Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Nolan Arenado to the Cubs?; New Bear hires; Bulls DOMINATE Pistons; Louis Robert; Kane point watch
Happy Monday, SGCTChicagoans! Welcome to the new subscribers, happy to have you on board. If you enjoy the newsletter, tell someone to subscribe today:
Friday’s newsletter was a doozy, and we covered a lot: The White Sox entire offseason; the Cubs TV deal and a new metric that rates Javy Baez the best infielder in baseball; the rumors that the Bulls may be done with GarPax, Jim Boylen being an idiot, and Zach LaVine thinking he’s an All-Star; MJ history; and a lot more. So, check that out, either before or after you check this one out.
This weekend was a great one to figure out who the least funny people in sports media are. If you’re still making Trubisky/Mahomes/Watson jokes this late in the game, you’re unoriginal and you also clearly didn’t do your research on by far the biggest story evoked from Sunday’s game.
The Chiefs scored 41 unanswered points and everyone lost their minds, clearly forgetting the franchise that holds the record for the most unanswered points in the history of the NFL.
That’s right! The Bears boat raced the Washington Redskins in the NFL championship in 1940, scoring 73 unanswered points and taking home the ‘ship with a 73-0 victory. Curious that I didn’t hear a mention of that on the broadcast!
(By the way, the 1940 Bears lost to the same Redskins team 7-3 that season.)
Sorry Pat Mahomes, you were only 32 points short of the GOAT unanswered streak, better luck next week pal.
The toss up for what made me more unnecessarily mad on Sunday:
Randomly remembering that the Bears first play of the year began in the T-Formation (hOw AwEsOme) and they promptly fumbled it and lost three yards
Anthony Davis rolling into Green Bay wearing an Aaron Rodgers jersey and high-fiving Packers fans
If you’re shocked by this, you shouldn’t be. The dude is a front runner. Grew up in Chicago and apparently decided to be a Packers fan, probably because they were the better team. Demanded a trade from New Orleans and basically forced his way to L.A. and L.A. only to play with LeBron James. He’s a LeBron and Rodgers Stan, probably the worst combination imaginable in sports fandom, particularly if you’re from Chicago and claim it as your hometown.
I bet he’s got some excuse like the rest of Packer-fan Chicagoans. “My parents went to the Wisconsin Dells one time!” Just embarrassing. This is why I’ve never even considered for a second he’d come to the Bulls (granted, he shouldn’t). For all of you that fell for that video of him in that Chicago establishment saying it could happen because he’s a free agent next year, I hope you learned your lesson. He said that so he could increase leverage for himself and because he was around Chicagoans.
If you’re new, he’s already been banned from this newsletter. I don’t care if he paid me himself with a handsome salary to write it, I’d still say no. When I was reporting at the All-Star game last year, I asked him what his message would be to New Orleans after playing there for seven or eight years, and he said he’d throw up a heartfelt message on the ‘gram. Great, dude. I’m sure that made them feel much better.
ANTHONY DAVIS: The Mrs. O’ Leary of the week, and by the true spirit of the award. Mrs. O Leary, after all, was a Chicagoan herself.
MLK once said, “In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but instead our friends fucking wearing Packers jerseys.”
I’d rather lose the Bulls stink until I die than to plead and beg for this man to come back here in free agency. But I’ll bet you when he’s 36 and his talents are diminished he’ll still find his way back. He’ll want to play homecoming and the Reinsdorfs will oblige. When that day comes, I’ll be as sick to my stomach as I am right now.
Apologies to anyone here who happens to be a Packer or LeBron fan. But on your death bed, you’ll be filled with regret and shame. You’ll point to the door and your family members will assure you there’s no one there. You’ll get squeamish as my spirit nears closer, and as the grim reaper comes to take you away, the last words you will hear are…
STILL GOTTA COME THROUGH CHICAGOOOOOOO!
Now let’s get to it! Speaking of MLK, we got a three-day weekend on the horizon, ladies and gentlemen! What’s that? We got the national championship tonight? Let’s go.
This week’s thread: Who are the worst kind of fans in Chicago? Could be Packer fans, LeBron fans (I know we got a dozen or so on here), fans that hate the Sox/Cubs more than they love their own team, bandwagon fans, anything! Sound off! Can’t wait to get busy with y’all—POST HERE.
Trivia:
In baseball, the stat “WHIP” stands for Walks + Hits Per Innings Pitched. In other words, on average, how many people do you let on base per inning? There are three active players total on the Cubs and Sox respective top 10 all-time WHIP lists. So, out of the Sox top 10 and Cubs top 10, three of the 20 players are still in the league. Can you name those players? (Answer at end of the newsletter).
