Good morning Chicago.
Welcome to better weather and the best sports season on the calendar.
Let’s grow the SGCTC community today:
The days of COVID-19 disrupting the gorgeous game are past us, and the best days are ahead of us. Where the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl is the most depressing quarter of football, Week 1 of the college football and NFL seasons are the opposite.
Right now, the opportunities are limitless. For all we know, this will be the season that we hit 70% of our bets and our favorite team makes a run. But even if our bets don’t hit and your alma mater stumbles out of the gate, each day of the week promises to be better for the foreseeable future, all because of football.
That’s including Saturday and Sunday, of course, but also Thursday, Friday, and Monday. Football season has always been the best, but the alterations to it last year proved to us how much we do need to covet and enjoy these fleeting days of the fall.
There will be a reason to get together with friends and family from here on out. Bands will be back, packed stadiums will be back. RedZone will be back, as will be the shots of grown men with families — donned in face paint and peculiar hats, that have work in the morning — screaming at the top of their lungs at their 22-year-old Rookie QB.
Last year taught us that there is no bad football. Those Thursday night football games between sub-.500 teams? Amazing. Mid-week MACtion? To die for (if you didn’t know this already you’re a moron, no offense). Nebraska/Illinois in Week 0? Enjoyed every god damn minute of it.
There’s just no such thing. Football, simply put, operates on a scale from good to excellent, like the grading scale of nice Spanish teacher whose students receive ‘A’s even though they can’t speak in full sentences 8 years into learning the language.
When I look at the college football schedule, I don’t throw on that elitist “top 25” tag. Give me all of 1-A. I’m not too good for an American conference game to wet the beak early in the week, and I’m not sure I’m good enough to be gifted the beautiful Pac-12 games that close us out on Saturday nights.
Ohio State/Minnesota Thursday, Wisconsin/Penn State 11 am Saturday, Iowa/Indiana 2:30 (or Miami/Alabama if you’re so inclined) and Clemson/Georgia at 6:30. Then LSU/UCLA and BYU/Arizona for a night cap to win back some inevitably lost money? And Notre Dame/FSU on Sunday because we don’t have work Monday?
In an age where negativity is commonplace, what did we do to deserve this wonderful life?
LETS GO!
For a guy that writes a blog about Chicago sports, I had surprisingly never been to a Cubs/Sox game in my entire life, at least that I remember.
I went to my first on Sunday for the close contest that was a 13-1 White Sox win over the Cubs at Guaranteed Rate. And my God was it an experience.
Lots of grown men chanting FUCK THE CUBBIES in the my face.
Few things about that: Isn’t it strange to be chanting that at all past the age of 18, and even then, isn’t it weird to be calling the Cubs the ‘Cubbies’ when doing so?
The word Cubbies is a term of an endearment. That’s like saying fuck you, my sweetheart baby boo. Kind of an oxymoron.
Later in the game, a fight broke out in the left field bleachers that, I kid you not, was not broken up for 10 straight minutes. In an age where people are worried to get in fights because a small portion of the population knows martial arts, these stadium fights are a wake up call. If you have two operating hands, have had less than 14 beers, and have less than four co-morbidities, you may as well be Mike Tyson in a ballpark.
Austin Romine could start running around the bases when one of these punches were thrown and be home by the time they were landed, or whiffed.
When I went to a Seahawks/Bears playoff game in high school, I cringed for about 5 minutes as a grown man yelled KILL THE SEAHAWKS for the entire walk to Soldier Field and literally zero people joined in with him. I had the wherewithal then to realize how big of a dork this guy was, but my God, Cubs/Sox games are basically played so dudes that haven’t trimmed their unfilled-out beards for months can start chants.
The Sox fan in front of me was also what I’d call a high-five hunter. Nothing wrong with a few good-natured high fives when your team does something good at the ballpark. But this guy was borderline falling over trying to give a high-five to every person with Sox gear on within 25 feet of him. Relax buddy, it’s 10-1.
