Trading Day

Good movie, featuring an Oscar-winning performance by Denzel Washington. Why is this on a sports blog? Oh, you said trading day, not Training Day - sorry, my ears are a little stuffed up. Allergies.

Getting back to the trading deadline, the Cubs bid farewell to beloved left-handed bulldog T. Roosevelt Lilly, Esq., and (s)crappy infielder Ryan Theriot, who are now property of the L.A. Dodgers. I'll miss Lilly, but I'm sure he won't miss the Cubs putrid offense, which stuck him with the lowest run support of any starter in the NL and left him with a 3-8 won-loss record that in no way reflects how well he pitched. As for Theriot, I'll miss his career OPS+ of 83, his penchant for baserunning blunders, and fans who wear his jersey in a non-ironic way. In return, the Cubs are out from all but $2.5 million of Lilly's contract and any financial obligations for Theriot this year and next, which amounts to a few million bucks. Also, they received a couple of minor-leaguers we'll never hear from again, and Blake DeWitt, he of the career OPS+ of 93 and much lower salary. DeWitt is a better hitter than Theriot, so I'd say the Cubs did OK personnel-wise and in clearing out some salary room for next year, assuming DeWitt is a better baserunner and defender than Theriot (a pretty safe assumption).

In other news, it looks like there's a market for lunatic starting pitching. Mets GM Omar Minaya proposed swapping left-handed headache Oliver Perez and once capable second baseman/leadoff hitter Luis Castillo for Big Z. On the books, the salaries would have essentially cancelled each other out this year and next, but the Cubs would have been rid of the contracts after 2011 (instead of 2013 under Z's deal) - sort of a copy of the Hundley for Karros/Grudz deal Hendry engineered before the 2003 season. I'm not sure what to think about this one. On one hand, it would be nice to cut our losses and get out from under the weight of one of the team's "untradable" contracts, considering 2011 is shaping up to be a lost year anyway. On the other hand, this would be a classic "sell low" move by Hendry (see Hill, Rich, and Pie, Felix), driving down the return on a once-valuable investment to basically nothing. I'm leaning towards actually agreeing with Hendry on this one and trying to rebuild Z's value - the guy was a staff workhorse (and a really good pitcher) for so many years. Unless he's just cooked from all those innings. Crap, I can't decide how I feel about this trade. When does college basketall start?

Hey, How Did an Optimistic Post Get in Here?

Reading this article about incoming Illini freshman Jereme Richmond, I can honestly say that I am one frustrated fan. Frustrated that I have to slog through the rest of a worthless baseball season and a big chunk of mediocre Bears football and sub-mediocre Illini football seasons before I might get to see a team that I root for have a special season.

I guess I've waited almost four years for him to finally suit up in Orange and Blue, so what's another 3 1/2 months? Still, waiting for the season to start is tough, especially when his coach says something like this:

"He brings a lot to the table," [Coach Bruce] Weber said. "We have a veteran squad with four very solid seniors and some good sophomores. Maybe he can be the versatile guy, the missing link that makes the difference for us really making a strong run this upcoming season."

OK, that's enough optimism for now. I promise I'll get back to more pessimism soon.

Woo-Hoo! Football's Here!

It's the first day of Chicago Bears training camp! Now I can distract myself from this crappy baseball season by getting geared up for a crappy football season!

The Rich Get Richer

For the third time in a year, the Phillies have acquired a top-of-the-rotation starter. First it was Cliff Lee, then Roy Halladay, and now Roy Oswalt (it could be worse - at least he didn't go to the Cardinals). That gives the Phillies a formidable rotation featuring Halladay, Oswalt, and Cole Hamels. It also highlights the difference between a winning organization (like the Phillies) and a losing organization (like the Cubs) - a winning organization stockpiles #1 starters, while a losing organization stockpiles overpriced free agent outfielders.

Jim Hendry - Supergenius?

After all the bashings I've given to Jim Hendry, I have to give him credit today. He managed to find a trading partner for a soon-to-be 35 year-old first baseman with a sub-.400 slugging percentage and close to $5 million left on his contract. But Derrek Lee rejected the trade, saying that he wants to stay with the Cubs for the rest of this year. Lou Piniella was quoted as saying he was "very pleased" with this news, probably because it not only allow him the opportunity to continue playing the guy who ranks last among all NL first baseman in OPS, but also to keep putting him in the 3rd spot in the batting order.

