I’m not a swimmer. I never took lessons as a child, but basically taught myself how to doggy paddle and some sort of modified underwater glide. I once jumped in a friend’s pond, was sure that a turtle was nipping at my toes and freaked out. I have a half-dozen stories like that. Sure, as I’ve grown up I’ve gotten more comfortable in open waters, but I’m also much more aware of my limitations in the water.
Then Thursday I saw this:
Swimming with sharks✔️ @redbull @gopro
A video posted by Kris Bryant (@kris_bryant17) on
Yes, that’s the Cubs star third baseman, Kris Bryant, swimming with sharks. Needless to say, the comments on his post were filled with terrified Cubs fans pleading with him to get out of the water and into safety. Bryant calmed down the uproar by letting fans know that, yes, he was in a cage while taking that video.
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Even with my inability to swimlike an adult, I can still appreciate the desire for that exhilarating moment. Give me a cage and some sort of breathing apparatus and I’m all about swimming with the sharks. One commenter suggested that perhaps Bryant should save everyone the headache next time and just go to the Shedd Aquarium. In fact, I’ll take it a step further and point out that he can probably volunteer to put on the SCUBA gear and swim in the main tank by the entryway. Boom, thirst for excitement satiated!
Staying with theunderwater theme, Phish has announced their summer schedule and they’re coming to Chicago June 24 and 25.
Happy Phriday! @Phish will perform at Wrigley Field June 24 and 25! Tix on sale Feb. 27. https://t.co/8pmwNPTzED pic.twitter.com/JphAIakWUa
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) February 5, 2016
Oh, and they’re playing at Wrigley Field. I haveyet to go to Wrigley for a concert, but I can enjoy Phish pretty much anywhere. WithPearl Jam coming to the North Side again, college-age me (as well as old-man me) is quite pleased with the concert schedule at Wrigley this summer.
Hearing news that a date was set for Jake Arrieta’s arbitration hearing didn’t really set off any alarms for me. Arrietaand Cubs president Theo Epstein have been saying all the right things(Editor’s note: ReadBryan Curtis in Slate.) since the numbers for the arbitration process came out. Sure, they’re far apart ($5.5 million) and reaching the hearing would be a bad thing since it’s never fun for a teamto haggle over a player’s perceived value. But these things have a way of working themselves out and it would be an absolute shock if a deal isn’t reached before Tuesday’s hearing.
Of much more interest, at least in my mind, would be the possibility that Arrieta and the Cubs come to terms on a long-term deal. And longtime baseball reporter Bruce Levine suggests exactly that as a real option, specifically mentioning that “a six-year deal was floated in some areas.”
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Sure, Arrieta seemed open to the idea at Cubs Convention, but I struggle to see how this could actually get done. There are so many things stacked against an extension being consummated. Scott Boras, Arrieta’s agent, will frequently advise his clients to wait for the open market, where their value will be maximized. Of course, he works for them, so he’ll acquiesce to whatever Arrieta wants for himself.
Under Epstein, the Cubs aren’t likelyto give open-market deals to players who are still multiple years away from free agency. This was the whole issue with why they were unable to extend Jeff Samardzija. The Cubs were only going to do a deal if it meant they were getting some sort of a discount, and Samardzija wasn’t willing to do that, choosing to bet on himself. And even when coming off a season in which he led his league in hits allowed, earned runs and home runs allowed, he was still able to pull in a bigger deal than what the Cubs were offering.
If Arrieta is able to hold his performance — perhaps not to the 2015 level, but at an elite one nonetheless — he’s likely to get a monster deal. Zack Greinke, who is the same age Arrieta will be when he enters free agency, is coming off a Cy Young runner-up season and snagged a six-year deal worth more than$34 million annually. Sure, there is the injury factor, something both sides will consider when discussing the possibility of an extension. And if Arrieta genuinely wants to give the Cubs a discount, which in this case in the current market is probably something with an annual average value (AAV) in the mid-20s, then perhaps this is more of a realistic option.
And let’s be clear, if Arrieta is willing to take such a contract, the Cubs would be wise to jump on it — with all caveats of possible injury and/or performance drop-off taken into consideration. Any big-money contract is always a risk when paying pitchers. It may seem like a $25 million AAV isn’t much of a discount, but the price of pitching is currently, let me find the proper analytical term, astronomical. The typically frugal Kansas City Royals just handed Ian Kennedy a five-year, $70 million deal. I guess finishing fourth in 2011 Cy Young voting had staying power. But since then, he’s posted an ERA+ of 101, 76, 93 and 85. In the latter two seasons, he played all his home games at pitcher-friendly Petco Park.
Clearly, Arrieta would have his reasons to wait it out until free agency and it would make sense for the Cubs to try and extend him instead of dipping into the free-agent waters again in two years. Ultimately, the likely conclusion is thetwo parties coming to an agreement for 2016 in the $10.5 million range prior to Tuesday’s hearing. I’m pessimistic on an extension, but if one is truly in the works, that should be music to Cubs fans’ ears.
Josh Noel has an article in the Chicago Tribune on Goose Island discontinuing their 312 Urban Pale Ale and canning their Green Line Pale Ale. Buried in this piece is that this obviously affects what beer will now be served at Wrigley Field in 2016. With the pale ale version of 312 now gone (the original wheat version remains), 16-ounce Green Line cans will now be sold in the ballpark. According to Noel, joining Green Line and 312 will be Goose Island’s Four Star Pils and their IPA. It’s still unclear if Sofie and Matilda will return to Wrigley, a pair of Belgian Style options that Goose Island offers year-round.
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I’ll avoid getting too beer snobby on you and not go into a diatribe on the conflicting ethos of how a beer that was billed as being environmentally friendly is now being mass-produced. But assuming Green Line cans will be sold by beer vendors in the aisles at Wrigley, that is a solid upgrade as far as beer options at Wrigley go — assuming mass production doesn’t significantly affect quality of the beer. And while I’m not a huge fan of Goose Island IPA, having that available is also certainly a good thing. Hardcore beer fans may not be excited about the addition because the options of IPAs in the craft beer market are plentiful, with unique and high-quality hop varieties seemingly endless at the moment. But the Cubs have a massive exclusive deal with Anheuser-BuschInBev, and AB InBev owns Goose Island.
Because of that deal, Wrigley willstill be behind The Cell and many other ballparks around the country, until they bring in popular Chicago breweries like Revolution, Half Acre or Pipeworks. Fans should expect some more craft beer options when the Cubs renovate their concessions in the coming years, but Bud products will always have the biggest presence.
Sahadev Sharma is a staff writer for The Athletic and covers the Chicago Cubs. Previously, Sahadev was a national baseball writer for Baseball Prospectus and ESPN Chicago. Follow Sahadev on Twitter @sahadevsharma