Also a lot — a lot — of dudes flexing on the jumbotron at this one. Can’t imagine what kind of childhood you had to have to think you actually look cool flexing your bicep for 40,000 plus to see. I can only guess these guys think the next time they flex is going to be the one that gets a girl in their row to notice them and ask if they want to get a Bud Light after the game at Turtles. When that inevitably doesn’t happen, the nearest Cubs fan is getting spat in the face with a “THE CUBS FUCKING SUCK” and a fight that needs to be broken up by the geriatric security guards.
These poor security, man. I don’t know if there’s less security — or less cops — or what, but something needs to be done to help these men and women. I don’t know what they get paid, but they CANNOT get paid enough to be stopping belligerent fans from hitting each other in between seats on a 100 degree day.
And don’t worry, this isn’t just a comment on Sox fan behavior. Cubs fans, great to see you out there in great numbers to support your team — and great that there’s enough of you to chant LETS GO CUBS in the middle of a game at Sox park. But let’s maybe refrain from the LETS GO CUBS chants for at least the rest of the season.
If a Frankie Schwindel homer in the third inning gives you enough confidence to get a chant going, I think this may be the first Cubs game you’ve watched in a while.
Bottom line is that could be both the first and last Cubs/Sox game I ever attend. Don’t get me wrong, it was great to see a packed stadium full of passionate Chicagoans. But I think I’ll opt out of the human embodiment of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ in-stadium pool for the next 50 years.
That Cubs/Sox series was just about as insane as baseball could get over a three-game stretch. 17-13 Sox; 7-0 Cubs over Cy Young candidate Lance Lynn; and 13-1 Sox over Kyle Hendricks.
The Cubs led the Sox 6-0 in the opener of the series and were down 9-6 by the end of the third inning. The Sox twice scored seven or more runs in an inning — once Friday and again on Sunday. The Cubs scored 5 or more runs in two innings of the series. Alec Mills was wheeling and dealing all Saturday, shutting down the Sox. Patrick Wisdom looked like the second coming of 2016 Kris Bryant, Frankie Schwindel stayed hot as all hell, and just about every Sox player had their way at least once with a Cubs pitcher.
Andrew Romine dropped a pop-up at shortstop that 60% of the subscriber base for SGCTC would have caught.
The White Sox remain comfortably in first which means they also remain putting people on the injured list if they so much as stub their toe, which I think is generally a good idea.
It’s very unlikely at this point that the Sox will gain home field advantage for the playoffs. They’re 7.5 games behind the Rays with less than 30 games to play. The second overall seed in the American League is still relatively up for grabs, but the Sox are two games behind the Astros.
The most likely scenario right now is that the Astros and Sox will face off in the ALDS, no matter who ends up with the better record and ultimately has home field advantage in the series.
It is finally OK to begin looking ahead.
As I’ve written many times here before, the Sox are unique in that they really don’t have that many glaring weaknesses. Any they did have, Rick Hahn did a good job of shoring them up at the trade deadline.
They remain a top-5 offense in the MLB, and their defense has been mostly solidified as they’ve gotten position players back from injury, although Eloy Jimenez — who said the other day he wants to be a gold glover — remains an issue in right field.
Their starting pitching is still a top-8 unit in terms of ERA.
But as we look ahead, I think it’s reasonable to look at this unit and have some mild concerns.
It’s not that every top echelon team has a Scherzer, Cole or DeGrom — a bonafide star that you feel completely confident handing the ball to twice in a playoff series. But the Sox, even considering great years from Lynn and Carlos Rodon, don’t feel like they have a guy that’s completely reliable for a Game 1 and then a quick turnaround.
I could be wrong and simply overanalyzing thanks to a boring back half of baseball, all due to the fact that the Sox have outperformed each team in their division significantly.
I’m curious what Sox fans think, though.
It’s obvious that Dallas Keuchel will be left off the playoff roster at this point, there is a zero percent chance he’ll get a start in the postseason. He has completely deteriorated.
We saw Lynn get lit up by the shell of the Cubs roster the other day, and now he’s been put on the IL thanks to a minor lower body issue, one of a few stints he’d had this year. Who knows how serious any of those injuries really are, but Lynn isn’t pitching his best right now, an unfortunate back-half trend that’s followed him through his career.
