It’s another week here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and cool off with us. It’s hot out there, but the music is cool in here. There’s no cover charge. The dress code is casual. 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.
The Cubs lost to the Cardinals tonight 8-2. Ben Brown got hammered for four two-run home runs. That’s bad. I know we are Cubs fans and we’re convinced the sky is falling, but even after tonight’s disaster, the Cubs are in first place. Let’s not doom and gloom as long as the team has a 3 1⁄2 game lead in the division. But the Cubs do need some starting pitching. That’s not what we’re talking about tonight, however.
Last week I asked you who won the trade that sent Rafael Devers from Boston to San Francisco. Your vote was pretty split, with 40 percent giving the Giants the edge, 34 percent saying the Red Sox came out ahead and 26 percent thinking it’s pretty even.
Here’s the part where we listen to music and talk movies. You’re free to skip that if you want. You won’t hurt my feelings.
Tonight we’re featuring the hottest young vocalist in jazz, Samara Joy, live in Tokyo singing “No More Blues.” She’s scatting here. This is from just a few weeks ago.
Paul Sikivie is on bass, Connor Rohrer on piano, Evan Sherman on drums, Donavan Austin on trombone, Jason Charos on trumpet. David Mason on alto sax and Kendric McCallister on tenor sax.
Fifteen minutes into the Alan Rudolph-directed neo-noir Trouble in Mind (1985), I said to myself “There’s no way I’m sticking around until the end of this picture.” While the film looked good, and Marianne Faithfull singing the title song over the opening credits was great, the whole thing seemed like one noir cliché after another. At first glance, I wasn’t impressed. But I’m glad I stuck around because in the end, the film won me over with some winning performances and great atmospherics.
It took me a while to realize it, but the clichés at the beginning of Trouble in Mind were a way of taking the film out of the real world and putting into a dream-like world of Hollywood fantasy. The film takes place in the fictional “Rain City,” which is Seattle. (You’re not fooling anyone, Rudolph! We all know that’s the Space Needle in the background!) Kris Kristofferson plays Hawk, a former cop who is just out of prison for murdering a very bad man. Hawk wears all black and has a big black floppy hat. His attire would not be out of place in any of the many Westerns Kristofferson made. He’s the mysterious stranger who rides into town. The rebel antihero.
Hawk finds a place to crash with his old lover Wanda (Geneviève Bujold) who has a flat above the diner that she runs. Whatever was between Hawk and Wanda is over, but they still share a bond. Wanda wouldn’t be out of place as the saloon girl in that Western that Kristofferson seemed to be looking for when he got lost and wandered into this movie.
Coop (Keith Carradine) and Georgia (Lori Singer) are a young couple with a baby who move to Rain City looking for a better life. For Georgia, that means getting a job, finding a place and settling down to domesticity. For Coop, that means looking for trouble. They park the trailer they live in outside of Wanda’s diner.
Coop falls in with Solo (Joe Morton), a small-time hood who spouts aphorisms and speaks in Korean from time to time. The two men rob a jewelry truck. Meanwhile, while Coop and Solo are out committing crimes, Georgia gets a job with Wanda and is left alone in the trailer. She’s lonely and doesn’t approve of her husband’s life of crime. Hawk falls in love with Georgia at first sight and begins to woo her, as well as trying to convince her that Coop is a total loser. (True)
Coop and Solo get in trouble with local crime boss Hilly Blue, played by John Waters-regular Divine in a rare non-drag role. Hilly is upset that Coop and Solo are trying to fence their stolen goods to someone other than him. The two crooks eventually come to a uneasy truce with Hilly, but after they rob a rival crime boss, Hilly tries to hire Hawk to convince the other boss that he wasn’t behind the robbery. And Coop and Solo end up on Hilly’s shit list.
The atmosphere and characters are what makes Trouble in Mind worthwhile. Carradine’s Coop becomes increasingly unhinged with every job the two of them pull off. Throughout the film, he’s getting makeovers off-screen after every job. He looks increasingly ridiculous until in the end, he resembles eighties rock star Adam Ant dressed as a multi-hued hood.
Seattle. . . err, sorry, “Rain City” is shrouded in movie fog most of the time, adding to the dreamlike feel of the whole film. Singer’s Georgia is a innocent trapped in this big city without the skills to successfully navigate it. And then there are the gangsters. Dirk Blocker’s character, Hilly Blue’s top lieutenant, is named “Rambo,” and I the connection to the iconic Sylvester Stallone character is intentional and ironic, because this Rambo is all talk and no action. Meanwhile, Roger Ebert described Divine’s crime boss Hilly Blue as:
if Sydney Greenstreet could have reproduced by parthenogenesis after radioactive damage to his chromosomes, Hilly would have been the issue.
Ebert liked the film more than I did (he gave it a full four stars) but I can’t beat that comment. That description makes me love the film more. Divine isn’t great in the role, but he’s fascinating. I’d rather a performance be fascinating than great.
