ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

I have to be brief tonight as I am tired as hell from all the running around I've been doing. But it wouldn't be good to miss opening day. That's right, it may not feel like it, but tomorrow is opening day. The White Sox travel to the Cleve to face C.C. Sabathia. What a way to start the season. What are the odds that this game even takes place? Anyone remember the snow-out they had in Cleveland last year? Anyway, here are some parting thoughts... 1. Juan Uribe is still on the team. He's starting at second. I hope Pauly is ready for that double clutch hard-as-hell-canon-like-throw. He is standing closer afterall. 2. Pitching, pitching, pitching. I'll be more specific. It comes down to Jose Contreras this year. 3. Buehrle starts tomorrow. I think he can get the win. It would be great to start off right. 4. I am worried about errors this year. Is Crede really healthy? Can Uribe really play second? 5. Where is our speed? Seriously, if one more person tells me it's Jerry Owens, I'm going to puke. No offense Jerry, but you need to get healthy and STAY HEALTHY. 6. I blame the bullpen 60% for being crap last year and ruining our season. I'm going to look up how many games the cost us. It won't be pretty. 7. I blame Ozzie and Kenny Williams for the disaster that was '07 8. I want Paul Konerko to step up and be our leader this year. Paul admitted on the radio that he made a mistake last year when we started slumping. The mistake was keeping quiet. 9. I want to get out of April without a players only team meeting. 10. Nick Swisher. I keep reading how you are a great lead off guy. (They base this on your OBP). Prove it. Head over to WhiteSox.com to read all about the opening day line up. Otherwise, what can I say Sox fans? Cross your fingers and your toes. Let's go get em. Oh, one more thing. I need a prediction for this season. I predict the Cleve wins the division and we surprise everyone for the wild card. We're taking 2nd in this division. That's right. You heard it here first. The White Sox are returning to the playoffs. The bullpen is better, we're going to be healthier, Detroit will not reach it's potential (on paper), and we're going to play solid baseball. We don't need everyone's best. We just need to avoid getting their WORST. (like last year) GO GO WHITE SOX!

March brings many good things to sports fans in Chicago. It is the beginning of spring and the end of that blasted wintry snow-rain mix. The sun is actually still out at 4:30 in the afternoon. The Bulls and Blackhawks seasons come to an anti-climactic finish affording us the chance to focus on the NFL Draft and the greatest tournament of them all. March is a time for madness. Man I love this tournament. I really can't explain why. It's not like I win the office pool or even the family's pool which we do each and every year just for bragging rights.

I went to a school that actually has a D-1 men's basketball team, but they haven't been to the dance since the mid eighties. (Go Ramblers!) So that can't be it. I bet I know what it is.

It's pure. It is the truth. It is what is good and proper and simply right with sports. In an era where we the sports fans have to deal with crybaby pro athletes' complaints over money, steroid use and Congressional investigations, this is the great equalizer. 32 65 teams [UPDATED THANKS TO THE SHAJ316 SMACK DOWN] play in a tournament where if you slip up just a little bit, you're going to get bounced. I turn a blind eye to the sarcasm and cynicism that bemoans college sports as being just as corrupt as the pro world. How can it be as corrupt with a challenge like March Madness. The tournament provides balance in the sports world. It has an unarguable finality at its conclusion. College sports doesn't get it right for football, no argument there, but it ironically corrects that wrong with this perfect basketball bracket. There are no second chances with March Madness. As a fan, you have just latched your sports-cred to a team out of the WAC or Conference USA. That Davidson pick is going to haunt you. Sweet Sixteen? Are you sure? The fun of March Madness is there for everyone to see. You've probably put your money where your mouth is on each one of these games.

That $20 bucks you just kicked into the pot will be the best $20 you spend all month. I guarantee that as much as that 5-12 upset.

-- fin

A few years ago (back in my consulting days) I wrote a little poem that I sent out to all my friends who took part in our March Madness pools. This was back in the early days when we ripped out the bracket from the Tribune or Sun-Times and HAND WROTE our picks. Yea, the time before the Internet. Looking back at it, it sounds a bit cheesy. Anyway, I would email this to them on the morning of the opening tip-off for the tourney. I provide it here for you to enjoy the tradition.

Untitled
Another day, another Journey.  And today's journey is
to reach the top of the mountain.
To be king of the mountain.
Today gentlemen, is a day when you are allowed to be
mad.
Today my friends, begins, March Madness.
Good luck to our favorite warriors, may their
victories be as profitable as ours.
:)
by PerryM
*******************************
Let the upsets begin...

