Da Bears have validation, sort of. Their defense certainly proved that it can contain one of, if not the most explosive player in football in Michael Vick. And I couldn’t be happier about it. Vick was all anybody talked about on television and radio starting on the Monday Night game when he posted video game stats against the Redskins. The MNF crew refused to get off his genitals and it turned out to be just another Monday Night game that I had to turn off because of the excrement spewing from their suck-holes. Da Bears holding off Vick and his posse of speed made it that much sweeter, but I digress.
The Cover 2 base that Da Bears use works best when the line gets penetration into the backfield and that’s what took place pretty much the whole afternoon. The rotating tackles did a great job caving the pocket and making Vick feel uncomfortable, yet not flushing him out of the pocket where he can also be dangerous. Each of the starting four linemen had at least half a sack. Tommie Harris created the turning point in the game when he put a paw on Vick’s pass in the red zone, which was picked-off by yet another Harris, Chris Harris. On Da Bears’ ensuing drive after Harris tipped it to Harris and Harris returned it to the 37, they drove down the field methodically. Cutler hit Knox for a nice gain and then Bennett for a 30 yard gain to make it the third 30+ yard play in the first half. The drive ended when Cutler did a great job freezing the safety by looking to the left of the field and then firing the ball to Bennett on an out-route to the right for a six yard touchdown pass. Folks, that’s a 14-point swing! That’s a huge difference from looking at going down six with under two minutes left in the half to being up by eight going into the third quarter.
The defense continued to get pressure from the front four, which of course helped the secondary. They did a tremendous job tackling. There wasn’t much miss-tackling going on and not much yards after the catch either. The defense wasn’t exactly perfect, 26 points against is a clear indication of imperfection. In fact, on two separate occasions, Vick overthrew a wide-open Brent Celek. Of course he finally connected with Celek in the end zone when he threw it 30 yards downfield through a space the size of a sheet of paper on 4th and 9 between three Bears defenders. But it was too little too late by then.
I’m surprised I haven’t heard Lovie say “We get off the bus running,” in his Southern drawl since that’s basically what they did in the month of November. Their run-to-pass ratio greatly increased. And guess what else? They went from being the second-to-worst in converting third downs to being the third best in the month of November as well. OMFG! I never thought I’d see the day, but somebody must have put OC Mike Martz in a sleeper-hold and made him run the ball more and make less 7-step drop play calls. AND IT’S WORKING. Da Bears shred a very good Eagles defense. They even dominated the time of possession in the third quarter with a 10:05 drive that resulted in a Gould field goal. Granted, the Eagles’ best player on that side of the ball, Asante Samuel, was on the injured list as well as their other starting cornerback, but Da Bears got the job done nonetheless. That’s all you can really ask of them. Well I suppose you could ask them to not get Cutler sacked four times in the first half, but he was only sacked once in the second half, which is nice.
Da Bears have been using the greatest show on bad turf to their advantage. There were two obvious plays where the field benefited the home team: the Urlacher sack when he also punched the ball out of Vick’s hands, but was recovered by the Eagles’ Anthony Adams and the Knox touchdown when the cornerback lost his footing near the goal line that left Johnny wide open at the near corner of the endzone. I’m glad the turf has become an advantage for Da Bears, but I hope it doesn’t lend reason for a player injury. The turf has been bad for years yet the park district continues to allow it to be a venue for concerts and soccer games amongst other events. The high school Prep Bowl game was even played on that very field the day before. THE DAY BEFORE! Yet other parks in Chicago have artificial surfaces for flag football! WHAT?!? Look, I like the grass too, but there are other options besides the slop that they play on now.
The bottom line is, this is a bottom line business and Da Bears are atop the North Division in the NFC at 8-3. I never thought that they would be at this point, but they are. They have proven their legitimacy in this glob of parity known as the NFL. Do I still have my doubts about Da Bears? Certainly. Do they have a shot at making the playoffs and making a run to the Super Bowl? Of course, but winning that Super Bowl….I still think it’s improbable. Go Bears.
