I was chatting with a buddy of mine who happens to be a Cubs’ fan. Nice guy, intelligent and generous, but still a Cubs fan. Even so, we have gotten along well since the day we met and I see no reason for that not to continue. Anyway, we ranged back and forth over two topics. The first, my personal paranoid fantasy that the newspapers are secretly taping my conversations to acquire source material for their articles and, second, how the Cubs and Sox have wildly different approaches to the off season.
Proof of the former comes in the form of the latter.
Today, JOE COWLEY at the Sun Times takes a peek at what the Sox are up to this time of the year.
Making sure (Alex) Rios and Carlos Quentin were ready mentally for 2010 was priority 1A and 1B for (hitting coach, Gregg) Walker this winter. He visited Quentin in late October and was thrilled that Rios decided to fly to Miami last week and join Gordon Beckham, Alexei Ramirez and Dayan Viciedo in an unofficial minicamp.
Camp Cora—put together by bench coach Joey Cora—is supposed to give the younger infielders a chance to come together and work on their defense.
Rios wanted to make an appearance and show that his swing was where it needed to be and, more importantly, so was his head.
‘’It wasn’t mandatory. He came there on his own,’’ Walker said. ‘’He understands the situation. Alex knows how important he is for us. He’s a bright kid. We’ll get to know him, he’ll get to know us and there will be a real comfort level that we really didn’t obtain last year.
‘’He was thrown into a pennant race and was supposed to save us, and it didn’t work out.’’
The one question that Rios will have to answer, however, has to do with his mental toughness. In Toronto, the Blue Jays are below junior hockey and just above curling as far as the city’s priorities.
On the South Side, it doesn’t take long for open arms to become boos and screams of ‘’you suck!’’
Rios has a very laid-back personality, almost Javy Vazquez-like at times. Almost.
‘’This is a new year for me, a new start,’’ Rios said, sounding anything but laid-back. ‘’I’m here to win games and get this team to the playoffs. You can’t put it all on one person. It’s a team effort. I don’t have any more pressure than the other 24. We all have to step up.’’
What does Walker think?
‘’I’m not a psychiatrist, but I think he will be mentally tough enough to handle this,’’ Walker said. ‘’You look at the history of baseball, of how many guys are brought in to save a team late in the season, I would bet that there is a high failure rate.
‘’Now he has time to get ready for a season. We have a lot of time to get to know each other.’’
The plan for Rios is to keep his mechanics where they are for the next six weeks, bring them to spring training and have him ready to be a key figure in the outfield, as well as the middle of the lineup. If there is a slip in his swing, Walker is one phone call away.
‘’Like I said, I’m here to help this team,’’ Rios said. ‘’We’ll win games with our pitching and defense, but I’m a big fan of our offense.’’
Walker has a similar opinion.
‘’I’m excited about having Alex in camp now,’’ Walker said. ‘’This is the guy we [expected].’’
Five swings showed Walker that.
Voluntary camps? One on one coaching in private? Rios has his swing back? What’s next? A rousing round of Kumbaya?
Seriously though, after a rough season it is heart warming to see players putting in some extra effort to ensure that recent history does not repeat itself.
On the Northside, the Tribune’s PAUL SULLIVAN says that everyone had a nice party. He then goes on to recap the ten things he learned from the Cubs’ convention. I am only going to pop up a couple of my favorites to save space, but please click his link to read them all.
1 Clubhouse changes in store: The Wrigley Field clubhouses are tiny compared with most teams’ because the layout of Wrigley Field makes it difficult to renovate. Laura Ricketts said the “state of the clubhouse was shocking to me.” Some changes will be made immediately. Todd Ricketts announced the team would renovate the clubhouse kitchen and bring in a nutritionist. The weight room will be a lounge, and the umpires room will be a weight room.
2 Ghosts of DeRosa, Bradley remain: General manager Jim Hendry has apologized so many times for trading Mark DeRosa and signing Milton Bradley, he’s threatening the world record for mea culpas. “Obviously it was a shoot-for-the-moon (decision),” he said of Bradley. “Obviously it didn’t work out. It was totally my responsibility. It was a mistake in hindsight.” As for why he didn’t re-sign DeRosa as a free agent this offseason, Hendry said DeRosa’s days as a second baseman may be over, and the Cubs already have a left fielder.
