The Catch-All Catch-Up

Once again, my apologies for the complete lack of attention to this blog.  It's been a couple months since the last post, and due to a combination of work, play, and moving, Reason to Believe has been given the short end of the stick.  No longer...now that football season is in full swing, with college having just completed its first weekend and the NFL opener this Thursday, I'll definitely be posting at least once a week, usually early in the week, and I definitely won't go two and a half months between posts again.  Without further ado, here's what's happened in the last couple months for my beloved Chicago teams.





First, we'll start with Da Bears.  Fall in Chicago can only mean one thing - come 1pm Sunday, most everyone in the city and surrounding areas will be watching the men in the navy blue and orange playing on the lakefront.  It was an uneven preseason for the Bears at best.  All throughout training camp, we heard nothing but good things about the all-important Mike Martz/Jay Cutler dynamic.  For all the talk, though, there weren't much results on the field.  Cutler looked OK - he's had his moments, but in the third and most important preseason game, he was totally out of sync and threw two interceptions, completely characteristic of his 2009 campaign.  I think he'll be better once he and his receivers get some more reps during real games in this new offense, but the real problem are the players in front of him.  The offensive line, including supposed anchor Chris Williams, has allowed ten sacks of Cutler in just over a full four quarters' worth of game time.  That is just simply unacceptable - Cutler won't make it through the year, no matter how durable he is, if that pace keeps up.  I don't think it will, but protecting the QB in a Martz-run offense is crucial, what with all the five- and seven-step drops required.  If Jay has time to throw, their offense has potential to cause defenses problems.  If he's running for his life on a regular basis, it's gonna be a loooooong year for the Bears faithful.  

A big positive to come out of the preseason is the rejuvenation of Matt Forte. Coming off his monster rookie year, much was expected of the Tulane product last year.  But a hamstring injury in camp and a sprained knee suffered in Seattle early last year severely hampered his ability to contribute, even though he gamely soldiered on and didn't miss significant playing time the rest of the season.  However, he doesn't just look faster this year - he IS faster.  His long TD run against the Raiders was one of the more impressive ones I've ever seen from him, making a nifty move at the line of scrimmage to shake a linebacker and then simply running away from the members of the Oakland secondary attempting to catch him.  With him back healthy, and Chester Taylor providing the first legitimate back-up/second option since the Thomas Jones/Cedric Benson era, the running game should be poised to rebound after a truly disappointing year in 2009.  

As far as cuts go, the ax was not kind to members of recent drafts.  Juaqin Iglesias and Henry Melton from the 2008 class and Al Alfalava from 2009 (and the starting safety last season) were all dropped from the 53-man roster.  This was quite the surprising development, as the Bears organization has a reputation for being loyal to their high draft picks, almost to a fault.  Usually, they hold out for several years in hopes that certain players will finally put it together.  Case in point: Garret Wolfe.  The guy is undersized, can't cut it as a running back in the NFL, but is still on the team, supposedly for his contributions on special teams.  Really? Come on.  He's been basically worthless to this team ever since he was surprisingly drafted in the third round four years ago.  Time to cut the cord, Jerry Angelo and Co.  At least they're finally doing so with some of the latest draft day busts.  

It's a good thing they're cutting their losses, because the NFC North this year is going to be brutal, make no mistake about it.  The Bears are clearly not yet on the same plane as the Packers and Vikings - there's still quite a bit of ground to make up.  The Packers have looked basically unstoppable in the preseason so far, and the Vikings have to be respected as one of the top teams in the conference due to their track record, even though injuries look to be taking their toll (Rice out for 6 games or more, Harvin hampered by migraines, Favre and his ankle, etc).  Even the Lions are much improved from last year, in no small part to their draft haul of Suh and Jahvid Best, who looks like a steal at this point.  

So that's four really tough games and two which are no longer gimmes on the schedule, which is brutal - there's no other way to put it.  They open against the Lions, which should be a win, but isn't guaranteed like the last few years.  They then play Dallas in Texas, a team supposed to contend for the Lombardi trophy - no cake-walk.  That's followed by back-to-back nationally televised contests, on Monday night vs. the Pack and the following Sunday vs. the Giants, two more legitimate playoff threats.  That's a helluva tough four game stretch to open the season, with the Lions being the only game I'm confident enough to predict as a win.  Time will tell, though - if they play as well as the coaches seem to believe they will, especially the offense, it could be interesting.  We'll see...if nothing else, this season will be interesting to watch as Lovie and Co. attempt to save their collective hides.  It all starts in less than a week...bring on the Lions.

