the fact that they also didn’t step up for Robertson. They made additions, yes, but they were all pretty tepid, which is wild when you consider the opportunity they have this year (especially with a rotation fronted by free-agent-to-be Jacob deGrom and 38-year-old Max Scherzer – now was the time to go all in). For fear of giving up the next Pete Crow-Armstrong, they really had a terrible deadline, and you can sense it when you wade into Mets fandom to take their temperature.
- Here’s why they didn’t trade for Robertson, by the way:
- In other words, you can extrapolate that trading for Robertson would’ve cost the Mets at least Matt Allan (or the other Mets prospects in that tier), who yes, would’ve been kind of a ridiculous return for a reliever rental. Brown, by the way, will get a deeper dive soon, and yes, he was also kind of a ridiculous return for a reliever rental. The Cubs didn’t make all the trades we expected, but the guys they got for Robertson and Scott Effross, specifically, seem to be pretty impressive.
- So the Mets instead settled for Mychal Givens, who returned the Cubs a good pitching prospect (but it’s a relief profile), who made his debut last night for the Mets. After a month and a half of perfection for the Cubs, Givens got blown up in his Mets debut. He entered to a 9-0 lead in the 9th, and went groundout, homer, fly out, homer, single, single, single, before being pulled. Cubs win the trade? I feel bad for Givens, individually, but let’s call it The Curse of the Mets Being Cowards at the Deadline. I will absolutely be rooting for that team to flop the rest of the way.
- Gonzalez, by the way, is a bigggggg dude:
- Wade Miley made his second rehab start for the Cubs last night, this time at Iowa, and it was similar to the first one: lotta runs given up, relatively short (49 pitches), but presumably healthy? Eventually, Miley is going to return to the big league rotation, and the Cubs will have to figure out how they want to dole out innings, as there is no longer any potential trade value in showcasing Miley (or fellow free-agent-to-be Drew Smyly). There is clubhouse value in having Miley back, but it’s also possible that he is a guy the Cubs put on waivers later this month to see if a contender wants to grab him (and foot the bill for the remainder of his salary). I wonder if the Cubs would instead prefer to hang onto him (and/or Smyly), with an eye toward re-signing him as inexpensive veteran rotation depth for 2023.
- NFL preseason football is back tonight (already!), and we’ve got a Hall of Fame Game promo code here if you’re into it.
- Stray thing I didn’t get to mention much during the Blogathon because it happened while we were all panicking about the Cubs: Harrison Bader is GONE. From the Cardinals, I mean. He netted them a solid starter in Jordan Montgomery, yes, so I’m not celebrating that part for the Cardinals. I’m just happy to not have to see Bader anymore – he made me irrationally angry, and it was not good for my health.
- Not that the Cubs are running short on relief prospects to keep an eye on, but Jeremiah Estrada’s explosive season continues:
- Oh, that is unfortunate timing, Lou Seal:
- Wrapping with why the Mets are smart-sounding idiots:
