Chicago, Il. Week 52

In Theo We Trust.

The Cubs have been criticized for the choices they’ve made since the new ownership and now the the management of the team since the end of the Jim Hendry days. Funny that it took a massive season ending choke job by the Red Sox in 2011 to get Theo here. A choke surpassing the choke job of the ’69 Cubs.

Since he’s been here he’s signed and traded nearly every free agent for draft picks and minor leaguers. Let Ryne Sanberg slip through his hands. He’s yet to trade away Castro who has gotten now two managers and counting fired. It’s possible to say that when/if this team starts winning it might be in spite of Theo.

Being shouted out by Scott Boras the fact that a team that actually made money last year through a second straight losing season. A large market team like the Cubs are not in the market for any big name free agents besides possibly considering a Japanese pitcher who won twenty four games last year. Which team isn’t looking at him?

For once I agree with this strategy. I never liked the mid season sell offs of veterans unless it meant winning or losing a division. I believe the Cubs are still short of talent for the long term winning they profess. Certainly one good year could win it for anyone.

Rich Rodriguez an underwhelming signing by the Cubs may just a baseball genius according to whatever matrix Epstein and staff are using. Maybe he has an ability to teach young players particularly Latin players but coming from the National League West where all the pomp and circumstance is due to Hollywood and not talent. Though the National League West has won two recent Championships, league play hardly includes the difficulty of three playoff contenders every year.

The Cubs only chance is to win the National League Central. The Wild Card system is a disaster. The current talent in the minors will certainly bring a burst of success which will just as quickly burn out. Will a World Series come from this? We can hope. My prediction is the burst will begin in 2015 and burn out by 2020. The losing will then return to the north side. By then Cub fans will return to comfortably numb.

Festivus For The Rest Of Us.

It can be said the NFL has become a league geared towards offense. A team would almost be lucky to go through a season like this one without having given up thirty points. Any explanation for the league turning into the NBA?
Teams would kill to have a defense like the one Lovie Smith built. But as clueless as he was on offense is as clueless the rest of the league is on defense.

Case in point the Bears haven’t given up less than twenty points at any time this season. That doesn’t sound like much but considering they gave up fifty four on Sunday night and thirty one the week before we would take a twenty point average.

The city has been worrying about how the new offense would work out sure that the defense would be fine without Smith or Urlacher.

Going into the game against the Eagles the Bears were on track to give up the most yards in franchise history. Also on par to break offensive records that have held since the forties and fifties.

There’ll be a lot of could’ve. Would’ve. Should’ve going on in the locker-room this week. A week full of positive vibes from publicity . Charitable work. Squashing of supposed beefs between quarterbacks in a contract year. Me once being a Jay Cutler apologist has suddenly changed my tune. But I also said we should have drafted a back up on this last draft.

How often do you go into a game with a win and you’re in scenario against a team who gave up forty eight points last week against Minnesota? The Bears on prime time not only lay an egg but in such a fashion they cannot even start to think about Green Bay next week. For the next several days they Bears should  do nothing. Cancel all appearances. Stay away from the radio and television. Don’t even show their faces around town. Throw out the video of this game. No need to be reminded how bad they are.

Like the famous Seinfeld episode where everyone else is having a merry Christmas they should be reviewing  everything. Every stupid loss. Detroit twice. Minnesota. St. Louis. And how badly they played in nearly losing to Cleveland of all teams. The many ways they found to lose. With a Super Bowl type offense and a historically inept defense. I wouldn’t want to sit through another Trestman press conference which is worse than a Buddah like experience of a Lovie Smith put us through.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t miss the man but I don’t remember him ever losing this badly.

Bulls fans never fear. We do have the talent to turn this into a winning season. We just have to be patient. After the dismantling of the two top teams in the east in Miami and Indiana I believe the Bulls were they in the playoffs the could win more than one series if they get their heads in oreder and let the loss of Derrick Rose go. Management handled him poorly so there should be no guilt on the part of the players. Dunleavy was a great signing and Tony Snell was a great draft pick. I only wish we had held onto Nate Robinson and let retire a Bull. But never fear the Bulls will be in it one way or the other. In Thibs we trust.

This years football season in Chicago should not be put on Trestmans back. Though I cannot listen to the man talk because he reminds me of a school administrator his offense is much better than when Lovie Smith was here and he has a defense racked with injuries. It would be great to win the lats four games which I think wont happen. We'll get blown out by Dallas and Philly, sqeak out winners against Cleveland and Green Bay if Rodgers isn't back. I say that only if we do not continue to give up 150 yards on the ground in either of those games. Talent wise we are as good as any team in the league but we are an aging team. Within a couple of years we will be the Monsters of the Midway again. It is worth the wait unlike the wait for the Cubs to get their act in order or for Derrick Rose to play a full season. I would give Trestman the grade of a B- for this year with the success of the offense. I can't put the defense on him.

I see you guys (Cleveland) like signing former Bears backups. I said Jason Campbell sucked but you guys like him. Now you got Caleb Hanie another one of our backups. You better hope you don't need him. That dude really sucks. He has a lot of potential but I think he was scared shitless when we threw him in there. I hope he does well for you guys. I liked the kid but he couldn't win for us.

On the Derridck Rose thing I think the Bulls did go very wrong with him. I think they should have brought him off the bench instead of putting him in there right away for entire games. And letting Nate Robinson go was just dumb.

It might be a crazy though to have at this time but could Derrick Rose's days in Chicago be numbered? He's been with Chicago for five years now. Except for his Rookie of the Year season in '08 and his MVP season in '11 he hasn't done much that many would consider him capable of comparison to other players at his position.

Derrick Rose is undoubtedly a great ball player. A hometown boy so the city of Chicago is hurting with him. But with another catastrophic knee injury that will sideline him for another season where there was great hope of finally beating the Miami Heat in the playoffs. Personally even with him I don't think that was going to happen.

The Bulls have a great core of players but do we really want to rely on Kirk Hinrich at point guard all season or the Teague kid? I suggest the Bulls make a trade and fast.
Going back again to the question of Rose's days being numbered in Chicago. Will fans want to sit through another year to see if the team will handle him differently this time? I believe that he should not have played last year though many say we would have gone deeper in the playoffs if he had played. I completely disagree.

First of all the year the Derrick hurt his knee against the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2011-12 season the Bulls had the best record in the NBA. They had the "Bench Mob," basically an entire team that had he been hurt there were a number of players who could have stepped in for him and kept it going. After the loss to the 76ers that team was dismantled and a patchwork team was put together. Regardless of the fact they made the second round of the playoffs in 2012-13 I agreed with Reggie Rose that the Bulls had done everything on the cheap and were lucky to have the success they had.

Now Rose is hurt again and if he remains with the team I think once his rehab is done he should play his way into shape by playing in the Summer League with the rookies, then pre-season games but brought off the bench to start the season. If he had no doubts in his mind before about the ability to come back from such devastating injuries he will next season. Fear not Bulls fans the Bulls will make the playofs this year even if it is by the will of Coach Thibs'. But will we see Derrick Rose in a Bulls uniform again?

Rose is having surgery. There is a good chance that if he played last year even a little he'd be in shape and not hurt. Can't know for sure, but I am telling you he was managed poorly and the effects were disasterous.

I agree that he may have been maanaged poorly. As I've said you can't put it all on him. The Bulls are definiately complicit in this. Plus I think it's his style of play. His knees aren't built for it. Remember there was no contact in either injury. I think the Bulls were also stupid for letting Nate Robinson go to Denver.