For the next month, Bridgeport, the neighborhood home of Comiskey Park, shall be known as Mannyhood. Or just call it Bridgeport, I don’t care, the point is Manny Ramirez is presently on his way to join the Chicago White Sox in Cleveland. The odd thing is that the White Sox had the best team batting average and scored the most runs in the AL in the month of August. SO why are they adding a bat, especially now when the bullpen is depleted with Threets, Putz, and Thornton injured and Brian Fuentes could have possibly been had via waiver claim and has now landed on the very team that they’re in a race with to win the Central division? Well folks, I’ll tell ya. Manny is playing for a contract in this last month. That’s it. It’s that simple, sure there are other variables involved, but all can be broken down back to that fact. Of course, regardless as to how he performs in this last month Manny will get signed somewhere, but with a typical motivated Manny-like performance it’ll be the difference between $2M a year and $5 or 6M a year. He’ll be motivated, but will he produce? My guess is he’ll produce. I think it’s a good…let’s call this taking a chance on Manny a gamble because that’s what it is, it’s a good gamble for the White Sox to take. The options out there for relief help were and are still weak. If Sox fans are upset that they missed out on Brian frickin Fuentes on the waiver wire, they obviously think the Sox are way worse off than I do. The Sox would certainly not win the Central if their fate was to be decided by Fuentes. He’s pretty expensive and essentially, he’s a LOOGY (Lefty One-Out GuY). Well, at least that’s all I’d ever use him for as righties have pretty good numbers against him, but lefties are hitting below the Mendoza-line. By the way, Ron Gardenhire said that Capps will retain the closer job and Fuentes will have more of a set-up role, just to give you an idea what they’re planning on doing with him. A pretty costly set-up man, right? I don’t blame them for trying to shore up their bullpen, but my point is the money the White Sox are paying to Manny is better used on the gamble rather than trying to acquire Fuentes. Besides, All-Star Matt Thornton wasn’t as hurt as originally thought as he said he feels great and he should be back on the active roster soon. Chris Sale has stepped it up and is a better option than Fuentes anyway and better than a washed up Scott Downs or an inconsistent Jason Frasor as well. The Sox bullpen imploded in recent weeks, but it seems to be back on track starting with Bobby Jenks. The September call-up is Wednesday, since it will be September of course, and they’ll be able to add more arms, inexperienced arms, but arms at the very least as the bullpen trouble stemmed from a work overload. The starting pitching picked it up after April and May, but they still have only thrown five complete games all year. The pitching all around will continue to have its ups and downs, but as evident from yesterday’s game they need to try to out-slug the opposition down the stretch run here. No matter what the numbers are or how it’s achieved, the goal in baseball is to score more runs that the other team in nine innings. Manny will contribute to that.
PREACH
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Bears Family Night "Practice"
Family Night Bears practice under Friday night lights was just that, strictly for the family this past Friday night. There wasn’t much to see for someone trying to cover the practice with a critical eye, no sir. It was more of a “players on display” sort of showcase than a true practice. More players were there just going through the motions rather than it being a competitive practice with players fighting for a job. There were a lot of skeleton drills (7-on-7) as well as individual drills, spreading each positional group throughout the field, followed by some special teams and finally wrapped up with 11-on-11 plays.
The individual drills were lack-luster and had the tempo of a frosh team with the knowledge of having no shot at a conference championship this year. The ONLY interesting part of these drills was the one-on-one mentoring for Johnny Knox by one Isaac Bruce. He was teaching Knox how to escape a corner back jam and get a free release at the line of scrimmage as getting off the line cleanly is vital for the timing of the Martz offense. He taught him a rip move and a swim move to counter the jam, and a flat out juke to get off the line without even being touched.
As for passing drills, Jay Cutler only took about one-third of the snaps with the majority being taken by Hanie and the rest by Lefevour. Cutler connected with Greg Olsen on 7 of 12 passes on 7-on-7 and 10 of 15 on 11-on-11. The only trouble is, especially in 11-on-11, Cutler would have been sacked on at least 8 of those passes. The throws also wouldn’t have been as crisp because even after he was tag-sacked, he still stepped up and fired a pass. Of course, the same happened for Hanie and Lefevour as well, though their passes weren’t as accurate with a lot of over-thrown passes which will be INT’s in a live game.
There was nothing shown on the 11-on-11’s as far as play calling went. It looked like a West Coast offense. Twins left, twins right with the backfield and tight ends frequently going in motion. Had you been told that you were going to get a taste of the Martz offense, you would have been cursing that you were burned and accused that person of being a liar at the end of practice.
