Hawks, Bears and Bulls

Three big stories in Chicago these days are the Black Hawks, the Bears and the Bulls, all for different reasons. 

The Hawks are the biggest positive story - they sit atop their division and lead the league in points.  They have talented young stars and it seems that everyone knows who Toews, Kane and Sharp are.  But more surprisingly, people know who Michael Handzus, Marcus Kruger, and Brandon Bollig are!  Leddy, Saad, Rozsival, and Oduya are also recognized names these days!  They are creating fans as we speak!  That's the way to do it.

The Bears have a different story - they're right there in the playoff hunt, and have a minor controversy at the most important position.  While Jay Cutler has been injured, backup Josh McCown has been more than serviceable - he's been good, and even outstanding against the Cowboys.  So, going into Cleveland, there is actually a debate about who should play.  Looks like it's gonna be Cutler, but then McCown goes and wins the offensive player of the week award (or whatever they call it) for his performance against the 'Boys.  So what do you do?  Risk the game on the clearly more talented, but possibly very rusty Jay Cutler, who at his best is still (though not as much) prone to turnovers because of trying to make big plays instead of taking what's given to him by opposing defenses?  Or go the conservative route and let McCown take the helm again?  What if he wins?  Then what happens for the following week? 

I guess it's nice to have something like that to discuss instead of just how terrible the defense has been for most of the season. 

And then there's the Bulls.  I'm more a Bulls fan than a Hawks or Bears fan, I think.  But this Bulls team, with an out-for-the-season Derrick Rose (again) and injuries to Deng and Butler and Noah (the usual suspects, with new addition Jimmy Butler), has been pretty bad.  So there's a legitimate question:  Do they acknowledge what most fans and sports talkers seem to know and accept, and that is, that they will not be winning an NBA championship this year without Rose, and play for next year where there is a very strong draft class?  Or do they try to squeak into the playoffs with a 7 or 8 seed and see a first round exit, and a consequently lower draft pick? 

This organization should know what they're going to do with players like Deng and Boozer.  Are they part of next year's team?  If not, then Deng should be moved.  Not only would it make the team worse in the short run, but it might get them an extra first round pick and free up minutes for rookie Tony Snell.  If Deng is going to be resigned after the season, then he should be babied along to try to make sure he comes back at full strength along with Rose next year.

I personally don't think Deng is that "second option" that they seem to need to get past the other elite teams.  I'd deal him.  I'd deal almost anyone except for Butler, Snell and Rose (of course).  I'd even deal Noah if there was a crazy package of picks and young players,  though I'd be fine with having Noah on the team as the center for a long time.  Likewise with Gibson.  I wouldn't give him away but I wouldn't hesitate to deal him for a package of picks and young talent if I could get it. 

So we'll see what happens.  We might have another Stanley Cup come next summer, we might have a Bears playoff appearance (or we might not), and we might witness a sensible rebuilding program for the Bulls. 

Then we can see what the Cubs and Sox have done to make themselves better in the long term. 

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14 DARK WINDOWS is live on Amazon!

I'm happy to announce the publication of my short story collection, 14 DARK WINDOWS, on Amazon for Kindle.  It contains 14 short stories, 10 of which are available as pairs or trios in four different Kindle short books, and 4 more that have not been published before.  It is available for purchase for $2.99.

You can check out the title here:  14 DARK WINDOWS.

Thank you for any interest!

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Arrow pointing up or down?

Bulls:

Derrick Rose is back and looks to be pretty well recovered from his torn ACL from the 2011/2012 season playoffs.  Dunleavy is probably an upgrade from both Kyle Korver and the Italian guy from last year (I can't even remember his name).  Hinrich moving to the second unit is an upgrade from Nate Robinson, though Robinson was outstanding offensively last year, better than Hinrich likely will be.  Marcus Teague is a year better, and the frontcourt rotation of Noah, Boozer, Gibson and Nazr Mohammed should be similar to what it was last year.  Jimmy Butler was a revelation in the playoffs and should be solid at the two guard.  Undefeated in preseason. 

The arrow is pointing up.

Bears:

Cutler and Briggs both injured.  Melton already out for the year.  Peppers looking like his age might be catching up with him.  Tillman still looking good but fighting injuries.  Defense in general has gone the wrong direction.  O line looks improved, running game should continue to be solid.  Tight end is a 100% improvement.  But...Cutler out for minimum 4 weeks. 

Arrow pointing down.

Black Hawks:

All the stars back and healthy.  Some role players gone (I always liked Dave Bolland) but there are others to step in and take their places.  Corey Crawford locked up, hopefully he continues to perform.  Looking good so far. 

Arrow pointing flat.  How can it go up from a Stanley Cup Championship?!?!

White Sox:

Konerko a shadow of his former self, and may be gone.  Relatively young arms like Danks and Floyd and Quintana and Chris Sale are average to very good, but a couple (Danks and Floyd) are injury prone.  Defense was horrid last year.  Will it improve?  How? 

Arrow pointing down.

Cubs:

Figuring things out with their young "stars" - are they really star major leaguers or are they run-of-the-mill guys?  (I'm talking about Castro and Rizzo.)  Young stud prospects are still at least one season away.  Pitching is rough after Samarzidja and Travis Wood.  Edwin Jackson is an expensive journeyman.  Scott Baker might help.  Ryan Sweeney and Nate Schuerholz at least give them a little something in the outfield.  There will be a new manager, but we don't know who yet. 

For 2014, arrow pointing down.
For 2015, arrow starts to point upward, we hope. 

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I've published 2 short stories on Amazon!

Hi, anyone!   I don't know if anyone actually reads this blog but what the heck!  Just a quick note to let it be known that I finally got around to publishing my first two short story pairs. They are currently only available on Amazon. Each is a main story, with a second story paired with it (to add value, hopefully).   They are under the pen name "Scott Dyson". The first is SOLE OCCUPANT and it is $0.99 on Amazon. It contains the 2400 word main story SOLE OCCUPANT and the short flash fiction piece THE ONLY SOLUTION (~700 words). The second is ODD MAN OUT and it is also $0.99 on Amazon. It contains the 1600 word main story ODD MAN OUT and a second horror tale, HOUSE AT THE BEND IN THE ROAD (~1800 words). That's 3100 words (about 14 pages with author note) for the first pair and 3400 words (about 15 pages with short author note) for the second pair. Take a look at them if you're so inclined. Thank you!!!    (Find my website at ScottDyson.com )

Off Topic: Tom Piekarski, Chicago Bassist, passes away

(I also posted this at another blog...)

One of my favorite musicians in the Chicago bar band scene was bass player Tom "Pickles" Piekarski.  Besides playing with John Prine, he also played with the Famous Potatoes, Mike Jordan and the Rockamatics, Betsy and the Boneshakers, and finally, The Bad Examples.

I loved watching him, listening to him, and talking with him between sets and after or before shows.  Pickles always had time and interest in chatting with people.

Here's the obit from the Chicago Sun-Times:  The Tasty Force of Tom Piekarski


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And I didn't even mention...

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! 

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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...

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