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Cubs First Half Grades

MikeJ — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:26:00 GMT

Easiest and most obvious post in the world, so lets get to it. Here's how I grade:

A - Greatly exceeding expectations
B - Meeting the higher end of expectations
C - Getting the job done, barely
D - A disappointment
F - A disaster

Dempster, Wood, Soto, Theriot

Dempster's the only guy truly exceeding my wildest expectations on the team. And his performance in the All-Star Game was awesome. Wood's been mostly great, except for a handful of games. Of the eight guys that made the All-Star, Soto was by far the most deserving. He's the only guy that I would really have complained about had he not made the team.

Zambrano, Marmol, Cotts, Lee, Ramirez, Fukudome, Soriano, DeRosa, Edmonds, Johnson, Fontenot

No complaints about any of these guys, as they're all basically doing what about as well as we could have possibly expected. Marmol's been shaky, but hopefully his good appearance in the all-star game will right the ship. I guess Cotts is a pretty big surprise amongst this group. I never thought we'd see him again after last year. Edmonds deserves props, too, for the same reason. And what a nice pickup Reed Johnson was. None of these last three guys were expected to be on the team, let alone contribute as much as they have. Fukudome needs to start hitting again.

Lilly, Marquis, Marshall, Lieber, Howry, Eyre, Ward, Blanco, Cedeno

All of these are getting the job done, though none have exactly dominated at any point. I expected a little more from Lilly. Him and Howry are the only real guys they were really counting on among these "barely adequate" guys. Can't really complain, though. Even about Marquis. I mean, he still sucks, but he's been his usual occasionally great but mostly shaky self. Cedeno has been mostly worthless since his blistering hot start.

Wuertz, Pie

Both guys are now in AAA, if that tells you anything. I think Wuertz simply needs to pitch more. Once a week generally doesn't cut it for relievers. When he's on, though, he's pretty great. But he deserves this D. And Pie...well, there's always next year. Hopefully he'll have a ring on his finger.

Hill

The one true disaster in the group. Can you imagine if he had his head screwed on right and did what we expected him to do? I expected somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 wins, and all I got was 15 walks in 15 innings. Horrible. And there's virtually no way he comes back this year. He's done.

Incomplete

Harden, Gaudin

Harden's here for one reason only: the postseason. All the experts analyze the trade and say that he'll make a 3 or 4 game difference in the standings this year. That might not sound like much, but it's pretty good. But really, I think they could have won the division without him. The Cubs made the trade simply to increase their chances of winning it all. The postseason is a different animal than the regular season, if Harden's healthy then the Cubs have two aces. Two aces, along with Dempster (if he can keep it up), and this team will be really, really tough to beat in October. I think Gaudin's going to pay huge dividends as well. In fact, it wouldn't shock me if he was the 2nd best reliever down the stretch, even better than Howry and Marmol.

Lou

Lou gets an A. He's already the best manager the Cubs have had in my lifetime. That's with just one playoff appearance under his belt (and he got swept to boot.) There's so much I can add here that it probably deserves its own post. So be on the lookout for that in the coming months.

And now, we wait. Till next time.

Bears are Jones'n. Former Lions running back returns to the NFC North

Perry — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:50:00 GMT

The Bears are done hibernating. Finally. The Halas Hall braintrust has actually signed a veteran running back to support rookie Matt Forte in the backfield. Kevin Jones signed a 1 year contract for a little over $600k. This is a great move, if I do say so myself. I had to look up the contract details on ESPN, here. The [Bears] website never has contract details (I've pointed this out in the past). So let's get to it. Why am I so high on Kevin Jones? Is it because I miss a different running back named Jones?! (Thomas) Nope, that isn't it. It's simply because this is a no lose deal for the Bears. It is pure upside. What is the worst thing that happens? Jones isn't fully healed from his recent injury problems? That is what cost him his job in Detroit. If he isn't healthy, we wasted $600k and are left with Forte anyway.

The bottom line is that Matt Forte isn't going to be able to carry the entire load for us this season. The coaching staff wasn't planning on starting Forte this year. The running back out of Tulane was supposed to be the spark that the now departed Cedric Benson needed to do his job. Thomas Jones was that spark a few years ago, and it isn't far fetched to believe that Forte would have pushed Benson to a level of play we haven't seen from the laggard. But Benson is now gone, and the Bears needed depth at the position that defines the franchise. Going into training camp with Peterson, Wolfe, and Forte would have been irresponsible.

Kevin Jones comes to Chicago and plans to prove to the league that he is healthy. He gets the chance to stick it to his old team twice this season. If he is healthy, he may get that chance every year. He is excited to be a Bear, and he has worked hard to get himself back into shape. Unlike Benson I get the feeling that Jones just loves playing football. We're not going to win the division because of this move. Then again, if another disgruntled NFC North player wants to get revenge on his old team, Chicago is more than willing to help.

Go BEARS!

Would I want Favre on the Bears?

MikeJ — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:19:00 GMT

Brett Favre is up to his annual "me, me, me" shenanigans, though instead of the world asking, "are you going to retire?!", the world is asking, "are you coming back?!" He just retired a few months back, and the media bent over backwards to basically kiss his ass as he walked out the door. Now he supposedly wants to play, and supposedly the Packers don't want him. I don't know what to make of all this, but I gotta say that you must be pretty big shit if the fact that you sent a text message makes "the crawl" on ESPN.

The Packers are ready to begin the Aaron Rodgers era. It's obvious that they don't want Favre back. What a bunch of stooges. This reminds me of Jerry Krause being so anxious to rebuild the Bulls after MJ's (second) retirement. Krause had been waiting for years to build his own team from scratch. (MJ was there when Krause got there, and justly got all the credit.) Krause was so eager to build his own team, that he and Reinsdorf more or less pushed Phil Jackson out the door after the last championship in '98 and the dynasty disintegrated over night. Can't blame Krause, though, as his master plan worked out well. (Next time you're at the United Center, make sure you check out the Tim Floyd and Marcus Fizer banners up in the rafters.)

Anyways, back to Favre. It's all the rage these days to speculate on what's next for Favre. Most people figure that he'll be on the open market, provided the Packers "release" him. A lot of people think the Bears are a legitimate destination for Favre. A lot of people are wrong.

Favre wouldn't sign with Chicago. Too much respect for the Packers fans. We're not talking MJ coming back with the Washington Wizards, this is the best rivalry in football here. It'd be like Edmonds signing with the Cubs or Chelios signing with Detroit or Johnny Damon signing with the Yankees. Wait a minute...
The Bears wouldn't sign him. They don't need a Quarterback. If they needed one, they would have drafted one, right? They don't need a runningback, either. If Angelo thought they needed a runningback, they would have scouted a veteran like Kevin Jones, right? What a bunch of fucking idiots. Scouts, Inc ranked all the teams by position, and the Bears have the least amount of talent on offense in football. Every position (other than Tight End) is bottom of the barrel. 5-11 this year. You watch.

Anyhoo, the title question of this post is, "Would I want Favre on the Bears?," even though we already know that the Bears don't. I wouldn't be against signing Favre because he wore Green and Gold and terrorized the Bears since I was playing Tecmo Bowl in High School. I don't give a crap about that. In fact, I'd be more inclined to sign him because of that. Just to stick it to Wisconsin. No, I'd give second thoughts to signing Favre purely for football reasons. Prior to last year, he had back-to-back seasons of pure crap. By the end of last season, he was crap. All that talk of him "playing within his limits" this year was crap. Same old Brett, he was just luckier with his dumb plays for a stretch at the beginning of the year. The Bears already have a QB on the roster that's reckless with the football. No, Grossman probably won't outperform Favre this year, (though its not completely out of the question). I'm just saying the team isn't close enough to win a championship to roll the dice on Favre. You saw what I just said about the offense, right? Is Favre going to turn Brandon Lloyd into Donald Driver? Is Garrett Wolfe going to turn out to be a diamond in the rough like Brian Grant?

