The late-night/early-morning spot for Cubs fans asks if the Cubs should sign free agent pitcher Jack Flaherty/
It’s another Wednesday evening here at BCB After Dark: the grooviest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re glad you decided to stop by. We’re having an End of the Season Sale. The cover charge has been waived. 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.
The Cubs lost to the Phillies tonight, 9-6. I’m not too upset about this one. Nico Hoerner had his first multi-home run game and Kevin Alcántara got his first major league hit and scored his first major league run. OK, his first hit was a swinging bunt, but he showed off his speed on that play. He also hit the ball hard in his at-bat, even if it was just a long flyout to right field.
Last night, I asked you who you thought was the Cubs’ Most Valuable Player in 2024. Honestly, this one surprised me because I would have voted for Ian Happ. But 80 percent of you picked Shōta Imanaga, so this one wasn’t even close. Of course, I’m not telling those of you who voted for Imanaga that you’re wrong. It’s a fair difference of opinion. It just surprised me that Happ only managed 11 percent of the vote.
Here’s the part where I write about music and movies. Those of you who want to skip that can do so now. You won’t hurt my feelings.
We’re finishing our weeklong tribute to saxophonist Benny Golson, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 95.
Here’s the video of a concert by the Emmet Cohen Trio in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2020. The trio—Cohen on piano, Russell Hall on bass and Evan Sherman on drums—play one number alone before Golson joins the trio for the rest of the show. The video is long—over 2 hours, and Golson starts to play at the 29 minute mark. Golson also stops between numbers to tell stories about the old days, if that interests you.
Emmet Cohen just posted this video this week.
On Monday, I wrote about The Reckless Moment (1949), and now it’s time to look at the 2001 remake The Deep End. Although technically, directors David Siegel and Scott McGehee call The Deep End a different film based on the same story rather than a remake, although that’s a to-MAY-to/to-MAH-to thing as far as I’m concerned. Although I guess that no one calls the 1941 John Huston version of The Maltese Falcon starring Humphrey Bogart a remake of the 1931 version that starred Ricardo Cortez.
Both The Reckless Moment and The Deep End are worth watching, but, and you’re not going to hear me say this very often, the modern The Deep End is the better picture. Siegel and McGehee don’t try to reinvent the story, but rather they simply try to fill out the old film (so that it makes more sense) and update it for the 21st Century. On top of that, they get a fantastic star performance from Tilda Swinton that just has no equivalent in the original.
Swinton stars as Margaret Hall, which is the same part (with a different name) that Joan Bennett played in the original film. The plot doesn’t change much, with two big exceptions. While Bennett was dealing with her 17-year-old daughter that was dating a much-older low-level criminal and Bennett’s character suspects that her daughter murdered him, Swinton’s son Beau (Jonathan Tucker) is a gay relationship with a 30-year-old nightclub owner Darby Reese (Josh Lucas). Obviously they couldn’t do that angle in 1949, but it actually makes a lot more sense. For one, the fact that her son is gay gives Beau more reasons to hide the relationship from his mother and it makes the whole blackmail plot stronger. On top of that, it never seemed realistic in The Reckless Moment that young Geraldine Brooks had the size and strength to murder a reasonably-strong adult man. She didn’t, of course, but Bennett’s character never stops to question how her little daughter could have accomplished the crime before assuming her guilt.
On the other hand, it makes a lot of sense that Margaret would suspect Beau of killing Darby. Darby was roughly the same size as her son, so that checks out. And while Beau was a sensitive, artistic type, he did have a hair-trigger temper that the film makes sure to point out.
The other thing that The Deep End does, other than modernize the plot elements, is to move the action from Newport Beach and Los Angeles to North Lake Tahoe and Reno. Newport Beach of 2001 was no longer an idyllic small seaside town, but North Lake Tahoe still offers some small-town feel and gorgeous landscape shots. It’s also a nice little tribute to the original film, since Bennett’s character called a sister-in-law in Lake Tahoe a couple of times, unsuccessfully trying to get her to let her daughter hide out there until the heat died down.
And the film really does use Lake Tahoe well. The shots of the lake, the woods and the small town really look great. It also exploits something that David Lynch used a lot—that there can be a great evil hiding in these beautiful rural areas and that the contrast between these two truths is compelling.
The quiet beauty of Lake Tahoe also feeds into the strongest part of the film, which is Swinton’s quietly powerful performance. Swinton plays Margaret as a woman who has always had to be strong, as her naval officer husband has always been away throughout their marriage. (And like the original film. he’s away here.) But she’s also clearly a woman who is close to a complete breakdown at every moment, even if she never really does. I don’t want to criticize Bennett because Swinton’s less-is-more approach would have gotten her fired off the set in 1949, but Swinton offers a much more powerful and believable take on the character.
Goran Visnjic plays Alek Spera, which is the equivalent of James Mason’s Martin Donnelly in the original film. Visnjic lacks the charm and charisma that Mason had, but that’s not really an insult. Not many actors do. In fact, his character is much more believable as a tough blackmailing criminal than Mason ever was.
The other thing that improves Visnjic’s performance is that they give his character a much slower path and a much better reason to feel empathy for Margaret and her family. The Deep End is about 40 minutes longer than The Reckless Moment, which is normally something that I’d ding it for. I love movies that come in around 90 minutes, and The Deep End is just over two hours. But most of that time is put to good use to make us understand Alek and his motivations better. The part of Margaret’s father-in-law Jack (Peter Donat) is greatly expanded, and Jack has a health scare that Alek witnesses and he ends up saving Jack’s life.
I almost forgot. The Deep End also dumps the Black maid from The Reckless Moment, played by Frances E. Williams in the original. That’s a character that would have stuck out like a sore thumb in 2001. Most of the maid’s part is given to Jack.
In both films, the love affair between the two leads is emotional, not physical. But The Deep End makes it clear that Margaret and her family is something that is missing in Alek’s life. He yearns not for romance, but belonging.
Other than the change in venue and the change to a gay relationship, not much changes in the plot between the two films otherwise. In fact, some scenes, like when Margaret goes to pawn her jewelry, are reproduced almost exactly. There are some changes for technology, as instead of love letters serving as the source of the blackmail, it’s a very explicit video of Beau and Darby that both Margaret and us, the audience, are forced to watch. Margaret’s husband has to be on a carrier in the middle of the ocean, as it would be too easy to get ahold of a businessman in Europe in 2001. But other than fleshing out the middle of the film, the beginning, middle and resolution of the plot are almost exactly the same.
If I have one criticism of The Deep End, it’s that the musical score was too loud. I know that’s kind of picky, but it’s a quiet film in a quiet place and here comes this piano and strings music being played way too loud at tense moments.
Here’s the trailer for The Deep End. It’s full of praise for Swinton’s performance and yes, I can’t praise it enough either.
Welcome back to those of you who skip the music and movies.
Earlier this week, Patrick Mooney wrote in The Athletic that the Cubs are planning on adding a starting pitcher this winter. (sub. req.) This makes sense, as Kyle Hendricks isn’t expected to return and while there are several good young pitchers that could step into the role (Jordan Wicks, Ben Brown, Cade Horton and Hayden Wesneski), there’s also no reason to believe that everyone is going to stay healthy and be effective in 2025. In fact, it is a running joke amongst Dodgers fans that they have around 15 quality starting pitchers and only two of them are healthy and effective going into the playoffs. But that’s a big reason why the Dodgers are going to the playoffs and the Cubs aren’t. Los Angeles has a built-in expectation that pitchers are going to get hurt and they plan for it by amassing as many arms as possible. Although most Dodgers fans I know are still stunned at how many injuries they’ve had this year and are quite pessimistic heading into October. But again, the Dodgers are still heading into October.
One of those pitchers that the Dodgers are counting on in October is Jack Flaherty, whom they got in a trade from the Tigers at the Deadline. (And how remarkable is it that the Tigers are probably going to take a Wild Card spot after dealing away Flaherty and others at the Deadline?)
Flaherty will be a free agent at the end of the season and he seems unlikely to re-sign with the Dodgers, in large part because of all the other pitchers that LA hopes will be healthy next season.
I’ve already asked you about your feelings towards other free agent pitchers like Corbin Burnes, Max Fried and Blake Snell and I’ll probably ask you about them again this winter as we get into the Hot Stove. But I haven’t asked you about Flaherty, who is someone else who has been mentioned as a possible Cubs target.
You are probably most familiar with Flaherty from his time with the Cardinals. In 2019, his second full season in the majors, he finished fourth in Cy Young Award balloting and looked like he was going to be an ace. But he had a rough 2020 but to be fair, didn’t we all have a rough 2020? He rebounded somewhat to start 2021, but then around mid-season he started suffering shoulder issues. Flaherty missed most of 2022 and while he did pitch in 2023, he struggled coming back from so much missed time. The Cardinals gave up on him and he signed a one-year, $14 million deal with the Tigers.
This season, Flaherty has looked a lot more like the 2019-21 version than the 2022-23 version. While with the Tigers, he set career-highs in strikeouts per nine innings and a career-low in walks per nine. He posted a 2.95 ERA over 106.2 innings and 18 starts with Detroit. Since getting traded to Los Angeles, he’s made ten starts and has a 3.58 ERA. He’s walking a few more and striking out a few less in the National League, but it’s still in line with career-best numbers for Flaherty.
If you just go by Flaherty’s 2024, he’s a quality pitcher that every team would love to have. But that injury history is scary. In fact, the Yankees backed off of a deal for Flaherty at the Deadline because they didn’t like his medicals. To be clear, the Yankees still wanted to acquire Flaherty, they just didn’t want to offer the same package for him that they did before they saw his medicals.
Still, Flaherty has been strong and healthy for Los Angeles, something they need badly. And the advantage of signing a free agent pitcher like Flaherty is that he isn’t going to command the same kind of contract because of his medical history—not in terms of years or dollars. Don’t get me wrong—Flaherty is likely to get a three-year deal and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were in the the $55-to-65 million range. But that’s a lot less than the close to $200 million that Burnes is likely to command. Flaherty is also a year younger than Burnes. And while you can say you don’t want a pitcher who is likely to get injured, aren’t all pitchers likely to get injured? If the Cubs were to sign Flaherty and he ended up needing Tommy John surgery, that would be a bad thing. But he wouldn’t be eating up a major part of the payroll on the injured list. There might still be some budget to replace him. But if the Cubs were to sign Burnes and he had TJ surgery, that might be a fatal blow.
And to be clear, it’s entirely possible that Flaherty out-pitches Burnes even if they both stayed healthy. Burnes’ Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) in Baltimore this year is 3.56. Flaherty’s, between Detroit and Los Angeles, was 3.41 before tonight’s game. Sure, the career numbers are very much in Burnes’ favor. But what is important is what they will do going forward, not going back.
So how would you feel about signing free agent right-hander Jack Flaherty this winter?
Thanks for stopping by tonight and thank you to every who stopped by this week. An second thank you goes out to everyone who voted and commented. And a third thank you goes out to those who read my movie and jazz musings. It’s been our last night of the Cubs’ season. Get home safely. Check around your table so that you don’t forget anything. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.