Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Week 20—Bears kicking developments, the Cubs fun week, Sox surprises, and more
For the early birds, sorry for the late letter this week. If you didn’t listen to last week’s audio portion with Sports Illustrated’s Andy Benoit on the Bears 2019 season, do that this week. I know damn well 80 percent of you didn’t! New audio portions with some great guests will be out in the next few weeks:
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This week in Chicago:
Cubs: Tuesday 7:05 vs. Giants, Wednesday 7:05 vs. Giants, Thursday 1:20 vs. Giants; Friday 1:20 vs. Nationals, Saturday 1:20 vs. Nationals, Sunday 1:20 vs. Nationals
Sox: Monday 7:10 at Twins, Tuesday 7:10 at Twins, Wednesday 12:10 at Twins; Thursday 7:10 vs. Rangers, Friday 7:10 vs. Rangers, Saturday 6:10 vs. Rangers, Sunday 1:10 vs. Rangers
Bears: Saturday 6:00 at Colts on Fox-32
Trivia: Six Bears first-round picks from 2000—on have made a Pro Bowl. Can you name them? (Answer at end of Bears section)
Intro:
Rest in peace, Cedric Benson.
A few things you may not remember about Benson, which had a lot to do with the framing of his career:
Thomas Jones, an all-time Bears great, was signed to a 4 year, 10 million dollar deal the year they drafted Benson. The Bears were probably one of the first teams to learn the hard way that you shouldn’t draft a running back in the first round. But they also signed a free agent simultaneously, which made for a weird situation. When Jones was finally traded to the Jets to give Benson the starter’s reps, he rushed for 139 yards in the first game, but then broke his ankle. Just a tough break—it wasn’t meant to be.
Benson had Celiac’s Disease, the one where you can’t eat gluten. The Bengals discovered that and changed his diet, and he thrived after that for the team. It explains some of the lethargy that bothered the Bears front office while he was here.
He rushed for 5,540 yards and 64 touchdowns in burnt orange at Texas. Boy, did he look fresh in that jersey. 5’11, nearly 230 pounds. Him and LenDale White probably deterred an entire generation from becoming linebackers. Benson also played his high school ball at Midland Lee, which you’ll know of if you’re a fan of the best movie of all time (not the t.v. show, dorks), Friday Night Lights.
“You from Midland, right?” —Boobie Miles
Second Intro:
A new feature is going to be discussion threads each week.
This week’s is discussing what Chicago player—current or former—you cannot stand for no real reason. I cannot stand watching Victor Caratini play baseball. Every time he steps in the box, particularly in big moments, I have this overcoming urge to disparage him. He’s quiet, so there’s no real reason to not like his personality. He’s also one of the better back-up catchers in the entire league. I know all of this and still cannot get over my distaste for him. Yup, here comes Carantini, no chance this imbecile gets a hit.
Caratini: .257/.351/.432, 6 homers in 2019. Pretty good numbers. Could not care less. Pretty good catcher defensively. Donnnn’’’’ttttt care. Get him out of my face.
Click here and share yours on the thread, and a quick explanation why, if you can.
Bears:
Under no circumstance do I find violently charging at one of your teammates funny. Having said that, seeing this printed in the Chicago Sun-Times about Kyle Long made me laugh out loud.
“Long was kicked out of the Bears’ scrimmage Wednesday after he took rookie defensive lineman Jalen Dalton’s helmet and attempted to beat him with it, swinging it with his left hand into a group of teammates before throwing it across the field. Long watched the rest of the scrimmage from the sideline.”
By now, most of you have heard about this incident. Not that it totally matters, but I really want to know what Dalton did to get Long upset. I mean, good god, man. Nagy seemed pretty disappointed in Long, whose short fuse has been on display in the past. But not like this. He was suspended for Friday’s game against the Giants, the largest disciplinary action taken by the Nagy administration thus far.
Some significant news broke Sunday with the Bears cutting kicker Elliot Fry. Fry seemed to have an edge last week over Eddy Pineiro after hitting the all-important 43-yarder against Carolina, but Pineiro’s big leg has been valued over Fry’s superior mechanics. Now the 23-year-old will get all of the reps—in practice and in the preseason—and have the chance to prove whether or not he’s worth a roster spot.
He’ll dictate his own destiny. I’d guess there’s a 50/50 shot that he’ll be the Bears kicker come Week 1. He was 2 for 2 against the Giants on Friday, making one from 41 yards out and one from 27 out. He was 12 for 12 with a 60-yard make in the Bears simulated game at Soldier Field two weeks ago.
“It doesn’t change anything,” Pineiro said. “Still gotta make kicks. If I don’t make kicks, I’m gonna be gone, like everybody else.”
