Welcome back to BCB After Dark: your cool nightspot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in out of the fall chill air. We've got some warm music and conversation in here. If you need us to check your coat, we can do that now. There are still a few available tables. 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 which Cubs outfield prospect you'd rather the Cubs keep -- Owen Caissie or Kevin Alcántara? By a margin of 61 percent to 39, you said you'd rather keep Owen Caissie. I said there wasn't a wrong answer here and it would certainly depend on what the Cubs got in return. But 61 percent of you gave the wrong answer. In my opinion. Still, they're both pretty darn talented.
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.
Now that we're past Halloween, it must be time for Christmas jazz! So tonight . . .I'm just kidding. We'll get to Christmas jazz in a couple of weeks.
Instead, I've got a brand new video (as in yesterday) of Samara Joy singing "Now and Then (In remembrance of . . .)"
Human Desire (1954) is a remake of a 1938 French classic La Bête humaine. Both films were loosely based on a 19th-century novel by Émile Zola. Directed by Fritz Lang, Human Desire much more tracks with the conventions of film noir that was trendy at the time. It also has to clean up some of the more tawdry aspects that were present in the Jean Renoir-directed La Bête humaine, which would never have gotten past the Production Code in place in the United States at the time. What's left is a film that in some ways improves on Renoir's work and in other ways falls far short. But a powerful performance by Gloria Grahame as both a femme fatale and a domestic violence victim elevates Human Desire into something that's absolutely worth watching.
Director Lang had a big hit the year before with The Big Heat, an all-time classic noir that starred Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame. So Columbia Pictures was eager to recreate that magic and had Lang cast Ford and Grahame in this film. It's a bit of a mistake -- Ford just isn't right for this part and his lead character of Jeff, a returning Korean War veteran -- is easily the weakest part of the movie. Much of this is the fault of the script. In La Bête humaine, Jean Gabin plays a seemingly-normal man who is only vaguely aware of the fact that he's secretly a sexual sadist. The Production Code would never let a character like that past them and frankly, Ford wouldn't be able to play it if they did. Instead, Ford's Jeff is just your average American joe with normal desires and not someone with a deep-seeded desire to mix sex with violence. Ford just doesn't give Jeff any real believable darkness before getting involved with Grahame's Vicki.
This problem is exacerbated by Human Desire elevating the character of Ellen (Kathleen Case) into a rival love interest for Jeff. In La Bête humaine, Gabin's Jacques is partly attracted to Simone Simon's Séverine in part because of her involvement in a murder. But here, not only is Jeff going after Grahame's Vicki even after he learns the truth about her, but Ellen is constantly offering him a normal sexual companion. In fact, she's practically throwing herself at him throughout the picture, but either he's not interested or he's just too clueless to figure it out. Take your pick. And while yes, Gloria Grahame looks like Gloria Grahame, Kathleen Case has been described as looking like a cross between Liz Taylor and Cyd Charisse, and she was a decade younger than Grahame as well. So there was no good reason for Jeff to go down the rabbit hole with Vicki. The film could have given him some secret trauma from the Korean War, but nope. He seems to have come out of Korea with nary a scratch to his psyche.
So if Ford is a disappointment in Human Desire, what's good about it? Both Grahame and Broderick Crawford are excellent. Crawford plays Carl, the station master in a train yard who gets fired. Carl is also a good friend and co-worker of Jeff's. Carl pleads with his much-younger wife Vicki to talk to John Owens (Grandon Rhodes), an rich entrepreneur who does business with the railroad to get him his job back. Vicki's mother used to work for Owens and as far as Carl knows, he was kindly to Vicki as she was growing up. Vicki is reluctant and the strong impression the audience is given is that Owens was kindly to her because he was grooming and sexually abusing her. Carl doesn't pick up on that and insists. Vicki, feeling she has no choice, goes off to talk to Owens.
After several hours, Vicki returns and announces that Carl has his job back. At this point, Carl finally puts two and two together and realizes that Vicki slept with Owens to get him his job. This drives him into a jealous rage where he beats Vicki senseless. He also decides to use Vicki to set a trap for Owens on the train, where Carl will murder him. He forces Vicki to go along with him.
After Carl commits the murder, Jeff just happens to be in the train corridor having a smoke. Carl uses Vicki to distract Jeff while he escapes. Vicki, trapped in an unhappy and abusive marriage and worried Jeff saw more than he's letting on, begins a romantic affair with Jeff.
As I said, both Grahame and Crawford are excellent. Grahame isn't your typical femme fatale. She's trapped in an abusive marriage and is desperate to get out of it. She'll do anything, including murder, to escape. Every look and movement of Grahame's Vicki is both manipulative and desperate. You can also see her shudder and recoil at every look and touch from her husband Carl. It's hard not to feel very sorry for Vicki, even if she's leading everyone to their doom. She's not the typical femme fatale driven by greed or desire. She sets her trap in an effort to escape the trap she's already in.