 

[UPDATE: Thanks to Shaj316 for resurrecting this] 

I haven't been posting anything on baseball for a few reasons. First, I can't concentrate on baseball when football is still on the radar. This includes the draft. Second, it could snow out here at any minute. Snow and baseball don't go together. Dumb? Perhaps. But March Madness keeps me occupied until the draft and eventually the weather gets warm enough that I start to pay attention.

Of course, my opinion on this matter has nothing to do with the fact that the White Sox are a great unknown this season. That's a polite way of saying that I have no faith this team will be in the hunt for our division. I just don't see how we do it with the Tigers and the Cleve improving so much this past off season.

Anyway, the reason I dusted off the White Sox cap tonight is because more ambiguous news out of White Sox training camp hit the wire today: Juan Uribe was cut. (put on waivers) So the question has to be, WHY? Did GM Kenny Williams give up on trading Uribe? There were really no takers for this guy? I highly doubt it. Uribe may not have been a fantastic shortstop, but he came into spring training motivated to earn that second base job after the Sox traded for Cabrera. Instead of a trade, we put him on waivers and if no one picks him up, we're out $4 million.

I sure hope Kenny knows what he is doing. Don't mind me, I care more about my bracket that this move. Here's to hoping that the kid from Cuba gets the spot at 2nd.

Forgive me as I am still on vacation and my posting has lagged as a result, but did anyone else notice that Kevin Jones was cut by the Lions? Clearly, this is going to be the first year the Lions DON'T draft a wide receiver with their first pick. That almost surely means that either Rashard Mendenhall or Jon Stewart out of Illinois and Oregon respectively, will end up ruining their careers in Detroit. That's a shame since I really like both these backs.

The other unfortunate truth is that we will surely wake up to the Bears signing Jones. I'm not going to be happy if this happens. I don't think Jones is terrible, but I also don't think he is the competition that Cedric Benson will need to get motivated again. I think Stewart with his hard running style and ability to hit the hole HARD is more suited for that job. Same goes for Mendenhall. Rashard can be a workhorse back in the NFL. He has great balance, speed, and vision.

Kevin Jones was drafted out of VaTech in 2004. He ran for 581 yards, 44.7 yards a game, and 8 touchdowns. That was in 13 games. Two of which came against the Bears. Let me remind you he ran all of 38 yards and a TD in the first game and 105 yards plus a touchdown in Chicago for the second game. 

Benson was drafted in 2005 out of Texas (lest you forget). He ran for 674 yards, 61.3 yards a carry, and had 4 touchdowns. He did all of this in 11 games last year. So Benson, compared to Kevin Jones did slightly better. Except for the matter of scoring touchdowns.

I'm not sure what to think of this. Was Detroit's o-line worse than the Bears last year? Is that even possible? Regardless, you can bet your Toyota Tundra that if the Bears think they can sign this guy for less than 2 million dollars a year they're going to do it. Hell, Chris Brown just signed for $1.8 million. Will Jones get double that? After being cut by the LIONS?! Perhaps the Lions are going the extra mile to solidify their destiny : Preseason pick to win the division. Why not? Favre just retired. The division is wide open. Cutting Jones could be a way to sabotage the Bears! You think Matt Millen is that smart? (No.) But hey, think about it. It takes the pressure off their draft. They kill 2 birds with one stone. They draft the running back we should have drafted (after we get Clady) and they send us their terribly ineffective running back to ensure we don't have a chance. Brilliant!

This will ultimately mean that we are drafting an offensive lineman in the first round. I mention Clady for a reason. It looks like this may be the reason why Lovie went off and visited Boise State's Ryan Clady. All the pieces are in place. Again.

Bear Down.

I'm back from my much needed vacation. I see that the Bears took the opportunity to make me look like a genius by signing Brandon Lloyd. Great move by the Bears' front office. This is especially true considering the draft is pretty weak at the WR position! Strong work Jerry. Your ability to evaluate offensive draft talent is second to none! Actually, your ability to find a replacement part on the cheap is pretty damn good. Lloyd isn't old, and he has his old college coach calling the plays. It wasn't a huge stretch to predict this move. I can admit that.

As much as I would like to make this post about the team's current prospects (not good), I will instead take the time to report a rumor I saw while sitting in class tonight. The link comes courtesy of our friends at Yahoo Sports. It seems that the Bears are rumored to be interested in former Titans RB Chris Brown. Yes, NU fans. THAT Chris Brown. I guess the Tribune must have reported this amazing bad idea a few days ago.

