Chicago Sports

The Bears are maneuvering to get their roster down to 53 players by Tuesday at 3 p.m. and got started by cutting four players Sunday and Monday.

The team waived offensive lineman Jean Delance with a non-football illness designation Sunday, then waived safety Jon Alexander, offensive lineman Corey Dublin and wide receiver Kevin Shaa on Monday to bring them down to 75 players.

Here’s a live tracker of who is leaving:OFFENSEOL Jean DelanceOL Corey DublinWR Kevin Shaa

DEFENSES Jon Alexander

Once the Bears finalize their roster Tuesday, it won’t actually be final. It’s a virtual certainty that they’ll pick up a few players cut by other teams. The most likely positions for that would on the offensive line and at cornerback and wide receiver.

The Bears also must keep injured wide receivers Byron Pringle and N’Keal Harry on the active roster Tuesday, but can put them on injured reserve after that if needed.

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Two men sought help at a fire station after they were shot Monday night in Back of the Yards on the South Side.

The men, 19 and 31, were attacked about 8:20 p.m. in the 4600 block of South Winchester Avenue, Chicago police said.

They went to a nearby fire station to seek help, police said. The men were taken to Stroger Hospital, where they were listed in good condition.

The teen was shot in the right forearm, and the 31-year-old suffered a gunshot wound to the hip, police said.

No one was in custody.

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If you’re a quarterback, and you come out of a game with a passer rating of 146.9 — perfect being 158.3 — you’ve got the world by the horns.

That would be Justin Fields today.

The high won’t last. We’re talking about a preseason game against the Browns, against some defenders who already might be enjoying their new jobs at Walmart.

But completing 14 of 16 passes for 156 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions — in the first half — that’s outstanding, even if it’s against manikins.

If Fields, and the Bears’ offense, can perform anywhere close to that level in real games, it would be a welcome shocker. Let’s reiterate: Preseason games are basically con jobs, glorified practices that people pay to watch and coaches use to find out whom they need to cut.

Still, what former Bears offensive coordinator-turned-TV critic Mike Martz wrote on something called ”The 33rd Team” blog would make you believe Fields couldn’t complete a pass if he were dropping the ball into a dead dinosaur’s mouth.

“Fields is a guy that makes a lot of mistakes and is not particularly accurate at times,” Martz wrote. “He’s not a quick read-and-react guy, and he’s on a horrendous team.”

Maybe you’ve seen the rest, but it’s worth reposting.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen an offense that bad in talent since the 0-16 Detroit Lions [in 2008]. They just don’t have anybody there. . . . It’s a bad football team right now.”

Martz, a onetime offensive “genius,” wasn’t done with his Fields critique.

“I also have questions about whether he can really react fast,” he wrote.

And then the finale: “If he got to someplace like San Francisco, maybe it would work out for him, but I don’t see it working out at all in Chicago.”

By all accounts, the Bears are expected to be terrible. But comparing their offense to the Lions’ of 14 years ago is cold, indeed.

That Detroit team got just about everybody in the organization fired, including general manager Matt Millen and coach Rod Marinelli. According to The Ringer, 12 of the 45 players who started a game for the 2008 Lions never played another snap in the NFL.

But here’s where Martz might be a little off. It wasn’t the Lions’ offense that doomed the pathetic 2008 team, it was the defense. Wide receiver Calvin “Megatron” Johnson actually led the league in touchdown catches that season with 12.

But the defense, oh, boy, it was special. The “D”gave up 517 points, the second-most all time behind only the 1981 Baltimore Colts. With that kind of help, your offense, any offense, is sunk.

There is no Megatron on the Bears. But there is a Darnell Mooney, who had more than 1,000 receiving yards last year. And the running backs might possibly turn out to be average. And tight end Cole Kmet always seems about one Travis Kelce move away from stardom.

The offensive line? Yes, scary. But you never know. Offensive linemen are essentially nameless grunt laborers, but as a group, they sometimes rise to play better than their individual failings might suggest.

We’re talking hope here.

We’ve mentioned that preseason games don’t mean a whole lot. In truth, they’re often dangerous teases. That horrendous 2008 Lions team, for example, was undefeated in the preseason.

