The BlackHawks!
I know I haven't been very good at updating my sports blog, and I do tend to focus on stuff like deals and roster moves because that's often what interests me the most about Chicago sports. It always has been like that for me - I was a stats junkie as a kid and even though I'm not really up on sabermetrics, the ideas behind it fascinate me. I used to play entire seasons with my own version of the major leagues via baseball cards and a deck of playing cards. (Aces were home runs, red kings were triples, black kings were singles, queens were doubles, jacks were singles, 10's were walks, 9's and 5's were sacrifice flies if there was a runner on third, and the rest were just outs. I didn't mess with stolen bases or double plays or errors.) I used to log trades in a notebook, then play games with my card deck, using my revamped rosters. It was fun.
Anyway, here I am writing about the trading deadline in baseball (which is something I always pay attention to in all sports) and I'm not even mentioning that:
THE BLACKHAWKS WON THE STANLEY CUP!!!
AGAIN!!!
Two Cups in four years is pretty darned good. I have to admit, watching as they worked their way through the Detroit, LA and part of the Bruin series, I didn't think they could do it. They looked less aggressive and slower to the puck, but when push came to shove, they put the puck in the net when they needed to!
So congratulations, Blackhawks, and congratulations to all the die-hard Hawks fans. And thank you, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, for finally capturing my son's imagination and making him into a hockey fan!
*****
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Baseball Trading Deadline...
So here we are at the All Star Break, and both the Cubs and White Sox are about 14 games out, thought the Cubs have the better record.
Both teams are sellers as we approach the deadline for non-waiver deals. Both teams have a few chips. The Sox have Alex Rios and Jake Peavy, both of who they would love to more. The Cubs have Matt Garza, who may be the best available pitcher in baseball, if not for the fact that he is a free agent at the end of the year.
Others could go as well. I've read that the Sox wouldn't mind moving Alexi Ramirez and of course they'd let Adam Dunn go at the drop of a hat, if there was a taker. They've already moved lefty reliever Matt Thornton to the BoSox. The Cubs have already moved Scott Feldman, and I would guess they would consider trading Edwin Jackson for the right amount of prospects. Likewise with David DeJesus, Kevin Gregg, and Nate Schuerholz, if the deals make sense. Like Dunn, the Cubs also would move Soriano provided they don't have to eat every last bite of his contract, and Carlos Marmol.
Here's how I feel about trade deadline deals. There are a couple of reasons to make trades. First, you want salary relief. (See Alfonso Soriano.) Second, you have a young player coming up the ladder who you want to make playing time for. Third, you can get players who likely can help you in the future.
As a Cubs fan, I've seen too many of the "salary dump" types of deals where the players coming back are little more than minor league roster filler, no matter how management tried to spin them. That was a different management team. This year it's different. It seems perhaps the Cubs have people in place who can actually evaluate talent.
Still, I wouldn't trade a guy like Kevin Gregg for nothing. Cash in on him, yes. He's been really good as closer since being signed off the major league scrap heap, and if someone wants to give the team one of those players who can help you in the future, not just minor league filler but a true prospect, by all means deal him. But to trade him for this year's version of Micah Bowie, I don't think I'd do it. First, he doesn't cost much. Second, there is no young player pushing for innings in the closer role. Third, he is helping the team win a few games.
See, I feel these two teams still have an obligation to their fans to try to put a major league quality product on the field. This obligation will continue unless they slash ticket prices to minor league levels or something not much more than that. If someone tells me that they are "building for the future but sacrificing the present", I will tell them that I don't feel I should pay premium prices for an admittedly inferior product, especially one that is inferior by design. I'm all for getting better, but I still don't have to spend my money on bad baseball.
Right now Kevin Gregg makes the Cubs a little better. If they can get a real prospect for him go for it. But don't deal him just to be trading him, and have some B-level prospect come back to the organization in return. I feel the same way about Schuerholz, Scott Hairston and others. They are major leaguers and I'd like to see them stay around.
Unless they bring back real prospects in return, as we all expect Matt Garza to do. Maybe not that quality of prospect, but still - guys with a major league future.
Let's see what happens now...
*****
Both teams are sellers as we approach the deadline for non-waiver deals. Both teams have a few chips. The Sox have Alex Rios and Jake Peavy, both of who they would love to more. The Cubs have Matt Garza, who may be the best available pitcher in baseball, if not for the fact that he is a free agent at the end of the year.
Others could go as well. I've read that the Sox wouldn't mind moving Alexi Ramirez and of course they'd let Adam Dunn go at the drop of a hat, if there was a taker. They've already moved lefty reliever Matt Thornton to the BoSox. The Cubs have already moved Scott Feldman, and I would guess they would consider trading Edwin Jackson for the right amount of prospects. Likewise with David DeJesus, Kevin Gregg, and Nate Schuerholz, if the deals make sense. Like Dunn, the Cubs also would move Soriano provided they don't have to eat every last bite of his contract, and Carlos Marmol.
Here's how I feel about trade deadline deals. There are a couple of reasons to make trades. First, you want salary relief. (See Alfonso Soriano.) Second, you have a young player coming up the ladder who you want to make playing time for. Third, you can get players who likely can help you in the future.
As a Cubs fan, I've seen too many of the "salary dump" types of deals where the players coming back are little more than minor league roster filler, no matter how management tried to spin them. That was a different management team. This year it's different. It seems perhaps the Cubs have people in place who can actually evaluate talent.
Still, I wouldn't trade a guy like Kevin Gregg for nothing. Cash in on him, yes. He's been really good as closer since being signed off the major league scrap heap, and if someone wants to give the team one of those players who can help you in the future, not just minor league filler but a true prospect, by all means deal him. But to trade him for this year's version of Micah Bowie, I don't think I'd do it. First, he doesn't cost much. Second, there is no young player pushing for innings in the closer role. Third, he is helping the team win a few games.
See, I feel these two teams still have an obligation to their fans to try to put a major league quality product on the field. This obligation will continue unless they slash ticket prices to minor league levels or something not much more than that. If someone tells me that they are "building for the future but sacrificing the present", I will tell them that I don't feel I should pay premium prices for an admittedly inferior product, especially one that is inferior by design. I'm all for getting better, but I still don't have to spend my money on bad baseball.
Right now Kevin Gregg makes the Cubs a little better. If they can get a real prospect for him go for it. But don't deal him just to be trading him, and have some B-level prospect come back to the organization in return. I feel the same way about Schuerholz, Scott Hairston and others. They are major leaguers and I'd like to see them stay around.
Unless they bring back real prospects in return, as we all expect Matt Garza to do. Maybe not that quality of prospect, but still - guys with a major league future.
Let's see what happens now...
*****
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