The late-night/early-morning spot for Cubs fans asks if the Cubs should deal Nico Hoerner for Nestor Cortes.
It’s another Monday night here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Please come in out of the cold. The companionship in here is warm and the music is hot. The dress code is casual. We can check your coat. There are still 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 week, I asked you if the Cubs should try to trade for Brewers closer Devin Williams. I think that most of you were scared off about paying full retail for a relief pitcher, because 45 percent of you said “Nay!” Another 26 percent thought the Cubs should go for it and 28 percent were “whatever.”
Here’s the part where I talk about music and movies. Those of you who skip that can do so now. You won’t hurt my feelings.
This is a brand new video that’s less than a week old from a new jazz quartet called Questar. It’s led by pianist Laurence Hobgood and features Andromeda Turre on vocals, her brother Orion Turre on drums and James Robbins plays bass. The saxophonist isn’t credited for some reason.
This is a medley of American classic hits from throughout the 20th Century.
I said that I was leaning towards calling an audible on our winter movie tournament and I have. Instead of doing screwball comedies, we’re going to honor the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, with a BCB Winter Hitchcock classic. Everyone has their own favorite Alfred Hitchcock film and now we can all argue with each other about who has the best taste. And to be fair, while we will have a winner, we really won’t decide anything. After all, looking at these three rankings of Hitchcock films from IndieWire, Collider and Entertainment Weekly, none of them agree on what the best Hitchcock movie is. No one has Torn Curtain in the top ten or left Psycho out of the top five, but there’s a lot of room for disagreement around the margins.
The biggest reason I’m doing a Hitchcock tournament is that these films are both beloved and available. I’m assuming anyone who bothers to read this section has seen at least a few Hitchcock films and many others are readily available on streaming services, and not necessarily obscure ones. Tubi has a number of them and yes, that means you have to watch commercials and that’s a pain, but Tubi is also free. Netflix and Max have several as well and I wouldn’t be surprised if several of them showed up on cable television over the holidays, assuming you still have that. The Criterion Channel is going to have a “Hitchcock for the Holidays” party in December with 13 Hitchcock films featured. You can pay for a month of that and feast on as much Hitchcock as you can digest before cancelling. Cheaper than renting, to be sure.
Alfred Hitchcock made 53 films over the course of his celebrated career. Technically, he made 56 films, but two of them are lost silent films and one is a short propaganda film to sell war bonds during World War II. So only 53 that count for our purposes.
In any case, 53 films is way too many to do a winter tournament. Because I’m getting a late start on this, I would like to include 20 to 22 films in the tournament. But when I made up a list of films to include, I came up with this. In chronological order.
- The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
- Blackmail (1929)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
- The 39 Steps (1935)
- Sabotage (1936)
- The Lady Vanishes (1938)
- Rebecca (1940)
- Foreign Correspondent (1940)
- Suspicion (1941)
- Saboteur (1942)
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
- Lifeboat (1944)
- Spellbound (1945)
- Notorious (1946)
- Rope (1948)
- Strangers on a Train (1951)
- I Confess (1953)
- Dial M for Murder (1954)
- Rear Window (1954)
- To Catch a Thief (1955)
- The Trouble with Harry (1955)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
- The Wrong Man (1956)
- Vertigo (1958)
- North by Northwest (1959)
- Psycho (1960)
- The Birds (1963)
- Marnie (1965)
- Topaz (1969)
- Frenzy (1972)
- Family Plot (1976)
Yikes. Thirty-one is still too many. So I decided to make some painful cuts.
