Opener thoughts.....

- Yep I was at the home opener for the 4th straight year. did i notice any differences at the park? nope besides the posters on the outside of wrigley. my bathroom still has no urinals (i dont care, i dont mind the troughs) but i do think they might have put more lights in the bathroom which is kind of awkward.

- cubs offense showed life. thats good. but they cant be a team that scores just on hrs. they will never win consistently like that.

- soriano, if possible, looks worse/more confused in real life. from my seats, down the right field line above the bullpen, you can tell how not close he is to breaking balls and how off balance he is. why would you every throw this guy a fastball. it would be hard to bench a guy making 18 mill but if something doesnt change soon i think Lou will have to.

- ryan braun will torment cubs fans and NL baseball fans for years to come. he might be the best hitting young player no one talks about. prince fielder is still fat and i hate him.

- im not worried about the bullpen. yes there will be some bumps. but these young kids have live arms and there are enough them to have a couple become solid bullpen guys. the russell kid looks like he has a live arm and might be very solid. could the cubs really have 3 dependable lefties in the pen?

- baseball season makes everything better in life!

Best BB line in a while

In case anyone missed listening to len & bob on the cubs TV broadcast last night, they are getting better every year they are together. This was a gem from Bob last night commenting on "the wave" by the fans & the fans themselves..........."from the looks of it, this is about the exercise these people get"

As to the game, it was a tough loss but grabow is an experienced pitcher and wont do that much. Tip your hat to chipper and congratulate dempster on a great game and move on to the next one. No need to worry yet.

A new/old face for the bulls???

So yesterday during the national championship game, i found myself thinking what does Coach K have left to prove in the game of college basketball??? (Besides making his name spellable.) He has now won 4 championships and has established the program as the most sought after scholorship in college BB. He has coached the national team to a gold medal. Would he consider a move to the NBA? It would seem that is the only basketball arena he hasnt tried/conquered yet.

Previously i have thought (and im not the only one) that who is coaching your team wont influence free agents at all. But the more i thought about it, the more i could coach K being the exception to that rule. The Olympic players raved about him & his coaching style. Most of the players who went to college wanted to play for him or atleast consider it. Bosh, Wade, Bron, Boozer, and David Lee all played for coach K in the Olympics and i would have to assume that joe johnson would be considered for the team in the future. And they listened to him and won a gold medal because of it. He has the name to be a draw for some of these guys to a team he is coaching.

So, could he be a possibility to coach the bulls next year? Definitely. He is a hometown chicago guy and big cubs fan. The bulls would be an appealing team to him because of their young nucleus that plays defense and the chance to sign a big free agent. Now it would cost the bulls probably i would think 10+ mill a year. would they do it?

The bulls under paxson have been all about drafting players from winning college programs. How bout a college coach that has built a winning program for their next coach? The bulls have done everything they could to make their team appealing to a free agent this summer, why not take the extra step and hire the most appealing coach too?

How there will be baseball in October

Alright so I'll post a lot about the cubs this season so ill try and make this preview short & sweet. These are things the cubs need to have happen in order to be playing in october (i figure they need to win 88 games to win the division or wild card).

55 victories between Zambrano, Lilly, Dempster & Wells - that is around 13-14 W's a man. This will mean that they all stay healthy & make 30+ starts each.

450 ABs for Aramis Ramirez - It became evident last year that A-ram was the most feared & consistent hitter in the cubs lineup & it is drastically different w/o him. I expect atleast 1 trip to the 15 day DL but him missing anymore than 20 games will cripple the cubs lineup.

250 batting average & 35 hrs for Soriano & Soto - I dont expect great things from either of these guys but i would think they could produce these #s. Sadly these are pretty average numbers but much better than what they produced last year. It would be a decent season from the cubs #6 & 7 hitters.

4.20 ERA & 30 saves from the bullpen - I think marmol will be the closer the whole year but the rest of the bullpen is unsettled. Its young but with a lot of talent. With a solid starting staff the cubs dont need the bullpen to be lights out but just average to above average. A combined 4.2 ERA would be average.