Crawford plays the abusive husband very well. He's friendly and beloved by his male co-workers, but it just hides a hidden side that has to beat and dominate women. Crawford's Carl is a monster and you'll hate him every second he's on the screen. But you can see why his male friends think he's just an ordinary decent joe.
The other reason to watch Human Desire, or even La Bête humaine, are the trains. If you're a fan of old trains, this is the movie for you. Lang includes lots of shots of trains, mainly in closeup or high angle shots. There are lots of trains going in and out of tunnels, if you get the metaphor. La Bête humaine has a lot of train shots as well, but whereas Renoir contrasted the freedom and openness of the countryside that trains bring, Lang makes all of Human Desire seem like a claustrophobic nightmare. Ford's Jeff is in a trap that is constantly closing in on him. He seems to end up in smaller and smaller compartments as the film goes on. Of course, he could just get out of the trap by turning in Carl and Vicki, marrying Ellen and living happily ever after. Dude! She's nice, young, gorgeous and she's literally throwing herself at you! That he never considers it is a weakness of the film. Still, it's a gorgeous and stylish trip to the trap.
Human Desire isn't as good as The Big Heat, but it makes a nice companion piece to it. I watched the two films back-to-back over the weekend. (I wrote about The Big Heat when we did our film noir tournament two years ago.) I like Ford as an actor in Gilda, 3:10 to Yuma and of course, The Big Heat, but he's all wrong for this one. Robert Mitchum or Burt Lancaster would have been a better choice. I never believed that Jeff would chase after Vicki when Ellen was available. But luckily, Gloria Grahame and Broderick Crawford are so good that you forgive that. And it is one of the better-looking noirs, especially if you love trains.
Here's the trailer for Human Desire. Warning: there is some domestic violence in this video.
Welcome back to everyone who tunes out the tunes and flicks.
The topic that everyone is talking about right now is Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki and how he's going to be posted to MLB. Sasaki, still only 23, is likely to be a very good major league pitcher. Probably an ace. If you ask me if I'd rather have Sasaki or Paul Skenes, I can tell you 30 major league teams would rather have Skenes. Sasaki is good, but he's not that good. He's had injury and durability issues and has never thrown more than 129 innings in a season. His velocity has been down the past couple of seasons and his slider needs work. I you want a rundown of Sasaki's pitching arsenal, check this out. (The Athletic sub. req.)
Still, a lot of that is nitpicking. He has the stuff to be a top 20 pitcher in MLB right now and the potential to be a lot better than that down the road. Any team that signs him will have six years of control and will be allowed to pay him the major-league minimum for two seasons before he's eligible for arbitration. Even if he ends up needing Tommy John surgery in the next few years (and that wouldn't surprise me at all) and misses 18 months, any team would take a potential number one or two starter at that price. The downside on Sasaki is that he's an injury-prone number three. At the five million or so that he'll get as a bonus, that's still a bargain.
And there is no way to get around those spending limits and offer Sasaki more money. He's not in this for the money anyway. If he were, he'd wait two years and get the $325 million that Yoshinobu Yamamoto got. He wants to pitch and he wants to compete. He'll get his money through endorsements. The reason that Shohei Ohtani deferred so much of his salary is that he earns around $100 million a year in endorsements. (The Athletic sub. req.) Sasaki isn't going to earn that much -- there's only one Ohtani -- but it doesn't seem silly to think he can make $20 million in endorsements wherever he goes. Most of the money will be from Japanese interests anyway. So offering him a bonus of $7 million instead of $5 million isn't going to make any difference.
Sasaki would be perfect for the Cubs. Unfortunately, he'd be perfect for 30 teams. Now yes, he's not going to sign with the White Sox, Rockies or Athletics. And despite the Rays making noise that they'd like to sign him, I think their stadium situation would rule them out.
Everyone thinks he's going to sign with the Dodgers and yes, that seems to be the most logical move. But he's going to take pitches from many teams and there are reasons he might not want to go to Los Angeles. And honestly, we don't know what Sasaki values. Maybe he doesn't want to go to the Dodgers. We know he doesn't value money -- or at least doesn't value maximizing his earnings.
So if I'm Jed Hoyer and the Cubs front office, here is my pitch to Roki Sasaki.
Star power: In Los Angeles, Sasaki is never going to be "the man." In fact, he's going to be the sixth-biggest star on the team and the third-biggest Japanese star. Does he really want to be in Ohtani and Yamamoto's shadow for six years? Or does he want to play on a a team where he is are the biggest star?
Japanese stars: No, the Cubs don't have Ohtani and Yamamoto. But they do have Shōta Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki, so he won't be the only one in the clubhouse speaking Japanese. And unlike in Los Angeles, he can be a bigger star in Chicago than Imanaga and Suzuki. The Japanese press will speak to him first in Chicago, unlike Los Angeles where he'd get third billing.