Back in the day, Favre alone was worth 8 wins per season. Any talent around him at all, and they strolled into the postseason. Now what's he worth, 2 wins? Great, you're 7-9, the QB position is set back yet again and you're drafting a QB next April. Oh, and as an added bonus you have to deal with all the "will he or won't he" bullshit next spring. (Let me stick my head in the microwave now.) Might as well give Orton and Grossman one more shot, and save that 3rd roster spot for one of the undrafted rookies. I'll take the 1-in-20 chance that one of the rookies is worth something over the 1-in-100 chance that Favre can lead the Bears to the Super Bowl. The Bears aren't going anywhere this year anyways. See if Orton can stay sober or Rex can pull his head of of his ass.

UPDATE (7/15/2008): The Bears signed Kevin Jones today. Sweet. This post was exactly the kick in the pants that Angelo needed. Yeah.

Further thoughts on "The Trade" and a look at the rotation

MikeJ — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:13:00 GMT

The more I think about the Rich Harden deal, the more I like it. What really settled it for me was the Oakland reaction. I surveyed some A's blogs and the San Fran papers and I'd say the reaction is almost universal. Probably 85% of A's fans hated the move. Oddly enough, most of them hated the move because Gaudin was included. Plus there's a high level of dissatisfaction for the prospects they got in return along with the fact that Billy Beane is more or less giving up on the season. I can't help but agree with them. Gallagher looks good. Possibly a #2 starter but more likely a #3 or #4. Certainly not an ace.

There's not much short term risk for the Cubs. The worst case scenario for the Cubs is Harden getting hurt and making only two starts this year. Gaudin in 2008 is the equivalent of Gallagher in 2008, so there's no immediate loss there. I suppose it would hurt, too, if Soriano and Fukudome land on the DL at the same time (and thus Murton's loss would be felt). But really, in the short term, that's the only potential negative. If the Cubs miss the playoffs and Gallagher eventually becomes the next Dan Haren, then this trade will be considered a loss. But the reward is just so massive, and it's gotta be considered a win for the Cubs unless Harden's already hurt. (And to tell you the truth, that's in the back of my mind. Why else would the Cubs be able to get him for so little? What's the catch?)

Now it's time to think about the rotation. If I had to guess, I'd say Marshall will go to AAA and Marquis will stay in the rotation. However, I heard Hendry was on the radio yesterday talking about the rotation, and he mentioned Marshall but not Marquis. Interesting. That, of course, is what I would prefer to see but I would have guessed that Marquis' contract would have prevented that.

They can't put Marquis in the pen because they already have a long reliever. They can't demote him, and he's paid too much to sit around and do nothing as insurance. (Don't need it anyways with Gaudin and Lieber around)

He's going to be awfully hard to trade because he's owed 13 million dollars. He only made 5 mil last year, and 6 mil this year, but next year he's scheduled to make 10 million. Who the hell is going to pay Marquis 10 million? (incidentally, a lot of Cubs contracts are severely backloaded like that. It's Hendry's price to pay for turning around the team quickly.) I guess they can cut him, but he's gotta be serviceable enough for somebody to roll the dice in a trade. The Cubs will just have to pick up a bad contract in return and/or send a lot of money with Marquis. I bet they'd have to eat 6 or 7 million to dump Jason. If anyone can do it, Hendry can. He found takers for Todd Hundley, Sammy Sosa, and Michael Barrett, and I never thought he'd be able to move any of those guys.

I anxiously await Hendry's next move.

Royals balk at win against White Sox

Perry — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:58:00 GMT

I'm pretty exhausted tonight. No idea why. Probably because work has been a pain in the balls, and there just aren't enough hours in the day to finish all the things on my ever growing To-Do list...

At least the Sox won (again) tonight against the Royals. 7-6. We stole this game. I watched the first 2 innings before basically giving up. It is only because I saw Javi strikeout 10 batters and still lose the game against the A's last week. I couldn't stand watch him lose to the Royals. Javi is struggling and it is starting to worry me. 6 runs in 5 and 2/3rds? Yuck.

Some points I just want to quickly make as I fall asleep at the keyboard tonight:

1. First, are there any Royals Bloggers out there? Turns out there are. And some pretty damn good ones. Like this one from our old pals at the SB Nation. This site clearly has way more traffic than our little blog here in Chicago. The comments section is interesting only because they stopped talking about the game after about 10 posts. Nice.

2. Pauly is back. You know how I know? He struck out 4 times tonight.

3. I never got an All-Start snub rant up. You know why? Laziness, perhaps? No. Actually. I really don't care if we get snubbed. I'd rather get snubbed and win the division. We're playing some pretty good baseball. Our pitching is great and while we are relying on the home run a bit too much (what else is new Sox fans?) this team is making great progress. Give me a playoff run and I'll get over the All-Star game. Remember, you don't get a ring for going to the All-Star game. If you are really jonesing for a snub article, the fine young men at the Sox blog at MVN have one here.

4. There seems to have been a clubhouse "discussion" in tonight's game between Cabrera and JD. Hawk and DJ were speculating that it had something to with Cabrera's base running while JD was up. I'm not sure what this is all about. I'm waiting for Comcast to start talking Sox baseball...which leads me to # 5:

5. I hate Comcast. They had both the Cubs and the Sox on this freaking network and they buried the Sox game on Comcast Plus (ch 668 for you DTV'ers) When the White Sox game ends, DTV yanks the chord on the KC feed and forces us to jump to the main Comcast SportsNet channel. Of course, they're still talking Cubs and I'm going insane trying to figure out why Cabrera is starting static on a FIRST PLACE TEAM. Great clubhouse guy. Nice teamwork.

6. The Red Sox swept the Twins. They smoked them today 18-5. Brutal. Thank god someone took them behind the woodshed. The timing for the White Sox is great and as a result I'd like to send out a big thank you to the BoSox.

One more thing:

Q - our All-Star outfielder saved our asses again. He hit 2 home runs.

We still have to talk about who should be our closer while Bobby Jenks is on the DL, but I'll save that for tomorrow's post.

And if you are curious, Konerko just struck out again. (just kidding Pauly...)

Go-Go-White Sox!

Cubs acquire Harden, and that makes me very happy

MikeJ — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:34:00 GMT

This one's gonna be fast because I just got home from tonight's pasting of the Reds. (Welcome home, Dusty. Good times!) The Cubs got pitchers Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the A's for Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton, Eric Patterson, and some A-ball catcher named Donaldson. Hallelujah!

After losing out on CC, I was pretty disappointed. At this point, my sights turned to Harden. In fact, here's the money quote from what I sent in an email to my cousin, Jim:

I'd love for the Cubs to get Harden. Sure, he's extremely injury prone. In fact, he's the A's version of Prior & Wood. That said, when he plays, he's awesome. I think the Cubs need to aim high. Harden could be like Josh Beckett was for the Marlins & Red Sox. Injured most of the regular season, awesome in October. The Cubs really need to aim high and the reward with Harden would be massive. They don't need the likes of Randy Wolf. They've already got enough .500 caliber pitchers.

