Well I've just read in Articles that everyone goes through waivers now, so not sure if this is too significant.

Exactly. So the fact we put Lindor on waivers tells you (as Chernoff said) that it's meaningless.

Then again if Lindor gets through and the Angels want to offer us Andrelton Simmons and Mike Trout...??

I'll put this article here - HOWEVER Jim Thome is mentioned at the end!

One question, six O’s answers: Who in your career best exemplifies the label, “Teammate?”


By Dan Connolly Aug 8, 2018 20
When​ Jim Thome,​ who finished​ his splendid career in​ Baltimore, gave his​ Hall of Fame​ induction​ speech in​ Cooperstown, N.Y.,​​ late last month, he talked about how important it was to him to be considered a good teammate.

Interesting, because his name came up on multiple occasions when I asked current Orioles about their best teammates over the years.

It was one of several questions that I posed to various Orioles in the past month or so — questions that go beyond today’s game or last week’s happenings.

I’ll periodically share those questions and responses in a piece we’re calling, “One question, six O’s answers.” I had a blast doing this. And the players were more than willing to participate. These aren’t goofy questions like, “If you were a tree, what tree would you be?”

These are queries that I felt like would help me and the readers get to know a little but more about the game and the players in it, and there will be more of them as this year progresses.

Here is the first installment:

Which player in your career best exemplifies the word “teammate?”

Tim Beckham
“There are a few guys. I played with Chris Archer (now a Pittsburgh Pirate) for a long time. He was an awesome teammate. He was a leader to that pitching staff over there in Tampa. I also played with Rickie Weeks for a short period of time. And even though he didn’t get a lot of playing time in Tampa, he was a great leader in the clubhouse, kept the team together. He was motivated to play every day. And then (in Baltimore) you’ve got Adam Jones, who is a very influential human being and who gets so much respect around the game.”

Alex Cobb
“There are a lot of good ones that come to mind. I’ll say Johnny Damon. I only spent a little bit of time with him, with him being at the end of his career when he was with me at the Rays. The time and attention he showed to everybody, including myself as a younger guy, was tremendous. A guy who had pretty much accomplished everything there was to accomplish in the game was taking time to hang out with me. He was one of those guys I really enjoyed watching growing up when he was with the Red Sox, so to see him treat everyone well, from staff to the 40th guy on the roster to the bat boys, everybody, and treat them with the class he did, it shows what the epitome of being a good teammate is and looks like. No matter what you do in this game you never get too big to take time for others and be a good, decent person to everybody you run into.”

Chris Davis
“Craig Gentry. He and I played together since we were drafted in 2006. He’s my best friend, so, to me, that’s an easy answer. He’s a guy that’s always there no matter what you need. Doesn’t matter who you are or how much time you have or don’t have. He is always available and he’s a guy that I really try to model my behavior after.”

Adam Jones
“I’ve had some really good teammates. One guy? It would be (Nick) Markakis for me. First of all, I played with him the longest. He always said the right things when they needed to be said. He didn’t say much, but whenever he did, people listened. And he played the game the right way. We’re plumbers, we show up every day for work, good, bad and the ugly and we live with the results each day. And the way he approached this game, and still approaches the game, is something that not just myself, but a lot of people in this clubhouse, have modeled themselves after.”

Trey Mancini
“Austin Wynns. We got drafted together, roommates all through the minors. Coming up in the minors, he was, I don’t want to say always the backup guy, but he was a senior sign and every team we were on in the minors, our whole team was super close-knit, and I think he was a big reason for that. Especially as a catcher, you’re the ipso facto leader. You have so many responsibilities. And all he wants to do is win. If we were in Delmarva, Aberdeen, no matter where we were, that’s all he cared about, whether he was playing or not. And he wants the best for his teammates, too.”

Mark Trumbo
“I’d say Paul Goldschmidt (Arizona Diamondbacks). There are (other guys) that are every bit as important (to teammates). But I think as far as an absolute superstar caliber player that is as humble as they come and legitimately cares and wants to make everyone around him better, I think Goldy is probably the guy I’d point to.”

