ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

I took some time this morning surfing around the net to see what other bloggers, and real writers thought of the 2006 White Sox. I like making predictions as much as the next guy, but since I've never been right, I figured I would just aggregate the opinions of all the "experts".

SI thinks the Sox are repeating. I like the good vibes they are sending our way. I don't believe in SI curses. I'm more inclined to believe in the Madden curse.

Yahoo's Jeff Passan has his predictions here. According to him, we lose to the Braves in the Series. Speaking of Yahoo, can anyone find our favorite Cub, Ryno on their writing roster? He isn't listed as a Yahoo Expert anymore...

FoxSports.com has the White Sox losing to the Blue Jays in the AL Championship. That's an interesting call. They have us taking the Yankees out of the playoffs only to get beat by the Blue Jays. Very interesting.

I'm not an ESPN insider, so someone will have to come clean with what the talking heads predict over there. I will say the SportsNation poll was interesting : How will the Cubs fare in 2006. I said below .500. Sorry Mike.

I hope I didn't miss anyone. There is always the Playboy baseball preview (one of my favorites) but I can't seem to get through the firewall to reach PB this morning. Just as well.

Now letsee what the bloggers predict:
The Cheat, doesn't have any predictions as far as I can tell.
BlackBetsy still looks like he is on vacation.
The MVN boys covered the experts' opinions on Wed, but I don't see their predictions.

There are ton more White Sox blogs out there - but I don't see any predictions.
Maybe I should open it up and see what they think. So let's send an invite to these fine bloggers and get their predictions on the White Sox this year. Come one and come all - get your predictions in. You can email me at the above link or just leave a comment.
I'd make it fancier - but we have this Blogger Mock Draft to take care of first...

Here is my prediction. I'll explain over the weekend - but here is the quick and dirty version:

1. Indians
2. White Sox
3. Twins
4. Detroit
5. KC

This bullpen has me scared and there is no way we stay healthy this year. It's impossible.
Get your predictions in.

Can you smell it? It's the honey-sweet smell of morning rain on that freshly cut lawn. Forget that it's still 30 degrees outside and you can see your breath. Never mind that pitchers and catchers reported weeks ago, albeit in Arizona. The countdown has begun to opening day. The most important question every baseball prognosticator is asking, and has been asking for almost 100 years is plastered on ESPN.com:

                "Will the Cubs win it this year?"

If you fancy curses, we could rephrase this inquiry to "Will the curse be broken".
Aside from sounding like an old 50's horror flick it's the true sign that spring is here.

Things have changed drastically in the past year. Chicago has a World Champion.
It's not a WBC-type champion (congrats again to Nippon), but the only World
Champion in baseball most of us have ever known. I can't stress this point enough. It has forever changed the baseball landscape in this town. Credit can't only go to the White Sox for this. Most of it does, and for good reason, but the fact remains the Cubs got close in 2003. That was our first real taste of success.

It was the tipping point for Kenny Williams and the White Sox. I don't like the media-hyped South Side "chip on my shoulder" attitude they parlay into sales, but there is some truth to it. It is publicly known that the White Sox were tired of playing second fiddle. Kenny was done with that. It was time to make some moves. Sure, they always wanted to win. Didn’t they? It didn’t matter. All of a sudden the Cubs started winning. Then the Sox started making moves. They had no choice.

I never thought those moves would eventually lead to a World Series sweep.
Spring is back and you probably forgot some things. The winter will do that to you.
It's time to refresh your memory.

The Sox were healthy last year. We had great pitching. We tricked people into believing we were playing small ball, when in fact we were just being aggressive. We caught a few brakes in the playoffs. We struggled at the end of the season, only to step up and finish off the streaking Indians. We won a championship.
We had a parade. We kept playing that damn Journey song over and over again.
It was the definition of good times.

This year we expect victory, not unlike the Cubs expectations after their run.
We used them as motivation and reached the top of the mountain. I wonder if the Cubs are using the White Sox as their motivation this season to finally break out. My advice to them is to do exactly that.

It wouldn't be a bad thing to get another champion around here.

Welcome to the world of shared hosting. The site was down for the majority of today. Which sucks, but what do you expect when you don't have a dedicated server.

Anyway - the site is back - and so are the postings.

Nothing new to report except for opening day in a few weeks.

Oh, and a Big Up to the George Mason fans out there.

It's the worst I have ever done in a tournament pool - but well worth it.

