Thursday, April 28, 2011

Deep Thoughts on Tonight's NFL Draft

I'd love it if an elderly woman went into Radio City Music Hall tonight, grabbed the microphone from Roger Goodell, and said "shut the door, there's a draft in here!"

Oh, and congrats to former Illini standout defensive lineman Corey Liuget on being drafted in the first round. Best of luck to you in San Diego, except when you're playing against the Bears. Oh, whom am I kidding - you won't need any luck against the Bears' crappy offensive line.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Cubs Lean on Russell for Emergency Start - Again, and Again, and Again....

Tough break for the Cubs, losing starting pitchers Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner to injuries so early in the season, so they'll have to rely on LOOGY James Russell to make an emergency start tonight against...wait a minute, didn't I write about this before? [Checks old blog posts] Yes, I did - two weeks ago; Russell is actually going to be making his third "emergency" start tonight, after allowing 8 earned runs over 5 2/3 innings in his other two "emergency" starts. You mean to tell me, Jim Hendry and Mike Quade, that you've had all this time to fix this hole in the rotation, and in the entire Cubs organization (to say nothing of the entire world of organized baseball) you can't come up with even one pitcher who can give your team a decent chance at a win?

If Hendry or Quade got a flat tire on their car, they would put on the spare tire and then continue driving hundreds of miles on it as if nothing had happened.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The 2011 Chicago Cubs - Now With Even More Injuries!

The Cubs began the 2011 season with a full complement of healthy starters, unlike the Cardinals (sans Adam Wainwright), the Brewers (sans Zack Greinke) and the Reds (sans Johnny Cueto). Well, that advantage over our division rivals lasted all of about a week, with Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner each going on the 15-day disabled list after making only one start. I hear you saying, "fifteen days, that's not so bad. We're still in good shape, right?"

Wrong! Now comes word that Wells will be out 3 1/2 to 4 weeks, and Cashner will be out up to 6 weeks. And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse than throwing away a game against the Astros by having LOOGY James Russell make an emergency start, you see that the Cubs are looking at veteran washouts Doug Davis (career WHIP 1.50) and Ramon Ortiz (career ERA 4.93) as rotation filler to potentially throw away lots of games until Wells and Cashner return. It's almost enough to make you wish Carlos Silva were still around. But he's no longer on the market, having signed a minor league deal with the Yankees, where he's probably laughing his big fat...contract off at the Cubs right now.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Manny Being Ban-nied? No, He'll Retire Instead

Manny Ramirez would rather retire from baseball than serve a 100 game drug-related suspension. And what does this have to do with the Cubs, you ask? Well, in 2008, the Dodgers were limping through the first half of the season and Ramirez was half-assing his way out of the good graces of Red Sox fans' hearts. The Dodgers decided to overlook these shortcomings and trade for Ramirez, who promptly put up an obscene .396/.489/.743 line (that's a 1.232 OPS and a 221 OPS+) in 53 games to lift his new team to an NL West title. And in the NLDS against the Cubs...you know.

In college basketball, if a team uses a player who later turns out to be ineligible, they have to forfeit any games they won with that player in their lineup. So since the Dodgers were using a guy who should have been ineligible (twice caught using PEDs), can MLB make them forfeit those postseason games and award the 2008 NLDS to the Cubs? And while we're at it, can we then have a do-over of the NLCS, Cubs vs. Phillies? And since Phillies pitcher JC Romero was suspended for PEDs too, by the same logic we can put the Cubs retroactively into the 2008 World Series! Of course, even in my made-up scenario, I'm sure the Cubs would still find a way to lose the World Series against Tampa Bay.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Jereme Richmond, ex-Illini: The End of a (Very Short) Era

In November, 2006, less than two months after Eric Gordon stabbed Illini nation in the heart by reneging on his commitment to the Orange and Blue, Bruce Weber secured a commitment from a talented freshman named Jereme Richmond shortly after watching Richmond play his first high school game. It's fair to say that Richmond may have been the most highly anticipated recruit in Illini history. Illini fans waited four years for Richmond to arrive on campus, during which time he never wavered in his commitment. As other recruits, starting with the highly-regarded class of 2009, began to jump on board, Illini fans and the national media could sense something special building in Champaign for the 2010-11 season. Richmond was expected to be a big part of that - a versatile, athletic player with a mean streak that the team's upperclassmen lacked.

Instead of something special, however, we got more of the same from the Illini basketball team. Maddening losses to inferior teams. A .500 record in conference play. The inability to execute in close games. Chemistry problems. It all added up to a 20-14 season which ended in the "third round" (f/k/a "the second round") of the NCAA tournament. And unfortunately, Richmond was a big part in the season, but for all of the wrong reasons. He was as inconsistent as the team, occasionally putting up big numbers (witness his double-double against Ohio State), but often disappearing for long stretches. He was benched for the loss at Wisconsin after leaving the team for a few days, and didn't play in either of the team's NCAA tournament games after being suspended for unspecified rules violations. And today, after several weeks of smoke coming from the Interwebs, came the announcement that the Jereme Richmond era will end after just one season, as Richmond will enter the NBA draft and not return for his sophomore season in college.

I've been pretty rough on Bruce Weber this year and I still think he should be fired, but I'm finding it hard to fault his handling of Richmond. Clearly, Weber had to recruit him and stick with him - fans would not have been pleased if another highly-touted in-state player got away - even though Richmond had several unpleasant incidents during his high school career including getting kicked off his team for, among other transgressions, fighting with a teammate. (Does that count as foreshadowing?) If Weber did anything wrong with Richmond, it was not giving him a starting spot in the lineup right away, as future high-level recruits may wonder if they'll have to sit behind a grinder like Bill Cole if they come to Illinois. But as a short term proposition, giving more minutes to Richmond probably wouldn't have helped us win many more games this year, as Richmond never really played up to his ranking, and it's possible (probable?) that Richmond would have left after this year no matter how Weber had dealt with him.

Unfortunately, Richmond's departure leaves the 2011-12 Illini with a huge hole to fill. The team already has to replace four seniors, and now there are only two returning players on the roster (Brandon Paul and DJ Richardson) who have logged significant minutes. With Richmond gone there are no proven inside players on the team, and we'll be relying on a transfer from Bradley who missed last season with an injury (Sam Maniscalco) to help freshman Tracy Abrams run the point. The incoming 2011 class is talented, versatile, and deep but lacks star power - it's not like we're bringing in multiple McDonald's All-Americans next year.

The last time Illinois made wholesale changes to their roster like this was the 2002-03 season, but that year's freshmen (including Dee Brown, James Augustine, and Deron Williams) could lean on seniors Brian Cook (and Sean Harrington). By contrast, the 2011-12 Illini will have only one senior - Maniscalco, who has yet to suit up for the team. To me, the current scenario is more reminiscent of the 1998-99 Illini team, which replaced five senior starters with several talented (but not super-talented) underclassmen. That team, of course, finished in last place in the Big Ten. One saving grace for next year - the 98-99 Big Ten was loaded (seven NCAA tournament teams, 2 final four teams), while the 2011-12 Big Ten will be weak, which might help keep the team from sinking too far in the standings. Still, this doesn't look like the kind of situation in which a coach on the hot seat - and Weber will be on the hot seat next year - would want to find himself. Given all of the uncertainty surrounding the program right now, if the team struggles in 2011-12 it's likely that the end of the Jereme Richmond era will be followed by the end of the Bruce Weber era.