Bonus answer: Former Oriole Darren O’Day

“One of my favorite teammates I ever had, and this is a shot in the dark, was Matt Trainor. He was a catcher for the Rangers when we went to the World Series. Anybody you talk to that played with him is just like, ‘Dude, he was just my favorite teammate ever.’ He was just the best. He’s the kind of guy that would do anything for the team. He was completely unselfish, and he had a habit of kind of picking guys up even when he was dealing with his own issues, just making your issues bigger than his. He was great. (In Baltimore), it’s Jim Thome. He’s a living legend. He is the nicest person you’ll ever meet. Jim is a good pick because he didn’t care if you were a rookie, he would sit there and talk to you all day, ask where you’re from, how’s your family. He’d spend 12 hours a day getting ready for one pinch-hit at-bat. Was just an exceptional example of what it takes to be competitive for a long time and to stay humble throughout the process.”

Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post reports that in addition to Daniel Murphy, Bryce Harper and Matt Adams were claimed on revocable waivers.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported Monday night that Murphy was claimed. We don't know the identity of the claiming team just yet, but given where the Nationals are in the standings, a trade can't be ruled out. As for Harper and Adams, essentially every player is placed on revocable waivers in August, so it ultimately doesn't mean much that they were claimed. Both players could have been claimed by teams who don't have a legitimate intention to make a deal, and the Nationals can always simply pull them back. Per Castillo, the Nationals have also placed Mark Reynolds, Gio Gonzalez, and Matt Wieters on revocable waivers.

A great illustration of the craziness of the waiver process in August.

It's a reminder that a team can claim someone JUST so that another team can't claim the guy. That causes the posting team to just revoke the waiver on the guy and they just keep him.

That said, if someone claimed Bryce Harper the Nats could just let him go (American league team for example?) and save on a boatload of needless salary at this point.

Wouldn't surprise me if the other guys (Matt Adams, Daniel Murphy) are let go in that way. Shoot I'd take Daniel Murphy any day and find some way to get that bat in the lineup!

I herd someone on TV say that Murphy might be claimed by the Yankees.

Murphy to Cubs

Giants have placed McCutcheon and Dyson on waivers, and Indians are said to be interested in both. But again, I wouldn't get too excited. No give in that they would make it through all the NL contenders to make it to us. NL teams get first crack at waived NL players. Then AL. Indians have top waiver wire spot among all AL contenders so if they do happen to get through the NL we would have a good shot then.

But Dyson is under control for 2 more years after this one so heck, he may get a team claiming him that wouldn't even expect with an eye to next year.

Interesting article (to me) about a pitcher and their mechanics.


Why Cole Hamels’ Cubs turnaround is more than just a change of scenery
Sahadev Sharma Aug 27, 2018 22

Since​ making his​ first start​ for the Cubs on​ Aug. 1, Cole​ Hamels has been​ a revelation.

On​ one hand,​ he has​​ proven team president Theo Epstein correct that the adrenaline rush that comes with joining a team in the midst of a pennant race is rejuvenating. Hamels had a 10.23 ERA in his five starts with Texas before the trade.

Back then, the realistic outlook was that Hamels could be competent for the Cubs, eat some innings and provide a veteran mid-rotation performance. But, he’s been so much more. In his first five starts with the Cubs, Hamels has tossed 34 innings and posted an 0.79 ERA. He’s struck out 23.8 percent of the batters he’s faced while walking just 6.4 percent, and his groundball rate has jumped to 54.2 percent.

Hamels knows there’s much more to his improvement than just a change of scenery.

Early in the season, Hamels noticed his velocity was down. In April, he was averaging 91.6 mph on his four-seamer, lower than any month since 2011. Despite being 34, Hamels had no doubt his arm still had more in it. His body felt as good as ever and he was in top shape.

“I know I’m not going to be throwing 96-97, but I still know I’m still capable of being a 93-95 guy,” Hamels told me. “I know that and physically I felt as strong as I’ve been, there should be the results when I have that sort of recognition of the strength I have. I’m not where I feel more tired or just doesn’t feel the same. But I do understand as the years go on and the innings keep going up, you’re going to lose a tick here and there.”

Something had to change. With the help of Texas Rangers pitching coach Doug Brocail and assistant pitching coach Dan Warthen, Hamels began looking for ways to get his velocity back. It was the first step in a months-long process. Brocail competed against Hamels at the end of his own career and watched the lefty emerge as the ace of the Philadelphia Phillies staff. Warthen became familiar with Hamels as the pitching coach for the New York Mets, a division rival of the Phillies, from 2008 to 2017.

“They’ve seen my whole career,” Hamels said. “They noticed. It was just a matter of trying to process it. Then we started to get the video department with slow-motion cameras and that was something we were trying to implement. It’s just very difficult to do. When you’re able to finally watch it, then stuff starts to kind of stick a little bit better.

