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.




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Step In The Right Direction

Last night's Cubs game saw the team play its best baseball of the season, in my opinion.  Ryan Dempster was simply dominant, going 8 strong shutout innings.  He's pitched pretty well all year, but has been prone to giving up an ill-timed homer here and there, resulting in his 3-4 record thus far.  But last night was exactly the type of outing the Cubs envisioned when he was given that big extension a year or so ago.  He got great defense behind him, and Derrek Lee provided all the offense Dempster would need, going 3-3 with a 2 run homer in the 8th following a run-scoring single in the 6th.  Even more impressively, his outing came against the Dodgers, one of the hottest teams in baseball.  It's the third straight win for the Cubs, as they climbed back to within 2 of the .500 mark, and are only four games out in the Central at this still-early stage of the season.  Keep it going, boys - this weekend is huge, with the Cards coming to town and a chance to really make this a wide-open race.


I never thought this Phil Jackson thing had any legs; this guy already did so much in Chicago, why would he come back? He's also getting pretty old, I gotta believe he only has another year or two in him before he decides to step down.  I mean, he's already a legend, with his 10 rings.  The Bulls have to be looking for somebody who'll hopefully coach a little more long-term than that.  I'd love for them to grab the Boston assistant Thibodeau, but he's probably going to go somewhere very quickly after the Celtics are eliminated, whenever that may be. Expect the Bulls to drag this out for quite a while.  35 days til free agency


Meanwhile, the whole city is awaiting Saturday night, when the Stanley Cup Finals will open at the United Center, with the Blackhawks taking on the Philadelphia Flyers.  What a run they've had - it took a shootout victory on the last Sunday of the regular season to even get into the tournament, and then they came back from the dead against the Bruins and advanced to the Finals by finishing off the miracle Canadiens.  It will probably be a tough series, but I think the Hawks have what it takes.  They've learned a lot about themselves this spring, and I think they realize the enormity of this opportunity and what they have to do to seize it.  Look for a rough, physical series, but the Hawks' superior talent on offense will rise above whatever Philly can throw at us to pepper Michael Leighton, who hasn't faced an offense like ours in these playoffs yet. 


Predicton: Hawks in 6, but I'd love for them to do it in 5 and win on home ice

King of Chicago?

Last night, a veteran Celtics team who clearly has one last run for a title left knocked off the presumptive favorite in the East, the Cavaliers, out of the playoffs, kicking off the Summer of LeBron.  Nobody, save for Celtics fans, truly expected the Cavs to be done before late May at the earliest.  Perhaps the most scrutinized right elbow in recent history was injured worse than we all thought, but regardless, this year was supposed to be different, this was supposed to be the year that LeBron had enough pieces in place around him to finally take his rightful place atop the NBA throne.  But you need 16 wins to win the Larry O'Brien trophy - the Cavs got 6, and that's not even close.  To me, Cleveland has done a poor job in trying to find LBJ his Scottie Pippen/Horace Grant sidekicks, instead taking on past-their-prime stars (Shaq, Antawn Jamison, Ben Wallace last year) in the hopes of them recapturing past success.  Unsurprisingly, it hasn't worked - at all.  So Cleveland's sports misery continues, unfortunately with the prospect of it deepening come July, when the LeBron derby commences.


side note: Hey SportsCenter, I understand it's a big game and potentially has far-reaching ramifications, but I don't see the need to commit the entire hour-plus runtime of your program completely to LeBron and his upcoming choice.  Yes, it might restructure the NBA landscape, but there are six weeks or so until free agency opens, leaving the talking heads plenty of time to discuss every possible scenario.  


It's going to be interesting, sure, to watch how this all unfolds, especially because if he decides to leave, the Chicago Bulls are sure to be on his short list of destinations.  It's a top-3 market in the country, with a superb young core already in place with playoff experience under its belt (including an elite, playmaking point guard in the incomparable Derrick Rose), and the program is steeped in tradition.  I honestly believe it's the best choice for him IF all he wants is to win a title - add him top this roster, with Rose, a healthy Noah, Gibson, Hinrich, Deng, etc, and they become contenders in the East overnight. Let me take this moment to completely discredit Jamal Mashburn - on SC last night, he spewed some BS about the NJ Nets being the best place for LeBron if he wants to win, saying that they have a talented core there.  Yeah, and all that talent added up to twelve whole wins.  12.  As in, a 20-game improvement might make put them in the 8-seed come playoff time.  Our core has been able to overcome a lot in these last two years to win 82 games and earn two playoff berths, and Rose especially has proven himself to be a warrior come postseason time.  You're telling me LeBron didn't watch Rose in the first round and say, Damn, I wish I had someone like that on my team?  The thought has to have crossed his mind.  Also, he'd most likely have some input in the coaching search, something he probably wouldn't mind after watching the botch job Mike Brown's done in Cleveland the past couple years.  Ultimately, do I think he'll be a Bull? No, I see him staying home in Cleveland, and trying to bring a championship to that poor city.  But it sure as hell is fun to think about.  