The Bulls certainly had an interesting summer, what with their open coaching vacancy and a few decent players (supposedly) being on the free-agent market.  I like the choice of Tom Thibodeau as Vinny Del Negro's successor; the guy's a basketball lifer who isn't even married, and has had great success in recent years, as he was the driving force behind the Celtics' defense which took them to two NBA Finals in three years, including the 2008 title.  I like the hard-nosed, defensive angle he brings to the team, and look forward to how he'll mold this Derrick Rose-led team in the years to come.  Thumbs up on the hire from me.

The whole free agency circus that took place shortly thereafter was just so over the top.  I believe that the teams other than the Heat never really had a chance to land LeBron - his mind was made up to play with his buddies, an astonishing yet understandable decision from the top player in the game today.  He clearly is a product of the AAU age, where the top young players are competing against each other from junior high on, and therefore they are all friends before they even go to college or the NBA, whichever comes first.  In eras past, superstars wanted to beat their counterparts to cement their own legacies.  You think MJ would have teamed up with Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing had the 90-91 team not made it past the Pistons for the third straight year? I don't think so.  It just wasn't in his DNA to basically acknowledge that he didn't have what it takes to win a NBA title - this is pretty much what LBJ did.  He said, "I can't do this alone - I need two of the other top 15 players in the NBA to do so."  The Heat are clearly going to be good - it'll be hard for them NOT to win over 60 games.  But there's no fun in forming a superteam.  I thought LeBron would choose to stay home in Cleveland or come to Chicago, because in my mind those were the two best places for him to win a title or two and cement his legacy as one of the greatest players ever.  But he clearly didn't care about that, he just wanted to take the easy way out.  To me, he'll go down as one of the greatest TALENTS in the game, but one who couldn't elevate his team to the greatest of heights (granted, he never was given much to work with, but the best make it work.  And if he gave Cleveland a few more years, they probably would have after the Celtics' age caught up with them).  It'll be interesting to watch the Heat play, but I, along with pretty much every other non-Heat basketball fan, will be waiting for them to fail, and will enjoy every deserved moment.

However, the Bulls got a nice consolation prize in Carlos Boozer.  This guy gives the team a scoring presence in the low post that they haven't had in a long, long time.  He's a perfect complement to Joakim Noah, whose forte happens to be defense and rebounding; he's an energy guy.  Boozer can score with his back to the basket, which opens up a whole new offensive dimension for this developing team.  Even though we didn't land one of the big three, we're instantly better with him on the floor, and that's all you can ask for going into the offseason.  Along with new additions Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer, it's Jazz central this year (these two, and Boozer, played for Jerry Sloan in Utah last season).  Is it disappointing that we missed out on LeBron? Yes - with him, the Bulls are instantly one of the few teams with legitimate Finals aspirations.  But it seems now that that was never destined to happen, and this was the next-best outcome.  We build on our young, highly talented core, and take the experience from two straight playoff appearances and apply it to going further each year.  This should be a good team to watch this year - I'm looking forward especially to the development of Rose and Noah, two cornerstones of the franchise who'll be around for probably the next decade or so.  In a dramatically altered Eastern Conference, the should definitely contend for a Central Division title and one of the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference.  Bring on the Heat - it should be fun to watch. 


As for the Blackhawks, it's been a busy summer for the defending champs.  Gone are several key members from the team who captured hockey's greatest prize back in June, including Ladd, Versteeg, Byfuglien, and Niemi.  We all knew this was coming, so it's a good thing they won while they were so stacked and absurdly deep last year.  Stan Bowman did what he had to, shrewdly picking apart the roster to keep the core intact.  I was especially happy to see Hjalmarsson and Sharp back - I'd much rather have those two gamers who'll contribute on a nightly basis that a guy like Big Buff who, while he's had an epic past two postseasons, basically takes nights off during the long grind of the regular season.  I would have liked to see Niemi stay, but with the Bowmans running the show, the Hawks are clearly following the Red Wings model of surrounding serviceable goalies with high-end talent.  Niemi and his agent simply asked for too much money in arbitration, so his fate was sealed.  Interestingly enough, he eventually signed with the Sharks, the same team we swept out of the playoffs last year.  Should prove for a couple interesting regular-season meetings, to say nothing of a possible playoff rematch.  Even though the Cup run seems like it just ended, training camp and the regular season are right around the corner.  Can't wait for that banner to be raised to the UC rafters, it's gonna be a great sight.  