“A lot of the stuff that we noticed was that I wasn’t really engaging — my bottom half and top half weren’t syncing together. Just the drive that I was using, I was striding out too far and I was striding too open. By the time my top half needed to be utilized, the bottom half was already done. So it wasn’t working together.”

Hamels said to try and “re-engage the sequencing” of his mechanics, he shortened his stride and also started a more crossfire delivery. That helped get his velocity back, but there were still issues with commanding his pitches and getting the results he wanted.

“In doing that, that allowed my top half to really kind of be more in sync with the way that my hips and core were starting to fire,” Hamels said. “And then I was starting to do that, but I was starting to crossfire. So when I was crossfiring, I was starting to become more side to side. So my fastball, yeah, the velo finally started to go up, but now the fastball was being pulled.”


Would Cole Hamels have turned things around had he stayed with the Rangers? It’s very possible. (Jay Biggerstaff/USA TODAY Sports)
By May, Hamels was averaging 92.8 mph on his fastball. In July, he was sitting an easy 93. But still, the results weren’t there. Hamels’ four-seamer was getting crushed and in July, the height of his mechanical issues, opponents hit .579 off his four-seamer with a .947 slugging percentage.

But Hamels was undeterred. He realized he was closer to figuring it out than he was a month prior and refused to stray from his path.

“Then it was, OK, now try to get the shoulders to start to fire more up and down,” Hamels said. “It was kind of a combination. It takes a little bit of time and a lot of work to finally get it to be in sync. That’s where I started to get to that last start I had with the Rangers. Stuff started to kind of happen a little bit. I was still pulling, but I was starting to get more up and down with the shoulders. Then all of a sudden I got traded, it became a little bit easier.”

That would be an understatement. Since joining the Cubs, opponents are hitting .286 off his four-seamer with zero extra-base hits. In Texas, Hamels had success with his cutter and slider, but he was never very happy with the results. He relied on his lesser pitches to get through games, unable to use what he knew was his best stuff to really dominate opposing hitters.

“The hardest part is you want to get results, I want to see results,” Hamels said. “Well, if you don’t see results right away, you then go back to what was kind of working. I was starting to kind of throw more breaking stuff, more movement stuff because I was in bad situations and needed groundballs to get out of innings. It wasn’t working, but that’s what I thought would get me out of games and get me the type of results I needed, instead of just sticking to what I knew and it would eventually work.

“That, ultimately, is getting back to the four-seam fastball, getting back to the changeup, throwing in my curveball and occasionally putting in my cutter and two-seamer. That’s kind of what I did, I went with my fourth- and fifth-best pitch to get out of jams. Probably not going to work as well. So I go back to my No. 1 and No. 2 and it simplified the whole fact of this is why I’m in the big leagues, this is why I had early success and this is what will get me through the tough times. It’s just kind of having faith in those quality pitches.”

Hamels has used his four-seamer 40.2 percent of the time in August, his highest usage for a month since May 2014. His changeup usage isn’t particularly high or low (15.1 percent), but the results are there. He’s getting a 58.5 percent whiff/swing rate, a number he’s topped in a full month only twice previously in his career. And if hitters are not swinging and missing at the pitch, when they actually put it in play, it’s going on the ground at an 81.2 percent rate, a rate he’s bested just one other month in his career.

Doubters could point to the fact that Hamels struggled in 2017 as well. After sitting in the 23 percent range with his strikeout rate for much of his career and posting a swinging-strike rate between 12 and 13 percent, Hamels’ strikeout rate dipped to 17.1 percent and his swinging-strike rate was just 9.7 percent last season. But the veteran lefty says it all stemmed from one issue.

“It started because I tweaked my oblique [in May 2017],” Hamels said. “In rushing back with an oblique injury, I probably disengaged using my top half and I think everything stemmed from my mechanical flaws because of my oblique. It’s kind of an unfortunate thing. I’m competitive, I want to be out there, I’m always trying to chase down innings. And just kind of recognizing that I started something because I rushed. When you have injuries, you don’t want to make them reoccur, so you’ll do everything you can to not feel that pain. So all the video I’ve watched from there, really shows that it probably hurt me in a way.”


