Happy Friday Chicago, and a special Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
I’m going to kick this weekend off by telling my dad that I love how they give us all of these random days off, like Memorial Day, for example.
In all seriousness, think of all of the fallen heroes this weekend.
Also, in all seriousness, think of your brethren going through seasonal allergies right now, who are going to have to fight tooth and nail through the stuffies to enjoy some ice cold ones. Every generation has its own challenges, and God sends his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers.
Last week, I told you that I was hiring a Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for myself (me). This past week, I also put myself on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) for sleep.
This weekend would be a good weekend to catch up on some well-needed rest. It would also be a good weekend to beer-beer-beer-Zyn-beer-beer-beer-Zyn until I pull up my PowerPoint and explain that Drake-Kendrick beef we were talking about to my parents as their heads uncontrollably nod.
At least some beer is in order, as I’m going to need a sedative to get me to sleep knowing the NBA is dumb enough to chase the dollar, leave TNT in the dust, and ruin Inside the NBA for us forever.
A couple months ago, I was watching Inside the NBA — the pregame, halftime, and postgame show with Charles Barkley, Shaq, and Kenny Smith — and actually had the thought about how devastating it would be when the show came to an end.
Now it looks like next season will be the show’s last.
It is, without exaggeration, the only pregame or postgame sports show I find bearable in modern sports television. The only one I don’t mute. And it isn’t just bearable — it’s fantastic. Every. Single. Night.
I think some people get the impression that there are really funny moments in the show from time to time, and those are the ones that get circulated. No. Without fail, every single night, they deliver.
For those unfamiliar, the NBA is about to sign a new TV rights deal, and they’ll be re-upping with ESPN, moving to NBC (who did a good job with the NBA in the 90s, for certain), and moving to a streamer.
Outside of streaming being an infuriating route for fans — not only do we have to pay for the streamer, but we can’t switch between channels during the game — the NBA has decided that the long-term growth and enjoyment of its TV product should take a backseat to the dollar signs on the sheet in front of them right now.
For the past decade-plus, every single thing about TNT’s NBA coverage has been extraordinary, outside of Chris Webber, Reggie Miller and Draymond Green (this past week). Conversely, ESPN changes its Inside the NBA equivalent every single year. It sucks every time.
ESPN has had infighting and drama that has embarrassed its brand, and also the league on the way. Meanwhile, Inside the NBA has dedicated the resources to making a superb NBA broadcast for as long as it has been a partner.
I’m sure Warner Brothers and TNT could have budged more in negotiations, but I’m also sure that if I were running the NBA, they would have built enough equity with me as a partner that I’d extend plenty of olive branches. I could trust TNT to do right by the game of basketball, and the league, for the foreseeable future.
But, nope, Kendrick Perkins yammering away on ESPN about Domatas Sabonis being the next MVP is what we’ll get instead.
Outside of Aikman and Buck on Monday Night Football, I cannot think of a single, significant move that ESPN has made over the last five years that has made its programming more watchable.
(Remember that ESPN got rid of Jeff Van Gundy because he was interested in coaching still, only to hire Doc Rivers, who left three months later to take a head coaching job, and replaced him with J.J. Redick, who now is likely to join his buddy LeBron as the head coach in Los Angeles.)
Here’s yet another lesson for yours truly that money is all that matters. I just personally think the money made from having a watchable product would be the better option long term, even if it is worth $10 million less per year right now.
But we’ve got more to talk about. Eloy Jimenez is hurt again, and now the Cubs can’t hit. Maybe I should sleep instead of writing this. Nay, the show goes on.
Next week: Zach LaVine trade ideas! Set your reminders.
Let’s go.
I cannot wait for Paul Skenes to have Tommy John surgery in two years, make $400 million less than everyone projected him to, and for him to be cut after signing a minor-league agreement with a team in 2034.
It turns out it wasn’t just a Skenes problem, though.
The Cubs have scored 0, 0, 4, 3, 2, 2, and 0 runs over their last seven losses. The injury attrition has finally caught up to them, and wins are no longer being pulled out of their asses.
Watching the bullpen right now is tough for three reasons.
Hector Neris comes in, and you think why? Or Luke Little comes in, J.D. prefaces his outing with the fact that he’s struggled to throw strikes, and then he goes 3-0 on the first batter, and you think how does this guy keep getting thrown out there in high-leverage situations?
Then you realize, well, who else would be a better alternative? You have to shrug your shoulders.
Then, perhaps of most importance, you come to the realization that none of these guys have allowed a run in their past three outings, and that the Cubs bullpen has been great of late, and that they are — for now — not the problem.
Over the last ten days, the Cubs bullpen ERA has been sub-1 and the best in baseball. It’s a small sample size, but still a seismic turn of events, because now they cannot hit.