The Florida product seems to have the right attitude, especially for a team that is haunted by unnecessarily hyperbolic kicking ghosts.
In college, Fry set a school record by making 88.4 percent of his field goals.
"Like any position, we're always out there looking for the best," Nagy told ESPN. "Eddy hasn't attempted a kick in an NFL regular-season game, so like any player, that can go either really good or really bad. But we like where we are with him right now."
Not exactly a complete vote of confidence from Nagy. But I agree with the sentiment. Unfortunately most of the guys that the Bears will be looking at over the next few weeks have little to no regular season experience, just like Pineiro. We talked a bit last week about some of Pineiro’s competition, like Panthers back-up Joey Slye, who is perfect on kicks in the preseason. It all comes down to who’s available once all of the final cuts to the 53-man rosters are made.
As for the preseason game, cheers to you if you got through the whole thing. I was flipping between that and the Cubs game (two bad options), which meant I was intermittently watching Tyler Bray run for his life and watching Joe Maddon unnecessarily pull someone out of the game. Let’s just say I’m ready for the preseason to be over and done with. Some of the highlights from lesser names are cool, but we’ll wait ‘til final cuts to see who is really worth talking about.
Regarding the starters sitting, there’s two sides to the argument, and I don’t think either is invalid. Nagy wants his best players to be ready come Week 1 no matter what. Anything that jeopardizes that— like a preseason appearance—will be avoided. The other side would argue that the only thing that gets players ready to play competitive football is playing competitive football. The rebut to that would be the Bears 12-4 record despite Nagy taking the same approach last year. To which the other side could return with reasonable evidence that the Bears did burn out at the end of Week 1’s loss to Green Bay.
I don’t think Nagy will be persuaded, so there’s no point in wasting our breath on it. But it will make him an easy target if the Bears starters struggle on September 5th.
As for the Bears offense apparently struggling in practice against the Bears defense, two things worth considering:
The Bears had the best defense in the league last year
Football practice is inherently favorable to the defense. They know the offense’s tendencies, signals, and play calls like regular season opponents won’t. Whoever says that this isn’t a legit factor in practice dynamics is either lying or hasn’t ever been involved in a team scrimmage.
The offense may struggle this year. But training camp practice is not what I’m going to point to in order to make that point. Honestly, if the offense is struggling that mightily in camp, it may be another reason why Nagy should consider giving them a few series in a preseason matchup.
Just a word on a new name that has been forbidden from subscribing to the newsletter: Danica Patrick. Grew up a Bears fan and has become a Packer fan. I don’t even care that she’s dating Aaron Rodgers. I don’t care that she cheers for him. A flip-flop like that is reprehensible. The Packers could give me majority ownership and a multi-million dollar salary and I’d still show up to Soldier Field once a year with two 30-racks of Busch Light looking for a patch of grass for my buddies and I to tailgate on. As the Raiders GM Mike Mayock put it, you’re either all in or you’re all out. I’m all in for life. Got off track a little there but you get the point. When they break up in two years and Danica tries to throw on a Roquan Smith jersey, she will not be welcome. As the Twitter kids say, she is CANCELLED.
Jeff Joniak, the Bears beloved radio voice, will be inducted into the Chicagoland sports Hall of Fame September 25th. Love that man to death.
Trey Burton is on track to play Week 1. He called his recovery from sports hernia surgery the hardest of his career. The Bears could really use him. I have no faith in Adam Shaheen no matter how good of shape he’s in.
Lastly, if you saw that video going around of “Trubisky throwing left”, which was just him missing throws to the left last year, Tom Fornelli said it best:
Just a dumb video that went viral because Twitter is dumb.
Trivia answer: Brian Urlacher (2000), Tommie Harris (2004), Greg Olsen (2007), Kyle Long (2013), Kyle Fuller (2014), Mitch Trubisky (2017)
Sox:
Bill Walton’s call on the White-Sox Angels broadcast Friday was either the best deterrent or the greatest encourager on behalf of excessive drug use. Because I’ve heard Walton spout off during Pac-12 games over the last few years, I was ready for it. If you haven’t watched any of those, I assume it was a hell of a ride. This further proves Jason Benetti’s worth, who was not only impeccable transitioning out of Walton’s rants, but also did an incredible job solo the night prior.
Tim Anderson has continued his tear, hitting close to .400 since he returned from the IL and over .400 in the month of August. I think most worried that Anderson would regress a little bit, especially after the ankle injury, but he’s done the opposite. He’s one of the early guys in the White Sox quest to get back to contention, akin to Rizzo in 2014. Anderson, I think, has proved he can be on the better half of shortstops in the league. I also still believe in the team needing a spiritual leader, and Anderson has become that for the White Sox.