Cole Hamels imparts some pitching grip wisdom on teammate Steve Cishek. (Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports)
Is Hamels’ Cubs success sustainable? Expecting a sub-1.00 ERA and no home runs allowed the rest of the way is probably unrealistic, but being the anchor of a playoff rotation might be in his near future.

“I’ve caught myself [in bad mechanics] a little bit here, but it’s one or two out of 10 [pitches] as opposed to eight out of 10,” Hamels said. “That’s kind of been what started happening. Now my stride is the right way, my hips are starting to fire the right way and my shoulders are starting to fire up and down more. I’m starting to get more of the late life and the ball that kind of just comes out as opposed to pulls.”

And when he finds himself in those bad mechanics again, Hamels has the ability to quickly adjust.

“I can see it and I can feel it,” Hamels said. “It’s more, ‘Oh, yup, that’s kind of what happened. OK, don’t do that again.’ That’s the whole thing. If I make one mistake, I prefer not to make two or three in a row. I need to correct it on the fly. I can feel, I’m more of a feel guy, I can feel a mechanical flaw. But it’s just kind of convincing yourself that you can go back and get the result you’re looking for with that trust. I think sometimes as pitchers we’re so competitive that we forget the trust factor and we go to the visual of what we’re seeing a hitter do and how we need to get him out.”

That was part of the overthinking Hamels was doing early in 2018. He was going to his lesser pitches to try and get out of bad situations rather than making the changes necessary to utilize his best stuff. By the time he’d fully figured it out, he was traded.

The Cubs can be thankful that their timing was perfect and that they acquired a pitcher who trusted his stuff and diligently worked to find it once again. The fact that he put in the time and energy to get back to the top of the game could change the way this season, and this October, plays out for the Cubs.

Let's hope some of the Indians pitchers who are scuffling to find what they once had, can figure it out before Oct.

Well, "The Hawk" did play for the Tribe....

On Hawk Harrelson’s last day as the voice of the White Sox, what else can you say but, ‘He gone.’


By Jon Greenberg Sep 23, 2018 63

The​ man with​ the biggest​ ego the South Side​ has ever seen​ graced Guaranteed Rate​ Field​ on Sunday​ afternoon.

No, not​​ Ken “Hawk” Harrelson. I’m actually talking about Kanye West — no relation to Joe — who threw out a first pitch as “Homecoming” played for the crowd.

While West gave the crowd a jolt, the day was really about Harrelson’s last broadcast as the TV voice for the team that adopted him, the team that grew to define the beak-nosed broadcaster from Savannah, Georgia by way of Fenway Park and the 18th green of every golf course in America.

While Harrelson allowed that there’s a chance he could fill in for Jason Benetti sometime down the road, Sunday marked the end of a very long goodbye tour for the man who has personified White Sox baseball for decades. Hawk said it just kind of hit him that Sunday was the final broadcast. We’ve known this day was coming for years, it seems like, and just this season, he “wrote” another book and participated in another “documentary.” I use air quotes because no one is truly judging Hawk as his time draws to a close, we’re just celebrating him. That’s fine. Impartiality was never his thing. It was fun to watch ex-players like A.J. Pierzynski and Paul Konerko call games with him, for the franchise to venerate him in every way possible. Memory lane is an easier drive these days than the Indiana Toll Road for Hawk.

Some White Sox fans are glad Harrelson is done. Others are wistful. But all should pay some respect to his career.

Even if you hate the Hawk, his verbiage has become our vocabulary in Chicago, beyond the confines of just White Sox fans.

When someone has a no-hitter going, you are required to tweet or say, “Call your sons, call your daughters…”.

Mercy, can of corn, Kansas City Special, stretch, he gone, you can put on the boaarrdddddd, yessssss! You gotta be bleeping me! What are you doing, Wegner? TWTW. Yaz.

I’m not going to pander and say Harrelson belongs in the broadcast wing of the Hall of Fame, but how many modern announcers have influenced the way we talk about baseball, even if it’s just silly non-sequiturs? It’s fine to talk about analytics and educate the fans or just play it straight. But it’s another thing to create a lingua franca for us to communicate with each other. Hawk had that gift, dadgummit.


White Sox broadcaster Ken “The Hawk” Harrelson acknowledges the crowd during the sixth inning on Hawk Day as he was honored by the White Sox before the Sept. 2 game between the White Sox and the Boston Red Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. (David Banks/Getty Images)
“I get other players who text me a lot of times, and they’ll use some of those catchphrases when something’s going on,” Harrelson said. “A couple of them when they hit home runs, when they get back in their room they’ll text me, ‘You can put it on the booooooard, yes!’ So it is flattering, there’s no doubt about that.”