Last, and definitely least, the hapless Cubs.  I can't really remember a more disappointing season.  Maybe '06, Dusty's last year, but that year there were no expectations, there wasn't any talent on that team.  It's just been loss after loss after loss, and they're not just losing by one or two (although they've done that plenty); there have been multiple losses where our heroes have given up 10 or more runs.  I saw a stat on ESPN.com a week or two ago that mentioned the Cubs have given up 14 runs or more in 8 games this year.  That's less than pitiful.  Just when we think it can't get any worse, it does.  What a waste of a year.  And what a shame that this was the way that Sweet Lou had to go out.  I don't blame him for jumping off this flaming piece of wreckage before the bitter end.  Family trumps baseball, and I wish him and those close to him all the best.  His tenure was an interesting era in Cubs history, providing some of the highest highs alongside some bitter disappointments.  Even though the summer of 2008 will always be fondly remembered by me and many others, the sad truth is that his ultimate record with the Cubs will be 0-6.  I liked Lou a lot, but two critical tactical errors were his undoing.  The first was lifting Zambrano after six innings in a tie game in Game 1 of the 2007 NLDS against Arizona, and reasoning that he was saving Big Z for a Game 4 which never occurred.  The next year, failing to get Ted Lilly (arguably our best pitcher over the last 3 1/2 years) a start in the Dodgers debacle was questionable at best.  Other than that, I have next to no problem with how Lou ran the ship; even though he was toned down from his younger, rowdier days, his tirade on 6/2/07 will never be forgotten.  Thanks for several great years, Lou. 


However, it became painfully obvious during this summer that a fundamental change was necessary.  The playoff teams from 07/08 are basically gone; Derrek Lee and Ted Lilly were the biggest to go before the July 31st deadline, really leaving only Zambrano, Dempster, Soto, Marmol, Soriano, and Ramirez left out of the core of those two teams.  The emergence of Starlin Castro and Tyler Colvin as potential future cornerstones leaves me reason for optimism, but the single biggest decision regarding the future of the organization is the selection of the next manager.  There are several major candidates, including current manager Mike Quade (who's done a good job so far, going 10-6), AAA Iowa manager Ryne Sandberg, potentially Joe Girardi, former Indians Manager of the Year Eric Wedge, and probably several more to come.  For me, the best bet would be the Cubs legend himself, Ryno.  Four years ago, he applied for the job Piniella eventually got, but was told by Jim Hendry that he lacked experience.  Taking this dare, he took a job as the manager of the Cubs' Single-A affiliate, and has worked his way up the ladder, culminating in being awarded the Triple-A Manager of the Year award for this season.  He's coached most of the Cubs' youngsters, has an intimate knowledge of the farm system, knows the ins and outs of the game as a former (Hall of Fame-caliber) player, has the right attitude about how the game should be played (see: HOF induction speech), and most importantly, presents the best option for long-term stability in the manager's chair, something the North Siders have lacked for quite some time.  
Think about it: Sandberg and his no-nonsense attitude clean house, build up the kind of team he wants in place, and construct a winning tradition that we all want to see in Wrigley Field on a yearly basis, not in spurts.  He wants the job badly; a lot of Cubs fans want to see him get a shot; why not?  Girardi's not going to leave New York, and I don't want to see the team take another shot at another stop-gap manager who's not in the long-term plans of the ballclub.  It's time to set some foundations for the future, with the Ricketts family now in the fold completely, and I think Ryno is the man for the job.  


Whew.  That's all for now, back with more after the Bears open their season tomorrow on the lakefront against an improved Lions team.  Let's hope the offense was holding something back in the preseason, or else God help us all.