3 Cubs all ears: The addition of a “Chief Hospitality Officer” by the Ricketts family was an indication the organization will listen more intently to fan complaints and advice. “We take our cues from you all,” President Crane Kenney said.
4 Squirrels bite: Why couldn’t fans use their iPhones last summer at Wrigley? “Believe it or not, the answer is squirrels,” said Carl Rice, the Cubs’ technology guru. Rice said squirrels ate through the wires providing AT&T wireless access. He said the issue has been resolved.
Read number one again. Is it just me or does it seem that the umps are going to have to dress in the Cubbie Bear? Number 2 actually made sense. Time to up my meds. Number 3 is nice. Does that mean that until today no one gave a damn what the fans thought? That’s got to not be a feel good. Number 4 is something that could only happen to the Cubs. Honestly, you can’t name one other team that has had its communications system knocked out for a year by squirrels.
I know you’re trying, but you can’t.
Nevertheless, it is plain to see that I am being secretly recorded. I don’t mind that so much, but in fairness, they should pay my bar tab.
Before we begin today’s frivolous topics, I would like to take a moment to pass along the condolences of all the administrators up here to the family of Gaines Adams. A doctor I know said that, while an enlarged heart is relatively easy to detect, it is also a condition that can occur between physicals or exams and - as appears to be what happened in Gaines Adams’ case - just catch you by surprise. We won’t know all the facts for a while, but the one thing we do know is that a promising young man was taken from this world too soon.
Okay, now to the fun stuff.
Yesterday the Minnesota Vikings didn’t just beat the Dallas Cowboys, they humiliated them. Up 27-3 in the last minutes of the fourth quarter, Minnesota lead a drive down field and scored another touchdown. As Jimmy Johnson said after the game, “If (Dallas was) so upset by that, they should have stopped them.” It was clear from the first play of that drive that the Vikings were going to try for more points. My guess is that Favre’s knees are too old to allow him to kneel so they had to keep making plays. DAN POMPEII over at the Tribune details the carnage.
Favre said he was playing with as much enthusiasm as ever.
“I know how difficult it is to win a playoff game, regardless of age,” he said. “I probably appreciate it a little more than the other guys in the locker room, especially the younger guys.”
Sixty percent of Favre’s passing yards came courtesy of Sidney Rice, who has had a breakout season playing with the future Hall of Famer. Rice had six catches for 141 yards and three TDs Sunday.
On their first touchdown, Rice found himself covered one-on-one, inexplicably, by Cowboys strong safety Gerald Sensabaugh on a fly pattern. After a perfect strike by Favre for the 47-yard score, Cowboys coach Wade Phillips, who reportedly has a contract extension in the works, was yelling at secondary coach Dave Campo.
The second touchdown was the best. Rice’s assignment on the play was to block Cowboys Pro Bowl linebacker DeMarcus Ware. He did, and found himself on the ground. He got back up and for the heck of it ran to an open spot in the field. Favre scrambled and found him for the 16-yard score.
The final scoring hookup, a 45-yarder, came against a defense with both safeties blitzing. Left one-on-one with cornerback Mike Jenkins, the 6-foot-4 Rice ran a nifty post route and Favre threw another pass right on the money.
As remarkable as Favre to Rice was, the Vikings’ defense might have been even more impressive, coming up with six sacks and three takeaways. It was “without question” the Vikings’ best defensive performance of the year, according to defensive coordinator Les Frazier.
“We put on a nice show today, coverage and rush,” defensive tackle Kevin Williams said.
Despite having two weeks off, the Vikings didn’t look like a rusty team. They looked like a lively one. And they played in front of a lively crowd at Mall of America Field that responded noisily to anything that worked for the Vikings.
Like the two divisional playoff games that preceded it on Saturday, this game was one-sided. The Vikings led 14-3 midway through the second quarter, and the game never was in doubt after that.
Perhaps the Vikings and Saints were saving the drama for next week.