It’s probably time for Hawk to hang ‘em up. Maybe past time. But he will be missed like few others. I like Benetti, but “Sox Math” just doesn’t have the panache of a good yarn about the 1967 Red Sox. Steve Stone can teach the game, but he doesn’t live and breathe White Sox baseball.

Hawk — or Ken Harrelson, I suppose — talked to reporters for about 13 minutes before Sunday’s game. Wearing a pink golf shirt and white loafers, Hawk touched on a few topics from the mundane to the weird. He praised Jerry Reinsdorf, he talked about his undiagnosed personality disorder (Hawk and Ken), he mentioned his drink of choice. He didn’t mention his spirit animal Carl Yastrzemski, but he did talk about Mark Buehrle’s perfect game, that moment in time where all was right in his world.

One reporter asked him if he wanted a statue at the park — and why hasn’t that happened yet? — and Hawk responded by giving us a hitting lesson that Ted Williams gave to him in 1967 and reminding us how he was a trend-setter.

“George Brett was not the first guy to get hemorrhoids,” he said. “I was. When I got hemorrhoids, I was leading the league in hitting, I was one behind Frank Howard in home runs, and I did end up leading the major leagues in RBIs that year.”

I asked him if he regretted his decision to retire at any point of this truncated final season.

“No, let’s reframe that,” he said. “Last week was the first time it popped into my mind. I told my wife, I said honey this retirement issue might be overrated. All I’ve been doing is watching ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ and turning a lot of Smirnoff into urine.”

I didn’t have a follow-up.

Reporters always enjoyed a friendly relationship with Hawk — well, except that one guy — who was always good for a story and a “Hey there big guy.” We enjoyed his personality and his never-ending optimism for the White Sox. We all have our Hawk impersonations.

One year he’s excited about Brett Lawrie and Todd Frazier, the next he’s thrilled the team is finally rebuilding. Before the game, Hawk said, “Right now, the only thing I want to do is take this game and kick the Cubs’ ass.” So it was fitting the Cubs did the ass-kicking, given the way the Sox have continually let him down over the years.

In fact, as Harrelson was getting some city council resolution in the second inning, Kyle Schwarber hit a 444-foot homer. He gone, indeed.

It would have been fitting for Hawk to sit in silence all game. Only Hawk, by the way, could make angry silence a calling card.

Hawk sounded kind of downcast late in his penultimate broadcast Saturday. It had something to do with the White Sox not being able to catch, I imagine, mixed in with the emotions he felt about retiring. It was kind of depressing to remember he’s made friends with Joe West. When Tim Anderson went off on West and got tossed, the old Hawk would’ve flipped his shit. This Hawk, the one who’s golf buddies with the country-singing umpire, reiterated his two rules for clean living: catch the ball and don’t mess with Joe West. He even blamed Anderson for arguing a play that was already adjudicated in review.

Harrelson will continue to have some kind of ambassadorial role with the White Sox in future years so he can continue on his quixotic quest to “have been in professional baseball for parts of eight decades.”

“Not many guys get to do that,” he reminded us.

Not many would think of that, either. But Hawk and Ken Harrelson do.

Harrelson has had many interests over his colorful life — golf; fashion; golf fashion; ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ reruns — but baseball defined him. He is a lucky man to have lived this life for as long as he did.

Harrelson used to say he wanted to die in the booth and again Sunday, he gave us an impression of what that would sound like. Fortunately for his family, he out-lasted Konerko’s run with the White Sox and so Ken Harrelson, at least, will live on.

“Hawk’s gone,” he said. “In fact that’s what I want on my grave, I told you that. I want to be known as, ‘Here lies a man who adored his family, here lies a man who adored his White Sox, and he gone.’ So that’ll be that.”

(Top photo: Jon Greenberg/The Athletic)

I think Kevin Cash, Tito student, deserves AL MOY. He's done a great job with a underwhelming team and his "opener" strategy is novel and successful and he's developed a young pitcher into the apparent Cy Young winner.

I'm not the only one: This is from August 22 and the Rays have

Bob Melvin of the A's will probably win the American League Manager of the Year Award. If Melvin doesn't win it, then the Red Sox's Alex Cora will. They have both done terrific jobs this season, Melvin with the lowest payroll in the league and Cora with the highest. Neither one has been the best manager in the AL over the first five months of this season. That honor goes to Kevin Cash of the Rays.