As for that coaching search, John Calipari tweeted earlier that he will most definitely be back coaching at Kentucky next year, so we can probably cross that name off the wishlist.  Predictably, the Bulls are moving methodically, taking the wait-and-see approach.  Phil Jackson's name has been tossed about, but there's no way in hell he comes back here.  Simply no way.  LA is the last stop for him in his ridiculously successful coaching career.  So we will wait and see, as well.  With the shocking developments at the TD Garden last night, the Chicago offseason just got a whole lot more interesting.  

By the way, Game 1 for the Hawks is Sunday afternoon; of course, my TV will be in a Public Storage space at that time.  Sweet.  

PS: Boston Bruins, you definitely DO NOT want to be one of the three teams mentioned the next time a team falls in a 3-0 hole in Lord Stanley's tournament, so do yourselves and your fans a favor and find a way to win tonight.  

Inaugural Thoughts

Hello,  and welcome to the inaugural post of the blog.  This is something I've been thinking about doing for awhile now, and with the banner night enjoyed by my Chicago teams yesterday, I figured what better time than the present?  To kick things off, here's a rundown of the current states of the all the teams that matter.

Cubbies

A fairly disappointing first month of the season received quite a jolt last night when the most-hyped prospect down on the farm made his MLB debut, making history along the way.  Starlin Castro (whose nickname I nominate to be "The Dictator) made the jump all the way from AA ball, skipping Iowa along the way, and did some work last night.  All he did was go 2-5 with 6 RBI, while hitting a 3-run homer going oppo in his first-ever at-bat in the second, then clearing the bags with bases-loaded triple in the fifth.  The 6 runs batted in in a debut game are a new major league, eclipsing the previous record of 5 that was held by several players.  Certainly an auspicious start to what is hopefully a long career on the North Side.  

As for the rest of the team, it's been pretty streaky.  The starting pitching has been solid, giving the team quality starts much more often than not.  Dempster has been closer to the 2008 version than last year, which this team really needs.  Lilly's just rounding back into form, and it'd be great if he could be in the 13-16 win range again.  Randy Wells, a huge surprise last year, has been good but not great, co-leading the team with three wins, but also getting absolutely shelled in Pittsburgh the other night.  The other starter with three wins, Carlos Silva, has been, for me, the biggest surprise of the year.  I was expecting next to nothing out of this guy, but he's been very dependable so far.  He's probably not gonna keep his ERA under 3.00 the whole year, but if he can basically give us what Marquis gave us in 07-08, that trade for Milton Bradley will be an early contender for steal of the decade (speaking of our old pal headache Milton, how do you think the Mariners are feeling about that deal now? Yikes). 

As for the offense, it's been feast or famine.  Everybody's starting to round into shape, save for the two big guns, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez.  Soriano, Fukudome, and Soto have all rebounded from poor 2009 seasons to really produce in the first month-plus, and Marlon Byrd has possibly been the team MVP so far, hitting consistently for high average and power.  As bad as the Bradley signing was last year, that's how good this one is.  The bullpen is still a work in progress; there's a lot of young arms, and aside from Carlos Marmol, there's been a lot of inconsistency.  As for the much-ballyhooed move of Big Z from the rotation to the bullpen, I think it's an inspired stop-gap move; Zambrano wasn't getting the job done in the rotation, and until they figure out a better solution for the eight via a trade or signing or whatever, it makes sense to bridge the gap with a guy who can be dominating in short bursts.  

As bad as they've played at times, they have the pieces to contend, assuming health isn't a problem and certain key players perform to their career standards.  Perhaps the arrival of this Castro kid will be the spark the team needs...guess we'll find out soon enough.  Oh, and he's younger than me by five months...I'm not sure how I feel about that.  Let's just right the ship offensively, keep up the solid pitching, and see where we are in a month or so, 'cause the Cardinals and that Pujols guy aren't going anywhere.