Exactly. Great pickup for the Cubs. And Gaudin's no slouch himself, probably better than Marquis - though that's not saying much. Gallagher's the only guy I will miss in this deal, but if the Cubs win the pennant, let alone the Series, I won't care one bit. Murton's solid and could start for a number of teams, but really he's just average at best. Patterson looks like he has Kansas City or Baltimore in his future. In other words, he's nothing worth crying over. I know nothing of the A-baller other than he hit .216 in A ball. Some guy called him a "bullpen catcher" today, and I don't know if that's true but its certainly funny. But we got Harden.

Your move, Melvin.

More to come, tomorrow.

Harden!

Busy Weekend for Cubs: St. Louis, All-Stars, and C.C.

MikeJ — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:44:00 GMT

Not a lot going on for the Cubs lately, huh? First and foremost, they won the St. Louis series. They were one strike away from sweeping them, but Kerry Wood's implosion Saturday shot that idea to hell. Still, I'll take the 2 of 3, thank you very much. I can't even get too upset about Wood either, because he's been so dominant lately. So dominant, in fact, that he's earned his second All-Star nod.

Speaking of, seven All-Stars, huh? It's kind of weird. All seven are really good and pretty much deserving to go (except maybe the often injured Soriano), but none were so dominant that I could have complained too much had they been snubbed (except Soto). Still, I'll take it. Soriano, Fukudome, Soto, Zambrano, Dempster, Wood, and Ramirez. What's funny is the Cubs had a few more that deserved some consideration (Lee, Theriot, DeRosa), but I can't dare complain when there's already seven guys going. It's just a really good team, top to bottom, and the All-Star selections support that. This is even better than the legendary 1988 squad that had six representatives. (That's Dawson, Sandberg, Maddux, Dunston, Palmeiro, and Vance Law if you're scoring at home.) You want to talk snubs, how about the South Side? And Varitek made it? Are you kidding me?

Anyways, the real news this weekend came with the Brewers trade for Sabathia. I'm not exactly sure of all the pieces that the Brewers are giving up, but one of the pieces is far better than anything the Cubs could offer. The Cubs simply don't have any young hitting that's worth anything on the open market. They've got a few pitchers, and a few "maybes" among the hitters, but nothing so special to land yourself an ace. (So you're saying you don't want Rich Hill? Really?!) Very disappointing for this Cubs fan. I don't think the Cubs need him to win the division, because even with Sabathia the Brewers are going to have to play extremely well to keep up. I just wanted him for the postseason. Oh well, now I guess we can turn our attention to All-Star Cliff Lee. If the Tribe is giving up the season, they may as go all the way and trade Lee while he's at absolute peak value. At least that's what I'm hoping, anyways.

Go Cubs!

Watch out Cubs, Sabathia Traded to the Bewers

Perry — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:05:00 GMT

Buster Olney just reported on ESPN's Baseball Tonight that C.C. Sabathia is now a Brewer. I know a lot of Cubs fans where praying that the Cy Young Award winner would come to the north side, but he is instead heading further north to Milwaukee. This isn't good news for the Cubs. While they handled the Cardinals this past weekend (with ease) I'm not so sure the Cardinals are who they should be worrying about. The Brewers pulled off a deal sending nothing but position players to Cleveland. (at least that's what I thought I heard Olney say)

They're not playing for next year. This much is clear. I guess when the White Sox buried the Cleve last week, it opened the doors for the trade.

More to come....

Playoffs!? How the Chicago teams stack up

MikeJ — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:03:00 GMT

As much as I enjoy interleague play, and the Cubs-Sox series in particular, I'm happy its over. After the uber-intense crosstown classic, it's kind of nice to get back to the "normal grind" of the regular season. Where you don't live and die with every single pitch, and the ramifications of a single loss don't seem nearly as high. But before the Cubs-Sox series is too far in our rear view mirror, I want to look at how the Chicago teams stack up with the postseason in mind. I'm going to look at two categories in particular: "Prospects for the Playoffs", and "Prospects for Winning it All."

Prospects for the Playoffs
The Cubs have only a 2.5 game lead as of this writing, but the difference in talent between the Cubs and Cards seems much wider than that. The Cardinals have simply been winning with smoke and mirrors, that's all there is to it. I mean, who the hell is in their rotation? And who the hell is Ryan Ludwick? This team is littered with nobodies playing way over their head. The Cubs, on the other hand, have the best run differential in baseball -- despite dealing with numerous injuries themselves. You can't even really say that anyone on the Cubs is playing over their heads, either, except Dempster and maybe Theriot to a degree. But really Dempster just makes up for the massive head case and black hole that is Rich Hill. Cubs get healthy and stay healthy, they should be able to easily take the division. I'm honestly more worried about the underachieving Brewers and who they might acquire more than the Cardinals.

The South Sider's lead is roughly the same as the Cubs, but the teams breathing down their neck are better than the Cardinals and Brewers. Many people predicted the Tigers to win 100 games this year, and despite the rough start they're still only 6.5 out. Their pitching has been mostly sub par, but they can outslug anybody - and that asset can be ridden into October. The Twins, much like the Cardinals, are simply winning with smart baseball. Since Gardenhire took over, they've never really been out of any race. They just find ways to win. The Sox have a good team. Good hitting, good starting pitching, good bullpen. Solid, top to bottom. Not a lot of depth, though. Who would step in if a starting pitcher or two went down? They've been very lucky with injuries. (luckiest team in the league, according to Baseball Prospectus.) The only guy they were counting on that's missed any time is Konerko. So all in all I'd say the Sox have a tougher road to the postseason than the Cubs. Tougher competition, plus a general lack of depth should anyone go down.

Prospects for Winning it All
Here's where the teams really differ. The Cubs have a balanced, deep team and a great offense, but they simply don't have a championship caliber rotation. Good enough to win the division, for sure. But good enough to be the favorites in a short series against teams like Arizona and Philly? (let alone any contender in the AL) No. Zambrano can hang with anybody, but Dempster, Lilly, etc are simply too streaky for me to have anything more than a passing level of confidence in them. The bullpen isn't all that deep either, beyond the fragile Wood and the slightly-off Marmol. Sure, anything could happen in the playoffs - see St. Louis in 2006. But the Cubs would not be the favorites by any stretch of the imagination - that is unless they acquire Sabathia. (They get CC, and I reserve my Series tickets now.)

The Sox, on the other hand, are built for October. Strong rotation (with old man Contreras likely the odd man out), very good looking bullpen. Pitching always prevails in October. The Sox have a hard time scoring runs when they aren't homering, but all in all you can't complain too much about the offense. Its good enough to win it all with. So yeah, if the Sox make the postseason, I think their odds of winning it all would be better than a CC-less Cubs.

But it's all a crapshoot anyways, right? Right?