As much as the Bears’ fan in me wishes that Favre was in Mississippi tending his crops, I still have to admire the way this guy plays the game. All the off field stuff aside, he continues to prove why he will be a Hall of Fame inductee as soon as is possible after his retirement.
His real retirement, that is.
But, the game of the day for me was the Chargers - Jets tilt. The Bolts were prohibitive favorites, playing at home against a team that passes gas more often that it passes footballs. If there was ever a game that was slated to be “Blowout of the Day” this was it. The funny thing is, no one told the Jets. Or, if they did, no one listened.
I’ll let BERNIE WILSON over at the Sun Times fill you in.
Maybe New York Jets coach Rex Ryan already knows the score of the AFC Championship Game, too.
Ryan, who at one point this season didn’t know the Jets were still in playoff contention, then declared them Super Bowl favorites, will need some more bold predictions. His team still is playing.
Rookies Mark Sanchez and Shonn Greene each accounted for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to lead the Jets to a 17-14 upset of the San Diego Chargers in the AFC divisional playoffs Sunday.
‘’It’s a big win for our franchise, and we’re not done,’’ Sanchez said.
Sanchez threw a two-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dustin Keller three plays into the fourth quarter to give the Jets a 10-7 lead, then Greene gave them some breathing room with a 53-yard scoring run on their next possession.
‘’Once I got to the secondary, I had one tackle to break, and I did,’’ said Greene, who ran for 128 yards on 23 carries. ‘’A lot of people didn’t know about me, but they know about the Jets.’’
The upstart Jets (11-7), who have won seven of their last eight games, advanced to the AFC Championship Game for the first time since 1999. They’ll visit the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
‘’A matchup probably nobody wanted, but too bad,’’ Ryan said. ‘’Here we come!’’
The Colts pulled quarterback Peyton Manning and several other starters in the second half of their Week 16 game against the Jets, who rallied for a victory that put them in control of their playoff destiny. Before that game, Ryan said his holiday wish was for the Colts to rest Manning and Co.
‘’I don’t know if Santa Claus will be that good to me again,’’ Ryan said. ‘’But I will say I’d like to see Peyton Manning not play this week.’’
After the Jets clinched a playoff spot by routing the Cincinnati Bengals in their regular-season finale, Ryan created a postseason itinerary for his players that included the Super Bowl in Miami, followed by a parade two days later.
He might be on to something. Maybe this week he’ll predict the Jets’ opponent in the Super Bowl.
‘’We believed the whole time, the whole year, when it probably wasn’t the popular choice,’’ Ryan said. ‘’We don’t have to apologize to anyone.’’
No you don’t Rex. The Jets play football like it’s 1969. Smash mouth defense, punishing running game and just enough passing to keep the defense honest. It is boring, it is staid and it is working. Their quarterback, Mark Sanchez (who I do not believe is old enough to drink beer), looks so calm in the huddle that one wonders if he has quite realized where he is. Yet, there they go to the AFC Title game and no one seems to know how to stop them.
For those of you who were too riveted by the playoffs to read the papers, I strongly suggest you take a moment to read KC JOHNSON’S great article about Joakim Noah in the Tribune. It shows the maturation process of a kid who has grown to become one of the top centers in the NBA.
For those of you who were too lazy to change channels, you should know that the Hawks beat a healthy Detroit Red Wings 4-3 in a shoot out. They are now 2-0 to start their 8 game road trip and 3-0 over their last three games. This is a team to watch. If you are not a hockey fan, for whatever defective reasons you may harbor, now is the time to be cured of that fault.
Maybe it might be more PC to say that the Cubs have gotten trim. Maybe. But it isn’t nearly as much fun. At the Cubs’ Convention yesterday the team unveiled their new, improved, trimmed down players. From Zambrano to Soto, they looked pretty good. CHRIS DE LUCA over at the Sun Times was there and reports that, like Freddy Prinze used to say, the Cubs are “Loooking Good!”
Is a Chico and the Man reference too out of date?
Anyway, here is what Chris had to say.
Every Cubs Convention seems to have that turn-your-head moment, and there were several Friday at the Hilton Chicago.
