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A Change Will Do You Good

In a move that was expected after last week’s Kyle Tucker trade, the Cubs have sent Cody Bellinger, along with cash considerations, to the Yankees.  In exchange, they receive Cody Poteet, a 30-year-old relief pitcher with 24 career major league appearances.

Bellinger, a former MVP, is owed $52.5 million over the next two seasons, with the Cubs will be sending $5 million to help cover that cost. He hit .286 with 44 home runs and 175 RBIs in his two seasons on the north side.  When he suits up for the Yankees, he, and his father Clay, will become the fourth father/son duo to play for the team, joining Mark Leiter and Mark Leiter Jr., Ron and Ike Davis, and Yogi and Dale Berra.

This is a salary dump, pure and simple.  What, if anything, the Cubs do with that money will determine if this trade is a winner or a loser.

Bellinger’s numbers in a Cubs uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were: Continue reading →

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FB10: Week 47

Yet another disappointing week as I wrapped up the working portion of 2024.  Sunday got the week off to a decent start, coming just 9 steps shy of 4100.  A trip north for a work holiday party left me with 3800 steps.  A dip on Tuesday left me with just 3300 steps.  My last day of work on Wednesday left me only 10 steps shy of 4000.  My first day off on Thursday had 4100 steps.  Friday was the high point of the week, thanks in part to a trip out for a haircut which left me with 4800 steps.  A dip on Saturday dropped me down to 3700 steps.

Total steps: 27,894

Daily average: 3984.9

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Fifty Years Of Music – 2020

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 2020, the year a global pandemic shut down the world in a way never seen before and that I celebrated my 46th birthday.  Only twelve of these songs remain familiar to me today, with half of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#67: Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You
iTunes stats: 0 plays

Having spent three weeks at #1 to end 2019 and start 2020, it took fourteen years after its initial release to reach the top of the Hot 100.

#24: Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion – WAP
iTunes stats: N/A

The lead single from the rapper’s sophomore effort, this ode to an aroused vagina spent two weeks atop the Hot 100.

 

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Book 58 (of 52) – This Is Why We Lied

This Is Why We Lied – Karin Slaughter

This Is Why We Lied, the twelfth entry in Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series, picks up just after Will and Sara’s wedding, as they arrive in a mountain retreat for their honeymoon.  When the resort manager is killed, the honeymoon gets put on hold so they can investigate.  With everyone on the mountain a suspect, including a man from Will’s past, they try to piece together the timeline leading up to the murder and figure out who the killer is.

Now that I’m caught up on the series after four plus years, another new entry makes it to the top of the to-read pile rather quickly.  Thankfully, Slaughter avoids the crutch of having the villain have some sort of personal connection to the primary players in the investigation, although there was a chance to do so.  I will patiently wait the next entry while continuing to work through her earlier Grant Country series.

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Ballpark Tour: Twins

With the offseason underway, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we head north to the Twin Cities for a look at the Minnesota Twins. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my history with Target Field.

Stadium Name: Target Field

Years in Service: 2010 – Present

Visits: 2

After 28 seasons of indoor baseball at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, the Twins moved back outside starting with the 2010 season when they opened Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. The first regular season game took place on April 12, 2010, with the Twins defeating the Red Sox. In 2014, Target Field hosted the All-Star Game, the first in Minnesota since 1985.

I took the long drive up to Minneapolis in the weeks after that All-Star Game, along with Danny and Michael, to see the White Sox take on the Twins. We picked two good games to see, as the White Sox offense came to life and they managed to win both games we attended against the Twinkies. We sat down on the first level, between home plate and third base behind the White Sox dugout for both games, so I didn’t get to sample the different areas of the ballpark, but I certainly liked what I saw. The one thing I didn’t like about the park was the configuration of most of the outfield. Between the large hitting background in center field and the high walls in left and right, there is a lot of dead space in the outfield that seems to put the fans far away from the action. Besides that, though, a good time was had by all, and I certainly wouldn’t mind returning one day.

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Making A Move

Looking to make a splash of their own, the Cubs acquired outfielder Kyle Tucker from the Astros in exchange for Isaac Paredes, Hayden Wesneski, and Cam Smith.  Tucker, 27, is a three-time All-Star and has averaged over 5 WAR over the past four seasons.  He is in his final year of arbitration and will become a free agent after the season.

The price for this single season of Tucker is fairly steep.  Paredes, reacquired by the Cubs at the trade deadline last summer, was penciled in as the starting third baseman and was under cheap team control through 2027.  Wesneski split time between the bullpen and the rotation last year and was a useful piece.  Smith was the team’s 2024 first round draft choice and is the 73rd ranked prospect in baseball.

Given Tucker’s contract situation, this looks like a win-now move for a team that has been mired in mediocracy since tearing down the remnants of their championship roster in 2021.  The next steps would seem to be moving on from Cody Bellinger to free up salary.  What happens after that is anyone’s guess at this point.