300+ at bats for Castro & Colvin - This isnt because i think they are gonna hit the crap out of the ball. Its because they make the cubs a better defensive team and with that win more games. Colvin is by far the best defensive outfielder the cubs and Castro is a better defensive SS than theriot. I dont care how it happens whether it be through poor performances by veterans, stellar performances by these young guys, or injuries, these 2 young kids make the cubs better now.

Like i said above, i think the cubs need to win 88 games to be playing in October. Thats only 5 more games than they won last year. They dont need to re-invent the wheel to get those extra 5 games. They need improvement in a few areas and performances similar to 2009 from most of their team. If these 5 things happen, I will gladly buying old styles for everyone in october.

Jerry Angelo, how i loathe you!!!!

This blog might get renamed to Fire Angelo now! The bears released alex brown today. yep for nothing. no trade, no chance to compete for a job, just straight up released him. And I am furious with this move. Furious!!! Now you might be saying that i am over reacting. this could be the case because after all alex brown was a good solid player but nothing special as a DE. I'll concede that point. But my question is, do the bears have someone better on their roster? Idonje, who hasnt played DE fulltime ever. Mark Anderson, who was handed a starting job 2 years ago and couldnt cut it. Maybe either Melton or Gilbert, draft picks from last year. oh wait, melton didnt play a snap last year and gilbert might have played 2.

Was brown set to make 5 million this year? yep and that will affect the bears salary cap............wait, there is no salary cap this year. So either the bears were too cheap to keep brown or they wanted to hand the position to young guys who haven't earned it. so instead of making the young guys that have all this potential earn the snaps, they are just being handed to them. Does any other organization operate like this? I mean seriously?? Can anyone give me a winning organization that works like this????

Bears fans havent we seen this before. Didnt the bears hand a starting position to one unproven cedric benson and dump thomas jones? how did that one work out?

This move doesnt help the bears get better next year so ultimately it will hopefully help Angelo get fired. Thats the only reason i can find to like this move!

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/04/alex-brown-on-pending-release-by-bears-im-in-my-prime-still.html

Fantasy Baseball

So i am in 2 keeper fantasy baseball leagues, 1 with Elliott that is in its 2nd year and my other league is in the 4th year. I will be updating you with my teams progress probably bi-weekly this year but so far i really like my squads. this post ill deal with my law school keeper league (its made up of mostly guys from law school). This is the 4th year of doing this league and this year 3 guys dropped out and 3 new guys entered. Its an auction league which is different and makes things very interesting.

You have $260 to spend to fill 17 positions (your normal 8 positions plus 2 util & 7 pitching spots)in the auction. There is then a draft of 10 rds after the auction where you fill out your bench and can pick rookies or guys in the minors (they cant be auctioned). These drafted guys are valued at a $1 for keeper purposes and anyone you pick up during the season is valued at $0. So, you are allowed to keep 4 guys from the previous year. If it is the 1st yr you have keep the guy it costs you +$3 bucks from what you paid for him last year, +5 if you are keeping him for the 2nd yr, and +7 for the 3rd yr.

I decided to keep adam lind for $3, kendry morales for $4, ellsbury for $21 and greinke for $11. I had some other options but these seemed like the best cost/value choices plus this league has traditionally undervalued pitching so i didnt want keep more than 1 pitcher.

So i went into the draft looking to try & nab a solid middle infield and fill in the OF with some cheap power. As to my staff i wanted to get another ace to team with greinke and fill in with cheap SPs who would get some wins at the end of the auction. With that said here's how my team ended up.

c - victor martinez - $27 - I was willing to pay for a top flight catcher (mauer, wieters, victor or mccann) cause i thought there was a huge drop off after them. I happy with this b/c mccann went for 29 and wieters 28.

1b - morales (keeper)

2b - placido polanco - $3 -Alright so here my draft strategy went a rye. I said i wanted to have a solid middle infield and this is what i ended up with. At 2b, i was in the bidding for the bunch of guys and almost won brian roberts but he went for 19 and utley went for 50 i didnt think they were worth that. So, i waited till the end of the draft and just picked up polanco off the scrap heap. Maybe i can find someone off the waiver wire in season or maybe polanco scores a ton of runs in a powerful phillies lineup.

ss - elvis andrus - $11 - i knew ss was gonna be bare because the big ones (tulowiski, hanley, rollins, zobrist were kept). i made a run at reyes just because i thought i might be able to get value but he went for 35. i was out after 15. with andrus & ellsbury i pretty much should have a lock on SBs and maybe andrus can continue his development. He could be a possible keeper next year.