Two men on, no outs, here comes Mark Leiter Jr. Nails. Strikeout. Strikeout. Strikeout. He has a sub-1 ERA and 1.050 WHIP this year in 20 innings.
Jed Hoyer also did go out and get Tyson Miller from the Mariners, and he has immediately improved the bullpen situation.
I also can’t imagine Kyle Hendricks will be as bad in the bullpen as he was this year as a starter. This may be me holding on too long, but for a guy like him, at this stage of his career, seeing guys three times through the order is probably not his best bet.
But none of it matters right now, because the Cubs — again — can’t hit.
Seiya Suzuki, Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner are all back, but at least thus far, that hasn’t mattered.
Michael Busch, Christopher Morel, Cody Bellinger, Suzuki, Hoerner, Mike Tauchman and Patrick Wisdom are all hitting the ball at an above-league average clip.
But the devil is in the details. Busch, Morel, Suzuki and Hoerner are only doing so by a smidge, and Bellinger, Tauchman and Wisdom are certainly not lighting the world on fire.
Plus, while Tauchman is a fan favorite, and Widsom is a fun Cubs carry over, they aren’t exactly the guys you were planning on relying on in 2024.
It’s hard to criticize Dansby Swanson, I think mostly because he just looks great when he’s out there and plays a mean shortstop. But the facts are that the guy has not been a league-average hitter for almost a year and a half now.
Suzuki had two hits today, but looked absolutely lost earlier in the series. Individual performances, for now, are just not harmonizing with each other.
Floating above .500 has been adequate for the first couple months of the season, but it’s about to be sink-or-swim time, even if the NL Central looks mediocre.
I don’t really understand moving Pete Crow-Armstrong back down to the minors, either, particularly when there are so many guys (like Nick Madrigal) not producing, and also not showing any of the flashes of greatness that PCA has. PCA now has three multi-hit games in a row in Iowa, and homered last night.
The Cubs could sweep the Cardinals this weekend and make all of the above disregard-able. If they don’t, though, it will ruin my family’s weekend.
What’s left of the Jose Quintana-Cease/Jimenez trade is not much. Eloy Jimenez, rounds third, looking to score, SNIPER.
Eloy left with another hamstring injury in Toronto earlier this week, and all I can say as it least the big fella kept his hammy intact on the way to first. He usually doesn’t get that far.
The Sox don’t just have bad players. They have a truly awful organization.
I know that’s not a news flash, but anyone that can outlast the incompetence of that organization deserves immediate Hall of Fame status, at least if they don’t get shipped out of town first.
I recently heard a story about Jim Harbaugh taking over the Stanford job back in the day, and he decided to change everything immediately: pregame music, traditions, anything that was commonplace before he got there. His reasoning? He needed to find out why they were such losers.
That’s what Pedro Grifol should have done, but the problem with Grifol is that he also was hired by the Sox. It’s sort of like the saying that anyone that wants to be president, shouldn’t be president. If you’re hired to coach the White Sox, you’re already a loser.
Chuck Garfien floated out this week that Eloy does not have a routine before games. No warmup, no hip activation, nothing. Now I don’t know that to be true for sure, but I would bet my life on it being true if I only had the options of true/false.
Eloy, once considered a surefire hitting star, has played more than 120 games once — in his rookie season. For him to get hurt this much and for there not to be a story coming into each season looking like “How the White Sox Revamped Eloy Jimenez’s Body” suggests that this is as much on the team as the player.
I would make him take his shirt off in front of the team in Spring Training to do jumping jacks until he got that light-headedness he experienced in July of 2020.
At least the Sox got him on team-friendly deal. That six year-$46 million deal was a steal for Jerry then, and he’s stealing it back now. Good on him.
Instead of a focus on a Nick Nastrini or a Korey Lee, the conversation around the White Sox just disintegrates into a who-I-hate-more contest. Which means at this point, it’s a requirement to mention Andrew Benintendi is the highest contract in White Sox history, and also the worst qualified hitter in Major League Baseball.
In every season Benintendi played up until this point, he had an OPS+ over 100, even if marginally so.
Last year, he had a 88 OPS+. This year? 37.
Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter. I hope you have a wonderful, long weekend with family and friends. Tell them about the newsletter while you’re at it.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend to those who have served! I will be celebrating by kicking my feet up, drinking some John Daily's and trying to stay awake long enough to see my Marlins at the defending NL Penent winner Arizona Diamondbacks (10:10PM first pitch on saturday!).
Currently reading another book on Ulysses Grant and constantly thinking of how great men and women made this country. Where would we be if 20 Million Americans didn't selflessly go fight Hitler and Japan including 4 of your Great Uncles. Get your flags out!
Anyway, the loss of that TNT crew is devastating in my mind and I can't believe they would even consider it! They are the NBA.
That breakdown of Eloy's trips to the disabled list is nothing short of incredible. If it is true that he has no pre-game routine, then better to get rid of him now because it will only get worse.