Here at BCB After Dark, the grooviest get-together for night owls, early risers, new parents, and Cubs fans overseas, we’re back to our regular schedule. We appreciate you coming by this evening despite the cold. I can assure you that there is warmth and companionship here. Give your coat to us to take. A handful of decent tables remain. Please bring a drink of your own.

As long as it doesn’t violate the site’s policies, you can discuss anything you need to get off your chest about baseball, music, movies, or anything else at BCB After Dark. Everyone is welcome to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the day, but the late nighters are urged to start the celebration.

I asked you if Christopher Morel would start 80 games at third base for the Cubs this coming season last week before the holidays. You cast a “no” vote by a margin of 54% to 46%. In any case, as far as these surveys go, it is rather close.

I don’t usually write a movie essay on Tuesday nights or Wednesday mornings. However, you still have time to cast your vote in the BCB Winter Western Classic, which runs from 3:10 to Yuma (1957) to The Magnificent Seven (1960). The result of that contest will be revealed tomorrow night, and we’ll immediately begin a film competition between director Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and filmmaker Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971). The decisions are just becoming more difficult.

Which Cubs rookie, or prospective rookie, do you believe will have the best season in 2024? That is the question I will be posing to you today. Yes, as everyone knows, Pete Crow-Armstrong is the Cubs’ best prospect, and MLB Pipeline’s Jonathan Mayo presently projects him to win the National League Rookie of the Year award. However, a lot of people have pointed out that Crow-Armstrong didn’t look great while going 0 for 14 during his brief major-league call-up last year. Many people, I’ve seen, are debating whether PCA ought to spend half of the season in Iowa. While it wouldn’t stop him from winning rookie of the year, that course of events would make it very improbable.