I know it's been about a week since I gave you guys an update on our Blogger Mock Draft. I am happy to report that we only have 2 teams left to fill the gaps... Technically it's 3, but the Bengals are probably going to join us...at least I hope they are. Regardless here is the list as it stands.

• St. Louis Rams
• Cincinnati Bengals
• Titans - we had the MVN blogger, but he's on vacation)

For those of you participating: you will be receiving an email from me with the details on how we are going to pull this off. Start thinking about you want to draft. Get a list of guys together after doing your research. If everyone is prepared we stand to pull this off well ahead of the real draft on the 29th. There are already some guys blogging about this little project of ours.



Our pals to the North are the first ones to start talking about the Mock draft. Robert runs a great blog. Yes, it is a Packers blog, but who doesn't love a bunch of guys wearing cheese on their heads? I see Marv, our original invitee is a regular on Robert's blog. Marv took a pass on the invite and was nice enough to recommend Robert for our draft. It will be fun to see how the Packers handle the pressure of a top 5 pick. I know first hand how horribly wrong it can go. I wonder what the Packers are thinking. The division has already gone through some changes. The Bears signed Griese (I peg him for a 5th game start), the Lions still have a horrible GM but 2 new QBs, and the Vikings got rid of Dante. I doubt any draft pick this year will have an impact on the division standings - unless you guys in CheeseHead-Land are up to something...

The news out of spring training for the White Sox keeps getting worse. Bobby Jenks can’t throw strikes, and as a result Ozzie proclaims he doesn’t believe in naming a closer. He’ll go with his gut. Ozzie’s gut isn’t as plentiful as Jenks’ but I’m ok with this strategy. I worry about the consistency of our lineups throughout a long season as well as the pecking order in the bullpen. It must be rough not knowing when your number is going to be called. I know that if my boss gave me a job and yanked it from me one day, only to give it back to me 2 days later, I’d go bonkers. I might also wonder about the boss’ mental stability. We all knew this day was coming. Neil Cotts is going to be our closer when it’s all said and done. The seeds have been planted. Here is my message to Big Bobby: Find the strike zone as often as you find that Chili’s down the street.

 There are a lot of questions about the White Sox this year. Most of these questions trend towards the positive. We’re not wondering if they will make the playoffs, or how many months into the season will it take them to reach .500. No, the championship has turned the staunchest pessimist into an optimist. Speaking of questions, I found a few on the Cheat’s blog. (yes, I’m spreading  the link love) I’ll take a stab at answering them here:

 Will Dustin Hermanson ever pitch again?

No. Back problems are the worst kind of problems to have if you are pitcher. This is especially true if you have 2 arms. I’m afraid I don’t see Dustin doing much more than chewing tobacco this year.

 Is Scott Podsendik still on his honeymoon?

No, he isn’t. But he should be. Have you seen his beautiful wife? I’d be coming to work smiling every day.

 Is Bobby Jenks off the wagon?

I get confused with off the wagon, or on the wagon. Whatever wagon he might be on, it’s big. I’m surprised our resident magician Coop hasn’t sent him on that show The Biggest Loser. Man alive this kid needs to get it together. Hurry up Bobby.

 Who's the closer when Jenks is off filming the next episode of Celebrity Fit Club?

I liked the joke about Celebrity Fit club – but isn’t that a BBC show? Regardless, the answer is Cotts.

What about Jim Thome's health?

What about it? He’s fine. Big Frank played on one leg, Thome can do it too. I appreciate the staff being cautious with him. The question should be “Will Thome be healthy for at least 100 games.”

 Did Jose Contreras' arm turn to dust yet?

Yes. It was replaced last week with a robotic arm. (take the jump, it’s cool)

Is Iguchi headed back to the #2 hole?

Yes. I bet he’s glad he decided to skip on the WBC. He has something like 4 hits this pre-season? Nice.

Can Don Cooper fix Matt Thornton?

I have no idea. It would be a miracle from everything I have read. If he does fix Matt Thorton, does Coop finally get a job as manager somewhere?

It’s time to get back to work. Hang in there everybody. Tomorrow is Friday.

 

 

 

Beat to the punch by my own writer.

So the Bears signed Griese. This was "our guy" all along right? I guess this is true if you ignore Adam Archuleta and Randle El. I'm going to be up front with you loyal readers: I like Griese. I always have. He has moxy. Sure, he's not durable (he is coming off an ACL, MCL and any other CL you can think of) but he was the best veteran quarterback available. Dante was never going to be dealt to an inter-division rival, so you can forget about having a Love Boat cruise on Lake Michigan. Griese has all the tools necessary to start for our team. Ok, maybe not right away but I could see him beating Grossman out by week 5. That's only if Grossman stays healthy until week 5.