Unfortunately, 28 other teams can say they don't have Ohtani and Yamamoto on their rosters. Some of them even have Japanese stars on the team. However. . . .
2025 Japan Series: Only the Cubs and the Dodgers will let Sasaki get his major-league debut in Tokyo next season. So if pitching in the Japan Series appeals to him and he doesn't want to sign with the Dodgers, then the Cubs are the logical choice.
Wrigley Field: This is the same appeal that the Cubs make to all free agents. Wrigley Field is a special place. It's a traditional ballpark that has been modernized in recent years to feature all the latest amenities for the players. The Cubs also have lots of experience dealing with meeting the needs of Japanese players, dating back to Kosuke Fukudome. I would also emphasize the similarities of the historic nature of Wrigley Field to Koshien Stadium in Japan, which is hallowed ground for Japanese players.
On top of that, while the stadium has traditionally been a hitters paradise, in this century, it's been a very neutral park. But last year, it was an extreme pitcher's park for some reason. If that continues, Sasaki could put up some terrific numbers as he heads into free agency in six years.
Pete Crow-Armstrong, Dansby Swanson, Ian Happ et. al.: Pete Crow-Armstrong is going to be around as long as Sasaki is and he's going to catch close to everything that goes into center field. Swanson is one of the best defensive shortstops in the game and Ian Happ is a three-time Gold Glove winner in left. That's not even mentioning Nico Hoerner (if the Cubs don't trade him) and Michael Busch. The Dodgers are great at a lot of things, but catching the ball isn't one of them. As a young developing pitcher, Sasaki should want a strong defense behind him.
Winning: Sasaki is likely to prioritize winning, and it seems unlikely that a team that has gone 83-79 the past two seasons and missed the playoffs both years could sell him on winning. But everything is not that cut and dried. With Sasaki on the roster, the Cubs probably would have made the playoffs both of the last two seasons. And if the Cubs got into the playoffs win a rotation of Sasaki, Imanaga, Justin Steele and Jameson Taillon, look out.
Pitch lab and health: The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that Sasaki will want to go to a team that can get the most out of him. While the Cubs had a poor record of developing pitchers for a while, the emergence of Justin Steele, Javier Assad, Porter Hodge and others show that the Cubs seem to have fixed that issue. Imanaga has spoken at how well the Cubs have shown him how to translate his stuff to MLB to terrific results.
On top of that, the Dodgers are great at developing great pitchers. What they aren't good at is keeping them healthy. The joke this past October was that the Dodgers had eight great starting pitchers and only two of them were healthy. They almost let the Yankees back into the World Series after they were forced into a bullpen game in Game 4. The Cubs have had their share of pitching injuries, to be sure, but they kept their starters healthier than a lot of other teams did over the past few seasons.
Minor Leagues: Yes, the Dodgers won it all in 2024, but Sasaki is signing up for six years. Who is going to be good over the next six years? The Cubs may have a better farm system than any team other than the Red Sox at the moment. Sasaki should want to sign with a team that is going to be good in 2026, not a team that was good in 2024.
Chicago: This one is subjective, but I'd try to sell it anyways. Certainly Imanaga chose the Cubs over the Giants because he liked Chicago better than the Bay Area. There has been some talk that Sasaki might like to sign in a smaller city than New York and Los Angeles and many have interpreted that as "San Diego." But while Chicago isn't small, it's a lot smaller than New York or Los Angeles. And while it doesn't have the same size Japanese and Japanese-American community that New York or the West Coast cities have, it does have a good-sized one that can help Sasaki make the transition to America.
Malört: Tell Sasaki that there is this secret liqueur that is universally considered to be the greatest-tasting thing in the world, but it is only available to people who live and work in Chicago. The only way he'll get to taste it is if he signs with the Cubs or White Sox and he's not signing with the White Sox.
So basically, lie to him. Hey, they lied to Suzuki about the weather in Chicago and that worked.
I'm sure the Cubs will have a lot more details on what to sell Sasaki on Chicago, especially on how the front office and analytics can make him a better pitcher. Also on the quality of life in the Chicago area.
I do think the Cubs have a chance to sign Sasaki. He shares an agent with Suzuki, so the Cubs should at least get a chance to make a pitch. Do I think they're a favorite? No. But they've got a chance.
As I see it, the Dodgers are the favorites and the Padres are the second-favorite. Every other serious contender is in third place, including the Yankees, Mets, Phillies, Blue Jays, Nationals, Orioles, and Rangers. Other teams might get a shot at Sasaki, but I think it's unlikely.
So where do you think Sasaki signs?
Thank you for stopping by. We're so glad to host you again. Let us know if you checked anything so we can get it for you. Get home safely. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff.And join us again tomorrow for more BCB After Dark.