Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Week 21—Bears win, Cubs lose, White Sox get defensive, CFB underway
Credit: USA Today
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This week in Chicago:
Cubs: Tuesday at Mets 6:10, Wednesday at Mets 6:10, Thursday at Mets 6:10; Friday vs. Brewers 1:10, Saturday vs. Brewers 1:10, Sunday vs. Brewers 1:10
Sox: Tuesday 7:10 vs. Twins, Wednesday 7:10 vs Twins, Thursday 1:10 vs. Twins; Friday 6:20 at Braves, Saturday 6:20 at Braves, Sunday 4:10 at Braves
Bears: Thursday 7 p.m. vs. Titans on Fox-32
Trivia: This Chicago pitcher, in one of the last ten years, had a 3.11 ERA, was an All-Star, and had a losing record. Who was he? (Answer at bottom)
College Football is back:
This is a Chicago sports newsletter and college football will not change that. But I am going to take the liberty in assuming that many of you, like me, thoroughly enjoy college football.
So here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll keep it Big Ten-centric (and the MAC, of course). Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports is going to come do a Big Ten conference play preview in the next few weeks. The betting pick is making its triumphant return next week. And boy am I excited for that. For you newbies, the weekly gambling pick got off to an 11-2 start before losing three in a row once I was forced to solely make baseball bets. Don’t even get me started on how badly I (we) got jobbed on those three games. Ricky Renteria… boy I oughta. So next week, when a pick is given out, we’ll look to improve to 12-5.
If you’re not a gambler, you can now legally give it a try in Illinois. Oh, wait. No you can’t, because Illinois has a bunch of novices steering the ship. I called the Illinois Gambling Board for a comment on when sports betting would be up and running and the guy that called back and left a voicemail on my phone sounded like he was Al Capone’s grandson. “Hey this is Gino ____, let me know what you need. Bye.” Well I’ll tell you what I need, bud. I need everyone that subscribes to my newsletter, even the five to ten out of 150+ who are law-abiding citizens, to be able to place a wager within state lines without having a guilty conscience! So grab J.B. Pritzker and tell him that Popeyes has sold out of chicken sandwiches at all of the Chicago-based locations and get back to work.
Anyway, good to have college football back. Great to have College Gameday back, except for the fact that they’ve left Lee Corso on there. Listen, I love Corso more than I love some of my own relatives. That’s why I would rather not watch his demise take place on live television. I know some people like the unpredictability of it, but it takes away from the show. He said he was picking Miami as he put on a Florida hat on Saturday. Let him make the pick, but don’t make Kirk Herbstreit play caretaker for three hours every week.
Some other things to look forward to:
Next week’s audio portion is with J.A. Adande on the 90s Bulls, who he covered for the Chicago Sun-Times.
These threads are going to be a game changer. Make sure to post your thoughts each week on there, whether it’s just a response to the newsletter or a direct answer to whatever question is being asked that week. I might have to put a cap on how many times my Dad can comment. If nothing else, post something so he can’t monopolize the message board.
This week’s thread: You can take any Cubs or Sox player since 2000. Who is your Chicago starting infield? Starting pitcher? One game only. Thread: https://sgctc.substack.com/p/all-chicago-baseball-infield-since/comments
My favorite from last week, even though I’m a fan, from subscriber Mikey Nowicki on his unfounded hatred for Anthony Rizzo:
Anthony Rizzo - dont have one good reason. Only heard good things about him. Pisses. Me. TF. OFF. Kicks his but on his dumb little jog after the inning is over. Gets pegged in the hands on pitches that are legit strikes. Grade A tool. So many little things. Did I hate watching him win the World Series, yes. What did I hate more? Watching him stand on third with his hands on his face being a diva like “omg i can’t believe this is so dramatic bla bla bla”
Cubs fans: “he’s got a career .290 BA and .350 OBP”
Me: idgaf. Shut up.
I’ll post my one from the thread on here every week.
Lastly (sorry for the rambling intro), I apologize for all the errors in last week’s edition. No excuses here (I was sleep deprived), got to be better. Tyler Burton was a weird one. Don’t know where that came from, though I feel like Tyler and Trey are pretty much interchangeable names. Brake up instead of break up, referring to Danica Patrick and Aaron Rodger’s inevitable, nasty one, was tough. Apparently I spelled Victor Caratini’s name wrong once too? Don’t care about that at all.