PREACH
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Special Teams is 1/3 of Football
We knew the Vikings were bad before they came into Soldier Field, but I was still pretty impressed with the play and execution by DA BEARS. People tend to forget that special teams is one-third of a football game. Da Bears dominated the men in purple in special teams. Even with one poor 32 yard line-drive punt by longtime team MVP Brad Maynard, the defense picked up the slack and held the Vikes to, well, nothing due to a missed field goal. It was certainly a total team effort, but Mr. Hester set the table a few times with 147 of the 179 return yards in a game of field position that Da Bears could have easily lost had he and the return teams not showed up to play. Hester even cleaned his own plate when he got into space on a crossing-route and scored an important touchdown (aren’t they all?).
The defense was good as usual, especially against the run where they absolutely shut down Adrian Peterson. They held the arguably best back in the NFL to 51 measly rushing yards. It all starts in the trenches and the D-line was getting good penetration throughout the game. This in turn helped the secondary. Sure they had that embarrassing breakdown on the Harvin TD pass, but Favre was picked off three times. Okay, the receivers slipped twice, but the defensive backs were still in the right spots to make those INT’s. Favre was trying to avoid pressure much of the day and once fumbled on a great hustle play by DE Melton who caught him from behind and swatted the ball away as he was taking old man Favre down. Emphasis on old. Lovie preaches and bleeds turnovers. The result of the game is why.
And look who else showed up to play, why it was the third-down offense that made its first appearance of the season. Da Bears converted 11 of 19 third downs, HOLY CRAP! It was nothing miraculous like 16 of 19, but for Da Bears it was quite impressive. Cutler made one inexcusable red-zone mistake, but it shouldn’t overshadow the dozen good decisions he made. I know some fans had bad ’09 Cutler flashbacks, but it was only one bad play. Martz wasn’t as predictable as he was in Buffalo and actually kept the Minnesota defense honest with good play-calling. He mixed it up with an end-around, draws, bubble-screens, and delivered the final blow with a brilliant play-action pass to Kellen Davis on third and inches from the Minnesota 19 that went for a touchdown. It seemingly slammed the door shut on the Vikings’ season, Childress’ job, and hopefully Favre’s career.
PREACH
The defense was good as usual, especially against the run where they absolutely shut down Adrian Peterson. They held the arguably best back in the NFL to 51 measly rushing yards. It all starts in the trenches and the D-line was getting good penetration throughout the game. This in turn helped the secondary. Sure they had that embarrassing breakdown on the Harvin TD pass, but Favre was picked off three times. Okay, the receivers slipped twice, but the defensive backs were still in the right spots to make those INT’s. Favre was trying to avoid pressure much of the day and once fumbled on a great hustle play by DE Melton who caught him from behind and swatted the ball away as he was taking old man Favre down. Emphasis on old. Lovie preaches and bleeds turnovers. The result of the game is why.
And look who else showed up to play, why it was the third-down offense that made its first appearance of the season. Da Bears converted 11 of 19 third downs, HOLY CRAP! It was nothing miraculous like 16 of 19, but for Da Bears it was quite impressive. Cutler made one inexcusable red-zone mistake, but it shouldn’t overshadow the dozen good decisions he made. I know some fans had bad ’09 Cutler flashbacks, but it was only one bad play. Martz wasn’t as predictable as he was in Buffalo and actually kept the Minnesota defense honest with good play-calling. He mixed it up with an end-around, draws, bubble-screens, and delivered the final blow with a brilliant play-action pass to Kellen Davis on third and inches from the Minnesota 19 that went for a touchdown. It seemingly slammed the door shut on the Vikings’ season, Childress’ job, and hopefully Favre’s career.
PREACH
Monday, October 18, 2010
They Are Who I Thought They Were!
