It’s Wednesday night here at BCB After Dark: the hippest hot spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re so glad you decided to stop by. Come on in and cool off for a while. There’s no cover charge. Come as you are. We still have a few tables available. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Last night I asked you to choose between for possible draft picks, which I left anonymous but you quickly figured out were Mason Edwards, Hunter Dietz, Zion Rose and Daniel Jackson. I meant it as a philosophical exercise rather than a pick of which player you wanted. But in any case, you seemed to want risk adverse pitching as 45 percent of you picked player one (Edwards). Another 33 percent of you would roll the dice on player two, the oft-injured but very talented Dietz.
Here’s the part where we listen to music and talk movies You can skip that if you want.
Tonight we’re featuring saxophonist Chris Potter joining pianist Emmett Cohen and paying tribute to the late, great “Saxophone Colossus” Sonny Rollins. The two are joined by John Patitucci on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums.
This is a song written Sonny Rollins, “Airegin.”
Between the World Cup and preparing for the Draft, I haven’t had time to watch any movies this week. I haven’t even got the chance to rewatch Eno on the Criterion Channel now that they’ve “regenerated” it with the start of the month.
So to throw something out for discussion, I’m going to ask you for your five “desert island” movies. If you’re stranded on a desert island and were allowed to take five films with you, which five would you take?
I’m not quite sure how you’re going to get the electricity to watch these five films on a desert island, nor do I know what you’d watch them on or in what format. You can give yourself a private theater with a portable generator that runs on seawater in this fantasy situation if you want.
So if you ask me tomorrow, I may give you a different answer. But today, here are the five movies that I’d spend my exile on a desert island with.
Double Indemnity
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Dr. Strangelove
Heathers
Mad Max: Fury Road
Maybe I should have picked movies I haven’t seen ten times or more already, but I think the point of this exercise is to pick the films that would mean the most to you. Maybe not the “best” films, but the ones that speak to you personally. The ones you want to kill time with.
So what are your five “desert island” films?
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.
Cubs Vice-President of Scouting Dan Kantrovitz has been making the rounds this week in anticipation of Saturday’s MLB Draft. Mostly he hasn’t revealed the Cubs hand much, nor should he. But he did address the elephant in the room, which is the the Cubs farm system is very position-player heavy.
It’s not much of a surprise why the Cubs’ farm system is weak in pitching: they haven’t drafted many pitchers, and the ones they have drafted have tended to be in the later rounds and either are extremely risky or have very low upsides. Kantrovitz would insist that it’s not the Cubs’ philosophy to draft position players over pitchers. He says they’ve just been able to find more value when they’ve picked in position players. Position players are also much more likely to stay healthy, which is another reason the Cubs have more position player talent than pitching.
But the facts are this. Since the 2022 draft, when the Cubs took Cade Horton in the first round and took pitchers with 16 of their 20 draft picks, the Cubs have concentrated on hitters. Over the last three drafts, only four of the 15 players taken in rounds 1 through 5 have been pitchers. Only one of the six players taken in the top two rounds was a pitcher, second-rounder Jaxon Wiggins in 2023. Wiggins also not coincidentally happens to be the Cubs’ best pitching prospect.
Now the Cubs did go for quantity over quality in the later rounds last year. Eleven of their final 14 draft picks in the most recent draft were pitchers. But only two of the first six draft picks were pitchers and one of them, third-round pick Dominick Reid, was an underslot pick so the Cubs would have bonus money to sign sixth-round pick, high school outfielder Josiah Hartshorn. (To be fair, the Cubs fourth-round pick in 2025, Kaleb Wing, was also an overslot signing of a high school pitcher.)
Things were even more oriented towards position players in 2024. While the Cubs did load up on pitchers in rounds 11 through 20, only two of their first ten picks were pitchers and the first one, Ryan Gallagher, came in the sixth round.
But Kantrovitz seems to be softening his “best player available” at all times stand. You never draft for need because most drafted players take two-to-four years in the minors before reaching in the majors (if they ever do) and no team knows what their needs will be that far in the future. Except that we know that teams always need pitching these days and if somehow a team gets lucky and doesn’t, you can always trade young pitching.
Here’s one quote that Kantrovitz game Marquee this week.
It’s no secret we’ve invested less in pitching in recent drafts, so there’s probably more scrutiny on that position than historically …. You can’t take good pitching if you don’t take pitching. One thing we’ve looked at the last few years is how to allocate more of our draft pool to pitching without leaking wins or overall draft value – that’s always been our north star. . . This year, the reality is we’re probably going to be a little less dogmatic about sticking to that, and realize that practically, to get more good pitching, we just might have to take more pitching . . .
What Kantrovitz seems to be saying is that the Cubs aren’t going to reach for a pitcher if there isn’t one they like at that position, if they have one position player and one pitcher that are close in value, they may take the pitcher even if they have the position player ranked slightly higher.
So what do you think the Cubs should do? Should the Cubs take a pitcher in the first round, even if he’s ranked slightly less highly than an available position player? Should they stick to their guns and just take the best player available, no matter where they play? Or should they just admit that they struggle to develop pitching and concentrate on position players, knowing that they can always trade top prospects for pitching later?
Please note when I say “favor,” I don’t mean take a pitcher even if you have a position player ranked much higher. I mean if they’re close in your eyes, you would take the pitcher even if a position player is ranked slightly higher.
Thank you for stopping by this week. We’ve enjoyed having you. Please get home safely. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tell your friends about us. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.