Bears:
A well played game by the Bears was overshadowed, rightfully so, by the report that Andrew Luck was retiring smack dab in the middle of it. But the biggest news is really that the Bears are now officially not NOT winning the Super Bowl. With the exception of the shortened season of ‘82-’83, no team has ever gone 0-4 in the preseason and gone on to win the whole thing.
The defense, albeit not with any of the starters, looked great. Chuck Pagano said if it was up to him, they’d play 15 preseason games, so holding the starters out is probably a good thing. This is the same guy who said he missed football so much last year that he would take clean shirts to the cleaners just to do something and rode Peloton four times a day.
Good article in the Sun-Times Sports Saturday edition on Pagano and how an early bye week in his first year as a head coach saved his life. Pagano survived leukemia during his time in Indy.
‘‘Every day that we get, we try to kick its ass, take full advantage of it.” Pagano told the Sun-Times. “If you get another one, we’re going to do the same thing the next day.”
Pagano is an awesome dude (Khalil Mack said he’s one of the best people he’s ever worked with, period), but he’s such a seize the day guy that it’s almost worrisome. If Nagy gave him the opportunity, he’d probably be playing Khalil Mack and blitzing Roquan Smith on every down in the preseason. Hopefully he’s concerned enough with protecting the cornerbacks that he errs on the side of caution, at least occasionally.
The Bears had three takeaways, two of which were returned for touchdowns after at least half of each team thought the play was dead. Joel Iyiegbuniwe returned a fumble for 22 yards for a touchdown and Deon Bush— who has looked fantastic to the naked eye all preseason—had a 91-yard interception return.
Good coverage there from Kwiatkoski, too.
Perhaps I’ve buried the lede, though. Eddy Pineiro, a week after beating out Elliot Fry, was 5/5 on kicks (including extra points), and was good from 58 yards. And he was fired up about it, rightfully so. The guy also just keeps saying the right things. I know it’s *probably* to endear himself to the fanbase and coaching staff enough so he can’t be released, but hey, it might be working.
I said last week how I feel about the emphasis that the fans and the organization are putting on last year’s double doink nightmare. It’s getting to be over the top, and keeping the kickers and the team from having a healthy mindset heading into the next season. Well, turns out I wasn’t the only one who thought this. A really good piece came out about the Bears ludicrous search for a kicker this offseason in Sports Illustrated.
Some pretty bizarre and somewhat troubling things in there. Hopefully Pineiro’s continued success means that a lot of this noise will go away. And, once again, just because he misses a kick here and there does not mean we have to hark back on what happened last year.
Lastly, even though he played alright on Saturday, is there a reason to have Tyler Bray on the roster moving forward? He’s a Nagy guy that understands the system, but we already have Chase Daniels for that. Next year, at the latest, that third-string role should be given to someone who could actually mean something for the Bears in the future, whether that be a legit candidate for playing time or a trade piece to get some of that draft capital back.
Just a week and a half until we see Green Bay at Soldier Field.
Sox:
Lots of good things to get through regarding the White Sox this week, but first, a pretty depressing possibility: Could Ricky Renteria be fired the year before both the Cubs and the Sox got good, in just a five-year span? That would be unbelievable, and realistically, should be in play? To be fair, there’s nothing he could’ve done to keep the Cubs job. But Ricky has quietly rivaled Joe Maddon in “What the hell is he doing?” lineups this year. And also, he told reporters he “doesn’t give a shit what you think of them.” Not that he should, as The Athletic’s James Fegan said.
Both Rick Hahn and Renteria have handled media situations awfully of late. First off, they seem to be extremely sensitive to criticism. I like Rick Hahn, but why he won’t commit to the idea that the White Sox are going all in next year? And how does he feel like he’s in the position to call out any fans for being negative after they’ve watched a team miss the playoffs 11 straight years?
"Most people want to go through just statistically-based decisions,” Renteria told The Athletic. “OK, I’m not that guy. I trust myself and the things I do. I think there’s a balance. I don’t discount numbers. Never have, never will. But I’m a balance guy.”
It seems pretty simple. You tell the fanbase that you’ve been acquiring talent for years, like where you’re headed, and are committed to making the playoffs next year. Why is that so hard? You work for Jerry Reinsdorf, so you’re probably not going to lose your job even if you fall short on promises.
And that’s why Renteria probably won’t get fired either. Status quo is a coveted thing for the Bulls/Sox. But it shouldn’t take a baseball or public relations genius to know that you should hit your best hitters at the top of the order and that you shouldn’t tell fans who haven’t seen their team in the playoffs in this decade to be more patient.