As for the special teams, it was just a chance to make sure the personnel knew which team was out there and where his spot on the field was. And maybe a little bit of discipline in making sure that guys stayed in their lanes and didn’t get sucked in. Other than that it was the “Meatball Hour” with the mouth-breathing fans cheering in a ridiculous manner because a returner “broke” one for a TD. Um, no. There was hardly any contact and it was a game of tag allowing returners to sprint through lanes that would have already been collapsed.
Family Night practice keys:
-The O-line is god-awful and will probably ruin the health of our franchise QB.
-The backup QB’s are not efficient and the season is over if Cutler does in fact go down with an injury.
-I hope you enjoyed it meatballs because there won’t be much to cheer for this year.
Tune in for the last two weeks of Cover three tonight and next Monday evening from 7 to 9 on sportstownchicago.com
PREACH
The individual drills were lack-luster and had the tempo of a frosh team with the knowledge of having no shot at a conference championship this year. The ONLY interesting part of these drills was the one-on-one mentoring for Johnny Knox by one Isaac Bruce. He was teaching Knox how to escape a corner back jam and get a free release at the line of scrimmage as getting off the line cleanly is vital for the timing of the Martz offense. He taught him a rip move and a swim move to counter the jam, and a flat out juke to get off the line without even being touched.
As for passing drills, Jay Cutler only took about one-third of the snaps with the majority being taken by Hanie and the rest by Lefevour. Cutler connected with Greg Olsen on 7 of 12 passes on 7-on-7 and 10 of 15 on 11-on-11. The only trouble is, especially in 11-on-11, Cutler would have been sacked on at least 8 of those passes. The throws also wouldn’t have been as crisp because even after he was tag-sacked, he still stepped up and fired a pass. Of course, the same happened for Hanie and Lefevour as well, though their passes weren’t as accurate with a lot of over-thrown passes which will be INT’s in a live game.
There was nothing shown on the 11-on-11’s as far as play calling went. It looked like a West Coast offense. Twins left, twins right with the backfield and tight ends frequently going in motion. Had you been told that you were going to get a taste of the Martz offense, you would have been cursing that you were burned and accused that person of being a liar at the end of practice.
As for the special teams, it was just a chance to make sure the personnel knew which team was out there and where his spot on the field was. And maybe a little bit of discipline in making sure that guys stayed in their lanes and didn’t get sucked in. Other than that it was the “Meatball Hour” with the mouth-breathing fans cheering in a ridiculous manner because a returner “broke” one for a TD. Um, no. There was hardly any contact and it was a game of tag allowing returners to sprint through lanes that would have already been collapsed.
Family Night practice keys:
-The O-line is god-awful and will probably ruin the health of our franchise QB.
-The backup QB’s are not efficient and the season is over if Cutler does in fact go down with an injury.
-I hope you enjoyed it meatballs because there won’t be much to cheer for this year.
Tune in for the last two weeks of Cover three tonight and next Monday evening from 7 to 9 on sportstownchicago.com
PREACH
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Was There a De-Pantsing of Kenny Williams?
White Sox fans have mixed feelings about what down at the non-waiver trade deadline. I guess that you could say that this blogger is “glad”. Glad that the Sox acquired a middle-of-the-rotation pitcher, who we know can pitch in the American League, as opposed to sticking with a pitcher in Daniel Hudson in which we HOPE can pitch in the American League. Also, another very vital nugget of information according to White Sox beat writer Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times is that the White Sox projected Hudson to be a number five starter/middle reliever at best. So, with his low ceiling of potential the Sox must feel that they got the better of that trade as the Nationals have said that they could see Hudson as a top of the rotation pitcher in the future.
It is evident that White Sox GM Kenny Williams’ goal was to obtain a big bat to wedge into the middle of his lineup. A deal was all but done to get Lance Berkman into a south side uniform, but he invoked his 10 and 5 rights and vetoed the trade. Just another former Houston Astro who didn’t want to play on the south side for whatever reason along with Roy Oswalt, both of whom were moved before the trade deadline that ended at 3PM Central time on Saturday. Maybe they’re still bitter over the ’05 spanking they took in the World Series…..but that’s neither here no there. It’s also evident because Kenny tried to trade for Manny Ramirez, but that trade was nixed by the Dodgers. One is because they still feel they have an outside shot at making the playoffs either by winning the NL West or the Wild Card and two is because the White Sox essentially wanted him for free and only contribute $1M of the $7M left on his contract and not give up any players (the Dodgers were asking for Dayan Viciedo in return). It would be an interesting move to say the least, as Mannywood is still on the disabled list with a strained calf in what is his third DL stint just this year. It would have marked the second time in as many years that the White Sox traded for a player on the DL, last year of course being for Jake “Where’s my latissimus dorsi” Peavy. Also, if you look at history, you would know the possibilities of a healthy and motivated Manny Ramirez, especially in White Sox Park at the peak of summer.