I was at Tropicana Field on Opening Day to watch Chris Sale pitch against Tampa Bay. Sale one-hit the Rays for six innings, then watched as the Red Sox's bullpen, Joe Kelly in particular, blew up Sale's fine, crackling work. Denard Span got the big hit, a bases-clearing triple to cap a six-run eighth inning. Even with that, I thought the Rays would be lucky to win 65 games.

Now the Rays have won 65 games and are four games over .500 going into Wednesday night's game. They have been as much of a surprise, in their own way, because of everything that has happened to their roster since that Opening Day, as Melvin's A's. And any conversation about what they've done and are doing starts with the manager.

Erik Neander, the team's young general manager, wanted nothing to do with comparing his guy to anybody else's guy. But once he started talking about his guy, it was hard to stop him.
• Overall, they now rank fourth in the AL with a 3.74 ERA. The only teams ahead of them are the Astros, Red Sox and Yankees. The Rays' relievers have now thrown 613 innings this season; the next closest team is the Padres at 490 2/3.

• Because they've been in the forefront of "The Opener" movement, they have seen their starters pitch three innings or fewer 49 times this season, and two innings 40 or fewer times. Nothing comparable to this has ever happened before in baseball. Or even close.

And only four players have been on the club's active roster all season: Romo, C.J. Cron, Mallex Smith and Jesus Sucre. This isn't a baseball team. It's a science experiment. And Cash continues to make it work.

I asked Neander about the whole concept of "The Opener" and he laughed out loud.

"First of all," he said, "it's complicated as hell."

Neander said: "Actually, we had various conversations with our research staff over the winter. And the basic thought, 'Let's find the best way to organize a whole lot of young pitchers.' Then we had some injuries. So there was a commitment that we ought to try it. We knew we weren't going to be a 90-win team. But no one wanted to just take a year off our calendar. Starting with our manager."

Cash made it work. He has made a lot of things work with a team that might end up winning 85 games or more. [they are now at 88] In the season that's been played so far, he's deserving of the AL Manager of the Year Award.


"Put it this way," Neander said. "We like [Cash] quite a bit."

Then, Neander was talking about the fact that Cash had no managing experience when they hired him to replace Joe Maddon in 2015.

"But the attributes we were looking for were right there with Kevin," Neander said. "He checked so many boxes. Able to relate. Great communication skills. Had played in the big leagues as a backup catcher. And he had managed to gain the respect of established major league stars like David Ortiz as a backup catcher. We thought that if you have the ability to get people like that to relate to you, you can manage a clubhouse, even with a lot more authority than you were ever going to have as a backup catcher.

"I'll tell you something else that played into our thinking: We asked ourselves who was going to be the best guy for us three years down the road. When we looked at it that way, the answer was very clearly him. The best way I can describe him is that he is authentic. ... And he has zero fear about messing up or making the wrong decision."

You want to know why Cash has done the best managing job in the sport going into the last week of August? As the great Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Mr. Vin Scully used to say: Pull up a seat.

• The Rays have used 20 rookies this season. Club record, third most in the big leagues after the Angels and the Marlins. Tampa Bay's rookies have combined for 527 games, more than anybody. The Rays' rookie pitchers have combined for 424 1/3 innings, most in the AL.

• Since the Rays started Spring Training, they have traded away a dozen veteran players: Jake Odorizzi, Corey Dickerson, Steven Souza Jr., Alex Colome, Denard Span, Brad Miller, Nathan Eovaldi, Matt Andriese, Jonny Venters, Wilson Ramos, Chris Archer and Adeiny Hechavarria.

• The Rays have used 16 starting pitchers, most in the Majors and a new club record. Sixteen starters, if you're keeping score at home, are more than the Tampa Bay's total from the three previous seasons combined. They have used 31 pitchers in all this season.

• And, of course, they have brought the concept of "The Opener" -- starting relievers, including closer Sergio Romo -- to Major League Baseball. Since they began doing that in May, the Rays rank second in the league with a 3.39 ERA. Before that, their 4.43 ERA was ranked ninth.

The best way I can describe him is that he is authentic. ... And he has zero fear about messing up or making the wrong decision."


Sounds like Tito to me.

