The Rundown Lite: Best Wishes to Mike Canter, Indictments in Guardians Gambling Scandal, Predator Badlands Review
Folks, it has been one hell of a weekend. Caleb Williams and the Bears authored yet another late comeback, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) celebrated its 32nd birthday, and we got loads of snow in certain parts of the Midwest. I’m still trying to understand why the greatest rap group in history hasn’t yet been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but we can save that for another time. Oh, we also had a bit of a health scare in the household that kind of dominated the last two days.
On top of all that, I received word on Saturday afternoon that our beloved Michael Canter is stepping down from his post permanently. With the exception of a sabbatical or three over the years, Mike has been the most consistent pillar of this site other than me for the last decade or so. His knowledge of music and baseball is unparalleled, and his writing style garnered a loyal audience that came to CI specifically for his columns.
While he’ll still be around, basically moving from bartender to barfly, I’m really going to miss his contributions and the resultant conversations they spurred. Mike helped to usher this little blog from relative obscurity into, well, relatively less obscurity. I think we’re still the largest fully independent Cubs site, though market saturation has watered that claim down to a great extent over the years.
Extremely bittersweet Sunday. I’ve decided to retire from writing immediately. My preferred way to write is long form, and the audience for that type of content is shrinking. I’m not a guy who can pump out three paragraphs and move on to the next subject. That type of writing… pic.twitter.com/jolAZvdMjz
— michael canter ✨ (@MEdwardCanter) November 9, 2025
Those who’ve been around for a while know that I have often stepped into Mike’s Rundown duties like a child clumsily walking around in his dad’s shoes, so I guess I’ll give that a go for at least a little while. Fun fact: The Rundown actually originated with former CI contributor Bryan O’Donnell way back in October of 2014. He remained in that role for just over a year, then I kept it going sporadically until Mike officially took over on December 1, 2015.
My unofficial count puts the number of Canter Rundowns at 1,638, give or take a few. That comes out to one column per day for four and a half years straight, and I don’t even want to think about how many words we’re talking about. Our dashboard doesn’t show articles’ lengths, but I’d wager it’s around two million. Perhaps I’ll enlist the help of a disgraced Guardians pitcher or two so I can win that bet.
Before getting to that, I just want to share my appreciation for what Mr. Canter has meant to Cubs Insider and to me. And to many of you, as well. I believe he may have said something to this effect himself, so I don’t think I’m speaking out of school to share that Mike once told me he felt I’d saved his life. To me, that speaks volumes about this little site and how much bigger it is than clicks or pageviews.
Thanks, Mike, it’s been a helluva ride.
Clase, Ortiz indicted
After being placed on non-disciplinary paid leave back in June, (former) Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase were indicted by prosecutors in Brooklyn on gambling-related charges. Ortiz was arrested on Sunday, but Clase was not in custody as of this writing. The pair is charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy, for their alleged roles in a scheme to rig bets on pitches thrown.”
This stems from a scheme in which the pitchers would intentionally throw balls so gamblers could win on various microbets. A watchdog organization noticed curious spikes in bets on whether a specific pitch would be a ball or a strike, with a game on June 15 standing out. According to the indictment, Ortiz was paid $5,000 for throwing a ball and Clase got the same sum for facilitating the deal. Another incident on June 27 earned them $7,000 apiece. All told, winnings from rigged wagers came to around $400,000, with Ortiz getting around $60,000.
If convicted, each pitcher could face up to 65 years in prison. I’ll take the under on them serving that much time, but it’s unlikely either will play professional baseball again. Imagine throwing away your career for a scam that nets you less than one-tenth of your salary. And that’s with Ortiz earning the league minimum; Clase was making $4 million a year on his deal.
This is the part where I lament the increasing ubiquity of legalized gambling, particularly sports leagues embracing it wholeheartedly. That doesn’t excuse the actions of these and other players — there will be more of this to come, and there’s probably much more we don’t know about — but it’s not surprising when you consider how sports betting is no longer confined to shady bookies and Las Vegas casinos.
The other aspect of this whole mess is how players are threatened by bettors who lose their wagers on bad beats. While most of those are the same moronic bozos who make all manner of outlandish comments on our Facebook page, I’m not willing to dismiss the idea that some athletes might be forced to comply with schemes like this under threat of violence against themselves or their families. I mean, just look what happened to Paul Crewe.
It’s on the individual players in the end, but some measure of culpability lies with a league that requires managers to submit their lineups to Vegas before they’re released publicly. That practice still doesn’t explain why Craig Counsell is routinely later with his lineups than most of his colleagues — please note that I am not insinuating anything nefarious there — but I digress. My fear is that this is going to get worse — perhaps much worse — before it gets better.
Kyle Tucker destination predictions
Several staff writers at The Athletic created a tiered list of teams based on their willingness and ability to sign Tucker, who managed to win a Silver Slugger despite a disappointing second half. To no one’s surprise, the Dodgers are alone at the top, followed by the Yankees in the second tier. Tier 3 consists of the Red Sox, Mets, Giants, and Blue Jays. Then come the Phillies in Tier 4, with the Cubs sitting just below.
As we’ve mentioned here many times before, a reunion is only possible if Tucker’s market collapses entirely and he’s forced to take some sort of pillow deal. And even then, he might find a softer landing elsewhere. Wrigley Field wasn’t very accommodating to his profile as a hitter, and there seemed to be some other disconnects between Tucker and the organization.
For as much as he looked like a perfect fit on paper, something about the match in reality just didn’t quite sync up as well as expected. Now the question is whether and how the Cubs will reallocate the money that would have presumably gone to Tucker.
Predator Badlands review
I’ve been a sucker for Predator movies ever since seeing the original at my buddy’s house over 35 years ago. This latest entry is easily my favorite since then, proving again that the franchise is in very capable hands with Dan Trachtenberg at the helm. He had a surprise hit with Prey a few years ago and has now managed to humanize his Yautja protagonist in a way that gives the movie far more depth than you’d expect from a sci-fi action blockbuster.
Dek, an outcast runt who isn’t accepted by his father or his clan, provides an allegory for anyone who leaves home in search of approval and belonging. Even if you choose not to view the movie through that lens, it’s got plenty of stunning visuals and riveting action sequences to keep you entertained. What’s more, it’s loaded with humor. I found myself belly-laughing throughout the movie, but the comedy was neither cheap nor out of line with the tone of the movie.
Trachtenberg has hinted at another chapter in his Predator story, and he teed that up with the ending, but this entry could stand on its own even if there isn’t another movie coming. That said, I have to think the heavy presence of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation from the Alien franchise signals a potential reimaging of previous crossovers between the Yautja and the xenomorphs. I even saw where Arnold Schwarzenegger was interested in returning as Dutch from the seminal film, though I’m not sure how true that report is.
Speaking of which, my next trip to the theater will be for Edgar Wright’s adaptation of The Running Man. As you might recall, the original was released just a few months after Predator and served as more of a star vehicle for Arnold than an accurate depiction of Stephen King’s (or Richard Bachman’s) original novel. This new one is far more faithful, so I’m excited to see the book brought to life. Anyway, Predator Badlands was a very entertaining romp that I look forward to experiencing again.