But we’re also saying that a young quarterback such as second-year man Fields can use any nice performance that he executed at any time to build confidence and at least know that he can play well.

Just remember how you did it against the Browns in a meaningless exhibition could be the coaching mantra for him.

Which brings up new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. Competence and continuity are musts for a play-calling scheme, and you marvel at the Bears’ lack of both through the years.

Since Martz himself left as play-caller after the 2011 season, the Bears have had Mike Tice, Marc Trestman, Adam Gase, Dowell Loggains, Matt Nagy, Bill Lazor, Nagy again, then Lazor once more, and now Getsy is in that position.

One hopes Getsy and Fields bond, that it all comes together and makes sense for the young player.

It’s for sure that all these easy bootleg rollouts Fields had against the Browns won’t be there against the first-rate 49ers in the opener.

But maybe some magic and good luck will be. When nothing’s expected of you, even a little can be a lot.

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TORONTO – Lefty Brendon Little tinkers. Sometimes too much. But when a stress reaction in his elbow last November wiped out most of his Arizona Fall League season and offseason, he came into the spring without time to waste.

“That’s been good to be able to take a step back and just really focus in,” he said Monday.

This weekend, Little had the conversation he had been working for. Triple-A Iowa pitching coach Ron Villone called Little into manager Marty Pevey’s office and handed him a sheet of paper that listed “The do’s and don’ts of a first-time big-leaguer.”

On Monday, the Cubs selected Little as a substitute player for the series in Toronto. They placed two players, pitchers Justin Steele and Adrian Sampson, on the restricted list for the trip.

The Cubs will get a second replacement player slot Tuesday, for the rest of the series. Teams cannot substitute a player for a starting pitcher on the restricted list for three days after his last outing of at least four innings. Right-hander Jeremiah Estrada is with the team in Toronto as a member of the taxi squad.

Little is the latest pitcher to be called up as the Cubs examine their pitching depth with an eye on next season. Assad, who held the Blue Jays scoreless through five innings in the Cubs’ 5-4 extra-innings lossMonday, was another.

With that start and his debut last week against the Cardinals, Assad became the first MLB pitcher in the modern era to log scoreless starts against team 10-plus games over .500 in his first two career appearances, according to Stats Perform.

“When that depth starts competing now with guys that are homegrown, that’s when you know the health of your organization on the pitching side is strong,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “And it’s fun.”

Little, who the Cubs selected No. 27 overall in the 2017 draft, marveled at how much he’s evolved as a pitcher throughout his time in the organization.

“It’s tough changing your identity as a pitcher,” he said. “It’s hard going through injuries, going to rehab. The biggest thing is just kind of like the mental drag. You see everyone else going out there, having fun, succeeding and everything. So, obviously you want to get out there. But the biggest thing has just been finding my strength.”

Once a pitcher who relied on his four-seam fastball up in the zone, Little now throws mostly sinkers. To pair with it, he has a breaking ball that Hottovy compared to Steele’s.

“What we’ve seen is a guy who learned what his best version of himself is,” Hottovy said. “He knows the two pitches that make him successful.”

In a way, Little’s elbow injury last fall helped him get there. He said he couldn’t start throwing again until January. He decided to focus on just two pitches.

“It was just a little too much noise drawing focus away from the pitches that played really well to both hitters, both sides of the plate,” he said.

Little has been on a roll the past couple months, posting a 1.06 ERA since July 4.

“Getting real swing-and-miss in the zone,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “Somebody we get kind of a free look at. … You can tell he’s worked on his game, worked on his body, looks like he’s in a really good place.”

Little arrived at the Rogers Centre early Monday, put on a pair of headphones and sat in the bullpen.

“I walked out the gate a couple of times, looked around then so I don’t have to when I’m going in the game,” he said. “Just tried to stay focused.”

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When Albert Pujols and the Cardinals visited Wrigley Field last week, Cubs pitcher Drew Smyly was among those who paid tribute.

The Sun-Times’ Maddie Lee quoted Smyly as saying, “He’s the GOAT. He’s one of the greatest of all time.”

After homering Monday, Pujols is six home runs shy of joining Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth in the 700-homer club.

No doubt, Pujols is an elite player, destined to be an inner-circle Hall of Famer. But how would you go about measuring GOATs — while excluding any bygone Wrigley jinxes?

