***OK, how many of you are planning to watch the Bears-Ravens game Sunday? The Bears are out of it and despite that,Coach Lovie Smith wants to treat these games as if they matter. He had no intention of playing some of the younger guys to see what they can do.
***There are plenty of things going around about what will happen to the Coaching Staff or Front Office after these last three games. It’s possible that the answer to that question is….NOTHING. But the first couple of weeks of January should be very interesting around Halas Hall.
***Local College Basketball has started out pretty well for Northwestern,Loyola,Illinois State and Illinois. DePaul started out decently also until their one sided loss to Mississippi State in Tampa and this week’s embarrassing defeat at the hands on American University in Rosemont. UIC also has struggled with a six game losing streak following their only win-over Illinois-Springfield.But the Flames surprised Oregon State in the Pavilion Wednesday evening,so perhaps they are getting a bit better. Northwestern lost tow key players,Kevin Cobel and Jeff Ryan to season ending injuries. But they are off to their best start since 1993-94 under the late Ricky Birdsong when they went to the NIT.
***Which Front Office in Chicago has had the rougher off season? The Bears prior to this year? The Cubs after a good 2008 season that ended with a dud performance in the NLDS against the Dodgers? The Cubs currently(with Milton Bradley still not unloaded)?, Or the Bulls heading into this season? The White Sox have done some things to try and get back atop the A.L.Central and the Blackhawks seem to be capitalizing on last season’s success,and are legit contenders not only in the NHL’s Western Conference,but the entire league.
***Let’s start with the Bears who quietly unloaded two veteran wide receivers in Brandon Lloyd and Marty Booker. Both are pretty much done,but no true replacements were acquired other than Johnny Knox in the draft,who has had a nice season. Matt Forte has struggled for the most part behind a very thin offensive line. While the trade for Jay Cutler should prove to be a very good one in the long one, it also left the Bears with no draft picks in the first or second round this spring. Since Jerry Angelo has done pretty well with third and fourth round picks, this may not be that bad of a situation. Of course the status of the Bears Coaching staff as well as front office members will be watched carefully after the season ending January 3 game with Detroit.
***One thing that has been obvious since last year is a unsuccessful conversion of Devin Hester from the game’s best kick returning to full time wide receiver. He has shown that he is nothing more than a #3 receiver-even on the Bears who are receiver challenged right now.
***Jim Hendry sure had a tough off season between 2008 and 2009. It started last New Year’s Eve when Mark DeRosa was dealt to Cleveland for three Minor League hurlers,none of which has contributed to the Big League Club. Kerry Wood was not tendered a contract for 2009 and he signed with the Indians. DeRosa’s salary was moved to clear dollars to sign a so called left handed hitting power hitting outfielder. Hendry did not sign Raul Ibanez,Bobby Abreu or Adam Dunn. Instead he gambled that the Cubs could tolerate Milton Bradley,who was a failure in one way or another with all but one of his seven previous teams. Bradley’s miserable season speaks for itself.He also ripped the Cubs,the City of Chicago,the media,and of most importance, the Fans. They are having trouble finding a ‘sucker’ to take Bradley off their hands. And for those who are suggesting that the Cub simply bring him back this year….NO,NO,NO,NO!!!! The fans will not tolerate it if Milton Bradley shows up at Ho Ho Kam Park in a Cubs uniform,much less Wrigley Field.
***The Cubs vaunted rotation is also not a good as it was cracked up to be. Rich Harden is gone, Ted Lilly will likely miss the start of the regular season after off season surgery, Ryan Dempster will try to bounce back from a do-do season and Carlos Zambrano also had a blah season(even though his ERA was under 4.00). Randy Wells hopefully will have a better second season than Geovany Soto, or Matt Forte.
***The Bulls allowed Ben Gordon to escape to the division rival Pistons, and now they have two big time weaknesses. Low post scoring,and outside shooting. Those two problems have helped lead to a bad start to this season. The more they struggle,the more one has to thing that the Bulls will again fail to land a big time free agent this coming off season. La Bron James,Dwyane Wade,Chris Bosh and others are not likely to be wearing Bulls uniforms next year.
***Remember the Bulls two free agent signings in the early 2000’s? Ron Mercer and Eddie Robinson. No wonder Tim Floyd was glad to get out of here!
LES