It gets better, though, fellow Cubs fans. Lee also said he'd like to play next year - and he'd like to play with the Cubs again. But I'm guessing Lee will be gone next year anyway, because Hendry has already decided to trade Lee once, and when Hendry makes up his mind to do something (see, e.g. signing Milton Bradley or Marlon Byrd), not even a Krispy Kreme truck crashing outside of his house can stop him.

Handicapping the Field

Since Lou Piniella's retirement announcement, many names have been cited as possible successors as Cubs manager. So will it be Bobby Valentine? Joe Girardi? Ryne Sandberg? Fredi Gonzalez? Bob Brenly?

The answer - it's irrelevant. As long as the Cubs continue to be handicapped by a general manager who thinks it's a good idea to give multi-year contracts to backup middle infielders, mediocre middle relievers, and complete whack-jobs, the next manager is screwed.

He does have a German name

For the last ten years, I've apparently been rooting for a neo-Nazi. And since Glenn Beck said it, you know it has to be true.

Thank you, Jimmy Collins

Overlooked in all the hubbub over Lou Piniella's retirement announcement, UIC basketball coach Jimmy Collins also announced his retirement yesterday. While Collins had some success at UIC, leading the school to its only NCAA tournament berths, he should be best remembered for his work as one of Lou Henson's assistant coaches during the 1980's and 1990's. Collins was the key recruiter for several members of the "Flyin' Illini", one of the best and most exciting teams in school history. Even after Bruce Pearl falsely accused him of cheating to land those players, Collins handled the charges with dignity. If the world worked, it would have been Collins who parlayed his mid-major success into a BCS conference job, not Pearl.

Enjoy your retirement, Coach.

Mazel Tov, Lou Piniella!

Congratulations to you, Lou Piniella, on announcing your retirement today. And congratulations on your actual retirement, which appears to have happened about a year ago.

Who am I? Why am I here?

There's no better way to start a blog than with a James Stockdale reference.

Basically, I'm here because all of the teams I root for are annoying me, not just for their performance but also because those responsible for said performance continue to hold their jobs. To wit:

The Cubs have the third highest payroll in baseball, thanks mostly to the general manager's tendency to hand out ridiculous multi-year contracts to undeserving players, yet they don't have a single player who truly deserved to play in this year's All-Star game. Despite this, he still has a job and apparently will continue to have a job.

The Bears have missed the playoffs three straight years since playing in the Super Bowl, with a Head Coach who is supposedly a defensive specialist. However, his team last year finished in the bottom half of the NFL is points allowed per game, and yet he (and the GM who assembled the hash of a roster) both got to keep their jobs.

The Head Coach of Illinois's football team has had one winning record in five seasons. He's supposed to be a great recruiter but a lousy game coach, and now recruiting is starting to lag, so we'll be relying on his lousy game coaching to improve. Good luck with that.

The Illinois basketball team is in a rut not seen in the last 30 years. During the 64-team NCAA Tournament era, the team had never gone 4 years without winning a tournament game (until now), and the only time the team missed the tournament 2 out of 3 years was due to probation (until now). Our coach (whoa - I mean, our coach) seems to have fixed his recruiting problems, things should improve from here (i.e. - Weber should at the very least be able to finally win an NCAA tournament game without relying on players recruited by his predecessor). This may be the only place where there's hope for one of my teams.

Also, I'm not really much of a Bulls fan anymore, but I used to be a fan during the Jordan years, and this residual fandom probably explains why Kyle Korver and Carlos Boozer are in Chicago instead of LeBron James and Chris Bosh.

So in answer to the question that started this whole thing off, I'm a frustrated fan, and I'll be using this forum to blow off steam while all of my favorite teams* flounder around. I hope anyone who finds this blog enjoys what I've written.

*To all the Blackhawks fans out there - I've never been a real fan, so you can thank me for the Stanley Cup. And to the White Sox fans, you've never properly thanked me for 2005 and your team's surge into first place this year. But you're welcome anyway.