After five hours and 164 games, the Cubs had a lot of love and not enough runs


By Jon Greenberg 7h ago 51
If​ you’re here​ for fire​ and brimstone after the​ Cubs’ season ended​ with a 2-1, 13-inning​ loss​ to Colorado​ in the​​ wild-card game, well, you’ve come to the wrong place.

I’ve written that story before. Like after Monday’s loss to Milwaukee that got the Cubs here. I’ll write it again in the coming days, while the Rockies play the Brewers in the NLDS.

The Cubs losing a game in 2018 because they only scored one run is a dog-bites-man story. This was the 40th game of their season where they scored one run or fewer. That kind of collective failure is going to cost someone or someones their job, regardless of the franchise making the playoffs for the fourth straight year. Ninety-five wins in the regular season is a fantastic accomplishment. One run in a one-game postseason is not.

But we have time for that later. The hours and days we figured we’d be writing about playoff series have to be filled by something, right? The Cubs have a long offseason in front of them.

It’s 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday as I sit down at my laptop and I want to write about hugs.

Yes, hugs.

The first hug came in the 11th inning. Remember that inning? Javy Báez was forced out between second and third and he and Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado wound up hugging.

It was a funny moment in an otherwise tense game. It was a Javy moment. He’s an MVP candidate now, but like a cool town that becomes popular, I hope he stays weird.


Javy Báez hugs Nolan Arenado in the 11th inning of a 13-inning wild card game on Oct. 2-3 at Wrigley Field. The Rockies won 2-1 to advance to the NLDS. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
The rest of the hugs came after it was all over. After a five-hour game ended a 164-game season. After Báez’s season-saving RBI double in the eighth inning was for naught. After Jon Lester’s nails start and Kyle Hendricks getting the loss in relief.

When we walked into the losing clubhouse, the Theo Epstein-designed room that was meant to foster inclusivity and unity, everyone was hugging. It was impossible to miss.

No one was angry. There was sadness and resignation, sure, but no one was sullen or pissy. There was love in the air.

I know, I know. It’s not what a Cubs fan wants to read about after a season like this one ended like it did. It wasn’t a great year, despite the 95 wins. The Cubs were frustrating to watch. They never clicked. The season, wracked by injuries, was a slog. If Epstein made big changes across the board starting this week, I wouldn’t be surprised.

But again, you couldn’t miss the hugs in that clubhouse. I’d be remiss if I didn’t write a little about that scene.

The relief pitchers were hugging. Former Cubs like Ryan Dempster and David Ross were hugging current players like Tommy La Stella and Jason Heyward. Albert Almora Jr. was hugging Tom “Otis” Hellman, the longtime clubhouse manager. Kyle Schwarber was hugging Ian Happ. Anthony Rizzo was even hugging the beat writers.

But the hug that captured my attention was one between Schwarber and Willson Contreras. It wasn’t a bro hug. It was the kind of long embrace you have with someone you truly love. I believe I heard Schwarber call Contreras “a big teddy bear.” No, I’m sure of it.

After the hug was over, and maybe it lasted 10 seconds, Schwarber gave Contreras, who walked twice and caught all 13 innings, an impassioned pep talk, using his hands to gesticulate his point. Contreras had tears in his eyes.

I wanted to know what Schwarber said to Contreras.

“I mean, that guy was the best catcher in the National League,” Schwarber said, and I know you’re rolling your eyes right now, but let’s hear him out. “What do you say about what this guy did this year? He went out there and he gives his heart out every day. I think that’s what people should see, because this guy goes out there and he plays his absolute heart out every day. It doesn’t matter if we get in at 1 o’clock and we got a day game tomorrow, he’s out there, he’s playing his heart out. Just like today, he went out there and he gave it his all, you know what, I’m not going to put words in his mouth, he should be very, very proud of the year he had, personally. For me to see him come up through the minor leagues until now, wow.”

Now, Contreras was one of the more frustrating players to watch all year. He made an All-Star team, yes, but his power disappeared, he became an instant out. Of all the young hitters that seemed destined for greatness, he might be the most disappointing to Cubs fans and executives. But not to his teammates.

“I just told Willy he did an unbelievable job tonight,” Jon Lester said. “He’s done an unbelievable job this year with me personally, he’s done an unbelievable job with this pitching staff as a whole. That’s a hard game to manage behind the plate. He did it. This guy’s in tears right now.”

The Cubs never got their champagne spraying spree, but they did end the season with a private toast and a shot. A drink for the road.