The Bears are who I thought they were! As did everybody else who has even a little football sense. They lost to a team with inferior talent, with a coach in his first year with the team, who has lost 16 of their last 18 games on the road. The Seahawks came in to Soldier Field and had their way with the Bears. Oh, and Jay Cutler was back under center this week so the Collins/Hanie tandem can’t be used an excuse. It was pathetic and I had a hard time turning the game back on when I switched to a red-zone channel during commercials.
The Bears used its 4th different O-line in 6 weeks. Garza had his knee scoped, so Tice had no choice but to do some player shuffling. The Bears used the best players they have on the roster, which is fine. Unfortunately, the best linemen they had included the most idiotic. The Seahawks would run an inside stunt with the DE and I think Webb had a crush on him, either that or he was playing shadow because he just kept following him inside and they would blitz from the outside and Cutler was a sitting duck. Quack. Forte missed at least two blitz pick-ups as well. Quack Quack. Cutler gets sacked six more times after missing a week with a concussed head. I know it would be telling the defense that it’s a passing play, but Chester Taylor needs to be in there every passing play. At this point I just want my franchise QB upright and not on his back looking thru his ear-hole. The opposition knows that every play has about a 70% chance of being a passing play anyway, so might as well have your best protection scheme on the field. But hey, that would be logical so for the Bears it’s out of the question.
By the way, was Julius Peppers’ name called at all yesterday? Must have been one of those notorious weeks that he takes off even though he’s physically on the field. He should have had a field day with the nearly immobile Hasselback taking the snaps. Or if he was being double teamed and being chipped off the edge, where was Izzy on the other end who must have been 1-on-1? The defense can’t be this inconsistent. It was good at bending for a few weeks, but yesterday it broke.
PREACH
The Bears used its 4th different O-line in 6 weeks. Garza had his knee scoped, so Tice had no choice but to do some player shuffling. The Bears used the best players they have on the roster, which is fine. Unfortunately, the best linemen they had included the most idiotic. The Seahawks would run an inside stunt with the DE and I think Webb had a crush on him, either that or he was playing shadow because he just kept following him inside and they would blitz from the outside and Cutler was a sitting duck. Quack. Forte missed at least two blitz pick-ups as well. Quack Quack. Cutler gets sacked six more times after missing a week with a concussed head. I know it would be telling the defense that it’s a passing play, but Chester Taylor needs to be in there every passing play. At this point I just want my franchise QB upright and not on his back looking thru his ear-hole. The opposition knows that every play has about a 70% chance of being a passing play anyway, so might as well have your best protection scheme on the field. But hey, that would be logical so for the Bears it’s out of the question.
By the way, was Julius Peppers’ name called at all yesterday? Must have been one of those notorious weeks that he takes off even though he’s physically on the field. He should have had a field day with the nearly immobile Hasselback taking the snaps. Or if he was being double teamed and being chipped off the edge, where was Izzy on the other end who must have been 1-on-1? The defense can’t be this inconsistent. It was good at bending for a few weeks, but yesterday it broke.
PREACH
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
The Chicago White Sox: Who's to Blame?
12 games back on September 22nd and mathematically eliminated from the postseason (thumb pointing downwards while making a loud farting noise). I’ve heard some White Sox fans say “Well, they made a good run…”. Really? “Made a good run”? Yes, they had a few pretty good streaks like when they won seven straight a few weeks ago and they went on the 25-5 tear and that’s admirable. But like all businesses, baseball is a bottom-line business and the Chicago White Sox did not get it done this year. Statistically, all around, they were better than last year, just not by much. The pitching stats are almost identical to last year.
STAT 2010 / 2009
ERA 4.06 / 4.14
SO 1,024 (season not yet over) / 1,119
WHIP 1.356 / 1.351
BB/9 3.1 / 3.2
K/9 7.1 / 7.0
Offensively, they were slightly better than last year, but certainly not substantially.
