The late-night/early-morning spot for Cubs fans asks who isnthe Cubs MVP this season.
It’s another Tuesday evening here at BCB After Dark: the hippest happening for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re so glad you decided to stop by. We’ve got a good crowd here, but there are still a few tables available. The dress code is casual. The show will start shortly. 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.
The Cubs beat the Phillies tonight, 10-4, to win their 81st game of the year. So they will not have a losing record in 2024. Unless they lose the final four games, they will have a winning record. There was some bad news tonight, however.
Seiya Suzuki sprained his right ankle while running the bases in the 6th.
— Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) September 25, 2024
That’s going to knock him out for the season. No point in pushing anything.
Last night, I asked you to grade Dansby Swanson’s time with the Cubs. Most of you were mildly positive, as 49 percent of you gave Swanson a “B” and another 44 percent gave him a “C.”
On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I don’t normally do a movie essay. But I did review The Reckless Moment (1949) yesterday and I’ve promised to write about it’s remake, The Deep End (2001) tomorrow. But I always have time for jazz, so those of you who skip that can do so now. You won’t hurt my feelings.
We’re still paying tribute to saxophonist Benny Golson, who left us this past weekend at the age of 95. Here he is playing “Along Came Betty” in Korea in 2009.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music.
Tonight I’m just going to ask you all to vote for the Cubs’ Most Valuable Player for 2024.
I think we can be fairly confident that no Cub will win the MVP Award this season. But there are a lot of candidates for who was the most valuable Cubs player in 2024.
There has actually been a bit of a criticism of the Cubs this year that they have a ton of good players and no superstars. Maybe if they had one 6-Wins Above Replacement player, they’d be fighting for a division title. But they don’t, so here we are.
I’m going to list the top eight players by WAR and let you vote for one of them. I checked both Baseball Reference and Fangraphs and while they disagree on some of the numbers, they have the same top eight players for the Cubs. I am not, however, going to list those WAR numbers. For one, you can look them up yourself. Two, I strongly believe that while voters should take WAR into consideration, the MVP Award should not just go to whomever has the highest WAR number.
The candidates are, in alphabetical order:
- Javier Assad
- Michael Busch
- Pete Crow-Armstrong
- Ian Happ
- Nico Hoerner
- Shōta Imanaga
- Seiya Suzuki
- Dansby Swanson
I’ll also let you vote “other” and defend your choice in the comments.
Like the real MVP Award, you can vote for anyone for whatever reason you want, using whatever criteria you want. Heck, if you want to give Ryan Tepera a vote because you clicked on the wrong name, that’s allowed too. Although Tepera himself is retired, so that would be odd.
Thank you for stopping by tonight. We hope you had an enjoyable time. Tell your friends about us. Please get home safely. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow night for more BCB After Dark.