Anyway, Yoan Moncada is an absolute all-star when he’s out there. He’s slashing .302/.357/.549. That’s nearly a 70 point bump in average, 40 point bump in OBP, and 150 point bump in slugging from last year, which is just ridiculous.
Here’s his spray chart this year:
Moncada’s only hurdle will be playing 140 games plus in the future. I worry a bit about him and Eloy, who also just missed a few games with another minor injury.
Dylan Cease had another solid start this week, this one especially impressive given the fact that he gave up a homer and three runs in the first inning and then ended up with a quality start and a win anyway.
I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but why isn’t Luis Robert up, given Moncada’s improvement from last year to this year and the visible strides we see Cease taking right before our eyes? Perhaps that’s another way for the Sox front office to temper expectations for 2020.
Jose Abreu reached 1,000 hits with the White Sox this past week, and immediately thanked Jerry Reinsdorf. The two seem to have a genuinely great relationship, but my god, it’s getting a little weird at this point. John Paxson better watch out, Abreu may be the Bulls president of basketball operations for the decade after he retires. Who am I kidding—two decades. Reinsdorf reportedly assured Abreu he’ll “always be a White Sox.”
Lucas Giolito has now thrown a complete game shutout against the Twins and Astros this year, something no other pitcher has done.
The Sox took 2 of 3 from the Twins and then 3 of 4 from the Rangers, and Tim Anderson, although leading the majors in errors, has continued to prove that he deserves a spot in the top of the Sox lineup.
Cubs:
All of sudden, the Cubs are 2.5 games behind the Cardinals in the NL Central and have to go on the road to face Stroman, Syndergaard, and DeGrom at Citi Field to kick off the week.
Getting swept by the Nationals at home was less than ideal. Plus, Anthony Rizzo is now dealing with a back issue. Javy Baez has not been himself at the plate of late. And, wait it gets worse—Brandon Morrow has been shut down for the rest of the year. I’m starting to think this guy stabs his elbow with a knife every other week.
I turned off Sunday’s game when it was 5-2, then turned it back on when the Cubs tied it. Big mistake. What could’ve been one of the biggest—if not the biggest—wins this year for the Cubs ended in another bullpen-eating loss. They get a day off Monday but with a struggling lineup and the road woes we’ve all gotten accustomed to hearing about, it feels like it doesn’t even matter. All we can hope for is the Cubs to take care of the Brewers after the Brewers take care of the Cardinals in their series earlier in the week.
I said last week that I might not have what it takes to watch another wild card game this year. Against the Nationals in D.C. with Scherzer on the mound? I think I’ll go out to dinner. But if the Cubs falter against the Mets, that could mean eventually falling behind them in the WC standings as well. Everyone needs to pick it up or this could turn disastrous real quick.
Willson Conteras will travel with the team to New York, but who knows if he’ll actually play there. I doubt it. That means more Caratini. Great (don’t care about his home run yesterday).
Is it possible the Cubs starting pitching could save us over this next week? For the most part, they’ve still been great. Quintana’s start against the Nationals was the biggest death-by-ground-balls afternoon I’ve ever seen. He’ll be fine. Hendricks has walked 2 or fewer batters in 23 consecutive starts. Hamels finally looked good again on Sunday. Darvish is still doing the thing where he pitches well but then all of a sudden gets knocked around every other start. Lester has been the weakest link for the majority of the season, as he’s said so himself, but is always good for pulling a good start together when you need him most. Wishful thinking? Maybe. But we’re going to need it.
David Bote is back up from AAA Iowa.
Per Mark Gonzales, three of Kris Bryant’s last four homers have been go-aheads in the seventh inning or later.
Ben Zobrist is slashing .189/.333/.405 in the minors. Still should be up by September 1
Yu Darvish added another grip this week for his fastball, call this one Twitter Fingers
Bulls and Hawks:
Nothing to report on this front.
Trivia answer: Travis Wood, 2013
Historical perspective:
The Chicago Cubs actually used to be the Chicago White Stockings in the 1800s. The teams were often named after the socks they wore because it was the most distinguishing part of the jersey. Once the Cubs dropped that name, the new Chicago baseball team, the White Sox, picked it up.
Good run down of all the strange ways teams picked up their nick names here.
Next week, football will be in full swing. And it will officially be game week. Thank you to everyone for reading and keep getting Chicago sports fans to subscribe. I appreciate it. Next week WILL be the best newsletter yet. Don’t forget to comment on this week’s thread. SCGTC.