There was catcher Geovany Soto—missing a double chin and about 40 pounds—stealing the show. There was pitcher Carlos Zambrano running his hand down a flat belly and raving about the nutritionist and personal chef the Cubs have hired to keep their players thin.
And then there was All-Star left-hander Ted Lilly—coming off the second shoulder operation of his major-league career—having a conversation about maybe facing the end of his career when shortstop Ryan Theriot interrupted in surprise.
‘’You look great,’’ Theriot said before offering a hug. ‘’Doesn’t he?’’
Lilly was beaming.
‘’I’m ready to take some grounders at short with him,’’ Lilly said.
The Cubs didn’t just shed the dead weight known as Milton Bradley this offseason—they also peeled off all those unwanted pounds that helped kill their promising 2009 season. Turns out a look in the mirror after an 83-78 disappointment led to some drastic measures.
‘’It confirms to me that when good human beings don’t reach their own expectations or team goals, it bothers them, and they go home and do something about it,’’ general manager Jim Hendry said. ‘’Soto’s in terrific shape. I think Zambrano’s conditioning is apparent.
‘’It hurt them not to achieve their goals. There is nothing you can do about it until next April except get yourself in the best possible condition. And get your mind in the right shape.’’
For the first time since Lou Piniella became manager, the Cubs didn’t make a splashy move in the offseason. The prevailing feeling among many of the Cubs at the convention is that dumping Bradley and squeezing the most out of players who disappointed last season might be enough to return them to the postseason.
‘’When you roll over teams like we did in ‘08, and even in ‘07 we did so well, that to lose the way we did last year, it hurts,’’ pitcher Ryan Dempster said. ‘’We underachieved in everybody else’s mind, but most important, we underachieved in our own minds. And that’s a tough pill to swallow, so I am excited by this year.’’
Yes, Zambrano has come into camp in shape before and became a stunt double for the Michelin Man by August. But something feels different about this crew. Maybe getting humiliated last year was the best thing that could have happened to them. Maybe, just maybe, they are finally tired of being the Cubs.
Not tired of being on the team, but tired of being part of the tradition of losing.
Watching the interviews you got a tangible sense of a group of guys who want it and want it bad. From rookies, who always act like that, to veterans they looked more focused than I can remember them being in a long time.
Can they sustain that through an entire season? I don’t know and neither do you. But it should be fun finding out.
This is an interesting little story. It is about one pitcher the Cubs never even looked at and one that they slobbered over. The first is a 27 year old guy who, but for some of the worst defense ever played, would have had 5 more wins for his 12-10 record. Or, more precisely, he would have been 17-5. The second guy sang GO CUBS GO in Vegas knowing that he was headed to Chicago to play in front of adoring fans and on a contender. He got all that right, he just guessed the wrong team. That’s right, I am talking about Randy Wells and Jake Peavy respectively, and respectfully.
As the Bears continue to play the waiting game while ostensibly looking for new coaching talent and watching the ones they seemed to have on front burners land elsewhere or not leave their previous posts in the first place, now seems as good a time as any to talk about a little baseball.
Over at the Tribune, PAUL SULLIVAN takes a look at the unlikely rise, and stunning dominance, of Randy Wells.
Wells knows success can be fleeting, but he’s confident his joy ride will continue without interruption.
“I don’t have the mentality where I’m happy with last year,” he said. “I’m ticked I didn’t win 17 games. I’m going to try to be better than last year. I have a grip on this shooting star I’m riding, and I’m not letting go.
“I can’t guarantee what kind of numbers I have. Maybe somebody figures me out, but I’m going to give it everything I have every pitch.”
Wells was an afterthought at this time last year but made the most out of his opportunities in the spring. He was called up from Triple-A Iowa in May. Now that he knows he has a job, Wells will be able to alter his approach to spring training.
“In years past, being a young guy and trying to win a job, or trying to impress, you had to be in midseason form right when you got there,” he said. “It’s nice to know that if I’m struggling with some pitches, I can take a start in spring training and just work on fastballs down and away, and know that no matter the results, I got some work out of it, rather than just trying to throw zeroes up. That’s going to be a positive for me, knowing I’ll be as sharp as I can be coming out of spring.”
