The Cubs added two more relievers to their bullpen Friday, giving them 10 and making you wonder if they have enough room in the enclosed pen for everyone to dance after home runs.
The archaic rule allowing rosters to expand in September usually leads to every team adding bullpen depth whether they need it or not, meaning more pitching chances, longer games and more empty stadiums in the ninth inning.
Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer spoke this week of "the balance between interrupting everyone's routine by having too many guys down (in the pen) and making sure we have enough pitching to make sure guys don't get tired."
It's a delicate balance, but the Cubs, like everyone else, tend to opt for "too many" over "interrupting routines" because you can never have enough pitching.
Baseball is the one sport that plays by one set of rules (25-man rosters) for five months and another for September (up to 40-man rosters) before returning to the original rules for the postseason. General managers say that it's debated during their annual meetings every year, but nothing changes.
Teams like having extra players just in case, even if it's someone whose only job is to come off the bench from time to time. The Cubs acquired outfielder Leonys Martin from the Mariners on Thursday even though they don't really need another outfielder.
"I don't love the rules in September, but if we're going to play by these rules, having a guy who can pinch-run late in a game and steal a base or is more likely to score from second, it is really valuable," Hoyer said. "Our roster has a lot of strengths, but that's not one of them this year so he helps to fill a hole that we have.
"It's going to be a really close race. We have really good teams chasing us, and you try and shore up every area of depth."
Manager Joe Maddon said he's OK with having call-ups in September, but would like to have a limited number available every game, like selecting 25 or 26 players every day from a 33-man roster and having the rest inactive.
"I don't know what that number should be, but to have 33 guys on your roster and 33 available is kind of difficult to manage sometimes," Maddon said.
Don't look for the rule to change any time soon, even as MLB complains about games that drag on and on because of so many pitching changes.
Big Fish: The Astros made the biggest splash in baseball last week with the acquisition of Tigers starter Justin Verlander for three prospects, a deal that had been discussed for more than over a month.
"Nothing forces a deal like a deadline, as we all know, and (Thursday) night at midnight Eastern was the last moment we could add someone to our organization and have them be available for the postseason," Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow told the Houston Chronicle. "So, it was now or never."
The Tigers paid $8 million of Verlander's $28 million salary in both 2018 and 2019 in exchange for a better set of prospects, including 19-year-old right-hander Franklin Perez and outfielder Daz Cameron, son of former White Sox center fielder Mike Cameron.
The Cubs were rumored to be in on Verlander, but Hoyer said they weren't really close to a deal.
"(The Tigers) were pretty much focused on Houston all along," he said. "And so because they had a deal they liked that they sat on for a bunch of weeks, we never got that deep into it. In the end, it worked out for Detroit and Houston, but I think that was going to be the result for almost the entire month."
Back to earth: The Dodgers suffered their first five-game losing streak this week and lost back-to-back series to the Brewers and the Diamondbacks, who swept them in Phoenix.
It was the first time they had dropped two consecutive series since late April, or lost as many as four games in a row.
"You always want to win baseball games," manager Dave Roberts said after the streak hit four. "Obviously we'd rather take it now than after September."
Obviously.
The dream of breaking the all-time record of 116 victories (1906 Cubs and 2001 Mariners) seems to be a long shot now, and the Dodgers have to hope they didn't peak too soon.
Clayton Kershaw made his return from the disabled list Friday night in San Diego, hoping to snap the skid.
If the Diamondbacks manage to win the wild-card game, they will play the Dodgers in a division series. That could be more interesting than anyone imagined only a week ago.
The Diamondbacks are 8-8 against the Dodgers this year, and don't seem at all intimidated by the team Sports Illustrated recently put on its cover with the headline "Best Team. Ever?"