Conditions change so dramatically over time that no one pretends you could just pluck Babe Ruth out of the 1920s and have him dominate the 2020s. Likewise, if you took a modern player as a child and raised him without access to modern diets, sports medicine, training methods and equipment, he’d emerge a different player.

Using metrics such as the Fangraphs or Baseball-Reference version of WAR, Baseball Prospectus’ WARP or Bill James’ Win Shares frames the question as “How high did a player rise above the competition of his own time?”

By Fangraphs’ WAR, the all-time leader remains Ruth, whose 180.8 breaks down to 168.4 as a position player and 12.4 in his early years as a pitcher. Using replacement-level players would be expected to yield about 180 fewer victories than Ruth’s teams had.

Bonds is close to the position player portion at 164.4, with Willie Mays next at 149.9.

Among position players, Pujols is 28th at 88. That’s nothing to sneeze at, even if it doesn’t reach GOAT territory. The highest fWAR among players with lengthy Chicago tenures belongs to second baseman Eddie Collins, whose 120.5 fWAR includes 64.6 with the White Sox from 1915 to ’26. Only three other Chicagoans surpass 70, led by Cap Anson (92.1, with 81.8 as a Cub), Luke Appling (72.6, all with the Sox) and Ron Santo (70.9, with 71.9 as a Cub).

What if we ignored defense and weighed just the best hitters of all time by using weighted runs created plus?

Ruth leads there, too, at 197, followed by Ted Williams (188), with Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby and Bonds at 172. Pujols is at 141.

Pujols’ career was front-loaded. In his first term with the Cardinals from 2001 to ’11, he led baseball with 81.3 fWAR at 167 wRC+, then dropped dramatically after moving to the Angels.

How did others fare in their first 11 years? From 1914 to ’24, Ruth managed 79.4 as a hitter/position player despite not becoming a full-time outfielder till 1920. He added 12.3 as a pitcher in that time for a 91.7 total. In Ruth’s first 11 years as a full-time position player, his fWAR was 118.5, basically lapping the competition.

Bonds’ 81.8 from 1986 to ’96 was in the same ballpark as Pujols. Mays was at 73.4 for 1951-61, but he missed most of 1952 and all of ’53 while serving in the military.

In his first Cardinal term, Pujols put up numbers near the GOAT leaders. For a full career, “one of the greatest” is apt.

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TORONTO – Ian Happ, the Cubs’ MLB Players Association representative, sees the slashing of minor-league teams and draft rounds in recent years as part of the impetus for the push to unionize minor-leaguers.

“That’s when you kind of say, ‘Okay, if some of these changes are going to be made unilaterally, and without any control, and no oversight, something has to be done to make sure that it isn’t a continuation in very quick order,'” he said. “And that was probably, from a player standpoint, at least from mine, probably one of the most important things.”

The MLBPA announced it had launched a campaign to unionize minor-league players after receiving “overwhelming support” from its executive board Sunday.

It will be a long process, and the push is in its early stages, starting with a card sent out to minor-leaguers to vote on designating the MLBPA as their collective bargaining representative.

If at least 30 percent of players sign the authorization cards, the National Labor Relations Board will conduct an election. Then, with a majority “yes” vote, the NLRB would require MLB to recognize the union. Alternatively, the MLBPA could seek voluntary recognition.

“It’s such a complicated topic,” Happ said. “Because for these guys in the minor leagues, you want them to have better compensation, better work environments. And the biggest part is just having them be able to have a voice, and what that looks like, and the construction of that.”

Happ said the hope is for the major-league and minor-league union groups to function as unique entities, with separate collective bargaining agreements. And the big-leaguers will lend support.

Of course, many of the issues that affect one group will also affect the other. Like Happ siad, it’s complicated.

“The group is together as we’ve ever been,” Happ said of the players. “I think we understand, as the game has trended for the last six years, that there’s more power in looking out for the guys that have less of a voice. And there’s more power in getting guys paid younger and being a little bit selfless on the back end, and what that means for future generations.”

That was clear in the last round of collective bargaining between MLB and the players union.