Speaking of Grossman, is it me or does Griese remind you of Grossman? Am I that far off to think that Grossman will look a lot like Griese in a few years? Think about the attributes: accurate arm, health problems, and un-fulfilled potential. Yea, I think Rex woke up to his NFL future this morning. To his credit he has always been quoted as saying he welcomed competition. I believe him. I think he wants to prove everyone wrong. He can play at this level, and he can stay long enough to prove it. This is fine, but what I want is proof that he can WIN.

I wonder what our friends in Florida think of this? Could they be looking to draft a quarterback as a result of this deal? Wait to find out when we start that Mock Draft (yes, it's a plug!) Scott over at Bucstats.com is drafting for the Bucs. Go check his site out.

The plot thickens.

The concerns over the White Sox bullpen can be squelched. That's not true. I'll try that again. The White Sox concerns over Joe Borchard are now in the hands of the Seattle Mariners. That sounds closer to the truth considering Borchard was traded this afternoon for Matt Thorton. I've never heard of Matt Thorton. That is probably a good thing. You decide if that’s a good thing or not. I had hoped we could get someone a little younger and maybe with more of an upside than Thorton. I could be wrong, but how is he different from guys like Scott Schoeneweis?

This deal doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies. It sounds as if the trade was made based on Don Cooper's ability to develop this guy's arm. Scratch that. I think Kenny expects Cooper to correct this guys mistakes. I'm not the only one who picked up on the obvious need to fine tune this guy's mechanics. Cheat agrees. While I wouldn't bring up Helen Keller, I would say Coop is being cast int he role of Mr. Miyagi. Fair enough. Just remember that the kid has to get his arse kicked pretty badly before he learns how to win.

Consistency in this bullpen is going to be a stretch. Hermanson can't bend over to tie his own shoes without a little help from the doctors. I think McCarthy is better as a starter. Jenks is still a box of twinkies away from being in shape, and I'm afraid of burning Cotts out by June. Some people around here believe that Cotts will be the closer by June. It makes you wonder why we ran Damaso Marte out of town, doesn't it?

I bet half of you would take him back right now. Maybe he'll be this year's Carl Everett?

It was a happy St Patrick's Day up until I got the news that former DePaul basketball coach Ray Meyer died. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was only one college basketball team we would follow. That team was Ray Meyer's DePaul Blue Demons. There is a good article over at ESPN. Go read it between commercials of that UAB-Kentucky game.

I was going to post about the tournament for our first Coffee Break segment, but I know most of you are either at the bar drinking green beer this afternoon (Happy St. Pats!) or you're watching day 2 of March Madness. Talk about good times!

You should all be thinking of me and MikeJ struggling to stay awake as we are surrounded by the plush carpeted walls in our cube farm. Give thanks for the boss you slighted this morning while faking the whooping cough to get out of working a full day. Anyway...today's coffee break is about our Blogger Mock NFL Draft. Here are the teams that we are missing an answer from:

• Titans
• Cardinals
• Rams
• Bengals

Invites have been sent out to various bloggers for each of these teams. Multiple invites, in fact! So I'm opening it up. If you are a blogger for one of these teams, and you want to take part in our project please leave me a message via this site's contact form!!

I'm treating this as first come first serve. So start emailing me.

We have a plan B to cover teams that don't take part (that's where Mel Kiper comes in) and just in case the guys who already have commited to this fall asleep at the wheel when it's their turn to draft. I doubt we will need the Kiper rule, but it's there just the same. So all you NFL team bloggers get ready. More info to come...

I really wish I had time to finish off that NCAA bracket control. (that's for the .Net Geeks out there) If I would have coded it, I wouldn't have to type up my picks by hand. I hate my picks this year. In truth, I hate them every year. I guess it goes without saying that you should not be gambling using my picks. They are horrible. It's always hard to make picks in the tournament. Especially if you are from Chicago.

If you are from Chicago, you have grown accustomed to seeing the best kids playing for teams other than the locals. This leaves the door wide open on various bandwagons. The most comfortable of all the bandwagons is the in-state school bandwagon. It consists of, Illinois, SIU, and Bradley. I guess some people would include Marquette, but I'm not one of those people. Mayor Daley hasn't annexed Wisconsin. If he did, we probably wouldn't stop at adopting just the Marquette team. This leads me to our next familiar bandwagon. The tri-state area bandwagon includes teams that are in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana.