Da Bears 

 This is a team headed for a crossroads season.  Lovie and Jerry were retained after last year's highly disappointing 7-9 finish, albeit with the stark promise that they'd be let go if the team doesn't make the playoffs in the upcoming season.  Obviously with that in mind, they made quite a splash in free agency, reeling in Julius Peppers and Chester Taylor.  But in my mind, the biggest offseason addition, with the most riding on him, was Mike Martz.  He's been tasked with fixing the offense which was so inconsistent last year under Ron Turner, and also to make sure Jay Cutler reaches the Pro Bowl caliber level of play that he's displayed in the past.  To put it simply, he cannot have 26 interceptions next year, or there are gonna be a lot of changes up at Halas Hall.  In many ways, the fate of this team and direction they'll be heading in for the forseeable future depends entirely on Mr. Cutler.  The recently-released schedule for 2010 sees the Bears matched up with the AFC East, no easy task seeing as Miami's no slouch, the Jets have vastly improved, and the Patriots are the Patriots. More on them as Bourbonnais and the preseason rolls around and we get closer to opening day on September 12th.  

Bulls

Fresh off two consecutive playoff appearances, the Bulls fired the beleaguered Vinny Del Negro earlier this week, bringing weeks and months of speculation to fruition.  While he may not have been the most tactically brilliant head coach, he did get his players to play hard, and they did make the playoffs both years he was at the helm and pushed the Celtics to the limit last year in the greatest NBA playoff series I've ever seen.  For that, I thank him - but he was clearly not the answer long-term.  This offseason is possibly the most important in the franchise's history - not only do they need to find a coach to take this team to the next level, the organization has been positioning themselves to be able to sign one or possibly two of the premium free agents this summer.  I have to believe we're one of the best landing spots, due to the great young core of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, along with Taj Gibson, who was a great find in last year's draft.  Much more on the situation at the Berto Center as the coaching search and free agency commence.

White Sox

Nothing to see here, move along.

Blackhawks

Finally, the team that has all of Chicago rallying behind it - the men of the indian head and the four feathers.  Much was expected of them this year after last spring's deep playoff run, and they have not disappointed thus far.  They gutted out a first-round series win over a gritty Nashville team, and found themselves in a rematch with their newly-minted bitter rivals, the Vancouver Canucks.  

What a series this has been so far.  I expected a highly physical series, and that's began to manifest itself in the past two games or so.  The 'Nucks stole game one from us at the UC, but we've rebounded more than nicely to take the next three.  In doing so, we've completely knocked them off their game, especially the stars - the Sedin sisters, and Sideshow Bob Luongo.  Whereas the Canucks have resorted to playing dirty after the whistle, the Hawks have kept their cool, taken the myriad power plays offered to them, and made Vancouver pay.  Considering their penalty kill is only at 64.6%, that's been fairly easy.  Dustin Byfuglien, for all the crap we give him during the regular season, shows up to play against Vancouver in the playoffs.  He followed up the best game of his life in Game 3, wherein he picked up a hattrick, with a phenomenal physical effort in last night's contest.  He drew at least 3 penalties, and also screened Bob on Toews' first goal.  As much as some deride him, he's played his role, and he's played it well.  Niemi has been solid throughout, spectacular when we've needed him to be, and is just plain getting the job done.  As long as he's making the saves he's supposed to make, I feel real good about the goaltending situation.

But the best player on the Hawks thus far in the playoffs has been Captain Serious, Jonathan Toews.  He leads the playoffs in points with 18, and along with his performance as the best forward in the Olympics, has cemented himself as one of the top two-way players in the NHL.  He was in a zone last night, scoring three times and helping on two others.  This is what leaders are supposed to do come playoff time - be your best players.  Whether it's him, Kane & Hossa tying and winning Game 4 vs. Nashville (which may end up being the most important game of these playoffs if the next few weeks go the way we want them to), Keith, etc etc, most Blackhawks have stepped up when their number's been called.  This team was indoctrinated in playoff hockey last year by their tough series against Vancouver and then their loss to Detroit, and they've taken those lessons to heart.  There's no reason why they can't win the Cup this year - it's all in their hands.  They have all the talent in the world, and if they play like they have in games 2, 3, and 4, they'll have a great shot.  I'm looking forward to hearing Chelsea Dagger played a whole heck of a lot more - here's hoping.  

You've got your boot on their throat, boys, let's finish it off at the Madhouse this Sunday.  

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So there you have it - the inaugural post.  Obviously, the Hawks are the talk of the town right now, but all the other franchises have pieces in place that could conceivably lead to great things down the road.  For all fans of the teams in this great city, there's plenty of reason to believe that greatness is just around the corner.  Until we meet again...