There’s a lot of action in the movie. Kristofferson’s Hawk is a man of action, not words, of course and there’s a big showdown between Coop, Hawk and Hilly. But most of the film is about the vibe of “Rain City” and the losers and misfits that populate the movie. Somewhere around the halfway point of the film, I got caught up in the plight of these off-kilter noir caricatures.
The trailer for Trouble in Mind.
Trouble in Mind is available on Amazon Prime and Criterion, as well as the Roku Channel with ads. It’s also on Kanopy, which is free with most library cards. That’s a good deal. Seriously. Check out Kanopy.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.
The Cubs first priority at the trade deadline is a starting pitcher. Ben Brown’s performance tonight was pretty horrific. Shōta Imanaga is coming back soon, but the team need more than that to replace Justin Steele, who is out for the year with elbow surgery.
So the Cubs are going to add a starting pitcher, if at all possible. But third base is another issue as well. Matt Shaw has certainly been better than he was before he was sent down to Iowa, but you can’t say he’s been good at the plate. (Defense is another issue. He’s solid there.) Since returning from Iowa, Shaw has hit .250/.299/.360 before tonight’s game. That’s not terrible, but it’s also not good. Shaw is a rookie and like Pete Crow-Armstrong the year before, he may need an entire season of experience to become a productive major league hitter. The problem is that unlike when PCA was called up in 2023 and 2024, the Cubs can’t afford to be patient with Shaw this year. They are now firmly in “win now” mode.
Adding a elite bat at third base would give the Cubs one of the best offenses in the majors, which is what they would need if they intend to win the World Series this year. (And that should be their goal.)
Fortunately, there may be an elite third baseman available at the deadline in Arizona’s Eugenio Suárez. To be clear, at the moment the Diamondbacks are just 2 1⁄2 games out of a Wild Card spot and the team insists it’s not selling. But if the D-Backs fall much further behind the Wild Card pack, it’s impossible to think that they won’t be looking to get as much as they can for players who are eligible for free agency at the end of the season. And Suarez is eligible for free agency at the end of this season.
Suarez currently (before tonight) leads the majors in RBI with 67. He has 25 home runs and we’re not even to July 1 yet. At least 15 of those home runs were hit against the Cubs. (OK, technically he hit just five against the Cubs. Seems like more.) His overall line is .251/.321/.569, which is a terrific slugging percentage and decent batting and on-base numbers.
Suarez is a free agent at the end of this year, so trading for him now wouldn’t block Matt Shaw’s long-term development. That he’s a free agent at the end of the year would also likely keep his cost in prospects down.
On the other hand, if the Diamondbacks decide to put Suárez on the trade market, he’s likely to be the best bat available for trade. The Cubs wouldn’t be the only team interested in adding that kind of a power hitter. So the Cubs would have to give up something.
That is another reason for the Cubs to trade for Suárez: if the Cubs get him, that means that another team that the Cubs might face in the postseason won’t acquire him. Sure, Suárez won’t be able to tee off against Cubs pitching if he’s a Cub. That might limit his value to the Cubs. But the good news is that Suárez won’t be able to tee off against Cubs pitching if he’s a Cubs during the playoffs.
So what would be a fair deal for Suárez? The Cubs would have to give up a major prospect, and fortunately they have two elite outfield prospects in Owen Caissie and Kevin Alcántara. If Kyle Tucker re-signs with the team, the Cubs don’t need either of those two. If he doesn’t, well they only need one, unless the Cubs decide to move Seiya Suzuki back to right field and put top prospect Moisés Ballesteros to the DH role. In that case, they don’t need either of them again.
So I’m proposing that the Cubs offer Kevin Alcántara to Arizona for Suárez. Alcántara has certainly lost a little luster on his prospect status this year, but he’s still an incredible athlete with a sky-high upside. The Diamondbacks could certainly use a second good outfielder to pair with Corbin Carroll. On top of that, I think the Cubs could add reliever Riley Martin to such a deal. Martin is a major-league ready reliever who is having a great season, but he’s stuck in Iowa at the moment. (Martin has a 1.16 ERA and 13.1 Ks per 9 with Iowa, although the walks are a bit high at 5.2 per nine.) I don’t think Arizona wants to go into full rebuild, so getting someone with a lower ceiling but higher floor like Martin would be a good pairing to Alcántara, who could be a superstar or could be a bust.
Of course, trading Alcántara to Arizona for Suárez means that he won’t be available to trade for starting pitching, which is probably the Cubs’ bigger priority at the moment. They could still trade Caissie for one of those, but then they’d better hope they re-sign Tucker.
So tonight’s question is, would you do Kevin Alcántara and Riley Martin for Eugenio Suárez? And do you think Arizona would do that deal if they fall out of the Wild Card hunt?
Poll
Should the Cubs trade for Eugenio Suarez?
0%
Yes, for the terms outlined in the article
(0 votes)
0%
Yes, but it will cost more than what was proposed
(0 votes)
0%
Yes, but it will cost less than what was proposed
(0 votes)
0%
No. they don’t need Suárez and/or the cost is too high and they have other priorities.
(0 votes)
0 votes total
Thank you for stopping by tonight. We’ve always glad to see you. Please get home safely. Tell your friends about us. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow night for more BCB After Dark.