STAT 2010 / 2009
AVG. .269 / .258
OBP .332 / .329
SLUG. .411 / .426
OPS .759 / .740
OPS+ 102 / 91
wOBA .333 / .325
RUNS 702 / 724
SB 144 / 113
I’m showing avg. only because people are still just use to it being a foundation for batting statistics, but that is rapidly changing. On-base percentage (OBP) is far and away a much more valuable statistic. As you can see, the avg. for this year was .011 better than last year, but the OBP was only .003 higher. The object of baseball is to score more runs than the other team, whether it takes nine innings or not. How do you score runs you might ask? Why, by getting on base, of course! You’re killing me Smalls! (If you haven’t seen the movie Sandlot yet, you’re not American and you hate apple pie). Another side note, if you love baseball (and America) as much as I do, then you MUST read Moneyball by Michael Lewis. I’m going to try not to butcher the explanation, but in his research for his book Lewis found that the Oakland A’s organization devised a logarithm to show that OBP is three times more valuable than slugging, three times! That’s redonkeylous, but Lewis breaks it down further in verbal terms. Let’s say in any given inning, the leadoff man launches a homerun and starts out the team’s slugging percentage for that inning at 4.000, but then the next three batters make consecutive outs, dropping the SLUG% from 4.000, to 3.000 to 2.000 to 1.000 for the inning. 1.000 isn’t bad, right? Well, what would be the result if the OBP for an inning was 1.000? How many runs would be scored? The answer is…an infinite amount! The half inning would never end! Players would just keep getting on base, never making any outs. Don’t like my explanation? Me neither, read the book. And while you’re at it, check out all the saber metric statistics provided for free on fangraphs.com and baseball-reference.com since Baseball Prospectus charges for their work. I’ll get to the point soon I swear. Then your eyes fall upon the SB number and you say to yourself, wow, the White Sox have close to 30 more stolen bases this year than last year and are second in the AL. Well, they also have 22 more caught stealing that last year too and lead the AL. You may say that that’s natural considering the spike in attempts, which is true; however, throughout the body of work of an entire season, in order to have a positive run value for stolen bases a team has to have a success rate of at least 70%. The Sox are hovering around 67%, so in their entirety, the stolen bases have in fact run the Sox out of more scoring situations and innings and have been more detrimental to the team than helpful. As the table shows, the White Sox are just about on pace to score the same amount of points as last year, even with all of the extra stolen bases. Of course the OBP is nearly indistinguishable from last year, yet there’s many more stolen bases and they’re still on pace to score the same amount of runs…
The White Sox have only made the playoffs once since winning the World Series in 2005, and they had their asses handed to them by the Rays after winning game 163 against none other than this year’s Central Division Champs, the Twins. The White Sox went 5-13 against the Twinkies this year, and were 30-39 versus the division. The Twins were 40-29 within the Central. I said months ago in this blog and on sportstownchicago.com that the White Sox had to win the division, thru the division. The numbers above tell the story.
So who’s to blame for this failure of a season? Well, Ozzie’s little DH-by-committee experience did not work, nay, it failed miserably. Kenny allowed Ozzie to have too much input in who should be on the roster, unless it was Jerry who told Kenny to give Ozzie the lineup flexibility that he wanted. Ozzie and Kenny have been a pretty good tandem throughout the years, one saving the other’s behind and vice versa, but things are coming to a head. There was another blow up between the two in August. It probably had to do with Kenny telling Ozzie that he had about enough of his NL-style of on field managing and that he was going to get a slugger in the lineup to try to salvage the season, not to mention that it was going to be somebody who can protect MVP candidate Paul Konerko. It seemed like a pretty significant slap to Ozzie’s face, but if I was in Kenny’s position, I would have smacked him with the same force. I think Ozzie did a great job this year, especially with the bullpen. He didn’t over-manage as much as he has in the past and like I expected him to do again this year. Unfortunately, his season-plan was a monumental failure.