His basic stats are still better than almost anyone’s, so we are nitpicking a bit: He’s got a 2.6 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP.
But his ERA is 4.67 in August (with the caveat that the Cubs game makes it look worse than it is). He’s averaged under 5.5 innings per start in the five games he’s pitched in August. Now he’s on the IL. Perhaps that rest will help re-focus and energize him, but is a little — just a little — concern warranted?
Lucas Giolito, meanwhile, exited last night’s game with a hamstring issue, and didn’t look right the entire game. Giolito has had a fine year — but not the one Sox fans probably expected he’d have. Expectations force an unfair context there, but he needs to be the best version of himself if the Sox are going to make a run. Despite Dylan Cease’s recent run, I think you’d rather be banking on Giolito in October than a younger, more volatile Cease.
Giolito’s just-fine season has been a non-story thus far because of how good Lynn and Carlos Rodon have been. If those guys regress to a still-great mean, he needs to be the guy he’s capable of being.
Rodon has even better numbers on the year than Lynn at this point, a 2.43 ERA and a sub-1 WHIP. His IL stints are also likely precautionary, but he’ll end up with an innings load this year that he hasn’t dealt with since 2016, when he threw 160. He’s also pitched 7 innings just once in his last eight starts, and his ERA has climbed by half a run since then.
Dylan Cease has been incredible of late, especially in the strike out column. But he’s also still not shown he can be consistently good against the best of the best — especially in high leverage situations.
It may not matter that some of these guys aren’t going into the 7th or 8th inning. After all, that’s why a Kopech-Kimbrel-Hendricks pen lineup was so coveted in the first place.
But it is just worth considering, that all of these guys who have been able to wade in and out of starts throughout the year — and done really well doing so — will need to be consistent and the best versions of themselves for the Sox to have a chance even in the ALDS against the Astros.
The antidote to this, however, could be the Sox bats anyway. Yasmani Grandal, Yoan Moncada, and Jose Abreu are all hitting the best they have all year.
Nitpicking a superb starting rotation that has led the Sox to a double-digit lead in the Central is likely a fool’s errand. But the rosy victory lap of the regular season is nearing an end.
The fun begins now, but so does the dead serious.
October, after all, is a month away.
I’d like to begin this section with an ode to Javier Baez, one of the most electric players in baseball, and an affirmative fuck you to all of those loser New York fans booing him in Citi Field.
New York sports fans are so dumb. They treat baseball as if it’s a game where everyone performs superbly in every game, an impossible feat in every sport, but one that’s particularly unreasonable in baseball.
Javier Baez swings and misses a lot. Sometimes he misses badly. He also hits bombs, plays incredible, game-altering defense and wins games for you through pure baseball genius — as he did yesterday mere hours after the sparse group of Met-fan morons boo’d him because he had the audacity to say that the fans should not be constantly booing their own team.
“We’ll cheer for you louder than anyone and boo you louder than anyone.”
Is that supposed to be a good thing, or is that just idiotic? I’m all for a big-time BOO fest, but it’s usually for the other team. The only time a BOO is warranted for your own team is if the front office deserves it, like they did in the United Center when the Bulls were dismantling their team under GarPax. Or if the players are blatantly not trying hard, something you will never see out of Baez.
The idea that New York fans just care more, because they boo, is patently ridiculous. Cubs fans just clearly know better than Mets fans and understand their players more than they do.
If anyone deserves loyalty from a fan base in baseball, it’s Baez.
Javy, get back to Chicago, King. I want Javier Baez back on a one-year deal next year, and I want his experience to be so starkly better in Chicago, again, that he has no choice but to sign long-term with the team for his own sanity.
Grown ass men booing him because he hurt their feelings. Get a life, or at the very least, do not celebrate Baez going from 1st to home on a single to win you a game in the last inning.
As for the actual Cubs, their shittiness has sunk in enough at this point where it’s actually become bearable to watch the games and pick and choose what to care about.
Ian Happ has been on an absolute tear, and is on the verge of turning in an average hitting season overall. That may sound like nothing, but is an incredible note considering how awful he was for the majority of the season. Kudos to him for making things work in an awful situation and zeroing in on his own improvement.