Bears:
(We’ll lead with the underachievers because they were omitted from Friday’s newsletter)
A few developments in Bears world over the past week:
The Bears hired Juan Castillo as the new offensive line coach almost immediately after they fired Harry Hiestand. Castillo was formerly with the Bills as the O-Line coach and the run-game coordinator, and led them to a top 6 running game in consecutive years. Next up, tight ends coach. The Bears hired Clancy Barone to lead the murderer’s row of Bears tight ends. Jesper Horsted must’ve given the Bears his approval. Since 2005, Barone has coached the tight ends for the Falcons, Broncos, and Vikings. He most recently coached the offensive line in Minnesota during the 2018 season, perhaps another reason why his experience was appealing to the Bears front office.
My first impression is that this guy is definitely an absolute psychopath:
Seriously, give this guy a Google images search. You won’t be able to find one picture of him not looking like he’s about to call a rookie tight end a pussy for sitting out with a concussion.
In their release, the Bears made sure to let us know that he’s coached a Pro-Bowl tight end at every stop.
Those tight ends?
Alge Crumpler, Antonio Gates, Julius Thomas and Kyle Rudolph.
So, for him to continue that streak, the Bears should probably get started on that tight end hunt in free agency.
Barone was a coach at Eastern Illinois when Ryan Pace played there as a defensive end. He’s got 15 years of NFL coaching experience and 32 years altogether. If nothing else, the Bears have added decades worth of experience up front in the last two weeks.
He’s in an awful position or a great position, depending on how you look at it. He inherits a group of tight ends that accounted for just over 400 yards total this year, the leading receiver among them being J.P. Holtz. That’s really bad. But, there’s only one way to go, and that’s up? Right? We’ll see.
Recently fired Giants Head Coach Pat Shurmur was rumored to be one of, if not the, leading target for the Bears offensive coordinator vacancy. Now, it appears he’ll opt instead to take the Denver Broncos OC job. No surprise there. In Denver, he’ll work under former Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who as you know has nothing to do with the offense. In Chicago, Shurmur would be subject to Nagy’s T-Formations and Tarik Cohen dives on the goal line.
That’s the crux of the issue with the Bears offensive coordinator search. Anyone that watched Bears games last year knows that they desperately need an influential one, but the head coach is an offensive mind. An offensive mind that, from what I can tell, won’t be doing much delegation (unless he can blame you for the run game after the fact). My guess is that it’ll end up being Mike Kafka, the current Kansas City QBs coach and former Northwestern quarterback.
Kyle Fuller will replace the Rams’ Jalen Ramsey in this year’s Pro Bowl, making it his second straight trip to the NFL’s all star game. Fuller had three interceptions and 82 tackles this year. He joins Eddie Jackson, Cordarrelle Patterson, and Khalil Mack as Bears selected to the Pro-Bowl this year.
Bulls:
On Friday’s newsletter (read it, dammit), I covered LaVine’s All-Star candidacy, Jim Boylen’s idiocy, the Bulls general incompetency, and Wendell Carter Jr.’s injury, which will sideline him for over a month.
This weekend was still an exciting one, though, as the Bulls wrapped up a season series sweep of the Detroit Pistons! Yes, the Pistons have been on the losing end of four of the Bulls 14 wins this year. Where would we ever be without the Pistons…
In Friday’s home match-up against the Pacers, the Bulls lost to an Indiana team that was missing:
Victor Oladipo
Damantas Sabonis
Malcolm Brogdon
Oladipo hasn’t played yet this year, but Sabonis and Brogdon are both potential All-Stars. Neither are dealing with serious injuries, just day-to-day type ones, and I believe the Pacers—as many teams have done this year—just decided, ‘Hey, we can probably beat the Bulls anyway.’ And they did, by double digits.
Zach LaVine had 43 in that game, and the Bulls social media team was fired up about it after the fact. Get those All-Star game impressions!
Hell yeah, another loss at home to a team with a depleted line-up. *fire emoji*
Cubs:
The Nolan Arenado to the Cubs chatter is heating up. Who knows if there’s any validity to it, but Bruce Levine of 670 The Score did report it on air a few days ago.
The plan: For the Cubs to trade for Arenado, plug him in at third and move Bryant to center field.
If you’re wondering how the Cubs would pull that off, it probably wouldn’t be as hard as you think. Arenado is due well over $200 million over the next seven years, and the Rockies aren’t currently constructed to compete. Taking on that money, would be—at least in their eyes—doing them somewhat of a favor.
Still, the Cubs would probably have to part ways with some of the big league everyday starters, like Willson Contreras or Kyle Schwarber. They could also eat some of Jason Heyward’s salary, which would not go against the cap, and ship him to Denver.
This move does make a lot of sense to me, not from a practical standpoint necessarily, but from an organizational one. Theo Epstein’s contract is up in two years, and I doubt he’ll sign on for another deal after that. He wants to win now, and the only way to do that is to drastically improve now.