A closer look at bandwagon #2 might lead you to believe I have mislabled it by not calling it the Big Ten bandwagon. This would be true if there wasn't a mid-major from the Horizon league up in Milwaukee. The Big Ten bandwagon is actually the last bandwagon we'll discuss. We have 2 Big Ten teams that are close to home in Illinois and Northwestern. While NU isn't very good at roundball, the Illini are great. Illinois has a strong fan base here in Chicago. The majority of bracketologists in this city are riding the Illini wave to the elite eight. But if Illinois faulters, or you are like me; without a team in the tourney to cheer for, you have plenty of Big Ten teams to back. Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Ohio State are sitting right there waiting for you to depend on. So pour your heart into your bracket. Let nastalgia blind you into picking Gonzaga into the final four. Try to create a story with your bracket. Or fight the urge to ride the Big Ten bandwagon and pick all of them to lose in the first round. Whatever your poison, make sure you take the time to come back and rip into me for not follwoing my own advice.

Here is the schedule for tomorrow's games. We're going to be breaking my picks down one round at a time.

Atlanta Bracket

• Duke
• NC Wilmington
• The 'Cuse
• LSU
• West Virginia
• Iowa
• NC State
• Texas

Oakland Bracket

• Memphis
• Arkansas
• Pittsburgh
• Kansas
• Indiana
• Gonzaga
• Alabama
• UCLA

DC Bracket

• Connecticut
• UAB
• Washingon
• Illini
• Mich State
• North Carolina
• Wichita State
• Winthrop

Minneapolis

• Villanova
• Wisconsin
• Nevada
• BC
• UW-Milwaukee
• Florida
• Georgetown
• Ohio State

Good luck to everyone out there. I know that during March Madness most of you are going to be goofing around at work. You'll probably be spending your time over at Yahoo, or ESPN, or even CBS to catch a glimpse of the live games. Just don't forget about us over here at CSB . Especially since baseball season is about to start, and I have that awesome Blogger Mock draft starting in April.

So I have been batting around an idea here at CSB. I realized that a lot of us are working in cube farms for our 9-5. This can be a total drag. There is nothing worse than staring at a grey carpeted wall while listening to the guy in the cube next to you argue with his wife about what's for dinner. It will drive you mad. This is where the 3pm coffee break comes to save your day. Thanks to some truely unscientific research, I have realized that our traffic spikes around 3pm. I also noticed the traffic at our local Starbucks is increasing right around that time. Maybe this happens because the market is closed and their work day is effectively over. It could be they have already visited Deadspin 100 times, or that they need to rest their eyes in hopes of preventing retina burn-in. Everyone needs a break. So I'm going to do the best I can to provide a quick post at around 3pm every day for those of you who want to read something a bit different.

Notice, I didn't say better. All these posts will go into a new category: "I'm on Break".
I'll merge them into the main rss feed and see if people like it. Otherwise, you can just subscribe to the category rss feed. Let me know what you think.

The White Sox aren't doing so hot in spring training. That's a nice way of saying they aren't winning. The pitching is a concern on paper, but after digging deeper it seems the problems go deeper than that. Let's go over some of the things I think the White Sox are doing wrong during spring training.

First, I don't see them putting forth much of an effort. I know this is a blanket statement, but the effort just isn't there. Jim Thome might be the exception. Thome has something to prove and most people who are actually at spring training covering the White Sox for money (instead of just for fun, like me) are impressed by his early numbers. Count me in that "impressed" category.

Secondly, a lot has been written about our pitching problems. Hey, I have an idea: Go read MikeJ for a real pitching problem. Our pitching is fine. I understand the concerns over Vasquez and Freddy pitching in the WBC. The early competition has proven to be good for both of them. Freddy looks strong and he has an early command of the strike zone. Vasquez has been successful and hasn't been laboring as much as I expected him to. Middle relief is considered to be shaky because of the recent injury to Dustin Hermanson's back Hermie's back problems are not a surprise. What is a surprise is that the 6 other pitchers we invited to camp are all performing below the club's standards. I bet Kenny and Ozzie with they had Marte or Vizcaino back. As it stands, Politte, Jenks, and Cotts are going to be asked to shoulder the load until someone steps up.

