Boston Red Sox From Wire to Wire

October 26, 2018

Many people in Chicago-land stopped watching baseball when the Cubs were eliminated from the playoffs. I, however have been watching. There has been some drama but overall the games have been disappointing.

If you are a Red Sox fan, you’d be giddy right now as they are two wins away from a World Series Championship. After posting 108 wins during the regular season, they quickly disposed of the N.Y. Yankees who had the second best record in baseball. The Houston Astros, coming off the sweep of the Cleveland Indians, were next up. Houston, a very good team, could only muster a game one victory losing the next four.

The National League provided the only drama. The L.A. Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves in four games. The Milwaukee Brewers kept up their hot streak sweeping the Colorado Rockies. The Dodgers beat the Brewers in an up and down seven game series.

Although this may have been exciting for the fans of these two teams, it wasn’t the same baseball I grew up watching. Ever since the Kansas City Royals won a championship with their starters going six innings and having three quality relievers closing out games, teams have tried to copy that formula. However, managers of both teams were pulling starters after three or four innings, making a plethora of pitching changes. All these stoppages of play drained a lot of the excitement.  Only starter Clayton Kershaw went more than five innings. The Brewers could have had taken hold of the series if not for Milwaukee Manager Craig Counsell’s bad bullpen move In Game 1.  With Milwaukee ahead 5-1, he brings in reliever extraordinaire, Josh Hader in the fifth inning. The man he replaced had homered off Kershaw and had pitched two scoreless innings. When you’re ahead by four runs I am saving Hader if there is trouble in the late innings. Instead he pitches three innings, making him unavailable for game 2.  In that game the Dodgers won on an eighth inning two-run homer that may not have occurred if Hader is pitching.

Hence, the Dodgers earned the right to lose to the Red Sox in the World Series. It doesn’t matter how good the Dodger pitching is. The Red Sox are the only team that consistently beats other teams 1 & 2 starters. They have the strongest one through seven hitters, play great defense (aside from third base) and have a very solid pitching staff. Believe it or not, the only team that had a winning record against the Red Sox were the Chicago White Sox...

                              American League                                                     National League

MVP                     Mookie Betts – Boston                                     Christian Yelich - Milwaukee

Runner up           J.D. Martinez- Boston                                              Javier Baez  –  Chicago

Cy Young          Blake Snell – Tampa Bay                                   Jacob deGrom  -  New York         

Runner up         Corey Kluber – Cleveland                                  Max Scherzer – Washington

Rookie            Shohei Ohtani – California                                       Juan Soto – Washington

Runner up       Miguel Andujar – New York                                     Ronald Acuna – Atlanta

Manager          Bob Melvin – Oakland                                             Brian Snitker – Atlanta

Runner up       A.J. Hinch – Houston                                             Craig Counsell - Milwaukee

Bears Optimism Fading Fast

October 22, 2018

I didn’t think the Chicago Bears would beat the New England Patriots. When the Bears scored their second touchdown, I thought maybe they could pull off an upset. However, it’s hard to overcome your special teams giving away fourteen points. So the Bears lose another game they should have won. Their record is now 3-3 and they’ve gone from first place to last in their division.

I think it would be prudent to sit Khalil Mack for the next game and have him healthy for the stretch run (if it matters). It seems he can’t push off his ankle to pass rush and his dropping into coverage resulted in one tackle. The defense was considered to be the strong suit before he arrived and should help them beat the lousy New York Jets and Buffalo Bills. If the Bears lose either one, I may be forced to watch Bulls basketball.

The defense on Sunday was not that bad when you consider New England was scoring 30 plus points and the Bears gave up only 24. New England opened the game with an easy touchdown drive. The defense then proceeded to force turnovers and some three and outs giving the offense great field position. The kick return turned the game around. Before the half was over, with no pass rush, Tom Brady had time to find wide open receivers and lead the Patriots on a 64 yard touchdown drive. The Bears trailed at halftime. They scored early in the third quarter to take a three point lead. Then the Bears had their only sack and forced the Patriots to settle for a field goal instead of  a touchdown tying the game. Then came the inexcusable blocked punt.  The biggest failure of the defense was not stopping the Patriots running game with three minutes left leaving the Bears with no time outs and only 30 seconds when they got the ball back.

The offense took advantage of the turnovers and field position provided by the defense. They had a field goal and two touchdowns on drives, the longest being 36 yards. Most of the offense came when quarterback Mitch Trubisky scrambled to avoid sacks.  At one point he had more yards than the Patriots team. His 8 yard reverse of the field touchdown was terrific- like a Dennis Savard Spin-o-Rama.