Sox Even the Series with Sweep over Cubs

MikeJ — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:54:00 GMT

What is this, soccer? The Sox, having been swept by the Cubs at Wrigley last weekend, got their revenge and swept the Cubs this at the Cell weekend. The season series ends up tied, 3-3, and you know what they say about ties, right? It's like kissing your sister. (Not that there's much kissing going on between the north and south sides.) I think we need a tiebreaker, perhaps in October. What do ya think? On to the gory details:

The Cubs had their chances in the last two games of this series, they just didn't get the big hit when they needed it. LOTS of double plays, not to mention a few shoddy calls by the umps that all went against the Cubs. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. The Sox won, and two of the games were pretty convincing. I'm just pulling a Hawk and mentioning that the good guys got hosed on a few.
Marshall and Gallagher both did all right this weekend, and I can't pin the losses on either guy. Gallagher, in particular, showed some good stuff in his Saturday effort. So what's the deal, should the Cubs trade those two (along with a few others) to try and pry Sabathia away from the tribe? I've got two words for you. Hell and yeah.
Aramis Ramirez blew chunks this weekend. He's still better than Crede, though, and its not even close.
Alexei Ramirez is pretty freaking great. He reminds me of Hanley Ramirez, only skinnier. Great pickup by Kenny.
Speaking of great pickups by Kenny, Carlos Quentin. He's got an awful lot of Canseco in him. I don't know if that means he's juiced or what, I just know he's hitting a ton.
The FireJoeMorgan guys got it right. The guy simply doesn't watch much baseball, which is fine unless you're the lead color analyst on the prime time game of the week. Every week he goes off on a tangent that's either a) painfully obvious, or b) completely mis-informed based off his shoddy memory or small viewing habits. For example, tonight he said the White Sox have one of the best bullpens he's ever seen. Jon Miller's jaw dropped when he said that and he did a double take. While they are pretty good this year, and they certainly looked dominant on Saturday, Joe is basing his entire opinion on that one day. Linebrink came in today and threw a few strikes and Morgan said to Jon, "see what I mean?" Like a 1-2 count proves anything. Then last week there was the whole "Banks Boulevard" thing, which was an outright fabrication; preceded the previous week by him engaging Miller in a bit of "trivia". Great player, but his commentary is ridiculous.

There's not much more I can say about this series. The Cubs are simply banged up a bit and struggling right now. Once they get healthy, I think they can get rolling again and easily take the division. Then again, with the Cards playing out of their minds, so it's not exactly going to be easy. Till next time....

Sweep Return for White Sox over Cubs

Perry — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:05:00 GMT

What a difference a week makes. Even Steven. That's pretty much all White Sox fans wanted to see tonight. The Sox returned home to face the Cubs this weekend and swept the visiting Northsiders. This series found both teams still in first even after the Cub's sweep over the Sox at Wrigley last weekend. The Sox took the first game on Friday with ease. They chipped away at the Cubs on Saturday for a win, and rode the home run ball to a victory tonight against a Cubs team that is "scuffling".

The Cubs did a number on the White Sox last weekend and it was good to see the Sox return the favor. If the White Sox sent a message to the Cubs it was that the Southsiders are just as good as the Northsiders.

So here are a few notes from this weekends Crosstown Classic:

1. We're winning because of two things: pitching and home runs. (46% of all our runs)
I'd be a lot more comfortable if we could actually score some runs the old fashion way.
Get em on. Get em over. Get em in. As for the pitching, Buehrle looks like his old self. The cost of his success may have been Javi Vazquez's struggles. These two pitchers have flip flopped. Vazquez looked awful on Saturday and was rescued by Quentin's home run late in the game to win it for the Sox.

2. The Bullpen is pretty good.
I won't go so far as what Joe Morgan said on tonight's telecast ("Best Bullpen he has ever seen") but the pen is great. What a turn around from last year. The combination of the worst bullpen in the Majors and not being able to handle the NL last year ruined our season. Credit goes to Kenny Williams for adding Linebrink and Dotel. I'll happily eat my words now.

3. The MLB should be on notice: Chicago baseball is no joke.
I'm hoping that ESPN and the rest of the country have learned what Chicago knows. The Sox and the Cubs are very balanced teams that are BOTH built for the playoffs. I don't buy this favoritism towards the Cubs. I don't see how anyone can tell me that they are built better for the post season. Especially when you consider the White Sox bats and the bullpen. Hell, throw in the starting pitching and I dare you to tell me the White Sox are any less qualified to make a run at the big show.

4. Lou was tossed in the 2nd inning tonight. He shouldn't have been.
That's right Cub fans, I think you saw some shitty umpiring tonight. Lou shouldn't have been
thrown out tonight. Sure, he shouldn't have been out there arguing balls and strikes but he was heading to the dugout when the home plate umpire threw sweet Lou out. Total crap. The umps need to stop it with the quick hook. I don't think it made a difference in tonight's game, but I'm sure that the Cubs Nation is completely up in arms. Let the home team conspiracy talk begin...

Both these teams are evenly matched and the Crosstown Classic(s) proved it. Now that all the hoopla and drama of an "L" series is over, the Sox can go back to worrying about the Twins. The Cubs can go back to worrying about the St. Louis Cardinals. Both of these 2nd place teams won't go away, and this is troublesome for one main reason. They both can ruin what could be the greatest World Series in our lifetimes.

Go-Go-White Sox!

White Sox Take Series Over Dodgers

Perry — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:04:52 GMT

The rubber match in LA between the White Sox and the Dodgers was another one of those afternoon specials. I hate early starts. I'm stuck at the office getting worked into a lather about some sort of software bullshit instead of watching the game. I completely forgot the Sox where playing the afternoon special. I used to rely on a handful of Sox fans in the office to remind me, but most of them have left the company. The Euro semi-final also isn't helping either....

As for the game, I can't really comment other than to say the box score looked great. White Sox win 2-0 and that's a big deal based on our recent road woes. Danks did a great job today pitching and the Sox where able to increase their defensive effort to support him. The bats seem to be quiet again and that won't be a good thing because part 2 of the Crosstown Classic starts tomorrow!

Here are some final White Sox points as I crawl into a dark room and pray, quietly in the corner that the White Sox punish the Cubs like a 5 year old stealing candy at WalMart:

Danks had 4 straight no decisions before getting this win. I think he is coming along nicely. Wish he would be pitching tomorrow because...
Jose Contreras is starting tomorrow against the Cubs. What are the chances he can shake off one of the worst innings I've ever seen him pitch.
Paul Konerko is still on the DL. It would have been nice to have Paulie back for this series as he is a Cubs killer
Alexai Ramirez is getting very good defensively. Did anyone see him turn that double play today? He is going to be a special player in this league. Mark my words
Swisher looks OK at first base. Better than Thome, not as good as Paulie.
JD is going to have to carry us this weekend...
We have a pretty good home record at the Cell too...
And Finally, the DAMN TWINS KEEP WINNING. CHRIST. Make them stop already. Damn Piranha.

Go-Go-White Sox!

Bulls Draft Derrick Rose

Perry — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:43:13 GMT

John Paxson corrected the mistake Jerry Angelo made in this year's NFL draft by drafting Derrick Rose. I am a bit surprised by this fact. You see, the Bears had an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone in their draft and they decided to take a pass. I'm talking about the fact the Bears needed a running back, and a boost after a terrible season. What more could you ask for than an Illinois running back who grew up a Bears fan in Skokie? Alas, Rashard Mendenhall was passed over by his favorite team when the Bears took Matt Forte. (ok, I am assuming Menenhall grew up normal, ie a Bears fan)

The Bulls were in the same position tonight. The number 1 pick fell into their lap after a disastrous season where they missed the playoffs. The ship was sinking on the Westside. Paxson had to do something to make a swift correction. Hiring Vinnie Del Negro wasn't it. Drafting a true point guard who grew up in Chicago was.

My interest level has now officially increased in this team. I'm happy that the Chicago kid comes home, but don't misinterpret my enthusiasm. The fact remains the Bulls did something decisively. With clarity. This is refreshing considering the mess that was the head coaching vacancy. I'm happy because Derrick Rose was HANDS DOWN the BEST player in this years draft. He is the closest thing to a sure thing and the Bulls didn't over think themselves. We took the best player in the draft #1. That is how its supposed to go. Paxson still isn't out of the woods, but this is a start.