Update - Hold your horses everyone, it turns out that Houston signed him instead. Whew! That was close. Thanks to another great Bears blog for the update (at least in the comments)

The Bears should still be on track to draft a running back in the first round. At least that is what I am hoping for. If we're going to keep running the minute we step off the bus, then we better get someone who actually knows how to gain yards.

This article from The Onion has to be one of my favorite's of all time. The headline alone got me: "Packers to Favre: Take your time Asshole!"

You know, I'm sure a lot of Packers fans are sad they ever reacted like this towards their Hall of Fame QB. Brett Favre was leading the charge against the Bears since 1992. I was barely out of high school. We've both aged gracefully.

I won't waste your time any further talking about Favre. There is a ton of Favre-love-fest action all over the web. My personal favorite, and new favorite sports blog is Hashmarks. Matt Mosley is doing a great job on this ESPN blog. It's surprising. I have to say that I really like his style better than most of the other writers who claim to be "blogging" at ESPN.com. Keep up the good work Mosley.

As for the Bear's perspective on Favre retiring? Well, let's get this out of the way. I respected Brett Favre just as much as any Bear I've ever cheered for. He is the one guy I wished would have been a Bear. I guess we should be happy that we got Jordan. The Bears weren't much competition for Favre, and for that I am sorry. I would have liked to see more epic battles between the two teams. For various reasons, Favre has pretty much dominated the Bears for his entire career. Unlike most people, I don't think that his retiring opens up the competition in this division. At least not for the Bears. We have so many problems here in Chicago, that the only positive thing I can say about his retirement is that the Packers have just dropped any momentum they had since winning the division.

I must go on record saying that I loved cheering against Brett Favre. He was so damn good, and the Bears were so damn bad that I couldn't help but to hate on him. I also quietly cheered for him to get into the Superbowl last season. In my mind, I never saw Packer-Green on his back. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not a Packer-Backer by any means. I don't think I am alone in my respect for Favre as a Bears fan. Like most in this town, I'm sure I went color blind when he faced off against anyone other than the Bears. It was just really hard to root against a guy who never missed a game, played in below zero degree weather, and never once dated a country music star or super model.

It was a good run. He should be proud.

Bear Down!

I think it was last Friday, the first day of free agency, that my lovely wife told me Marty Booker was a Bear again. I was shocked. Surely, she couldn't have heard this right. She must have been mistaken. Marty Booker was just cut by the Dolphins, that must have been what she heard. Today's news that Booker signed a 2 year deal with the Bears has me thinking that she can predict the future.

Booker is back and it leaves me wondering how he will perform compared to Moose? I'm pretty indifferent to this move because I've holding out hope that the draft is going to cure what ails us in Chicago. With Booker's signing, you can expect to see Mark Bradley, Booker, and Hester lined up at wide receiver. I'm not sure what the Bears will do with Rasheed Davis, and MJ brought up Mike Haas. I'm pretty sure this isn't Hass' website, but it's all I could find when I Googled his name. Booker brings the experienced wide receiver that we need to help Mark Bradley and his 7 catches from last season mature into a primary offensive weapon. Afterall, he is our 5th all time greatest receiver in Bears' history.

I'm starting to wonder if the Bears are going to adopt the Chiefs old offensive scheme. You know, the one where they have 2 running backs that run for over a thousand yards, and their only real wide receiver option is their tight end? (Tony Gonzalez)

The Bears version would focus on Olsen, Benson, and what I can only hope is either Mendenhall or Jon Stewart with the 14th pick in this year's draft. I'm still waiting to see if Brandon Lloyd or Justin McCareins are going to be approached. According to this site, McCareins is trying to cut a deal with the Titans.

Want to laugh? I tried finding a reference to Booker in this site's archives...and this is the only article I could find. Boy, was I right about David Terrel or what?

Back in 5

The Bears stayed true to their word. They traded Brian Griese to Tampa Bay for a 2009 draft pick. I wonder if the Bucs were dumb enough to give us anything higher than a 6th round pick. Our friendly neighborhood Goose has been crying in his beer all day since getting the news that Griese is back with Gruden and company. The question remains, what does this mean for the Bears?