“There’s just a lot of consideration right now, as the game is changing so rapidly, as club behaviors change so rapidly, to really care about the future of the game and the next generation of player,” Happ said. “And that’s been a huge focus.”

Injury update

The Cubs hope to send veteran lefty Wade Miley (left shoulder strain) to Single-A South Bend later this week on a rehab assignment. It’s been two weeks since Miley’s last rehab start. The Cubs paused his progression due to a slow recovery from his 75-pitch outing in Triple-A Iowa.

Right-hander Keegan Thompson (tight lower back)is continuing with his bullpen regimen. If all goes to plan, he’ll start throwing live batting practice in a week to 10 days.

“He’s been feeling great,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “Coming off the last bullpen [Saturday], and the catch play he’s had, the workouts that he needs to do, I think he’s progressing the right way.”

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The Chris Sale trade 5 years later and how the White Sox won the trade

Over five years ago the White-sox shook the MLB to it’s core with an absolute blockbuster of a trade. The trade included at the time then perennial Cy-young candidate Chris Sale and top 50 prospects Yoan Moncada and Michael kopech. Moncada was the real gem of this trade for the White sox. Moncada was given a 70 grade by scouts overall which is mostly unheard of and was a consensus top 3 prospect in all of baseball. Kopech was very highly touted as well. With an 80 grade fastball and potential through the roof, how could White sox fans not be excited. Of course to acquire this much talent the Sox had to send Chris Sale shipping up to Boston.

Over four years later let’s see who really won this trade. Did the Red sox hurt themselves in the long run by pulling the trigger on this trade? Red sox fans may argue no due to the fact that they won it all in 2018. However, four seasons later, Red sox fans may find there’s a sour taste in their mouth when talking about this trade. Especially with the recent news of Chris sale being shutdown for the rest of the season again after falling off of his bike as the team fights for a wild-card berth. Sale is coming fresh off Tommy john surgery and the Red sox are on the hook for $25 million only to have Sale watch from the dugout.

Did the White sox get the last laugh?

The Chicago White Sox got quite the haul for Sale. Not only did they acquire aforementioned Moncada and Kopech. They also got two more prospects by the name of Luis Basabe and Victor Diaz. Basabe was later traded to the Giants for cash considerations in 2020. As for Diaz, Diaz has not played professional baseball since 2017. However when he last played he was pitching for the Red Sox low A affiliate and put up solid numbers.

Over 37 games Diaz put up a 3.88 ERA and even notched a reliever of the month award under his belt. Hopefully when he gets his health back on track we can see what he can do in a similar situation for Kannaopolis. The White sox currently have Moncada and Kopech under team control all the way up to 2026 for way less than what Chris sale is getting to sit on the sidelines. Yes Kopech and Moncada are also both coming off their own respective injuries.

However, Kopech has bounced back relatively nicely from TJ, to the tune of a 3.58 ERA. 98 strikeout’s in just about 111 innings pitched. Though I am sure the Sox would like to see the walks come down a bit.

Yoan Moncada has all the potential in the world when he’s right. I believe based off his previous full seasons Moncada can be a 30 HR 80+ RBI kind of guy who hits anywhere between .250-.270 maybe even higher. A guy who can even sipe 10-15 bags a year. When Moncada was first coming up through the ranks, he was being compared to MLB legend Gary Sheffield. 

Moncada just needs to stay healthy and if he does he can be the face of a franchise with an already bright future. White Sox fans, be patient with Moncada. Though he has gotten off to a slow start this year (and was just recently placed on the IL with a hamstring strain) and has been mostly disappointing, he is the real deal and the fact that he is under team control until 2026 is just another reason to trust the process and trust in the fact that the Chicago White Sox won this blockbuster.

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After rookie left tackle Braxton Jones responded to the challenge of facing Robert Quinn in practice, the fifth-round pick from Southern Utah is in line for a similar challenge against 49ers Pro Bowl defensive end Nick Bosa.

Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy would not commit to a starting offensive line with the opener against the 49ers still 13 days away. But Jones figures to be the starter after a strong preseason that confirmed an impressive introduction in the offseason program.

Jones would be the first rookie to start in Week 1 at left tackle since second-round pick Troy Auzenne in 1992.

