Bryant Impacting More Games, GLOHOAT Approves, Darvish, RSN Troubles, and Other Cubs Bullets

I just finished up a re-watch of Season 4 of ‘Better Call Saul’ in anticipation of Season 5 dropping this weekend, and I am extremely stoked. It’s just such an expertly-crafted show. Slow to some, perhaps, but every lingering camera shot feels like it’s telling you something, setting you up for something, grafting some emotion onto you. I love it. How these folks set a show in the same universe and story line as ‘Breaking Bad,’ but made such a different show is absolutely incredible. I hope they don’t lose that as the story line converges with the events of the earlier show.

  • If you were curious about the math on having Kris Bryant batting first – how many more plate appearances would it grant him over the course of an average season – it’s definitely not an insignificant amount. If you say he plays 155 games, then in an average year, he would see 721 plate appearances batting first, versus 705 plate appearances batting second. That means in 16 games, Bryant would get an extra time at the plate simply by virtue of batting one in the order instead of two.
  • Don’t just think about the volume of PAs. Think about it from a game perspective. Think about that potential impact on 16 games – 10% of the season! – where you have your best bat getting one more crack at it. Throw out the situation, because we can’t know it. We just know that he’d have a chance to impact the game at the plate in 16 more games. That’s arguably the MAIN reason to have him batting first in a line that otherwise doesn’t have an obvious elite leadoff hitter. I’m very glad David Ross is going this way.
  • Man, when the Greatest Leadoff Hitter of All-Time gives you the stamp of approval, you know you’re gonna be fine:
  • (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)

  • While Yu Darvish continues to speak very thoughtfully about the Astros’ cheating, how their title should be stripped to help everyone move on, and about the cultural differences between Japan and the United States (really great read there), the Astros continue to dig in their heels, desperately wanting everyone to just shut up and move on:
  • More details on the Cubs’ minor league pay increase:
  • Don’t tell Kris Bryant it’s a piece of metal:
  • Dog beds, scooters, and more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon. #ad
  • Local media news, as Bruce Levine will contribute at Marquee:
  • But Kelly Crull is departing Chicago:
  • In other media news, ESPN is going with a two-man booth for Sunday Nights, having dumped the best member of the previous trio:
  • New pizza at Wrigley Field
  • Sinclair, which is the Cubs’ partner in Marquee, and last year bought the FOX RSNs from Disney, was the leading bidder for another group of RSNs (in Seattle, Denver, Houston, and Pittsburgh), but the bids were for like half what AT&T was hoping:
  • It’s notable that if Sinclair did manage to purchase the RSNs eventually, they would have at least some interest in the vast majority of RSNs that broadcast MLB games. Say what you will about Sinclair as an entity, but it’s also true that if you hope for a world where MLB broadcasts are distributed in a smarter, more comprehensive, less blackout-y way, you’re more likely to see that in a world where a single entity has a stake in all those games.
  • That said, this Post write-up points out that Sinclair has taken a beating recently because, among other things, DISH dropped all their RSNs and didn’t seem to suffer at all for that decision. That’s not a great sign for RSNs in general.
  • (With respect to the Cubs and Marquee, though, I’d point out that no one is worried about the most premium sports teams and their broadcast rights, and it also helps that MLB has given the local streaming rights to the teams, themselves. There is a world in the future where the Cubs and Marquee are just fine, because they’ve steadily transitioned into a streaming giant. I’m sure that’s what they talk about a lot behind the scenes, even as they work to get traditional cable carriage agreements in place.)
  • The latest pod:
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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