3b - adrian beltre - $5 - yep, this rounds out a power inflied for me. I dont know what happened. a-rod, sandoval, youkolis, reynolds were all kept. wright went for 40 and there was no way i was paying that for him. so i tried to get chipper but i wasnt paying 20 for a guy who probably wont play half the season. i followed my polanco trend and took a guy who has performed in the past in beltre and is in a run scoring lineup. fingers crossed.

OF - Ellsbury - keeper

OF - Lind - keeper

OF - Matt Kemp - $50. yep i paid 50 for matt kemp. it was tied with utley for the most of any player. do i like matt kemp? yes! can i believe i paid 50 for him? no. i think i got caught up in a bidding war and didnt want to lose. but with that said he does contribute in all categories and pi expect nothing less than 30 hrs, 100 rbis, 300 avg and 30 stls. not many players in the game do that. And by adding him, andrus, & ellsbury i should have 150+ stls easy. thats wrapped up.

Util - Torii Hunter - OF - $15 - I think this was a great value pick. Torii is old but he should be inked for a 20/20 season and atleast 80 rbis.

Util - Billy Butler - 1B - $14 - If there was one guy i was leaving with on my team it was butler. I think he will hit atleast 30 hrs this year and will be a deal at $14. yes he is a royal but i think he has the most upside on my team.

So i in no way stuck to my pre-draft plan. I have maybe the best OF in the league but my infield is maybe solid? or maybe very questionable??? here's hoping i can have some luck with in season pickups at IF positions.

Pitching Staff:

SP - Grienke - keeper

SP - Gallardo - $25 - here is the 2nd ace i was looking for and other similar pitchers went for 30+

RP - Jonathan Broxton - closer - $22

RP - Johnathan Papelbon - closer - $21

P - Carlos marmol - closer - $12 - So that old adage, "you dont pay for saves", i told that to fuck off. First, i got papelbon for 21 and was very happy with that price and figured it would drive up the cost of other closers. but then the bidding on broxton was low and so i jumped in snagged him for 22. At that point, i figured i would grab marmol for 12 b/c barring an injury i should win saves and i thought it was a great value. Could this strategy backfire? yep. but the way i look at it is that broxton, papelbon, marmol are proven RPs that throw 70+ innings, low whips, tons of Ks and tons of saves. These RPs wont get wins but with their other numbers i should be able to pair them with some decent SPs and finish high in pitching categories.

P- Brett Anderson - $12

P - Johnathan Sanchez - $4 - These last picks were young SPs with a lot of strikeout potential. At this point, my staff is still light on wins though.

In the draft i took these 10 players -

Jason Kubel - OF

Jorge Cantu - 1B/3B

Rickie Weeks - 2B

Cameron Maybin - OF

Nick Johnson -1B

Brandon Wood - 3B

Neftali Felix - RP

Randy Wolf - SP

Jon Rauch - RP

Wade Davis - SP

I think i found some great proven value and some potential in the draft. Kubel, Cantu & Johnson give me 3 guys that should hit 20 hrs & 80 rbis with some decent OBP. Weeks is great when healthy which isnt often so i'll use him when i can. Maybin and Wood have big upside. Both have been prospects for a while and havent done broken out yet. The managers in this league put a premium on young up & coming prospects but i think its guys who have some major league experience like wood & maybin who have a better chance of breaking out.

Rauch could close some games for the twins and is only on my squad for that reason. Wolf is guaranteed 10+ wins. Felix should be pitching in the 7th & 8th innings and should rack up the K's w/o a lot of innings. Our innings are capped at 1250 innings so you dont have room for a lot of starting pitching. Davis is a prospect for TB that i took a flier on.

I'm a little short on power and rbis but i think my strength in pitching can make up for it. I'll keep you updated throughout the year.

2010 Cubs Preview Coming Soon!

HOLY COW!