The reason the Bears lost were the two special teams gaffes. A blocked punt gave the Patriots a 7 point lead. The loss also had offensive guru Coach Matt Nagy’s fingerprints all over it. His quarterback had been inaccurate in the first half completing 9 passes in 20 attempts. He unbelievably calls 30 more pass plays, never trying to establish the run to make the passing game more effective. If you combine the run with a short passing game you can keep Brady and the Patriots offense off the field. On manageable third downs, he’s calling long bombs. He calls these 50-50 balls. However, most of these are never close enough for his receivers to make a catch. If you call 50-50 plays you  get receptions or knockdowns and/or interceptions. You watch Brady and see how the short passing game works. You can also look at your previous throws to Trey Burton. Throwing pass after pass, Trubisky is intercepted twice with the Bears only trailing by a touchdown.

The Bears do make a game of it. Trailing by a touchdown, Trubisky throws a hail Mary pass that’s caught by Kevin White at the one yard line. He doesn’t get into the end zone; game over. It infuriates me when people say they were only a yard away from tying the game. That play means nothing unless you have Trubisky as your fantasy quarterback.

 Pass happy Matt Nagy’s press conference was something to behold. He thought Trubisky played well. Completing 26 out 50 passes with two interceptions. His runs bring him up to only a C-. Nagy said he had some dropped balls. I counted three, which out of fifty is not that bad, He said nothing about the two dropped interceptions by the Patriots. I said it once, I’ll say it again: There is a big difference in having a big offensive playbook and calling the right plays.

Bears Playoff Aspirations Take a Big Hit

October 16, 2018

Just when I thought the Chicago Bears were going to be really good and have a magical season, they lay an egg and lose to the Miami Dolphins 31-28 in overtime.  To be a playoff contender you have to beat mediocre teams starting their back-up quarterback.

If you had told me before the game that the Bears would score 28 points, I'd say they would have an easy victory. It didn’t start off too well. For the first time all year the Bears did not score in the first quarter, or for that matter the first half.  Mitch Trubisky was off target on his throws and the offense just couldn’t get in sync. They still should have come up with seven points if Jordan Howard doesn’t fumble at the one yard line.

In the second half Trubisky regained the form he had the previous week. He made some beautiful long throws and the receivers made some nice catches. He led the Bears onto three scoring drives. With the Bears ahead 21-13, he completed a six yard touchdown pass to Tarik Cohen which was nullified by a pick penalty on Trey Burton. By NFL rules it was the right call but sometimes gets overlooked. On the ensuing play, Trubisky threw into coverage and got intercepted. Granted it was a lousy pass, however the high risk play should never have been called. You were in a good spot on the field for an easy field goal. The lead could have been eleven but remained eight, or one score. Trubisky later did connect with Anthony Miller for a fourth Bears touchdown.

What happened to the one of the league’s elite defenses leading in sacking the quarterback? The Bears had no sacks and very little pressure on Miami quarterback, Brock Osweiler. Miami Coach Adam Gase must have also watched film to see that you can move the ball against the Bears with quick passes to avoid pressure. After turning his ankle, even Khalil Mack couldn’t get to the quarterback. They couldn’t produce any three and outs. With 100 year old Frank Gore getting six yards per carry, first downs were easy to come by. Probably the biggest problem for the defense was poor tackling. The Dolphins completed short passes that turned into 45 and 75 yard touchdowns. Everybody was at fault. My favorite comment though was Adrian Amos who said, "I make that tackle 100% of the time." Maybe after two missed tackles he should lower that number. The defense did come up with a fumble at their own one yard line in overtime, giving the Bears a chance to win.

Starting from their own 20 yard line, behind the running of Jordan Howard the Bears got inside Miami’s 40 yard line. This is where the great offensive coach Matt Nagy proved he still doesn’t know what he’s doing. Calling three straight ahead runs for little gain to set up a 53 yard field goal attempt, for a kicker that nudged the goal post on an extra point. I wonder how many people, like me, knew he was going to miss? I know that your kicker makes those field goals however, your chances get exponentially better closer in. Nagy said if he called a pass that resulted in a sack he would have been questioned about that call. Nagy, with a great offensive mind, couldn’t find a play for a short third down. Maybe a run option play. Also, with only two minutes left a first down gives the Bears a chance to run out the clock before attempting a game winning field goal. So, the kick is missed. Miami gets the ball at their 43 yard line. They easily get in field goal range and kick the winning field goal as time expires.