Arenado isn’t just a great hitter, he’s one of the best infielders in all of baseball. We went over the new defensive metric unveiled by the MLB on Friday, Outs Above Average, and Baez and Arenado were #1 and #2 for infielders. Can you imagine them on the same side of the infield? And a lineup consisting of some combination of Rizzo-Bryant-Arenado-Baez? I just got shivers down my spine.
Having said that, it’d be tough to part way with Contreras or Schwarber, particularly Schwarber, who I think is the most underrated Cub (maybe behind Bryant at this point). But Epstein has held onto Schwarber for dear life in potential deals before, like the trade that landed Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease on the South Side of town.
I’d also be remiss, however, not to mention Nolan Arenado’s home/away splits. Arenado has benefitted from playing in the best hitter’s park in baseball over the course of his career. The numbers do not tell a pretty story.
Home—Batting average: .324 On-Base percentage: .380 Slugging Percentage: .615
Away—Batting average: .265; On-Base percentage: .323 Slugging Percentage: .476
His OPS is 196 points lower on the road during his career.
Trading assets for a guy entering his age-29 season, due nearly $230 million is a risk, no doubt.
If you can get rid of Heyward’s deal with one or two other major leaguers, it could reduce payroll in the short term. But if it’s 2024 and he’s got a .760 OPS and the Cubs never won anything with him, Epstein may have to start paying for drinks in Chicago bars again.
If the Cubs don’t trade for him, he could end up with the Cardinals, who can probably offer a better package. That, no matter his splits, would also suck.
The Kris Bryant grievance should be settled this week. I suspect the Cubs will win, and that he’ll be under control for both this year and next. Once that comes down, keep an eye on the Cubs transactions, whether Arenado is involved or not.
Sox:
The Sox offseason moves were covered pretty extensively in Friday’s letter, so lets dig into Louis Robert’s career a bit more.
In 2019, Robert played for three of the White Sox minor league affiliates, and crushed the ball at every stop. He had a collective 1.001 OPS, which is fantastic. He was a 30/30 guy, hitting 32 home runs and stealing 36 bags. He began the year in A+ Winston Salem, where he played just 19 games. But in those 19 games, his average was .453 and his OPS was 1.432. I don’t care how many games you play and what level its at, those are senior-in-high-school-going-high-in-the-draft numbers.
With better pitching in AA Birmingham, his production did dip a little bit, but he still slashed .314/ .362/ .518.
By most accounts, Robert is still a very raw talent. For God’s sake, he’ll be 22 when he gets his first at-bat in the major leagues. That’s why—again—it’s good that he’ll be up with the major league team from the start.
Eloy Jimenez is a good example for why Robert being up all season is a good idea. Jimenez’s average was 51 points better in the second half than the first, his OBP 25 points better. These things take time, no matter how much talent a player possesses.
Blackhawks:
The Hawks 4-2 win over Anaheim on Saturday put them back at a square .500: 20-20-6. Playoff hopes are grim, and if they’re going to stay alive at all, there will need to be a few win streaks put together here. If they don’t qualify, that’ll mark the third time they’ve missed the playoffs in a row, the same as the Bulls.
The Blackhawks are a more competent organization than the Bulls, so that could mean changes in the front office. I wouldn’t be surprised if some Hail Mary moves were made so Stan Bowman can save face and keep the Hawks in the race.
Patrick Kane point watch: 995 with three road games ahead. Here’s to hoping that the rest of the squad can pick up the slack so Kane can get to 1,000 in the United Center. That Tuesday, January 21st home game with the Panthers and Coach Q coming to the United Center still feels like destiny.
Don’t forget to post your least favorite sports fans in Chicago in this week’s thread.
This week in Chicago:
Bulls: At Celtics tonight, 6:30; Home vs. Wizards on Wednesday, 7:00; At Philly on Friday, 6:00; Home vs. Cavs on Saturday, 7:00
Blackhawks: Tuesday at Senators, 6:30; Wednesday at Canadiens, 6:30; Saturday at Maple Leafs, 6:00; Sunday home vs. Jets, 6:00
Betting pick:
Record: 19-9
I don’t feel comfortable enough to give out an official play on the national championship tonight, so keep your eye on the NBA game cast while you enjoy a CFB match-up for the ages.
This week’s pick: Trail Blazers -7 at home vs. the Hornets
Trivia answer:
Chris Sale is 3rd all-time in White Sox career WHIP with an insane 1.065
Jake Arrieta is 2nd all-time in Cubs career WHIP with an even more insane 1.034
Kyle Hendricks is holding on for dear life in the 10th spot all-time for the Cubbies with a career 1.114 WHIP
Thanks for reading, as always. Thanks for spreading the word. If you enjoyed it, share it. Next week’s newsletter will be the best one yet… STILL GOTTA COME THROUGH CHICAGOOOOO