My hope is that John and the Bulls continue to do the OPPOSITE of what the Bears have done. Specifically, I hope they don't start off on the wrong foot with Rose by offering him a "home discount" contract. Pay the kid. Pay him well. Do it tomorrow. Get him in Deerfield shooting baskets as soon as possible. Then take a lunch break and show him around Lake Forest or Highland Park(where I will assume he will reside) After all that, pick up a phone and start shopping Kirk Heinrich.

Welcome back to the Chi Derrick.

Bulls take Rose

MikeJ — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:38:00 GMT

The Bulls, as expected, took Derrick Rose with the first pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. There's not much I can say about the pick that I haven't said before. Downey, today, said it best: Paxson can take the hometown kid, Rose, and not be skewered if the pick is a bust. But if Paxson picks Beasley and he's a bust, well then Paxson might as well reserve his flight out of town right now. Rose is a nice, safe pick, and now they just need to move Hinrich or Gordon. Period.

As the first pick in the draft, Rose has a lot to live up to. I don't expect a whole lot from him this season, as Guards rarely come in and make an immediate splash. Look at Deron Williams and Chris Paul. They were up and down their rookie seasons. By the last month of their rookie years, though, they seemed to catch on. Now, they're All-Stars.

Eventually, this pick will be like the Beer of the Month. A gift that keeps on giving. In the meantime, let's just keep him away from motorcycles and hope for the best. And hey, at least this one wasn't dressed like Lloyd Christmas on draft day. Right?

White Sox Head West to Meet The Dodgers

Perry — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:02:56 GMT

I've said this before, and I will say it again: I love west-coast baseball. The White Sox are visiting the Dodgers in LA tonight. The game didn't start until 9pm CST. This gave me plenty of time to scout the Cubs.

Hah!

No, seriously I saw a few innings of the Cubs game. The Orioles actually did something tonight that the White Sox weren't able to do last weekend in the crosstown classic. And that is beat the Cubs at Wrigley. I am just as shocked as you are. The Orioles are not a good baseball team. I say that without even looking at the standings. Ok, they are ahead of the Blue Jays, but the Jays are in such bad times that they went and hired Cito Gaston. AGAIN. Looks like Cito is trying to put the band together again. [he just let go his batting coach] I guess I shouldn't crap on the Orioles. Especially since they come to the Northside winning 7 out of their last 10.

As for the Sox, it was a great game. Buehrle was on the mound and he did a great job. His typically fast pace worked in all of our favors. (especially those of you working in the morning) His line tonight: 8 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, 2 strike outs, and he gave up only a single home run in the 6-1 victory. Its good when the Sox bounce back this quickly. JD had another great game tonight. He tied Quentin with his 17th home run tonight. It put the game away and it was exactly what he needed. I believe I saw him strike out twice before that at bat. Way to battle JD. He also won AL Player of the Week honors. So, not a bad night for JD. I guess I should shut up about trading the guy. One final note about the game: we played some great defense tonight. (yes, even without Crede) Alexai's awesome overhand grab in short center field led to a double play. He caught the runner leading too far towards second base. A bullet throw to first catches the guy and we're heading to commercial. Nice work by the Cuban Missile. He is becoming a fun dude to watch. Finally...

Good news in the division. The Indians lost to the Giants. The Cards took care of the Tigers, and as of right now it is a 1-1 tie game in San Diego where the Twins are trying to win their 7th straight. The media should sniff the Twins turbo-charged rise any second now. I'm dreading the stories of how the Twins are "gamers".

A few White Sox notes:

Jim Thome is getting a chance to befriend Pablo Ozuna. Why Pablo? Because Ozuna rides the bench. Interleague play doesn't afford Ozzie the luxury of Thome's big bat in the lineup. I'm guessing the conversation in the dugout took a turn for the worse when big Jim realized Ozuna was told to grab a glove and find his way to his chopping station. You see, Ozuna is a butcher at 3rd and with Crede getting the night off he actually got a chance to play. Thome and Konerko could get together and compare notes when it comes to struggling early at the plate. Paulie is headed to the minors for a rehab assignment and hopefully gets to break the spell of the no-hit-bat. And with that I realize that I am rambling and making no sense.

But the White Sox win, and that means everything is back to normal tonight.

GO-GO-White Sox!

Cubs Sweep Sox

MikeJ — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:30:00 GMT

The Cubs brought out the brooms this weekend on the North Side, pretty much destroying the White Sox. If you're a Cubs fan, there was a lot to like about this series. To note:

Back-to-back jacks in the 7th on Friday by Aramis and Lee, followed by Aramis' game winner in the bottom of the ninth off Linebrink brought down the house at my local (shitty) watering hole downtown. After watching the Cubs batter Linebrink last year, I thought the White Sox were crazy to give him such a huge contract. I still think they're crazy, but thus far nobody's giving Kenny any grief for the move on the South Side. Too bad (for the Sox) that the National League ballpark awoke his inner stinky. Same goes for Dotel, for that matter. Oh, and thanks, Ozzie, for getting Denks out of there. Smooth.
Speaking of Aramis, I wonder if Phil Rogers wants to change his pick for "best Chicago third baseman" after this weekend? Crede's pretty solid, but picking him over Aramis was RIDICULOUS. Most of these position-by-position breakdowns are pure column fodder in order to get a rise out of the readers, but going with Crede was just stupid. Crede plays better D (though not that much better these days - note Crede's league-leading 14 errors), but Aramis just blows him away with the bat. His last five years dwarf Crede's. It's not even close. The only thing Crede's really got on Aramis is the postseason heroics, and a dozen games does not a career make, no matter how great they were. Otherwise Scott Brosius would be going to the Hall of Fame.
I can't look at Eric Patterson without thinking of the royal-suckitude of his older brother, Corey. Pretty great series for Patterson the Younger, though. Here's a perfect example on why the Cubs won't miss Soriano that much over the next four weeks. Sure, Soriano would most definitely outperform Patterson/Murton/Hoffpauir by quite a bit over the course of a season. But how many big hits or days will they miss over a short term? And how conceivable is it for the Cubs to have someone in the lineup that has a reasonable chance of having a big day himself? It's not like nobody's going to be playing Left Field. Somebody will play, and that somebody will get gets. Minus Soriano, you're just missing a few hits here, a few homers there. Maybe 2 or 3 games in the standings, at the absolute most. It's not like every Soriano homer was a game winner (though his 8 GW-RBI this year would attest).
Second hottest hitter on the team after the scorching Aramis? D-Lee. I knew that slump wouldn't last long. Coldest hitter? Soto. His last four weeks are not pretty. Hopefully he'll start heating up again now that his finger is healing.
Now I gotta say something bad about Mark DeRosa. Every time I criticize him, he goes on a tear and hits a ton. Everytime I sing his praises, he goes cold. Because of that, I can now state with absolute certainty that I control the universe -- though there's quite a bit of bizarro going on with Mark. Message to Mark: you're mediocre at best. (There. That ought to do it.)

The Orioles are in town next and the Cubs are due for a letdown. Those two facts are mutually exclusive, though, so I'm expecting the good times to last all week. Hopefully they're still rolling when the hit the Cell next weekend. Till next time...

Cubs Homer The White Sox to Death.

Perry — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:25:00 GMT

The Cubs came to play. There is no denying it. They came to PLAY against the White Sox. I am not sure if they were sending a message to the Sox (or the league) but I heard them loud and clear. This team is not a fluke. It took the best pitching staff in the AL deep 9 times. They made the Sox look silly. I can't find a single thing the Cubs did wrong against us. They stole bases, they crushed homers, and they pitched us into the ground. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they beat us at our own game. I'm positive the Cubs will eventually lose the Cardinals. It didn't take this ass-whopping of the White Sox for clarity to arrive. I'm just as sure that the Twins are going to pass the Sox.