The Bears' playoff hopes have pretty much vanished. By beating Miami, they only needed to go six and five to reach ten wins and a playoff spot.  Seven and four is a stretch. With the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams on the schedule, that’s two losses. The Bears would have to go seven and two to hit ten victories. They have to play the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings twice and one more against Green Bay. It looks as if the Bears will join the Cubs as major disappointments this season.      

Only way to go is up for rebuilding White Sox

October 10, 2018

There is another baseball team in Chicago besides the Cubs. For the people who still care (I know you’re out there) this is the state of the White Sox.  The Sox looked like they were getting better going 16-12 in August. Then came September. They had a seven game losing streak in the middle of the month.  They lost their last five to reach 100 losses. Mercifully, the season ended.

Are there any positives? They do have some good young pitching. As rookies, they had the expected ups and downs. However, you can see the potential that Carlos Rodon, Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito have. There were times when each pitcher displayed major league quality stuff. At some point they will add Dylan Cease to the rotation. Michael Kopech was the story of the year.  He added excitement to what was otherwise a dull year. Alas, when I heard he needed Tommy John surgery it was worse than the day the music died. He will be back in 2020. They should be competitive by then. The rebuild has been stalled by injuries but should take shape by 2020. Patience is a virtue.

As for 2019, expect Eloy Jimenez to be the starting left fielder, Jose Abreu needs regain the form that made him one of the best hitters in baseball.  Before he got hurt and as the season wound down you could see flashes of how good Joan Moncada can be.  He has to learn that some pitches are too close to take. Good hitters tend to foul off pitches until they get one they like. He also has to work on his fielding. Eloy Jimenez will eventually be the left fielder once the obtain the extra year of control.

That’s it for the positives. Adam Engel in center. He seemed to get an idea of what he was doing and improved his average from .167 to at one point rose to .235. An excellent defender some think if he could hit .250 that would be acceptable. This is only true if the rest of the team is hitting. He would be a good late inning defensive replacement. In right field, Avi Garcia hit .330 in 2017. He regressed in 2018, often swinging at pitches out of the strike zone. He also suffered through injuries. What he did do was decrease his value in any trade possibilities.

The left side of the infield needs a complete make over. There doesn’t seem to be anyone to replace Yomar Sanchez. With a .246 average with no power and barely .300 on base percentage, he is not your prototypical third baseman. Shortstop Tim Anderson did hit twenty home runs and stole over twenty bases. He also had over twenty errors. I will admit his fielding did improve over the course of the season. He can hit home runs and would steal more bases if he wasn’t hitting.241 with an on base percentage of .282. His plate discipline is terrible. Three breaking balls in the dirt and he can grab some bench. As for the catching, Omar Navaraez hitting was a great surprise, but he is a disaster behind the plate, minus 22 in runs saved. I didn’t forget about the sorry bullpen but that would go on forever.  Suffice to say you can’t win without a good one.

Some of the best moments of the 2018 season were provided by rookie Danny Palka who hit 27 home runs in only 388 at bats. He had a flair for the dramatic, hitting multiple home runs to tie or win games in the ninth inning. Hopefully they can make some strides and show promise for the future in 2019. I can’t wait until 2020 when we should really know if this rebuild is working.

The Strange Disappearance of Cubs Hitting and Playoffs

October 8, 2018

I love post season baseball. The Milwaukee Brewers swept the Colorado Rockies. They now have won 10 straight games. The Houston Astros did the same against the Cleveland Indians. While watching these games, I keep thinking about why the Cubs aren’t a part of this.

Some people said the Cubs choked down the stretch. However, they did not lose the division as much as Milwaukee won it. I thought the Cubs would get hot and run away with the division. I did not think Milwaukee could go on this incredible run to catch them. Like the dad in “Dirty Dancing,” I have to admit I was wrong. In the stretch run, the Brewers went 19-7, closing the season on a seven game winning streak and catching the Cubs on the last Saturday after they had lost 2-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Cub fans felt good about their chances to win the divisional playoff game. Their starter, Jose Quintana, has dominated the Brewers over his career. The problem was the Brewers pitcher. Jhoulys Chacin's numbers against the Cubs were just as good as Quintana. The Brewers scratching out a run countered by an Anthony Rizzo home run.  Both starting pitchers were exciting in the sixth inning. It turned into a battle of the bullpens, which overwhelmingly favors the Brewers. The Brewers score two runs in the eighth and bring in Josh Hader to close. In his last four innings against the Cubs, Hader has given up no runs, two hits with 10 strikeouts.