Some of the blame also lands on the players, especially on the starting pitching. Yes, they pitched similarly to last year, but the point was to pitch BETTER than last year. The first month and a half they were awful. Then they turned it on for about two months. Then the big games arrived in August and September and they were hot for a while, and then they were really hot, but only because they wet themselves. Danks pitched well in a big game, in 2008. Floyd has no-hit stuff, inconsistently. Peavy is still looking for his latissimus dorsi. Sweaty Freddie wasn’t as sweaty as a Freddie could be sweaty because when you pitch well below the league’s fastball average you need the corners otherwise you get pounded. Buehrle was Buehrle with a full belly from eating innings. Jackson was an excellent pickup who has now proven twice that he can pitch in the AL. Don’t even say it was a bad deal since trading away Hudson with his 1.65 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in the weak NL West. If you don’t like the move, you’re Matt Spiegel’s “out of town stupid”.
So, it’s Jerry’s fault, by default. It’s Kenny’s fault for not trusting his gut and playing to his sandlot of a ballpark and jamming his lineup full of base-clogging sluggers who get on base 41% of the time they step into a batter’s box (Jim Thome). It’s Ozzie’s fault for the awful execution of making the lineup and wanting Mark Kotsay to get way more at-bats than he deserved. It’s the players’ fault for not playing up to their ability and not staying healthy. It’s Joe West’s fault, because I said so and this is my blog.
Tape & Pinetar:
The Bears are 2-0 and will be 2-1 before midnight Central Standard time on Monday evening. The question is exactly how well will they play against the Packers in that loss.
The Bulls have a shot at obtaining Carmelo Anthony if they give up Noah. Do it, now.
The Blackhawks are 6-1 to repeat a Stanley Cup Championship, yet they are not the favorite to win as the Washington Capitals are 5-1. (The Penguins are also 6-1).
PREACH
STAT 2010 / 2009
ERA 4.06 / 4.14
SO 1,024 (season not yet over) / 1,119
WHIP 1.356 / 1.351
BB/9 3.1 / 3.2
K/9 7.1 / 7.0
Offensively, they were slightly better than last year, but certainly not substantially.
STAT 2010 / 2009
AVG. .269 / .258
OBP .332 / .329
SLUG. .411 / .426
OPS .759 / .740
OPS+ 102 / 91
wOBA .333 / .325
RUNS 702 / 724
SB 144 / 113
I’m showing avg. only because people are still just use to it being a foundation for batting statistics, but that is rapidly changing. On-base percentage (OBP) is far and away a much more valuable statistic. As you can see, the avg. for this year was .011 better than last year, but the OBP was only .003 higher. The object of baseball is to score more runs than the other team, whether it takes nine innings or not. How do you score runs you might ask? Why, by getting on base, of course! You’re killing me Smalls! (If you haven’t seen the movie Sandlot yet, you’re not American and you hate apple pie). Another side note, if you love baseball (and America) as much as I do, then you MUST read Moneyball by Michael Lewis. I’m going to try not to butcher the explanation, but in his research for his book Lewis found that the Oakland A’s organization devised a logarithm to show that OBP is three times more valuable than slugging, three times! That’s redonkeylous, but Lewis breaks it down further in verbal terms. Let’s say in any given inning, the leadoff man launches a homerun and starts out the team’s slugging percentage for that inning at 4.000, but then the next three batters make consecutive outs, dropping the SLUG% from 4.000, to 3.000 to 2.000 to 1.000 for the inning. 1.000 isn’t bad, right? Well, what would be the result if the OBP for an inning was 1.000? How many runs would be scored? The answer is…an infinite amount! The half inning would never end! Players would just keep getting on base, never making any outs. Don’t like my explanation? Me neither, read the book. And while you’re at it, check out all the saber metric statistics provided for free on fangraphs.com and baseball-reference.com since Baseball Prospectus charges for their work. I’ll get to the point soon I swear. Then your eyes fall upon the SB number and you say to yourself, wow, the White Sox have close to 30 more stolen bases this year than last year and are second in the AL. Well, they also have 22 more caught stealing that last year too and lead the AL. You may say that that’s natural considering the spike in attempts, which is true; however, throughout the body of work of an entire season, in order to have a positive run value for stolen bases a team has to have a success rate of at least 70%. The Sox are hovering around 67%, so in their entirety, the stolen bases have in fact run the Sox out of more scoring situations and innings and have been more detrimental to the team than helpful. As the table shows, the White Sox are just about on pace to score the same amount of points as last year, even with all of the extra stolen bases. Of course the OBP is nearly indistinguishable from last year, yet there’s many more stolen bases and they’re still on pace to score the same amount of runs…
The White Sox have only made the playoffs once since winning the World Series in 2005, and they had their asses handed to them by the Rays after winning game 163 against none other than this year’s Central Division Champs, the Twins. The White Sox went 5-13 against the Twinkies this year, and were 30-39 versus the division. The Twins were 40-29 within the Central. I said months ago in this blog and on sportstownchicago.com that the White Sox had to win the division, thru the division. The numbers above tell the story.