Patrick Wisdom and Frankie Schwindel (I just like calling him Frankie, it feels right) have been Shaq and Kobe in their goddamn primes the last month. Wisdom is hitting a home run every nine at bats or so, which is a better rate than anyone in baseball. Whether he drops off or not, his pop and defense is good enough for him to stay in the league — and likely on the Cubs — for a long time, at least as a utility guy.
Frankie mother fuckin’ Schwindel is slashing .310/.355/.566 since he joined the Cubs. He’s even got a jersey that fits him now, so he doesn’t look like a guy that the Cubs grabbed off Clark street after the trade deadline.
Codi Heur has been quite good since the Cubs acquired him at the deadline from the Sox as well. In 13 games, he has a 1.29 ERA and .786 WHIP. It’s unlikely he’s been as good as those number suggest, but so far, so good for the second half of the Kimbrel haul for the Cubs. I think Heur has real potential to be a great arm out of the Cubs ‘pen for the foreseeable future.
Rowan Wick had a great outing in the Cubs win against the Twins last night as well, a great sign.
Alfonso Rivas, a first baseman prospect for the Cubs with unconventional skills, enjoyed a great debut against the Sox on Sunday with a double and a single. I like Rivas a lot as a player, and though it’s unlikely he’ll be a Rizzo-type player there (no duh), I think the Cubs have something good in him.
Bring back Baez, sign Nick Castellanos, and accelerate that prospect development and the Cubs should — the Ricketts’ wishes notwithstanding — be back on track to compete as early as late next year.
On Tuesday, Bill Belichick — the greatest coach of all time — and the Patriots — the best organization in the NFL — went with rookie quarterback Mac Jones over the veteran Cam Newton. Newton was cut from the roster yesterday, effectively giving Jones the QB1 honors for Week 1.
For those in the media saying this was because of Newton’s COVID mishaps and his unwillingness to get vaccinated, that’s simply not true.
This is how Belichick, and other good teams, operate. The best man for the job gets the job, and to hell with everything else.
It seems simple, doesn’t it? The juxtaposition between the shitstorm happening in Chicago and what just transpired in New England is laughable. I imagine there was a lot of people cringing in Halas Hall yesterday when this news came out.
Just as the Seahawks did when they signed Matt Flynn but found someone better in the draft in Russell Wilson, the Patriots analyzed the situation and did what’s best for the team — something the Bears are not doing because of “plans,” despite Nagy regularly saying they’ll do what’s best for the Chicago Bears.
I don’t want to harp on this storyline much longer, because it gets far too much airtime already. But it just looks worse and worse for the Bears. Nagy said we — the fans — and everyone with the Bears would know when Fields was ready.
It’s not clear if Andy Dalton will ever be “ready” to perform great in an NFL game ever again. But if you watched the two-minute drill before the half against the Titans Saturday night, or him at all this preseason, it’s clear that Fields is ready. Oh, the things Nagy wishes he never said.
The Bears cut their roster down to 53 yesterday, and notable cuts included Riley Ridley and Dazz Newsome, the latter of which was just drafted. The roster situation is obviously tight thanks to bad contracts to Nick Foles, Robert Quinn, Andy Dalton, and Jimmy Graham, among others. Two of those players likely won’t even be participating on the field six weeks from now.
Newsome hopefully will end up on the practice squad. He’s got a ton of talent, and considering the leashes that Javon Wims and Ridley received, I’d like to see him get a fair shake next year. We’ll see if they can hold on to him.
Tarik Cohen, remember him?, will be out until at least Week 7. It’s becoming increasingly clear that 1. the Bears do not handle injuries well and 2. do not handle the communication around those injuries well. It seems as if Cohen suffered a setback after he tore his ACL last year, probably recently, because when Nagy was pressed about it, all he could offer up was word vomit. Then again, that’s all he ever offers up.
A subscriber commented last week (shoutout J.J.) that the path to me being a millionaire was a parlay between the Bulls over and the Bears under. While my book won’t allow me to do that, that sure seems like a hell of a bet right now.