Anderson calling James McCann a bad motherfucker after his second grand slam of the week and a win over the Angels:
McCann: .292/.344/.482, 14 homers, 49 RBIs (slight regression since the break, but nothing major)
Line-up struggles continue to be an issue for Chicago managers, as Ricky Renteria, who insisted on hitting A.J. Reed 4th, still regularly puts Anderson in the 6-hole. It doesn’t take a genius to understand why you should have your best hitters in the first half of the order.
Ivan Nova has continued his dominance (what the hell did I just say?). He now has starts with 5 innings or more and 1 ER or less against these teams this year: Cubs, Astros, Yankees, Indians, Twins, and Phillies. He threw a complete game shutout against one of the three best teams in baseball in the Astros and then said after the game that his goal on the final out was to just “throw the ball down the middle.” Sometimes it’s just that simple, I guess. He also said he would return to the White Sox, which is an interesting situation most Sox fans couldn’t have even considered a couple of months ago. Obviously, it will depend on the deal he wants. With the Sox current starting pitching situation, counting Nova in may mean counting a free agent signing out. If the Sox can sign a more significant free agent pitcher for larger money, they should. But that doesn’t take away from how stunningly good Nova has been of late.
As for Dylan Cease, the Sox top pitching prospect turned pro, he’s still taking his lumps. After a few good starts in a row, he allowed 5 ER in 5 IP against the Angels on Sunday. He’s given up a homer in each game he’s pitched in the big leagues. It’s a good thing none of this matters in 2019, which leads me to our minor league update.
Update from the minors:
Firstly, in two of the weirder scenarios you’ll see all year:
Louis Robert hit a bomb off of Dioner Navarro yesterday, the former Cubs and Sox catcher.
The Iowa Cubs scored three runs in one inning this weekend after Ben Zobrist doubled to score Albert Almora, and then Daniel Descalso homered, scoring Zobrist.
It’s tough keeping up with the minor league teams this year.
Charlotte Knights stats (White Sox AAA):
Luis Robert: .306/.358/.639, 11 home runs, 28 RBIs
Nick Madrigal: .281/.365/.344, 1 home run, 8 RBIs
Daniel Palka (remember him?): .268/ .381/.542, 25 home runs, 66 RBIS
No reason Robert and Palka shouldn’t be up at the big league level taking their lumps with Cease.
Zobrist has a .344 OBP and 2 homers thus far between three minor league teams.
Cubs:
The issue with writing about the Cubs at the end of every week is the same issue baseball fans have with processing 162-game seasons. There’s a lot of ups and downs and sometimes it’s hard to summarize. As of this writing, the Cubs are on a two-game winning streak. They just won their first road series since May, but sort of cheated, given that the last game in the Pirates series was in Williamsburg in conjunction with the Little League World Series and not at PNC Park.
Let’s just get into it.
Joe Maddon’s antics reminds me of when I wired 100 dollars through Western Union to a random address in China for a fake ID. Just because it worked one time does not mean it was a good idea or that I should make a habit out of it.
But we’ll start with the good stuff:
Jose Quintana: Now the owner of a sub-4 ERA. In August, he has a 1.38 ERA, with 33 strike outs and one walk. In his last nine starts, he has a 2.96 ERA with 57 strike out and 7 walks.
At this point, you could argue that every single pitcher in the Cubs rotation has had a turn at being the Cubs best option for a period of time this year.
Yu Darvish: Has a 2.36 ERA with 57 strike out and 2 walks in his last seven starts. He’s the first Cub since 1908 to have four consecutive starts with 8+ strike outs and no walks.
Nick Castellanos now has 6 home runs in just 17 games played for the Cubs. Where would the Cubs be without Castellanos, who some considered an only semi-noteworthy pickup at the deadline?
"It's baseball,” Theo Epstein said on Sunday. “It will torture you. If you're not prepared to live through weeks like that you shouldn't get into the game. They happen more often than you like. They all have their particular brand of cruelty mixed in."
But my god this past week has been bad. Between Bryce Harper hitting the most predictable grand slam to beat the Cubs (after they led 5-0) and then the Pirates coming from behind to beat the Cubs (after they led 2-1) was enough to bring out the most courageous fans ever, the “Im sorry, but the Cubs aren’t winning the World Series this year!” guys.
For all of you who make these pseudo bold takes, seriously, what do you think you’re accomplishing? That’s not an original nor audacious take. If you said that every single year about your favorite team, especially if you’re a Cubs fan, you’d be right 99 percent of the time. One team wins the World Series. Saying the Cubs won’t because Derek Holland let up a 415-foot homer is just dumb.