I'm always nervous when the cross town classic comes up on the schedule. It typically goes one sided, and the team on the losing end usually stumbles their way to the bottom of their division. I know it is harsh. But is it too early to throw the towel in if you are a White Sox fan? Yup. We still have next weekend Sox Fans. It is the best we can do. Time to hope for a sweep of the Cubs at the Cell next weekend.

The most disapointing thing about the White Sox being swept by the Cubs is that we gave up a ton of ground to the Twins. Both teams will leave this series still in first place, but the Sox are only going to be a game and a half in front of the Twins. The offense continued to struggle in this series, and the Cubs turned our once solid pitching into a joke. From the walk off home run in Friday's game off of Linebrink, to the 8 run 4th inning Contreras threw yesterday. It was a pathetic effort all around. When you lose a series like this, you start to second guess what the managers and coaches are doing. There was a lot of arm chair quarterbacking going on this weekend. The first complaint was why Denks didn't stay in the game on Friday. Further, why would Ozzie pick 2 former NL pitchers that the Cubs own (Dotel and Linebrink) to replace Denks? It made no sense and the Cubs took advantage of the situation as a result. I heard a lot about Coop not doing his job and telling Ozzie that the matchup wasn't to their favor. The next point of contention White Sox nation had with the coaching this weekend was why didn't Contreras get pulled in the 4th. (sooner) What was it going to take? 12 runs? 5 back to back home runs? Shit, Ozzie didn't even get anyone up until it was too late.

Take a deep breath. I agree that Denks should have been pulled, but I disagree with the moves of Dotel and Linebrink. Face facts, their history on the Northside isn't a good one. I did disagree with the non action against Contreras. Would it have been bad to go out there and talk to him? Perhaps Coop could have taken a slow walk out there and reminded Jose that this game isn't over...

Really? It was over. We all knew it. We all felt it on the Southside. The tone was set with the walk off on Friday. The 0-2 count to Marquis, which eventually turned into a slap single to extend the inning and force the offensive onslaught, was the cherry on top. Tough breaks? No. Tough opponent. It seems the Cubs are going to tear through the rest of this baseball season like a White House shredder. The Sox, well...the White Sox are going to battle. I'm just not sure if they battle to stay afloat or to win it outright.

Shake it off White Sox fans. This series meant nothing. At least not yet.

Cubs Swept by Tampa

MikeJ — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:12:00 GMT

I forgot what it feels like to watch your team get swept. After all, the Cubs hadn't lost three games in a row all year. You know, it's exactly how I remembered it. It pretty much sucks.

I don't want to read too much into it because, after all, it's just 3 games in a 162 game season and all good teams have bad stretches. That said, this series was particularly painful because of all the injuries. To witness:

Carlos Zambrano is having a MRI on his shoulder, and he'll miss at least one start. Of course I want Carlos to remain healthy, start 35 games, and win 20. But the reality is this team is deeper than most and they can afford to miss a few starts by Carlos. Let's say, worst case scenario, he misses 12 starts. In that stretch, he'd go something like 8-4 (provided it was one of his "good" stretches). Marshall or Hill or Lieber steps in to the rotation and what do they go....4-8? Maybe even a bit better. So you're only talking 2-4 games in the standings at most -- and that's if he's out 2 months. The bigger problem would be the tax on the bullpen. A few more innings from the "good before tonight" middle relief.
Edmonds and Johnson are both banged up. It doesn't sound like anything serious, but to lose them both at once causes havoc on the defense. They had three guys playing out of position tonight in the outfield, and it showed.

Hey, what the flying fig happened to Carlos Marmol tonight? Is he hurt? Does he have Rick Ankiel disease? Is he worn out? Was he rusty from not pitching in 5 days? Was it just a fluke bad game? All I know is the Cubs can't afford for him to be hurt, crazy, or wild. He's far too valuable.

Sox series starts today, and I'm not feeling very confident right now. Sure, this team is awesome at home and on paper you'd think they'd win at least 2 out of 3. But you can throw the paper out the window during the Crosstown Classic. How the teams are playing has precious little to do with the outcome of the series. In fact, losing this series is often the turning point for the losing team's season. Let's hope, for the sake of both teams, that this isn't the case this year.

Still, I'm going to make a pointless prediction. Why? That's what I do. Cubs win, 2-1.

Side note. ESPN has a huge feature on the Cubs this weekend on the home page, and I was fully expecting to hate this. Surprisingly, its not that bad. Check it out. And while I fundamentally agree with this, I'm having a hard time looking into October with this team. Yes, they should win the division, but getting swept out of Tampa threw all my warm fuzzies out the window. Till next time...

Go Cubs Go!

White Sox Back on Track with Win Over Lowly Pirates

Perry — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:38:56 GMT

I was nervous this morning about tonight's Sox game. The Pirates are a horrible team. They have been owned by the Cubs. Why is this important? Because they are a bullshit measuring stick. You know it. What is a bullshit measuring stick? Its like applying simple logic to win/loss ratios. Basically, if we didn't do well against the Pirates in this series, a series that leads into the Crosstown Classic, we were toast. Cubs beat Pirates. Pirates beat Sox. Cubs Beat Sox. I feel like taking an SAT exam..

I completely missed the game tonight because of all the other shenanigans going on in Perry-land. Incidentally, I stopped blogging about the White Sox during that great win streak we had a week ago. I did this on purpose. I figured if I wasn't writing, and they were winning why should I rock the boat? At some point I realized that I was being lazy. Cocoa and Ruby programing can take a break tonight. Let's talk White Sox baseball.

There are a number of things that come to mind. I'm going to just list them out here for you:

First - Paul Konerko has been awful at the plate. He is now officially on the 15-day disabled list. This is the first time in Paulie's career that he has ever been on the DL. Is this a sign of things to come? I heard a few ridiculous comments on the radio this afternoon that had the Sox looking to shop Konerko the second he comes back from the DL. That's a dumb move. Exactly why hasn't Paulie earned the right to fight his way back from this terrible slump? If I told you we would be in first place on June 17th and Konerko was batting .215 (he is a career .278 hitter) would you have believed me? Paulie needs to work it out. He needs to work it out quickly because I like watching speed on the bases. No offense, but the middle of this order was built to "trot" not run. (thank you Comcast commercial)

Second - With hindsight being 20/20, I really would have liked to see a young outfield. Swisher, Quentin, and Brian Anderson. I think Jermaine Dye should have been traded, if not left unsigned. JD is great. He is one of my favorite White Sox players, but JD is getting up there in years and he can't run as well as he used to. Sure, I've seen him make a couple of decent diving catches in the past few weeks. And yes, he still has a great arm. But we need speed on the base pads. We also need to add some more young pitching to the farm club. JD is worth more than any of the other big 3 (Thome, Konerko, JD) I can see a playoff team in the AL calling the Sox for either JD or Thome's services before the trading deadline.

Third - Ozzie being Ozzie works. I'm sort of tired of Ozzie stirring the pot. I'm also sort of tired of the media turning it into a big deal. Rick Morrissey made a point in a column for the Trib that Chicago beat reporters are used to this from Oz. The outsiders are the ones making this a bigger deal. All well and good, but I'd like to think that the mature clubhouse we have isn't effected by Ozzie's rants at all. That goes for both good rants and bad. I find this to be yet another example of shit journalism. It sells papers, and has nothing to do with why the Sox are "turning it around".