Yes, Wells will be a starter in 2010 for the Northside and I think that Cubs’ fans are going to be damn glad to have him. He can make a lot of bad things go away. He looks more like a front of the rotation guy than many who have passed through both sides of town over the last couple of years and, with Lilly coming back in May, could give the Cubs a more formidable rotation than many have prognosticated.
As to Peavy, he really really really really .... you get the idea ... wanted to be a Cub. From his well documented singing of the Cubs theme song while still a member of the Padres to his initial refusal of the White Sox trade offer, you could tell he was a man with a plan. As my grandmother used to say, “Plans are what you make when you want to hear God laugh.”
So he ended up signed to the White Sox, injured and being managed by a crazed Venezuelan. Not at all what he had in mind. But, as he was quoted saying yesterday, ‘’I couldn’t have imagined a better fit.’’ Sometimes things do work out for the best when you just shut up and go with it. As JOE COWLEY at the Sun Times noted, Peavy has spent a lot of time with, pitching coach, Don Cooper and Kenny Williams. And the more these three get to know each other the more they like what they see.
They not only have a former Cy Young Award winner and two-time All-Star headlining a starting staff that is as good as any in the American League, but a guy who’s hungry.
Make that starving.
‘’Nothing else matters except that ring now,’’ Peavy said. ‘’I have done the other stuff. I know you need to put up the numbers. I’m financially blessed thanks to the game of baseball. To win the Cy Young was the coolest thing individually that I have done. But I’m not in the gym every morning now for the Cy Young. I want what the boys did in 2005. I want that dog pile, that memory, that ring. If you’re not dreaming of that same thing, I question where you are as an athlete.’’
Music to Cooper’s ears.
‘’Yeah, this is a little different animal,’’ Cooper said when asked to describe what he has in Peavy. ‘’I’ve been blessed enough to be around great players, winners, guys that achieved. He has all of those characteristics that a top-tier pitcher has.
‘’I can see why he says the only thing missing is a world championship because it’s something for him to obtain. The high of 2005 has worn off. Getting a guy on board that has only that on his mind is a valuable piece. You want that type of hunger, that type of team talk to be infectious. Things don’t happen for him by accident. I like having a guy that brings that type of hunger.’’
So what if it took longer than expected?
After initially rejecting the Sox’ advances, Peavy approved the trade July 31. An injured ankle sidelined him until late August. Then a line drive that struck his pitching elbow in a minor-league rehab start put him on the shelf until mid-September.
Many in the organization wanted Peavy to shut it down for the rest of the season.
But Peavy had heard the whispers that he rejected the Sox in May because he wanted to stay in the pitcher-friendly National League, that if he was going to go to Chicago, it would be on the North Side, that he was afraid of the AL.
His reply? A big middle finger.
He went on to win all three games he pitched in last season. Which places a nice exclamation point immediately after the aforementioned finger.
I know some Cubs’ fan bemoan the fact that their team did not get Peavy. They are taking too much away from Wells and what he brings to the mound every fifth day. With some better defense and an occasional hit he should easily be a 15 game winner, or better, for them next year. And what of Peavy? Well, he not only brings his considerable skills to the Southside, he brings a swagger and desire that seems to have been missing these last couple of seasons.
In other words, each team got the guy it needed. That alone should bring a couple of people in off the ledge.
Before we get to the main topic of today’s blog, I would like to get some minor updates out of the way. The Bears have expanded their coaching search and are planning on talking to Mike Tice for a position somewhere. My guess would be somewhere on the offensive side of things, but one never knows. The Bulls’ Taj Gibson has been playing through plantar fasciitis which is painful as heck. Even so, he says he will be ready to play Thursday night. For the Hawks, Hossa is returning and Huet is going to start a little more. Either way, my guess is that they will keep on winning. For the Sox not much is going on. Kenny Williams made all his big moves before Christmas and now the team is just holding off season meetings and getting to know each other.