The wild card game was more of the same. The Cubs wasted a strong start from Jon Lester who left the game after going six innings giving up one run. The Rockies misplayed an easy fly ball for a double and had catcher interference called. Every replay turned out in the Cubs' favor. However, the Cubs only scored one run.  Pinch runner for Rizzo, Terrance Gore, stole second and scores on a Javier Baez base hit in the eighth inning. The game ends when inserted starter Kyle Hendricks gives up a run on three singles and the Cubs go down quietly in the bottom losing in thirteen innings. What was most annoying was from the ninth inning on the announcer kept repeating “the Cubs could walk it off.” I thought that’s what you do with injuries or on home runs. What happened to a game winning hit?

As you can see, the Cubs lost two of their last three scoring only one run. The hitting disappeared several times this year. The Cubs played twenty games scoring less than two runs and a dozen more scoring only two runs. In 2017, the Cubs hit 223 home runs, this year only 167. Making contact and hitting with runners in scoring position was non-existent. Only Anthony Rizzo and Baez hit for power.

They had a slew of injuries without they probably could have won one more game. Start with Yu Darvish.  He may have turned around his bad start but went down for the season in May. Jason Hayward was hurt for a while and Kyle Schwarber even longer, taking two left-handed hitters out of the lineup. Brandon Morrow was looking like the closer the team. His first injury occurred when he got back spasms taking off his pants. This is just like Sammy Sosa who got spasms after sneezing. He later developed arm soreness and was out for the season. When it was clear he would probably never come back, they made Pedro Strop their closer. He also went down for the last couple of weeks. The most serious injury sidelined former MVP Kris Bryant with a shoulder injury. He was out almost all year.  He came back with a new swing to protect his shoulder and just wasn’t the same.

The Cubs did win 95 games and the window for success is wide open. My plan would be to do whatever is needed to sign Bryce Harper for right field, move Hayward to center and play Ben Zobrist in left.  Replace free agent Daniel Murphy at second base with David Bote. Signing Cole Hamels is going to cost a bundle, but he may be worth it.  See if you can add a starter to your pitching staff by trading either Kyle Schwarber, Ian Happ or Albert Almora. The key is to stay healthy.

The Offense Cometh

October 2, 2018

It was a good week for the Chicago Bears as they annihilated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48-10.  The Detroit Lions lost to the Dallas Cowboys (1-3) and the Minnesota Vikings lost their second in a row to the L.A. Rams (1-2-1). Only the Green Bay Packers were win over Buffalo (2-1-1) kept pace with the first place Bears (3-1). The last part of that sentence sounds really good.

The Bears offense had their coming out party. Mitch Trubisky was a big part of the offensive explosion. He was 19 of 26 for 354 yards. He had six touchdowns and zero interceptions. He also ran for 53 yards. His passer rating was a near perfect 154.7. His fantasy football points was a whopping 55.5. Probably not on any team, but people will be clamoring to add him. It doesn’t get any better than this.

The Bears main goal this off season was to provide Trubisky with some weapons. These acquisitions had a big impact. On the first series, Trey Burton hauled down a 39 yard touchdown. The next touchdown was a 14 yard floater to Allen Robinson. This was a beautiful throw and reception. Taylor Gabriel had two touchdowns. One was a nifty 3 yard shovel pass. Coach Matt Nagy got real cute having two quarterbacks in the backfield. The other Gabriel touchdown was a short fade in the end zone. On the previous play, Trubisky had no one open and threw the ball out of the end zone. It shows that Trubisky is learning. If there is a number two star of the game my vote goes to Tarik Cohen. He accumulated 175 all- purpose yards including a bullet touchdown catch. I can hear Ken Harrelson saying don’t stop now boys. With a perfect pump fake ,Trubisky finds a wide open Josh Bellamy for a 26 yard touchdown. The cherry on top is Cody Parkey hitting two field goals, one from 51 yards out. This is probably a career best game for Trubisky. I hope it is a springboard for a consistent performance.

Tampa Bay quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick had three consecutive 400 yard passing games coming into Sunday’s game. In my opinion, the best defense in the NFL, put a stop to that. Second half replacement, Jameis Winston didn’t do much better. The defense once again was dominant. Led by Khalil Mack, the Bears added four more sacks and now lead the league in that category. Mack also hit Winston’s hand, leading to a Danny Trevathan interception for one of three Bears' interceptions. If they are not leading the league in interceptions and total turnovers, they have to be close to the top.

This early in the season I wouldn’t be making Super Bowl reservations. However, every year it seems one team goes from worst to first. Last year it was the L.A. Rams. Who’s to say if the offense produces and the defense stays healthy, the Bears can’t do this. The next four games are against the AFC East. The only one that could be a problem are the New England Patriots. This a home game and they may be able to pull an upset.

The best thing about the Bears is they will divert our attention from the Blackhawks and the Bulls.