I've got more thoughts on mid year moves...but I'm going to save that for tomorrow.

GO-Go-White Sox!

Boston Wins the 2008 NBA Title

Perry — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:00:00 GMT

I don't hate Boston. I actually had a ton of fun visiting during the 5 years my brother was out there training. It is a great town. Its sports fans....well, lets just say they are passionate. Damn it if they don't always win something. I know there are questions about the league's integrity (I'll write something up on this soon) but I can't say I'm not happy for the Celtics. Here are two reasons: KG, and Doc Rivers.

Doc especially, because he is a Chicago guy. Yea, I guess I can say that KG is an adopted Chicago guy too but no one in this audience remembers that he played at Farragut. Even fewer remember the great Chicago Public School baller, Ronnie Fields who was on that team. Damn they were good.

Anyway. I wanted to send a shout out to Doc. Congrats Doc. You deserve it. Now please come back home and show John Paxson how its done.

An Email thread on the Cubbies

MikeJ — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:50:00 GMT

Here's a couple of emails from Friday, when I was supposed to be working. Once again, the other half of this thread will be played by my cousin, Jim.

MJ: Good morning. I'm bored. Any thoughts on Soriano and the Cubs?

Jim: I think they'll miss Soriano, obviously, but it shouldn't have too much of an effect. I was remembering when he was on the DL the first time this year and I was making the absurd argument that they were better without him. What a schmuck. He's basically been mashing since he come off that first DL trip. Overall, probably their best offensive player.

But this team is so deep everywhere, that they should be able to at least keep themselves afloat if not continue to kick ass. Piniella is so good at just continuing to move guys around until something works. They can ride the combination of Johnson & DeRosa and be fine. My question is why didn't they bring up Murton. This situation screams for him. As decent of a player as he's been in the past, I think he could really do well in this lineup. We'll see, I wouldn't be surprised to see him up at some point.

It's amazing to be talking about a Cubs team being good enough to absorb the loss of a superstar player without much repercussion. I've never seen a Cubs team so deep. It's June 13th, so I won't talk about it at length, but this team appears to be the most capable in my lifetime of actually going to and winning the WS. Was it '88 that Sandberg got hurt and how bad they were without him (well, they were bad all the time back then, but you know what I mean). 2006, they went from probably being a .500/slightly sub.500 team to being the worst team in the NL after Lee went down.

On the other hand, think about the good Cubs teams of your lifetime and think how long it takes you to name the MVP of that year. 84, Sandberg, '89, harder but you take Maddux off that team and they aren't a playoff team, '98, easy Wood & Sosa, '03, easy Wood & Prior, '07, harder.

2008 you can make the case for probably 9 different guys - Marmol, Zambrano, Dempster, Fukudome, Soto, Ramirez, Lee, Soriano, Wood, shoot even Theriot you could make a case for. It's just strange because every good Cubs team I have seen before has been carried by a few guys and this one is carried by like 10.

MJ: Yeah, I had some pretty harsh words for Soriano, too. I do recall saying that they'd miss him during his DL stint, but I also remember calling him a "bust" on the blog. The fact still remains that 18 million per year over 8 years is too much money for such a limited player. Horrible defense (outside of his arm), no patience to speak of, sore legs (though he's been running better of late -- and the silver lining of this "break" is that it will also give his legs further rest). That said, he's been shutting me up quite considerably since then. Tons of clutch hits, as evidenced by his 40 RBIs out of the leadoff spot, despite missing 15 games. Ridiculously good, even if his head doesn't always appear in the game.

I have to actually disagree with the choice of Murton. Some of my friends here at work joke that I'm related to him, for as much as I've sung his praises in the past. But after his last stint here, I've changed my tune. Dude didn't hit one ball out of the infield, and all of his singles were of the swinging-bunt variety. It was sick. Ok, that's one bad week, but then I looked at his numbers in AAA this year. Sure, he's hitting .311 with a .410 OBP, but he only has one HR, and his slugging is less than .350. That's basically what Theriot is doing this year, which is fine and dandy for a shortstop. But you need more power than that from a Left Fielder. Murton's defense and speed are nill, too, so all you'd be getting from him is a potentially solid OBP, at best. I'm afraid there's no room for Murton on this team unless (knock on wood - but not Kerry, please) Fukudome joins Alfonso on the DL.

I'm OK with Patterson, though personally I'd maybe give Hoffpauir an extended look or perhaps sneak Cedeno in there some with DeRosa shifting to left. Personally, I think the Cubs are fine with any of those options. I think Patterson has a future as a major leaguer, though I don't think he's good enough to supplant DeRosa for the starting job or Fontenot as a bench guy. Maybe he's better than Fontenot, because he's not that special, but still, Patterson's no star. I'm thinking Patterson will have a productive career starting with someone like Pittsburgh or Kansas City. (Hoffpauir and Murton will probably end up the same way, for that matter.) Did you see the Cubs recently re-signed Jason Dubois? He's hitting the ball hard in AAA, of course.

Yes, this team has decent depth. I'd say the most valuable Cubs in terms of what kind of downgrade they'd see with his backup in the lineup is as follows:

Soto - Blanco and some AAA guy like Koyie Hill. Massive, massive loss.
Lee - his bat would be replaced by Hoffpauir/DeRosa/Ward, his D would be replaced by nobody
Fukudome - his D would be a huge loss, his left-handedness as well. Murton would get the call.
Zambrano - you can't replace an ace with Sean Marshall. You'd miss his bat, too.
Ramirez - despite the fact that he's probably the best hitter on the team, his loss would not be quite as bad as the others because DeRosa would shift to third and Cedeno into the lineup. He seems quite competent these days.
Marmol - Wuertz would be next in line, and he's not so hot and I suspect leads would start getting blown a lot more frequently. Though I'm really starting to like Cotts in the role.
Wood - Marmol's in line, which would be fine, but who would then take Marmol's spot?
Dempster/Lilly - go on down the line with Marshall/Lieber, etc.

Like you said, it's hard picking a MVP. I might go with Marmol, though. You know how often he takes a game from the 7th to the 9th? An average bullpen will blow a few leads, and a bad one will blow it every time. He's so, so clutch. Woodie hasn't been bad, either, except in those few high profile screwups. But only in those screwups, otherwise he's lights out. After him I'd go with Soriano or Soto. Soriano for all the game-winning hits (he has something like 8 or 9 while the guy with the next most on the team has 3 or 4). Soto because he's such a massive boost to the offense. Look at this team. We've got corner-outfielder type of production from a spot that's traditionally a lousy stick at best. And his defense/arm is great, too. It's such a huge bonus to have a catcher that can hit like that.

Jim: They do need to find out what they have with Patterson, but, if he sucks like his brother they should bring up Murton and give him another shot. He had some power in 2005. I think he has the ability to hit home runs, he just hasn't gotten much of a shot since 2006. He'll never have ideal corner outfielder power, but he's a competent major league hitter that they should use once they've exhausted the Patterson/Hoffpauir options.

I put Marmol #1 on the MVP list, because I truly believe he is the MVP. They would have probably, at least, 5 losses more at this point without him. Maybe more, even much more. He's been the definition of clutch. And, I'd agree that Soto & Fuku would probably be next on the list just because the replacement drop off would be huge. And, Fuku has been almost as clutch hitting as Marmol pitching.