“Braxton’s done a nice job,” Getsy said. “For a young guy, he came in kind of hot — we were really excited about what he was showing. Then we put pads and it shocked him a little bit … obviously having Robert to go against every day didn’t help.

“But he did a great job of digging his feet in the ground and getting right back at it. These last two or three weeks, he’s done a nice job of getting better every day. I’m excited to see what he can do. He’s got a bunch of confidence in himself. And he’s got an opportunity to show what he’s got.”

After mixing and matching the offensive line early in training camp, the Bears settled on a starting five of Jones, left guard Cody Whitehair, center Sam Mustipher (starting for injured center Lucas Patrick), right guard Teven Jenkins and right tackle Larry Borom.

Patrick, who has been out since breaking his right thumb in the second practice July 28, is expected to return in time to start against the 49ers on Sept. 11.

“I love their style of play,” Getsy said. “When our guys are getting tackled, they’re being picked up by those five guys every single time. They’re running to the ball. They’re finishing and we want to play that kind of ball. We want to play nasty. We want to be more physical than everybody else. Those guys have bought into that.”

Jenkins a keeper?

Jenkins, the Bears’ 2021 second-round pick (39th overall), also appears to have won a job — two weeks after being moved to right guard. NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport is still reporting that Jenkins could be traded.

The Bears have some options — Mustipher opened camp at right guard and could return there when Patrick returns. Veteran Michael Schofield also is an option. But trading Jenkins would be a surprise after Jenkins seemed to establish himself as a viable, maybe even long-term, option the past two weeks.

“Teven’s done a great job of accepting the challenge of right guard,” Getsy said. “We threw him in there [on Aug. 15] and [three] days later he’s playing in a game in Seattle. I thought that showed one, his athleticism and two, his mental capacity. For him to go in and execute at a high level was really good.”

Early cuts

The Bears got a head start on cutting the roster to 53 by waiving wide receiver Kevin Shaa, center Corey Dublin and cornerback Jon Alexander.

The Bears still have to cut 23 players Tuesday to get down to 53, but can establish a 16-player practice squad Wednesday.

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Is a Shohei Ohtani trade a possibility for the Chicago Cubs this offseason?

Shohei Ohtani trade rumors are swirling again, this time their blowing straight in the direction of Chicago’s North Side. Jon Morosi of the MLB Network dropped a bomb on Chicago sports radio last week. Appearing on Parsons & Spiegel on Friday, Morosi predicted that the Cubs could be the ideal landing spot for Shohei Ohtani in a trade with the Anaheim Angels.

“If I’m a Cubs fan,” Morosi said, “I would allow myself to be a bit more excited about the Ohtani trade possibility than the deGrom free agent possibility.”

The prospect of a legit Shohei Ohtani trade seems as much of a pipedream as it is a no-brainer (if it were possible), but Morosi has some good points suggesting:

The Angels are looking to sell and may not be willing to keep two $400 million contracts on the books when searching for potential suitors for the franchise.The Cubs were said to have made a good impression on the Ohtani camp when he initially interviewed MLB teams interested in signing him.The Cubs are trending upwards with loads of good prospects and cap room heading into the 2023 season and beyond.

So, let’s just say it’s a possibility, for the sake of argument and pure dreaming potential. The Cubs have the opportunity to trade for Ohtani, the best two-way player since George Herman Ruth?

Should the Cubs do it?

So, the phone rings. If you’re Jed Hoyer, you obviously answer the call from the Angels, but how far are you willing to go to get Ohtani? Are you willing to give up Nico Hoerner AND Justin Steele AND Pete Crow-Armstrong AND (we could do this all day . . . but if you were Jed, would you?)

Some things to consider: Ohtani is 28 with just one season left on his contract. This is not the same situation that led to the Juan Soto deal. Soto is 4 and a half years younger than Ohtani and isn’t slated to reach free agency until after the 2024 season. So, even with the prospect of signing Ohtani to a long-term deal, the Angels are not giving up nearly as much potential generational-talent baseball as the Nationals did. The return for Ohtani should be considerably less than the Soto haul from the Padres.

Hoerner, Steele, PCA, and more? Expect it to take lesser, or at-least less certain, prospects (or more expensive baggage, like Anthony Rendon’s remaining 4 years at third base) to make this deal happen.