I won’t let the Bears situation deter me from being wildly excited about football. But my God, I’m hoping for Fields sooner rather than later.
And that’s the thing about the nauseating Fields topic, he will play eventually this year. It’s just frustrating it’s not for the opener.
Did AK-47 do it again, or did AK-47 do it again?
You thought the Bulls couldn’t remake their roster this year because of limited draft capital and cap space? Well, you’re not Arturas mother fuckin’ Karnisovas or Marc Eversley.
The Bulls got that bum Lauri Markkanen out of here on a sign-and-trade, not only bringing in a talented defender (and the best in-game dunker in the league) Derrick Jones Jr., but also recouping significant draft capital.
In a three-team deal, the Bulls received Jones Jr. — a much needed athletic wing defender — as well as a 1st round pick from the Portland Trail Blazers and a second round pick from the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Bulls who apparently “mortgaged their future” for a “mediocre team” (both wrong) now have two 1st round picks in next year’s draft alone. Karnisovas continues turning shit into gold.
The Trail Blazers pick is lottery protected, which is totally fine. Damian Lillard is not going anywhere for the time being — and the Blazers actually picked up a good player in Larry Nance Jr. in this transaction. My guess is that they’ll be anywhere from a 6-8 seed next year in the West, which will give the Bulls a mid-round 1st in addition to their own pick.
To take a player you don’t want anyway, and turn him into two draft picks and a useful player that complements your roster, is unbelievable.
The only remaining Bulls from last year’s opening day roster now are Zach LaVine, Patrick Williams, and Coby White.
They still have the ability to sign another couple of players too with trade exception money created by AK earlier in the free agency period and remaining space. All signs right now point to the four-time All-Star Paul Millsap. He’ll undoubtedly have other suitors, but for once, the Bulls actually have a great pitch.
Adding Millsap would be the cherry on top. From there, adding another front court defender would create a team that I’d be supremely confident in heading into next season.
Over 42.5 wins will be cake walk, and the real quest now is to get a top-5 seed in the Eastern Conference. I want the fourth. We’re not so far away, and god damn am I excited.
Next week, we’ll talk about the lack of research national pundits do when talking about the Bulls. My next bet may be that the Bulls — who apparently are going to have the worst defense in the league — end up having a top-15 unit defensively next year.
Justin Fields. College football, back. A competitive Bulls team. A new-look Blackhawks team. And White Sox playoff baseball. This may be the best Chicago fall in a decade.
Thank you for reading. Much love to you all. Comment here and enjoy the rest of your week.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, gets my balls tingling like a full slate of college football on a Saturday. Waking up with a mild hangover, walking to Starbucks, texting your boys about coming over for the 11am games and maybe hitting a bar for the 230 games?? Best time of the year hands down.
I've kind of exhausted the Fields conversation. The last point which you've touched on is how bad the OLine is likely to be. Chances are Mac Jones will have a great rookie year, probably better than the 5 rookie qbs drafted before him, because of the system he is in. Not really sure where I'm going with that one but just a reminder that I will never regret the Bears taking Fields over him.
Jack Silverstein @ReadJack put out a cool twitter thread last night about his ranking of the top 10 Bears QBs of all time and it was Eye Opening. Cutler-McMahon-Harbaugh rounded out the top 3 with Trubisky falling at 8th. Thinking about that in comparison to other big time high payroll franchises: the Packers Rodgers-Favre-Starr, Cowboys Staubach-Aikman-Romo, 49ers Montana-Young-Tittle.
I've got nothing in addition to what you've said about the Bulls offseason other than that I think Millsap would be a great fit and would love another big who can defend.
You are so right! Nothing better than the next four months. I remember leaving the house at 4AM to get to Joe's 11AM game in Oxford. After his game, we would sit down and let Joe's anger subside, drink frosty cold beers, order pizza and watch all of the rest of the Saturday games. Football heaven with a full day on Michael Doherty's deck watching games coming in a close second.
Thanks for the summary of the general White Sox fan. If anyone can seriously disagree with that assessment, you are kidding yourself.