So who’s to blame for this failure of a season? Well, Ozzie’s little DH-by-committee experience did not work, nay, it failed miserably. Kenny allowed Ozzie to have too much input in who should be on the roster, unless it was Jerry who told Kenny to give Ozzie the lineup flexibility that he wanted. Ozzie and Kenny have been a pretty good tandem throughout the years, one saving the other’s behind and vice versa, but things are coming to a head. There was another blow up between the two in August. It probably had to do with Kenny telling Ozzie that he had about enough of his NL-style of on field managing and that he was going to get a slugger in the lineup to try to salvage the season, not to mention that it was going to be somebody who can protect MVP candidate Paul Konerko. It seemed like a pretty significant slap to Ozzie’s face, but if I was in Kenny’s position, I would have smacked him with the same force. I think Ozzie did a great job this year, especially with the bullpen. He didn’t over-manage as much as he has in the past and like I expected him to do again this year. Unfortunately, his season-plan was a monumental failure.
Some of the blame also lands on the players, especially on the starting pitching. Yes, they pitched similarly to last year, but the point was to pitch BETTER than last year. The first month and a half they were awful. Then they turned it on for about two months. Then the big games arrived in August and September and they were hot for a while, and then they were really hot, but only because they wet themselves. Danks pitched well in a big game, in 2008. Floyd has no-hit stuff, inconsistently. Peavy is still looking for his latissimus dorsi. Sweaty Freddie wasn’t as sweaty as a Freddie could be sweaty because when you pitch well below the league’s fastball average you need the corners otherwise you get pounded. Buehrle was Buehrle with a full belly from eating innings. Jackson was an excellent pickup who has now proven twice that he can pitch in the AL. Don’t even say it was a bad deal since trading away Hudson with his 1.65 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in the weak NL West. If you don’t like the move, you’re Matt Spiegel’s “out of town stupid”.
So, it’s Jerry’s fault, by default. It’s Kenny’s fault for not trusting his gut and playing to his sandlot of a ballpark and jamming his lineup full of base-clogging sluggers who get on base 41% of the time they step into a batter’s box (Jim Thome). It’s Ozzie’s fault for the awful execution of making the lineup and wanting Mark Kotsay to get way more at-bats than he deserved. It’s the players’ fault for not playing up to their ability and not staying healthy. It’s Joe West’s fault, because I said so and this is my blog.
Tape & Pinetar:
The Bears are 2-0 and will be 2-1 before midnight Central Standard time on Monday evening. The question is exactly how well will they play against the Packers in that loss.
The Bulls have a shot at obtaining Carmelo Anthony if they give up Noah. Do it, now.
The Blackhawks are 6-1 to repeat a Stanley Cup Championship, yet they are not the favorite to win as the Washington Capitals are 5-1. (The Penguins are also 6-1).
PREACH
Monday, August 30, 2010
Mannyhood
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
PREACH
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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