Still, other fans, the mouth-breathing meatball types, feel that Kenny was pants by Nats GM Rizzo. The thinking being that Rizzo told Kenny that if he trades for Edwin Jackson that Kenny could flip him to Washington along with another prospect or two for Adam Dunn. Sure Kenny took an indirect shot at Rizzo when he said that it was frustrating to work with such new, young GM’s, but if you think that Kenny is so dumb and underprepared to trade for Jackson and get “stuck” with him then you need to find a new team to root for or be fired from baseball all together. Kenny probably wanted to flip Edwin Jackson to the Nats if possible, but will most definitely take the upgrade he’s made to the rotation. If he absolutely didn’t Jackson and only sought Dunn, then he would have only made the trade had it been a done deal with another team in the mix to complete a 3-way trade. Rizzo was adamant in his quest to trade for Gordon Beckham in a Dunn deal, pun intended, and that is why by time Saturday rolled around the trade talks between the Sox and Nats were on a respirator. I happen to like this non-move in not dealing away Beckham for a two month rental who can’t play the field and would be unhappy only DH-ing in the AL.
On top of all this, White sox pitching coach Don Cooper loves the high ceiling Edwin Jackson has. He has already had a side session with Jackson and has tweaked a few things. He wants the 6’3” Jackson to stand taller on the mound in order to stay on top of pitches and get the proper downward tilt on them. Jackson’s fastball average ranks fourth in the Major Leagues at 94.0 mph. He also has a nasty slider. His ERA may be inflated now, but I’m interest to see what adjustments he’ll make to win games for this club.
As always tune in to Cover 3 every Monday evening from 7 to 9 on sportstownchicago.com.
PREACH
It is evident that White Sox GM Kenny Williams’ goal was to obtain a big bat to wedge into the middle of his lineup. A deal was all but done to get Lance Berkman into a south side uniform, but he invoked his 10 and 5 rights and vetoed the trade. Just another former Houston Astro who didn’t want to play on the south side for whatever reason along with Roy Oswalt, both of whom were moved before the trade deadline that ended at 3PM Central time on Saturday. Maybe they’re still bitter over the ’05 spanking they took in the World Series…..but that’s neither here no there. It’s also evident because Kenny tried to trade for Manny Ramirez, but that trade was nixed by the Dodgers. One is because they still feel they have an outside shot at making the playoffs either by winning the NL West or the Wild Card and two is because the White Sox essentially wanted him for free and only contribute $1M of the $7M left on his contract and not give up any players (the Dodgers were asking for Dayan Viciedo in return). It would be an interesting move to say the least, as Mannywood is still on the disabled list with a strained calf in what is his third DL stint just this year. It would have marked the second time in as many years that the White Sox traded for a player on the DL, last year of course being for Jake “Where’s my latissimus dorsi” Peavy. Also, if you look at history, you would know the possibilities of a healthy and motivated Manny Ramirez, especially in White Sox Park at the peak of summer.
Still, other fans, the mouth-breathing meatball types, feel that Kenny was pants by Nats GM Rizzo. The thinking being that Rizzo told Kenny that if he trades for Edwin Jackson that Kenny could flip him to Washington along with another prospect or two for Adam Dunn. Sure Kenny took an indirect shot at Rizzo when he said that it was frustrating to work with such new, young GM’s, but if you think that Kenny is so dumb and underprepared to trade for Jackson and get “stuck” with him then you need to find a new team to root for or be fired from baseball all together. Kenny probably wanted to flip Edwin Jackson to the Nats if possible, but will most definitely take the upgrade he’s made to the rotation. If he absolutely didn’t Jackson and only sought Dunn, then he would have only made the trade had it been a done deal with another team in the mix to complete a 3-way trade. Rizzo was adamant in his quest to trade for Gordon Beckham in a Dunn deal, pun intended, and that is why by time Saturday rolled around the trade talks between the Sox and Nats were on a respirator. I happen to like this non-move in not dealing away Beckham for a two month rental who can’t play the field and would be unhappy only DH-ing in the AL.
On top of all this, White sox pitching coach Don Cooper loves the high ceiling Edwin Jackson has. He has already had a side session with Jackson and has tweaked a few things. He wants the 6’3” Jackson to stand taller on the mound in order to stay on top of pitches and get the proper downward tilt on them. Jackson’s fastball average ranks fourth in the Major Leagues at 94.0 mph. He also has a nasty slider. His ERA may be inflated now, but I’m interest to see what adjustments he’ll make to win games for this club.
As always tune in to Cover 3 every Monday evening from 7 to 9 on sportstownchicago.com.
PREACH
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