Obviously, Cubs fans want the front office to give up as little as necessary to get Ohtani, but even if they overspend a little bit, Ohtani is a player you have to acquire if given the shot. He is irreplaceable. It would take 2-3 free-agent signings to garner the same value they would get in Ohtani. But more importantly, trading for the most exciting player in baseball would be a huge sign the Cubs were looking to compete not just in the NL Central in 2023, but for a shot at a repeat of World Series glory.

And if they trade for Ohtani AND sign him to an extension? That Cubs dynasty we thought we were getting five years ago might just be a reality this time around.

Now, I have no idea about the could part of this scenario. In my experience, owners looking to sell their teams generally hold on to as many assets as possible to make their franchises look sparkly, shiny, and wonderful. But it’s hard to argue with the fact that the Angels spending upward of $100 million on just three players alone would be a tough sell. And Ohtani doesn’t have a no-trade clause, so he could be going anywhere. There’s a chance, but not a great one.

But if the Cubs have a shot at pulling off a Shohei Ohtani trade? They absolutely have to take it.

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The Bears’ starters scored three touchdowns in five drives Saturday.

It won’t be that easy — or that basic — when they start the season Sept. 11.

“It gets a little bit deeper now,” offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said Monday. “And then how much you’re willing to do against, and show, now.

“The gloves are off now.”

Getsy needs to throw enough right hooks to give a Bears offense, which profiles as one of the worst in the NFL, a puncher’s chance. Saturday’s performance reflected as well on the Bears’ first-time play-caller as anyone on the field. Whether Getsy can do it in the opener against a championship-contending 49ers team is another question altogether.

The Bears’ preseason scheme, like everyone else’s, was intentionally vanilla.

“I know our playbook, so I know what we have in there – a lot of nice and crazy plays,” receiver Darnell Mooney said. “But during the [preseason] game, I’m like, ‘Yeah, we’re not even running anything really. Really. just rolling.’

“But, yeah, it’s gonna get dangerous for sure.”

The Bears need to be competent first. Saturday, for the first time, Getsy’s offense looked to be one coherent piece.

Take Cole Kmet’s 24-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter.

“We ran that play earlier,” Kmet said.

On the second play of the Bears’ first scoring drive, quarterback Justin Fields was under center with running back David Montgomery behind him. Kmet went in motion and settled in as a wingback to the right — offset a step back of the line of scrimmage. Fullback Khari Blasingame was in that position on the left side of the line.

The Bears ran play-action left, with Blasingame sprinting across parallel to the line and into the right flat. Sione Takitaki plastered himself onto Kmet as he ran a wheel route up the right sideline. Fellow Browns linebacker Jacob Phillips turned his back to Fields to chase after tight end Ryan Griffin on an over route. Blasingame, open in the right flat, caught a pass for six yards and was tackled by cornerback Martin Emerson.

With three-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, the Bears ran the play again. Takitaki, recognizing it, peeled off Kmet to focus on Blasingame. Fields looked at Kmet, then moved his eyes toward Blasingame, setting the trap.

Takitaki was so convinced the ball was going to Blasingame that he tackled the fullback before Fields even lofted the 24-yard pass to Kmet, who was wide open in the end zone.

“We knew this time that maybe he might bite with Khari, knowing he got the ball last time,” said Kmet, who didn’t have a touchdown catch all last season. “The safety and the corner doubled our post and it came wide open.”

It wasn’t magic — just execution.

On the first play, Mooney, split right, ran a post route that Getsy said wasn’t angled enough vertically to draw a double team. On the second play, receiver Isaiah Coulter ran a post route that sucked both the safety and the cornerback into coverage.

“The safety felt the post going over top, so he panicked and ran with it as well,” Getsy said.

The resulting score looked as easy as anything Matt Nagy drew up in four years. Not that it counted for much.

Preseason play-calling is unique in that coaches try to simplify the approach for their players while doing limited scouting work. Time will tell whether that approach has prepared Getsy enough for his regular-season debut.

“Everything we do is pretty process-driven,” he said. “I just kinda use my feel and flow of the game, and then … I just lean on the process that we put together all week. I feel good with all that.”

So do his players.

“We’ve got a lot of things cooking,” Mooney said.”

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