- The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
-
Blackmail (1929) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)- The 39 Steps (1935)
Sabotage (1936)- The Lady Vanishes (1938)
- Rebecca (1940)
- Foreign Correspondent (1940)
- Suspicion (1941)
- Saboteur (1942)
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
- Lifeboat (1944)
- Spellbound (1945)
- Notorious (1946)
- Rope (1948)
- Strangers on a Train (1951)
I Confess (1953)- Dial M for Murder (1954)
- Rear Window (1954)
- To Catch a Thief (1955)
- The Trouble with Harry (1955)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
The Wrong Man (1956)- Vertigo (1958)
- North by Northwest (1959)
- Psycho (1960)
- The Birds (1963)
- Marnie (1965)
Topaz (1969)- Frenzy (1972)
Family Plot (1976)
I hate cutting Family Plot because I really like it, but the general consensus on it is lower than my personal opinion. I hate including Marnie because my opinion of it is a lot lower than the general consensus, but I do agree it’s a masterful bit of filmmaking. I feel like I have to include The Lodger because we should have at least one silent picture. You really can’t discuss Hitchcock without discussing his silent period. Plus, it’s in the public domain so it’s available nearly everywhere, although the restorations might be a little tougher to get ahold of.
I think Frenzy should be included because we should have one film that shows what Hitchcock would do without the censors. (And honestly, Family Plot and Topaz would have cleared the Production Code pretty easily in the fifties or early sixties.)
I hate leaving out the first The Man Who Knew Too Much because it would be neat to include both versions. Maybe there’s another one I could cut?
Anyway, I suppose we can do 24 films if you don’t mind this tournament lasting until the Cubs are in Japan.
I don’t think I’ll start voting next week, but it is Thanksgiving week, so I’ll try to have a bracket up by next Monday so that those of you looking for something to watch over the holiday can get some ideas.
Anyway, tonight I’m just asking for your thoughts and input. Is there a film that I left out that has to be included? If so, what gets kicked out? What should be the top four seeds? What film are you pulling for in the tournament?
Welcome back to those of you who skip the music and movies.
There’s been a lot of talk of the Cubs trying to deal Nico Hoerner in order to open up a roster spot for Matt Shaw. There’s also been a lot of talk about the Cubs trying to acquire another starting pitcher.
Chris Kirschner, the Yankees beat writer for The Athletic, proposed a trade that would accomplish just that—a opening up a spot for Shaw while gaining the Cubs a starting pitcher. Kirschner proposes that the Yankees send left-hander Nestor Cortes to the Cubs in exchange for Nico Hoerner. (The Athletic sub. req.)
To be clear, Kirschner wasn’t reporting on a rumor. He’s simply making a suggestion of a possible deal that could be beneficial to both teams. The Yankees are losing a former Cubs farmhand, Gleyber Torres, to free agency and they need a new second baseman. The Cubs want more starting pitcher depth and Cortes is a solid starter and an inning eater. Last season, Cortes made 30 starts and one relief appearance and totaled 174 1⁄3 innings. That’s more innings than any Cubs pitcher threw last season—although it’s just an inning more than Shōta Imanaga.
Cortes’ results weren’t bad either. He had a 3.77 ERA and a 3.85 FIP. He struck out 8.36 batters per nine innings. He also throws strikes, walking just 2.01 batters per nine. Cortes’ biggest issue is that he’s a flyball pitcher and gives up too many home runs. But Yankee Stadium is a great park to hit home runs in and Wrigley Field, surprisingly, has become a tough place to hit homers in recent years. Although it should be mentioned that Cortes gave up the same number of home runs at home than he did on the road last year in roughly the same amount of innings.
To me, the biggest difference in their value is that Cortes only has one year left of team control and Hoerner has two. The other difference is that Hoerner is due to make $11.5 million this year and $12 million next. Cortes is expected to get around $7.7 million in arbitration and then is eligible for free agency next winter. So that’s one point in favor of Hoerner and one point in favor of Cortes. I think the two years of control make Hoerner a bit more valuable, but not significantly. Maybe the Yankees have to toss in a prospect in the range of the Yankees’ 6th to 10th-best prospect. Certainly not Jasson Dominguez or Spencer Jones.
So would you make that deal? Assume that the Yankees thrown in a prospect who is good but not great.
Thank you all for stopping by. It was good to see you. Please get home safely. Stay warm. Let us know if you need us to call a ride. Recycle your cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow for more BCB After Dark.