You can't go far online without running into an analysis of this year's free agent market. I ran into a column by Yahoo! Sports writer Jason Cole. He breaks down the winners and the losers so far in "early free agency". Three guesses what he said about the Bears? That's right kids, we are losers. The loss of Moose, Berrian and potentially Rasheed Davis to free agency will leave the Bears with no one at wide out. Cole says what we are all thinking in Chicago. We're left with Hester, and Hester has never in his career been able to grasp the wide receiver position. He's good for a few deep catches next year, but I don't think we can realistically expect this kid to do much on offense. He can out run anyone on the field, but can he shake anyone off the line if they jam him? Can he adjust to the painfully bad throws both Grossman and Orton will be making to him? I was nervous enough coming into the draft without having to worry about free agency. Now I'm stuck wondering if I should step up the campaign to sign Davis, or worse still Brandon Llyod. I have a better idea, maybe we should go after Javon Walker. Let's hurry before he resigns with the Packers.

Let me get back to Griese. This trade is curious to me. I think he's a good veteran quarterback to have on your roster. Especially if you have young guys like Orton and Grossman on the team. But there is no way Angelo would have gone into next season with the same 3 guys. You have to shake things up, and keep market sobriety in mind too. The Bucs, in my opinion, get a quarterback that can take over for an aging Jeff Garcia and he'll do a better job than the other 10 quarterbacks Tampa Bay seems to have under contract. (Jake Plummer?! Chris Simms?! Really?) As for the Bears, the message to Orton and Grossman is clear. (It took me awhile to admit this)

It is a true open competition at QB. If the 1 year, identical extensions for both Orton and Grossman doesn't ring your bell, then maybe the Bears will have to draft a quarterback to eliminate that fog. I'm just hoping they don't do it until at least the 3rd or 4th round. Bear Down....and almost out.

Holy Schnikies! Lance Briggs just resigned with the Bears. The 6 year, $36 million dollar deal came as a surprise to me and everyone else at the bar last night. (Happy Birthday Obicle). I guess Jerry Angelo was right to stick to his guns. Technically, he stuck to what he knows, which is defense. The money that Briggs got was clearly the money that Bernard Berrian was demanding. Bernard signed a 6 year deal with our NFC rival Vikings. I had a hard time finding how much the contract was for, but this site (a Vikings site) says that Bernard got a cool $16 million up front. Wow! I'll be honest, I'm happy to see Angelo give that cash to Briggs instead of Berrian.

I spent the better part of last week arguing with a certain CSB blogger this point. Specifically, how IMHO Berrian was not worth the money he was asking for. I understand how market dynamics work. We have a weak wide receiver free agency pool this year. The supply is slim. The demand is probably average. Bernard was the best available wide-out not named Randy Moss. (more on him in a later post). He has every right to play someone for a sucker out on the open market. I stand my early comment, I think we would be better off letting Berrian go and signing someone like Dante Stallworth. Stallworh signed a 7 year deal with the Browns. He got $35 million, $10 million up front. Let's compare shall we?

 

Berrian	27 years old 71 catches 951 yards 13.4 avg 5 TDs
Stallworth	27 years old 46 catches 697 yards 15.2 avg 3 TDs

So the breakdown is pretty easy. The pro Berrian side of the house is going to look at the 71 catches and 951 yards and point to our horrible offensive line, run game, and quarterbacks as evidence of his ability. A lot of people in the pro Berrian camp will also dismiss Stallworth's numbers. He only caught 3 touchdowns? He only had 697 yards receiving! Those numbers are crap. They're especially bad when you compare the quarterbacks that are throwing to each of these guys. Berrian has better numbers than Stallworth, and he had Grossman throwing to him! Not so fast my friends.

The pro Stallworth camp (that's me) has some good points too. First, Berrian isn't terrible, he just isn't a number 1 wide receiver. He might be a number 2 wide receiver, and his numbers prove it. Stallworth had exceptional numbers considering Tom Brady threw the majority of his passes to Moss and Wes Welker. That leaves Stallworth as the third option on that team. A third option that caught 3 touchdowns and almost 700 yards total. That's pretty impressive. It's not like the Patriots were playing the Cardinals all season either. They faced some tough defenses.

I'm not saying Stallworth is better than Berrian. Far from it. I'm just saying that he would have been cheaper than Berrian. Cheap doesn't always mean getting a worse player. I think they're both pretty equal when it comes to game days. If the Bears weren't willing to sign Berrian, I think Stallworth would have been a nice addition. Turns out we will never know. What we do know is that Angelo decided to punt on the Bears' offensive problems in this year's free agency market. That could mean 1 of 2 things. He is either planning on drafting a running back and an offensive lineman, or we're going to stick to our typical plan. Draft defense and pray they can score 14 points a game.