The Cubs probably won’t win the World Series, but if that’s the attitude you’re going to have as a fan, I have news for you: none of your teams, unless you live in Boston, will probably win the championship in any year you’re alive. Bitch about the team all you want, but put your chest up and have your sentences be worth something when doing it. David Kaplan is my guy, but if I have to hear him say this one more time I’m calling into ESPN 1000 nonstop from 9-12a.
The fact of the matter is STILL that if you’re in the playoffs, you have a shot. And they Still Gotta Come Through Chicago if they wanna win it.
Having said all of that, if the Cubs miss out on the division (tied right now with the Cardinals) and have to play in that goddamn wild card game again, I’m out. My heart cannot do it.
Moving on. I don’t know why Joe Maddon pulls out Kyle Ryan—our best bullpen pitcher this year—if someone makes contact off of him. It’s actually unbelievable. He pulled Ryan prematurely in both the aforementioned losses. In the Pirates one, he pulled Ryan because he… gave up a ground ball that ended up being an error by David Bote? Then put Brandon Kintzler in, who had been on the IL for 10 days, and let him out to dry for 30 pitches until the game was walked off. Welcome back, Brandon!
I guess Addison Russell is back up because of the catastrophe that was David Bote and Ian Happ trying to make plays in the infield against the Phillies. I thought we had seen the last of that idiot. I’m surprised he was even allowed to cross state lines after a couple of weeks in Des Moines. Having said that, it was time for a change in the whole Albert Almora thing. It sort of reminded me of Billy Beane trading away Carlos Peña, just so Art Howe couldn’t play him anymore. With Almora gone, Maddon can’t put a guy with a .270 OBP in the leadoff spot. Actually, he’ll probably put Descalso there when he’s back up. But Theo essentially said putting Almora down was to get him everyday at-bats. Fair enough. Maybe he can find something in himself down there, as Happ did.
Good thing we’ve got Craig Kimbrel back. He just gave up a homer to the first batter he faced on Sunday.
In some ways, the Cubs are lucky. They’re in a struggling division. They’re 14 games under on the road and still tied for first place. But they’ve also blown 10! saves since the All-Star break. If they were even slightly less pitiful in these situations, they’d have a decent lead in the division. I said in last week’s newsletter that I’d be happy if the Cubs wen’t .500 last week. They went 2-4. Now they’re at home for a week. And the rollercoaster continues.
Bulls:
Do you remember the TNT Bulls? If you don’t, here’s a primer: Every time the Bulls played on Thursday night on TNT they would win. Didn’t matter who they played. Didn’t matter how good they were. They’d win. It was incredible. When my buddy was running a book he texted me and asked if there was any chance the Bulls would beat the Cavs that night (some idiot had bet a stack on Bron Bron and the Cavs moneyline). The Cavs were 8-point favorites. Of course there was, I told him. They were on TNT.
Anyway, that streak is actually not over. They didn’t play in one of those games last year and won’t play in one this year. So that’s 20 straight regular season wins on TNT, STILL. H/T to Cody Westerlund (@CodyWesterlund) for the all-important reminder.
Mark Schanowski, the Bulls pregame and postgame host on NBC Sports Chicago, is reducing his role this year in order to spend more time with family and friends. I’m a big fan of Schanowsski, mostly because I worked for the Bulls last year and saw firsthand him studying before every game like he was about to take the ACT and all of his older siblings had already gone to an Ivy League school. No replacement has been announced yet.
Blackhawks:
Good article here from Ben Pope of the Sun-Times on the Hawks analytics team and how they were one of the first franchises to embrace them as a tool to enhance performance on the ice. The NHL has not yet implemented tracking data, but will within the next few years. It’ll revolutionize data tracking in the sport, as Statcast did for the MLB and a similar system did for the NBA.
Historical perspective:
The White Sox almost traded for Jake Arrieta before the Cubs did. By now you know it ended up being one of the greatest trades in Cubs history. Sox reliever Jesse Crain had a .74 ERA and the team was terrible. The Orioles were interested in him, and the Sox scouts were pushing for a deal for Arrieta. This wasn’t known to the public until Jerry Reinsdorf told Bulls writer Sam Smith years later. In classic White Sox fashion, they viewed this as a positive, because “their scouts clearly knew what they were doing.” Could you imagine a Chris Sale, Jake Arrieta, and Jose Quintana 2015 starting rotation? Crain flamed out and the Cubs traded Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger for Arrieta and Pedro Strop.
Sorry to start your week off this way, Sox fans.
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