But, it is on the North Side where things seem to be getting interesting. The Cubs have started their annual Caravan tour leading up to their fan convention on the 15th. While some fans are looking in terror at the moves made in St. Louis, others are looking at this team and saying “You know what? I think they can do it this year.” Believe it or not, these people are sober. Over at MLB.com, CARRIE MUSKAT talks to the Cubs manager who seems to share the vision of these fans.
Pitchers and catchers report to Mesa, Ariz., for Spring Training in a month, and Lou Piniella is already talking about the World Series.
“I’m looking forward to a team that will win this division again and give itself another chance to go on and get a World Series win,” the Cubs’ manager said Wednesday at Harry Caray’s Restaurant, a stop on the winter caravan. “That’s what I’m hoping for, and that’s what we’re striving for.”
Piniella and the Cubs are coming off a second-place finish in the National League Central, which was a disappointment after winning the division in 2007 and ‘08. As for a World Series win, it’s been since 1908. Piniella, looking tanned and refreshed despite what he called “Chicago-ish” weather in Tampa, Fla., is still optimistic.
“If we can win 83 baseball games with all the problems we had last year and all the injuries on top of it—we lost 10 to 12 players for more than 30 days [in 2009], and that’s unbelievable,” Piniella said. “But if we can win 83 games with all those problems and all those injuries and we stay relatively healthy this year, we can add another eight, 10 wins and get to the postseason and win in the postseason.”
So, 93 wins will do it? Okay, if Lou says so, I’m in.
Even so, he may be on to something here. While I doubt that Soriano will ever again be the force he once was there is no reason that Soto and several others shouldn’t return to form. Assuming Big Z has his usual 14 game season and Silva gets sufficient bench time, the Cubs do look to improve over last year. Plus, as GORDON WITTENMEYER over at the Sun Times notes, there is valid element of addition by subtraction.
No Roy Halladay? No Chone Figgins? No fill-in-the-blank-check slugger for the middle of the order?
No problem, Cubs fans.
The Cubs might not have added much to their second-place team this winter, but manager Lou Piniella and the boys bring a new math to the 2010 equation, heavy on subtraction and with an emphasis on chemistry.
‘’If we can win 83 baseball games with all the problems we had last year, plus all the injuries we had,’’ Piniella said, ‘’then if we stay relatively healthy, I don’t see why we can’t add eight to 10 wins to this thing to get to the postseason—to get to postseason and win in postseason.’’
All the problems.
Plus the injuries.
In other words, erase headaches such as Milton Bradley from the roster and get pitcher Ted Lilly’s shoulder game-ready early in the season, and the disappointment of 2009 is erased. That would make this season about building off 2008 again.
For all the local hand-wringing about players the Cubs haven’t added during a payroll-capped offseason, it’s Bradley—the one they shed in the trade to the Seattle Mariners for pitcher Carlos Silva last month—who has caused the major dose of optimism for 2010 as the team gathers this week for the annual Cubs Convention.
It’s no wonder the good-guy nature of newly signed outfielder Marlon Byrd—and clubhouse chemistry in general—was the undercurrent of the pre-convention media event Wednesday at Harry Caray’s downtown.
How important is it to new teammates that Byrd is a good clubhouse guy?
‘’As opposed to what? Who are you implying?’’ pitcher Jeff Samardzija said, smiling. ‘’You hear a lot about the clubhouse growing up as a kid, but you never really know going into it. But after being here for a couple years and understanding the dynamics of it, it means a lot.’’
Yes, I used the same Piniella quote twice, but he must have said it 15 or 20 times yesterday, so it is kind of hard to avoid.
He also harped on another little item that put a smile on the faces of the Cubs fans in attendance.
‘’We’re going to start anew. I like the things we’ve done. We’re going to have a good ballclub this year. I’m looking forward to a team that will win this division again and give us another chance to move on and win the World Series.’’
There. He said it. In clear English without any mumbling. While, on a visceral level, I agree that winning the World Series should be the goal for every team every year (except in Washington and Kansas City) it has got to be somewhat painful to get annual reminders that it has only been a little century or so since the team actually accomplished that feat.
Oh well, I guess he couldn’t very well take the podium and say “We, really, really, really, just want to not suck.”