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Here We Go Again

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.  In order to jumpstart their latest rebuilding effort, the White Sox have traded their stud left-handed starter to the Red Sox for four prospects.  Hopefully the end result will be different from the Chris Sale deal back in 2016.  This time around, Garrett Crochet is heading east, while the White Sox will receive catcher Kyle Teel, outfielder Braden Montgomery, infielder Chase Meidroth, and right-hander Wikelman Gonzalez.

Crochet was the 11th overall selection by the White Sox in the 2020 draft.  Thanks to the pandemic, he didn’t spend any time in the minor leagues before making his major league debut on September 18, throwing a scoreless inning with two strikeouts against the Reds.  Crochet worked out of the bullpen for the remainder of the year, giving up just three hits without allowing a run to score in five appearances as the White Sox made the post-season for the first time since 2008.  He made a single appearance in the Wild Card round against the A’s, striking out the two batters he faced.

Crochet returned to the bullpen in 2021, going 3-5 with a 2.82 ERA.  He appeared in three of the four games in the ALDS against the Astros, giving up five hits in just two and a third innings without surrendering a run.  An elbow injury and Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2022 season, and he returned to the big leagues in 2023, making thirteen appearances with a 3.55 ERA.

Last year, following the Dylan Cease trade, Crochet moved to the starting rotation full time and was named the opening day starter.  Coming off the injury and having totaled 73 total career innings, he was restricted to save his arm.  After notching his first All-Star, he struggled a little in the second half, finishing the season with 32 starts and a 6-2 record, posting a 3.58 ERA.

Teel, ranked as the #25 prospect in all of baseball, is the centerpiece of the deal.  A 22-year-old left-handed hitter, he was the first round draft choice of the Red Sox in 2023.  He split 2024 between Double A and Triple A and is expected to be ready to reach the major leagues next year.  Montgomery, a 21-year-old switch hitter, is ranked as the #54 prospect and was the top pick for the Red Sox in this summer’s draft.  Meidroth, a 23-year-old right hander, spent last season in Triple A, showing good plate discipline with little pop.  Gonzalez, 22, posted a 4.73 ERA in Double A last season, working mostly as a starter.

Will this deal work out better for the White Sox than the Sale trade did eight years ago?  Only time will tell, as the south siders look to bounce back from the worst season in baseball history.

Crochet’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were: Continue reading →

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FB10: Week 46

Another disappointing week as I returned to work after the Thanksgiving holiday.  Sunday turned out to be my best day of the week, finishing 26 steps away from 4800.  Monday dropped a bit, falling 25 steps shy of 4200.  Another dip on Tuesday left me just 8 steps short of 4000.  Things continued to go south on Wednesday, as I needed 22 additional steps just to get to 3000.  Thursday was the worst day of the week, with only 1700 steps.  A rebound on Friday, thanks in part to a trip out for lunch with some fallen work compatriots, left me with 3700 steps.  Another small improvement on Saturday pushed me up to 3800 steps.

Total steps: 25,358

Daily average: 3622.6

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The Hall Calls

Sunday night, the results of the Classic Baseball Era Veteran’s Committee vote was revealed, adding two players to the Hall of Fame class of 2025: Dick Allen and Dave Parker.  Parker was named on fourteen ballots from the 16-person committee, while Allen nabbed thirteen votes, the one more than the minimum needed for election.

Allen spent three of his fifteen big league seasons with the White Sox, earning the MVP award in 1972.  He was the Rookie of the Year in 1964 with the Phillies and also spent time with the Cardinals, Dodgers, and A’s.  He hit 20 or more home runs in nine consecutive seasons and finished his career with 351 homers, 1,119 RBI and a .292 career batting average.  Unfortunately, Allen passed away in December of 2020.

Parker, 73, was a seven-time All-Star in his 19-year career, hitting 339 home runs and posting a lifetime .290 batting average.  He won back-to-back batting titles with the Pirates in 1977 and 1978, winning the NL MVP award in ’78.  He earned All-Star MVP honors in 1979 while leading the Pirates to their last World Series championship.  After leaving the Pirates, he bounced around to the Reds, A’s, Brewers, Angels and Blue Jays, winning a second title with the A’s in 1989.

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Fifty Years Of Music – 2019

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 2019, the year I celebrated my 45th birthday.  Only four of these songs are familiar to me today, with just half of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#75: Pinkfong – Baby Shark
iTunes stats: N/A

The most-viewed YouTube video of all time, it peaked at #32 on the Hot 100.

#43: Taylor Swift featuring Brendan Urie – Me!
iTunes stats: 8 plays

The lead track from Swift’s seventh studio album, it jumped 98 spots in a single week, from #100 to #2, the largest such rise in Hot 100 history.

#39: Taylor Swift – You Need to Calm Down
iTunes stats: 9 plays

Debuting at, and peaking at, #2, it tied Swift with Madonna for the most #2 hits in Hot 100 history.

#1: Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus – Old Town Road
iTunes stats: N/A

Spending 19 weeks at #1, it is the longest run atop the Hot 100 in chart history, surpassing the previous record by three weeks.