Finally, this is spring training! Ozzie and company are playing around with a new lineup, integrating some new players, and seeing what some of these young guns have. I think Ozzie is treating spring training as a throw away. This isn't unlike the strategy Phil Jackson employed with the Lakers a few years back. Sure, they all agreed the regular season was important, but who cared if they lost a few games here and there while giving the ball to a few young guys to build up their strength. Getting a good feel for your team is something that should be done before the season get's away from you. In other words, I don't want to see Ozzie calling up rookies in July and fitting them into this lineup just to see if they can do it. How does that saying go? You've got to break some eggs to make an omelet.

 

I have a quick update for all the folks out there that have been curious about our Blogger Mock Draft.

I am still working the rules out with MikeJ. Most of our conversations are revolving around timing of the draft, the turn bases system we are using to notify you when it's time for you to draft, and trades. Yes, trades. I have no idea how we are going to manage trades - but if there is an easy way to do it - I'd like to see it. I hope to have everything hammered out by this week. I will be developing some new controls to support the draft site, as well as launching a new skin/interface for the main page. So bear with me as I change stuff around.

I can tell you that we have a majority of the GM roster filled out. There are only a handful of teams that haven't gotten back to me. I'm giving those bloggers/teams an extra few days to respond to my invite. Look for me to go public with the list of teams we are missing, as well as my plan B for what to do if someone misses a pick.

The response we have received on this project has been great. I want to take the time to thank all the sports bloggers who have already committed to this. Thanks fellas!

I'll be back in a few days with more info.

Spring is definitely in the air because March Madness has arrived.

The early reviews on this year’s tournament aren’t very good. The majority of the conversations are revolving around the dominance of the mid-major conferences. I should interject here that I went to a school in a mid-major conference; the Horizon.(Loyola Ramblers) I am a bit biased. I like seeing small schools in the tournament. I love watching teams like the UW-Milwaukee Panthers get into the sweet sixteen. On the other hand, the tournament selection committee did over do it this year. There are way too many small schools in this year’s bracket. I’m not going to complain about Michigan not getting in this year, but I will complain that Cinci was left out. I also don’t understand how Texas A&M got in either. You too Air Force. The seeds are also a bit screwy. I want someone on the west coast to explain to me how UCLA got a #2 seed. Thankfully, no one needs to explain the #1 seeds.

 

Last year I tried setting up a bracket for both of my readers. This year, I'm going to just skip on that and post my bracket. While we don’t have any Chicago teams in the tourney this year we do have a few semi-local favorites: Bradley, SIU, the Illini, hell even Marquette. It’s going to be an interesting tournament this year. From my estimation there are at least 10 different teams that could get hot and win the whole tournament. This is both good and bad.

 

The favorite, in my opinion, is Duke. It’s always Duke. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. While they aren’t unbeatable, it’s going to take a huge effort on defense for some team to stop them. Redick has got to be the best shooter I have seen in the last 10 years. Yesterday afternoon’s win over Boston College gave everyone a taste of what it’s going to be like defending him. He was practically standing outside the gym when he launched some of those shots. The last two minutes of that game was a shooting clinic performed by doctor Redick. I hope you folks got a chance to see the highlights. I should give credit to BC for fighting Duke tooth and nail. Those guys worked hard on defense. It just wasn’t enough in the end. And that is the point. The team with the most strength at the end of games has a great chance to tear through their portion of the bracket.

I love March. It’s the best time of year. Get your predictions in before Thursday! Big-up all the schools you guys and gals spent mommy and daddy’s cash on while drinking yourselves to a degree! This is the time to show your pride.

If you didn't hear the news, Randle El signed with the Redskins. You know, this sucks. The new deal gave teams an extra 8 million to play around with. The Bears haven't done squat. I heard that the Redskins chartered a private jet to pick up 4 players and bring them to Daniel Snyder. I guess he got 2 of those 4 guys (Brandon Lloyd was another Redskins aquisition)

Personally, I would have loved to have either of these guys. Lloyd was an Illini guy, and Randle El is just electric. He could have helped on both special teams and on offense. Ah well.

The focus now will have to be on what the Bears plan on doing with that $20 million dollars we have under the cap. There are a lot of good defensive guys out there, but short of another safety or a cornerback, I don't see how you spend the entire $20 million. I have a crazy theory. What if the Bears are looking at trading up and using the money to actually sign a rookie?

I know this is crazy talk. But what else could these guys have planned?