“It was a great year and I want people to know this team it was special,” Schwarber said. “We grinded our butts off and people maybe on the outside may think this was a disappointing year, but if you look around this room and you were here every day, you’d have a lot of appreciation for what these guys went through, day in and day out.”


Cubs center fielder Albert Almora Jr. celebrates after catching a ball hit by Colorado Rockies outfielder David Dahl in the second inning of a 13-inning Rockies win in the NL wild-card game. (Jim Young/USA TODAY Sports)
Lester, who had one of his best starts of the season (nine strikeouts and only 86 pitches in six innings) in a must-win game Tuesday, brought up so many positives in his never-ending talk with reporters, he made fun of himself for his Pollyanna attitude.

“I love our guys,” he said. “I love our competitiveness. I love our grind. I love everything these guys do, what they bring. There’s not a group of guys I wouldn’t take into another playoff game tomorrow than this group. I would like to think we’d win it.”

I’m not so sure about that, but you’re not going to get Lester to bag on the hitters. Maybe not even off the record. He’s been around too long, he’s seen too much good and too much bad to pretend this game is easy.

“We have a guy that’s potentially going to win the MVP and he’s in tears right now, you know?” Lester said of Báez. “You have guys that give a shit and really care about us winning, regardless of their stats, regardless of anything else. That’s what makes us a unique group. Obviously it didn’t work out tonight, that’s happens. I don’t think we beat ourselves. They beat us and sometimes that’s happens.”

There will be changes next season. Perhaps a lot of changes. It’s interesting, though, because what I saw in the wake of the earliest ending to any Cubs season since this renaissance began in 2015 was exactly the kind of brotherhood that Epstein wanted to build when he took on this Sisyphean task back in the winter of 2011. He’s harped on the human side of the game, over and over again. And in defeat, the Cubs showed they are the kind of team he’s always envisioned.

But while you can’t really kick a team when it just lost a 13-inning game by one run, this result also epitomized everything that went bad this year. You can’t pin this loss on Yu Darvish’s injury or Tyler Chatwood’s ineffectiveness. Kris Bryant said his shoulder is fine. But this early exit felt, well, deserved.

The Cubs just couldn’t get their act together on offense for way too much of the season. They scored eight runs on Friday against the Cardinals, then one run Saturday, then 10 runs Sunday. In Monday’s NL Central tiebreaker loss to Milwaukee, they scored one run. On Tuesday, one again.

“I’d always like to think good pitching shuts down good offense,” Lester said, but even he knows there’s something wrong.

New hitting coach Chili Davis didn’t fix the Cubs, just like the old hitting coach John Mallee wasn’t the root cause of their problems. The Cubs’ young hitters just haven’t improved over the years like Epstein thought they would. Is that on them or on the coaching staff? Are some of these Cubs better huggers than hitters? Maybe so.

The front office has a lot of self-evaluation to do and fortunately for them, they have extra time to do it.

It’s so long ago now, but the day began with Báez drawing a line in the sand in front of a room of reporters.

“You know, we’ve got to stop worrying about other teams,” he said to a question I asked him about the Cubs’ offense. “We’ve got to go out there and have fun. We’ve got to go out there and compete. If we do that, there’s no team that can beat us, and they know that, so that’s why they run their mouth a lot, because they know we’re the best. Even when we’re struggling, we are (he motions with his hand above his head) the head of everybody.”

He’s right, of course, and Báez, more than any other Cubs I heard after the game, offered the most sober criticism of his team.

“We just kept going about, ‘We’re going to get it back. We’re going to be together,’” he said. “But it never came to us. We were never in a rhythm of winning games.”

Maybe the Cubs needed a little humility. What I call “Cubbie Exceptionalism” has made everyone around here feel like they’re special, and self-confidence is a good thing. But…

“Like I said, sometimes you need to get, for lack of a better term, sorry, you need to get your dick knocked in the dirt to appreciate where you’re at,” Lester said. “Maybe we needed that. Maybe we needed to get knocked down a peg or two and realize nothing is going to be given to us. At the end of the day, I don’t feel like our guys are that way. I feel like we grinded ’til the end and we came up one run short.”

One run seems like such a trifling thing, but in October, it’s the difference between moving on and going home. The Cubs were a win short of winning the division, a run short of playing this game until the sun came up. In the end, they lost as a team, as a family, but they still lost too early in October for this season to feel like a success to anyone outside that clubhouse.