<insert weekend here>

MJ: Nice road trip in Toronto. Some thoughts:

Nice game from Marquis on Saturday. He's in one of his hot streaks where he's getting the ball down and thus buying himself another half-dozen turns in the rotation. When he's on, he's on. He's not striking people out, though, which means that this will never last. We knew that, though. But I'm not going to complain till he starts sucking again, and by my calculations he has 1 or 2 more good starts to go before bad Marquis rears his ugly head.
Lilly was effectively wild for six scoreless innings today. He either walked a guy or struck him out. Nothing in between. Gallagher on Friday wasn't horrible, he just had the one bad inning and the offense just failed repeatedly on their dozen chances. Oh well.
The reaction Reed Johnson in Toronto got just kills me. Loud standing ovations, signs everywhere, ladies giving him the "Professor Indiana Jones in Raiders I love you" markings on the face (seriously). He's pretty good. Gives 100% on every play. He had a few real nice seasons there. But I can't fathom any current Cub leaving and getting that sort of response on his first trip back to Wrigley. Not while he's is playing for another team. The only guy I can think of that came even close to that reaction in the past 20 years is Mark Grace. Maddux still gets an awful lot of respect, too, on his trips back after his second stint with the Cubs. But I don't remember signs. And those guys were Wrigley legends. Maddux's first trip back in '93 wasn't very heartwarming. He was booed mercilessly, and I even remember him hitting a foul ball in his first at-bat and having it thrown back on the field. To quote Richard Gere, of all people, "That's Chicago!"
Derrek Lee is taking walks again, and he's starting to get big hits, too. Perfect timing with Soriano out.
I hate how David Eckstein chokes up on his bat, and I hate Scott Rolen's squinty eyes. Almost as much as I used to hate Jim Edmonds. (He ain't so bad lately.)
I like watching Matt Stairs homer. The quintessential softball-league player looks like a fun guy to have a Molsen with.
It was pretty cool watching the dome close during today's broadcast. Watching the shadow creep across the field during the inning was like watching The Ten Commandments. It was, perhaps not so oddly, like "night and day" between the top half and bottom half of the third inning. Very cool. We should have built a retractable dome for the Bears. It's too late now, but it would have been so much more useful for the city. We could have had a Super Bowl, a Final Four, you name it. Now all we get is maybe a dozen NFL games per year and three or four of them are in craptastic conditions. Yippee.

And that's it. The Hall of Fame game today sounds interesting, even though it doesn't mean anything. Cooperstown is a great place to visit. If you have the means, I highly recommend taking a trip out there. Till next time...

Bears Backfield: Who's Next?

MikeJ — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:36:00 GMT

Unless you've been living in a cave, you may have heard that the Bears cut Cedric Benson on Monday. There's not much to say about this move, other than:

Benson's performance on the field wasn't worth all the distractions. You can bet your ass that he wouldn't have been cut had he rushed for 1,500 yards last year.
Benson officially ranks number 5 on this list. I put him after Salaam because a) he was a productive member of a backfield tandem that went to the Super Bowl, and b) he did score a TD in a NFC championship game. You expect a heckuva lot more from the 4th overall pick in the draft, to be sure. But believe it or not, he could have been worse.

So now what? Well, they've got 2nd round pick Matt Forte, appendix-boy Adrian Peterson, and the tiny Garrett Wolfe. I like what I've heard about Forte, but I wouldn't bet the farm that he could carry the load himself coming out of Tulane. Peterson is a career third stringer who is, while great on special teams, barely acceptable for a spot start. And it is unknown whether the skills Wolfe flashed at NIU will ever amount to much more than him being a 3rd down back in the NFL. So the Bears desperately need to sign someone.

The names floating about are Kevin Jones, Shawn Alexander, and Travis Henry. Forget I mentioned Henry right now, as his problems make Benson look like a choir boy. And Alexander frankly didn't look like he wanted to play football last year. Or, if he did, he was simply too old to get the job done. That leaves Kevin Jones.

Jones is a bust-out for the Lions and coming off an injury. But people are saying that he's an excellent worker that really wants to do well in the NFL (unlike Benson), and when healthy he did do all right behind a shaky Detroit line. Plus, if the Bears sign him, he'll get two chances per year to stick it to his old team. He's holding a workout at the end of the month for NFL scouts. If he's healthy, the Bears should definitely sign him. Everyone else out there is a retread at best.

Vinny, Benny. Benny, Vinny.

MikeJ — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:38:00 GMT

The Bulls introduced Vinny Del Negro as their new head coach today. The choice isn't particularly inspiring but I'll take it. Vinny doesn't have any coaching experience, but he's Italian and he's got great hair. At least that's what I got from his interview with Mac, Jurko & Harry today. Not that there was anything wrong with the questions asked, mind you, but those were his responses. Check out my rough transcript:

Q: This team was very undisciplined last year. Players showing up late, taking charters to college games (etc, etc) What steps do you plan on taking to distill discipline into this organization?

A: Did I mention I was Italian? Don't you worry about discipline.

Q: You seem to have a lot in common with the last coach, Scott Skiles, what key differences will you bring to the organization?

A: Well, I have a lot more hair, for one.

What's not to like? I told you they got the best guy. He's Shecky Del Negro.

Seriously, though, I'll take the young blood over a veteran coach that's never won anything. I'd take an experienced winner over Del Negro, but when my choices are a retread loser and an unknown like Vinny, I'll go with the unknown. There's always that teensy weensy chance that he'll be the next Red Auerbach. (Never minding the excellent chance that he'll be the next Tim Floyd.)

Besides, it's not like this deal will cost the Bulls anything. Del Negro only has two guaranteed deals on his contract, ridiculously low for a head coach (in any profession.) This deal screams "you're the best we can get! but we're still not sure you can handle the job so we're gonna save some money!" It's no wonder D'Antoni didn't give the Bulls a chance to counter and Collins bolted before the offer was finalized. They didn't want to embarrass Jerry.

Go Bulls! I think.

Benson is gone

Perry — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:36:00 GMT

More news tonight. But here it is. Cedric Benson has been cut! Read it here.

Cedric Benson Arrested Again. This time for DUI

Perry — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:31:50 GMT

Well at least he is getting better at taking mug shots! Cedric Benson was arrested early Saturday Morning in Austin Texas. This is the second time in 5 weeks that Ced has seen the inside of a prison cell. What is wrong with this guy? Besides the fact that he can't run the football, he also can't seem to follow instructions. I believe it was Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo that gave Ced the benefit of the doubt on his first arrest for boating while intoxicated. I'm sure they sat him down and told him the same things they told Tank Johnson. Keep your head low kid. Stay out of trouble. Easy, right? Wrong.

The timing of this arrest couldn't have been worse. The Bears had just kicked off their fan convention on Saturday. Can you imagine what Jerry Angelo was thinking when he got the news? I bet he has every one of these articles that said he was picking on Benson too much for the BWI printed and framed. "Eat that media!" That's what I bet he was thinking. I told you so is probably another winning quote just waiting to be said. I was in the car when the first interview hit the airwaves. Angelo wasn't happy. He wasn't pulling his punches and you could just imagine the irate look on his face. I'm sure he had his people draw up the termination paperwork right then and there.

I'm not 100% sure this is a good move. I'm not sure what the Bears can do. We are caught between a rock and a hard place. I like Forte, but does anyone believe he can carry the full load of an NFL season in his rookie year? The free-agent running backs are starting to look good to me. They include former Lions back, Kevin Jones, Shaun Alexander, and Travis Henry. I'll break down each of these guys, hopefully before we sign one of them. My early pick would be Jones. He wants it more than anyone else. He's been working on that rehab this off season and I think he can eat up some downs and help balance things out for our struggling offense.

I tried to find a clip of his most recent arrest and this is all I could come up with:

Cedric Benson arrested for DUI

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