Cup of Coffee

Hi — Craig Calcaterra here. I wanted to let you know that as of January 13, 2024, the Cup of Coffee newsletter has moved from Substack to Beehiiv. • None If you are here because you want to sign up for the newsletter, go here instead. • None If you are looking for the main page with archive posts, those are all available at Beehiiv as well. Thanks so much for your support!

Good morning! The Yankees signed a free agent pitcher yesterday, Juan Soto set an arbitration record, and a bunch of other players avoided arbitration as well. Elsewhere, Ken Rosenthal writes a perplexing column, the Dodgers and Cubs made a trade, the Reds signed a reliever, and a Miracle Met has passed on to Baseball Valhalla.

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday! With a free newsletter there’s no need to tease what’s a-comin’, so let’s jump on in, then, shall we? Yesterday the Yankees were reported to be the favorite to sign free agent starter Marcus Stroman. To be sure, that came from Jon Morosi of MLB Network and he has whiffed mightily this offseason, but we’ll leave that aside. The fact is that the Yankees need to bolster their rotation and Stroman doesn’t yet have a job, so why not?

Good morning! The Cubs signed a Japanese pitcher. The Marlins hired a woman for an important front office position. The charges against Wander Franco have been reduced but he still faces jail time and may never be allowed back in the United States. Shohei Ohtani has California officials wanting a change in the tax law. Another affiliate of Atlanta is moving operations to Georgia. In Other Stuff, my old neighbor — Ohio’s richest man — is in even deeper Jeffrey Epstein-related trouble.

Good morning! There was not a ton of baseball news yesterday but we’ll have enough fun with what there was. Which is to say that there are like four things that were at least baseball-adjacent about which I make hacky jokes and, really, isn’t that this newsletter’s value proposition? In Other Stuff there was a development of sorts with respect to Substack and Nazis but I’m skeptical and I’m not sure it moves the needle on my decision to move the newsletter off the platform.

Good morning! The Mets signed a pitcher, the Mariners and Rays made multiple trades, and the Giants and Cardinals got in on that action as well. Also, a 15-year veteran who has a claim to being one of the best players-to-be-named-later of all time has called it a career.

Today we have an unexpected extension, a desperate Trevor Bauer, a signing, the A’s saying no to the B’s, and MLB M&Ms, K? In Other Stuff we have met the enemy and he is us and we look back to the days of logging on to the internet via . . . Compuserve.

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday! Let’s jump on into it, shall we? The Associated Press reports that Dominican prosecutors have formally accused Rays shortstop Wander Franco of commercial sexual exploitation and money laundering. The money laundering charge is related to Wander allegedly paying off the mother of one of his alleged victims.

Good morning! It was a very slow baseball news day yesterday, but I talk about the Cubs new bench coach, check in on the Oakland A’s chaotic relocation, and talk about Paul Lukas’ decision to step away from Uni Watch. The bulk of today’s newsletter is Other Stuff. I have a lot to say — way, way too much, actually — about the band James. Don’t blame me, though. Blame the two subscribers who asked me questions about ‘em. Apologies in advance for getting way too deep into the weeds.

Good morning! And welcome to 2024! Yeah, 2024 began yesterday. And no, I didn’t even send out a comment thread or anything. Sorry. I was up past my bedtime Sunday night and slept too late yesterday morning to make it happen. We could all use a day offline, though, yeah? But now we’re back to it. And today we’re talking about Omar Vizquel’s sad attempt at P.R. management and USA Today’s pathetic aiding and abetting of that effort.