NEWSLETTER
The American League Championship Series is decided, with the New York Yankees beating the Cleveland Guardians in 10 innings last night, and winning the series 4-1. The games, individually, were extremely competitive and exciting, even if the series wound up kind of a blowout. Last night’s finale was no exception, with the game going into extras …
- The Yankees have a number of stars, so it was likely that whoever played hero was plausibly going to be one of the stars anyway, but yeah, Juan Soto certainly stepped up in the biggest moment and did what stars are supposed to do:
- A breakdown of just how impressive the at bat was, even before the homer:
- The story everyone will want to tell about that moment is that it was when (1) Juan Soto locked up a record contract in free agency, and (2) Juan Soto guaranteed the Yankees would be the team to give it to him. I don’t know that either of those things is ACTUALLY true, but I understand the appeal of the tale in the moment. We kinda love stuff like that.
- … well, I should say, we as baseball fans, not so much as Cubs fans. The latter halves of ourselves doesn’t love it because we know that all we’re watching is another generational superstar who would MAKE SO MUCH SENSE on the Cubs, but whom they absolutely will not seriously pursue. So, great moment for Soto, great moment for the Yankees, and great moment for baseball fans in general. But also a reminder for Cubs fans: oh hey I bet it’s really cool to have a guy like that. *kicks rocks* *breaks toe*
- Although it was Soto who played game-winning hero, it was Giancarlo Stanton who hit ANOTHER homer earlier in the game to tie things up, and secure his ALCS MVP honors:
- As for the rest of the Yankees, it’s great to see Anthony Rizzo get another visit to the World Series:
- The full highlights from the game:
- Cubs utility prospect Ben Cowles, whom the Cubs acquired from the Yankees in the Mark Leiter Jr. trade, walked three times in his AFL game yesterday. Although the broken wrist pre-trade in July was expected to end his year, Cowles recovered quickly enough to return at the very end of the year and then make up some time in the AFL.
- That’s good news for all the obvious reasons, but it does have the potential to add a slight complication to the offseason for the Cubs: because Cowles is Rule 5 eligible, the Cubs will have to decide whether there’s ANY chance a team could try to pop him in the draft and make him their 26th man to open the 2025 season. It seems very unlikely – and would’ve probably been zero chance if he’d not returned from the IL before the offseason – but the 24-year-old can play all over the infield, has good speed, and did look like he was breaking out offensively at Double-A with the Yankees. If there’s a remote chance of losing him, the Cubs may elect to protect Cowles by placing him on the 40-man roster in November, at which point he would represent a direct competitor to Miles Mastrobuoni and Luis Vazquez for that up-down infield utility role. (My guess is the Cubs would prefer not to have to protect Cowles if they can get away with risking it.)
- Diamond/Bally/FanDuel is now saying they want to keep at least the Braves AND Marlins rights:
- Meanwhile, more locally, CHSN is still having trouble getting full carriage:
- This stuff is just going to get harder and harder as cord cutting continues, as teams try to balance getting games in front of fans however possible against accepting drops in carriage fees, and as teams try to stand up their own direct-to-consumer streaming services (that, again, make their channel less valuable to the cable providers they’re negotiating with in the first place).
- Random love for Dexter Fowler:
