Chicago Sports

This past week the Chicago Cubs had multiple doubleheaders on their schedule. Which meant possibly a pitcher, or two would be getting called up to make a spot start. A lot of Cubs fans, and media members around the team assumed it would be Caleb Kilian to be called up first. The Cubs top pitching prospect in Kilian did make his MLB debut on Saturday showing a lot of promise on the mound. Kilian was not the first Cubs pitching prospect to be called up this year to make a start though.

That honor went to pitcher prospect Matt Swarmer.

Swarmer was called up last Monday to start game one of the doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field on Memorial Day. Swarmer was drafted by the Cubs in the 19th round of the 2016 MLB Draft out of Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

It took Swarmer six years playing in the Cubs minor league systems before getting the call to make his debut against the Brewers. Swarmer was very impressive in his debut pitching 6 innings, giving up 5 hits, with only 1 earned run, 6 strikeouts, and 1 walk. He did give up 4 runs total, but the Cubs were a bit sloppy defensively which is why only 1 run was earned.

Rookie pitcher not fazed by bright lights in debut

The rookie in Swarmer really did not seemed to be fazed by the big moment. A lot of guys are usually a bit shaky, but not from the 28-year-old right hander in Swarmer. He just kept attacking hitter after hitter out there on the mound.

In game two last Monday night Drew Smyly started for the Cubs, but had to leave the game because of oblique tightness. This led to Smyly being placed on the injured list with an oblique injury. With fellow pitcher Wade Miley on the injury list it meant that the Cubs were able to keep Swarmer around after his impressive debut for another start.

In game one on Saturday afternoon against the St. Louis Cardinals the Cubs handed Swarmer the ball again. Just like in his debut, he did not disappoint at all on Saturday on the mound. Swarmer pitched 6 solid innings, giving up 2 hits, 1 earned run, 5 strikeouts, and 2 walks. Tommy Edman tagged him for a solo home run in the 6th inning meaning he was throwing a one hitter up until that point against one of the more dangerous lineups in the National League.

Swarmer’s attacking the zone, limiting mistakes on the mound

Swarmer again really attacked the hitters in the Cardinals lineup, and was not getting in trouble with handing out walks. Any veteran pitcher will tell you the less traffic you can have on the base paths the better your outing is going to be overall.

Swarmer was also able to do something that many pitchers could not do over the last month. Get slugging first baseman Paul Goldschmidt out. He did walk the hot hitting Goldschmidt twice, but got him to ground out to shortstop in the fourth inning to snap the impressive 25 game hitting streak. In the video below you will see Swarmer make one of the hottest hitters in baseball look very silly at the plate.

Swarmer has very impressive stat line in both starts

In two starts last week Swarmer pitched 12 innings, allowing 2 earned runs, 7 hits, 11 strikeouts, and only 3 walks. Those are dominating numbers against any MLB team, but even more impressive when it is against top teams in the National League Central.

Not only did Swarmer pitch extremely well in his first two starts, but he now has an impressive stat to go with it. Swarmer became the first rookie pitcher for the Cubs dating back to 1939 to throw at least six innings, and only allowing one or fewer earned runs in each of his first two starts.

It is an extremely small sample size, but Swarmer is definitely turning heads and impressing many in the Cubs organization. The Cubs front office, and fans are hoping they found a diamond in the rough in Swarmer. Let’s see if he can keep it up his impressive start to his big league career moving forward.

Make sure to check out our Cubs forum for the latest on the team.

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Chicago Bears miss Tuesday’s OTA due to an infraction

Chicago Bears first-year head Coach Matt Eberflus got caught implementing his H.I.T.S. principle too early. The Bears used live contact in May during practice, per multiple reports, first reported by the Chicago Tribune’s Dan Wiederer. That’s a violation of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement.

Hiccups like that can happen with a new staff. The Bears have a first-time head coach, first-time offensive coordinator in Luke Getsy, and a defensive coordinator,  Alan Williams, whose only stint as a defensive coordinator in the NFL was a decade ago for the Minnesota Vikings. Bears general manager Ryan Poles is in his first season with that title.

We’ve all been there with early projects at our first job after a promotion. Sometimes it’s easy to overlook small details. Unfortunately, this blunder will cost the Bears needed reps in OTA’s, at a time when players say they’re having a hard enough time absorbing information in the new regimes’ schemes.

Violating CBA rules is a big deal

Some Bears theorists on Twitter took the position that the effect was a win for the team—if not done cleverly by the new staff—with some even wanting to get rid of the whistleblower. Because this rule is agreed upon by both the NFPLA and team owners the violation should not be looked upon lightly.

Players want this rule put in place for a reason, and it’s to keep their bodies healthy. They’re human beings, and they already risk their body in a physically demanding sport. More toll has been asked of them in the 17-week season. I hope Eberflus and the staff were just incompetent here, and not unprincipled. Trying to skirt around rights that their players fought to have can lead to poor morale in the future.

Make sure to check out our Bears forum for the latest on the team.

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CHICAGO — The Bears were forced to cancel their organized team activity practice originally scheduled for Tuesday after having live contact during practices in May, a source confirmed to ESPN.

According to a source, NFLPA representatives were present at Halas Hall last month for a practice, which was a part of their regularly scheduled visits to each team, and witnessed on-field contact. The NFLPA issued a warning and continued to monitor Bears practices by requesting practice video and saw more contact in practices after the warning.

According to the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, which is agreed upon by the players’ association and team owners, live contact is prohibited during offseason workouts. For that reason, the Bears were docked an OTA practice in violation of league rules.

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This is the first offseason program being run by first-year coach Matt Eberflus and general manager Ryan Poles.

The Chicago Tribune was first to report the Bears’ offseason misstep.

The team sent an email to reporters on Monday night addressing a change to this week’s OTAs schedule with media access being moved from Tuesday to Wednesday. No explanation was offered by Bears public relations behind the altered schedule.

Chicago is in its last week of OTA practices before hosting its three-day mandatory minicamp next week.

ESPN’s Dan Graziano contributed to this report.

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The Bears’ organized team activity practice originally scheduled for Tuesday was canceled by the NFL as punishment for having live contact in practices last month, a league source confirmed.

Former Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, conducting his first-ever NFL offseason as a head coach, inched over the line of acceptable practice protocol. Live contact is prohibited during offseason workouts, per the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is agreed upon by the NFLPA and team owners.

The team will resume its OTA practices Wednesday at Halas Hall.

The Bears sent an email Monday night to reporters scheduled to attend Tuesday’s OTA in which they moved media access to Wednesday. They offered no explanation for the change.

The team is in its last week of OTA practices, which are voluntary but well-attended. Next week it will hold three mandatory minicamp practices before breaking for the summer. Training camp is expected to begin at Halas Hall during the last week of July.

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A return to Baltimore this week presents a frustrating reminder of what reliever Mychal Givens has endured in his career that has braced him for his current tenure with the Cubs.

In 2016, Givens’ first full season in the majors, the Orioles had the same World Series dreams as the Cubs as they reached the playoffs with young superstar Manny Machado, seasoned power hitters such as Mark Trumbo, Chris Davis and Adam Jones, and an experienced manager in Buck Showalter.

But unlike the Cubs, the Orioles fell short as they lost the American League wild-card game at Toronto and have since regressed into an AL East cellar dweller and embarked on a massive rebuilding program that has yet to show signs of crystalizing.

Givens, 32, pitched in the AL wild-card game, striking out three in 2 1/3 perfect innings.

That’s the only time Givens has pitched in the postseason, as subsequent trades to the Rockies in 2020 and Reds in 2021 didn’t result in trips to the playoffs.

“It sucks because I got traded two times for that reasoning, and I haven’t got there since 2016,” Givens said.

Givens has doubled use of his sweeping slider to 32.9 percent, according to Fangraphs. That has helped produce a 12.09 strikeout rate per nine innings in addition to a 3.22 ERA in 22 appearances and could make him attractive to a playoff contender seeking bullpen help.

For now, Givens remains an eternal optimist.

“I’m hoping to go to the playoffs here,”Givens said. “I love it here, and we have a very good team. We just need everything to fall into place and get to the playoffs.”

Coincidentally, the Cubs were interested in Givens dating back to July of 2017 after acquiring left-handed starter Jose Quintana from the White Sox.

But Givens wasn’t arbitration eligible at the time and was in the midst of one of his best seasons.

At the time,Orioles weren’t close to tearing down their roster, and a Cubs source said at the time the asking price for Givens was too steep.

“I knew a lot of teams were interested,” Givens recalled. “Our general manager (Dan Duquette) came up to me and said, ‘we’re keeping you.’

“It was a really good, comfortable situation that teams wanted me, but my own team and GM wanted me to stay.”

The Orioles, however, continued to regress. They lost 223 games in their next two seasons, and Givens was stuck in the rebuild until the COVID 19-shortened 2020 season when he was dealt to the Rockies for three players at the trade deadline.

Meanwhile, the Orioles are 10 games under .500 and are in last place in the formidable AL East. Top prospect Adley Rutschman, the first pick in the 2019 draft, was promoted to the majors last month but is batting .137 and hitless in his last 17 at-bats.

Pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, their first pick in the 2018 draft and the third-best prospect by Baseball America, was on the verge of a major league promotion until suffering a lat strain that puts the balance of his 2022 season in question.

“A lot of moving pieces over there,” Givens said. “I hope for the best for them. But at the same time, I like being a Cub and like what they’re doing. Everything has been very established in the big leagues about how they go about their business.”

Givens didn’t sign with the Cubs until two weeks before the start of the season, but he’s been unscored upon in 17 of his 22 appearances.

“We’re try to figure it out on the fly now during the season,” Givens said. “It’s not just me, it was for all of us. We’re just trying to bounce back every day, get in a rhythm and do what’s best for the team and win games.”

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Infielder Jonathan Villar is expected to rejoin the Cubs on Tuesday, and outfielder Seiya Suzuki could follow shortly.

But making room for the twosome on the active roster presents a few intriguing scenarios.

Villar’s switch-hitting ability and infield versatility could pinch a current player as well as dent the Cubs’ wallet.

Four-time Gold Glove shortstop Andrelton Simmons was relegated to playing second base until Nick Madrigal returned last week, reducing Simmons’ role to backing up Nico Hoerner at short.

Simmons, 32, signed a one-year, $4 million contract but he didn’t make his Cubs debut until May 15 because of right shoulder soreness.

Infielder David Bote also is eligible to return Tuesday, but his status is murky. Bote, 29, is batting .178 in 45 at-bats while on a minor league rehab assignment at Triple-A Iowa. Bote can play second and third base, and he is guaranteed about $11 million through 2024.

Third baseman Patrick Wisdom’s ability to play first base could create playing time for Villar at third as well as put Alfonso Rivas’ status in question. Rivas has minor league options and is 9 for his last 72, including a 1-for-14 performance on the recent homestand.

Suzuki’s status won’t be clarified until he performs a series of baseball drills prior to Tuesday night’s game against the Orioles. Christopher Morel’s increased playing time in center field has relegated Rafael Ortega to backup and designated hitter duty. Jason Heyward hit an RBI single Sunday but is batting .211 with $36 million in salary owed him through 2023.

Villar is returning after undergoing mouth surgery following an accident during a workout. Suzuki has performed limited work since suffering a left ring finger sprain on a slide at second base on May 26.

Minor leaguers honored

Class-A South Bend outfielder Owen Caissie and Class-A Myrtle Beach pitcher Luis Devers were named the organization’s player and pitcher of the month for May, respectively.

Caissie, 19, who was acquired from the Padres in December of 2020 as part of the Yu Darvish trade, batted .313 with six doubles, four home runs, 26 RBIs and a .910 OPS in 23 games.

Devers, 22, was 4-1 with a 1.48 ERA with 28 strikeouts in 24 1/3 innings. Devers held opponents to a .176 batting average in five starts and posted an 0.90 WHIP. He finished the month with a 15-inning scoreless streak.

Also, South Bend left-hander DJ Herz was named Midwest League pitcher of the week for the period ending Sunday. Herz struck out 12 while allowing one hit over five innings in a win at Dayton on June 1.

Herz has struck out 37 in 53 innings with a 1.45 ERA in 10 starts.

Menez sent down

Left-handed reliever Conner Menez cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Iowa. Menez made one appearance, pitching a scoreless inning against the Diamondbacks on May 13.

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Some fans like to vote, vote, vote for the home team. Some like to evaluate the best of the best from all teams.

Or maybe you prefer a middle ground when balloting for non-pitchers opens Tuesday for the All-Star Game, which will be played July 19 in Los Angeles. You could choose only the best hometown players, even if they’re not at the top of their positions.

Setting the Cubs aside for a week, which White Sox position players deserve consideration by the numbers? Try these three.

Tim Anderson

Anderson’s .356 batting average ranks second in the majors to Twins super-utility player Luis Arraez, and his .503 slugging percentage and .896 OPS top American League shortstops.

By more complex metrics, Anderson leads AL shortstops at 163 weighted runs created plus, meaning he produces 163% of the offense of an average hitter when considering everything from home runs to double plays and adjusting for ballparks and league averages.

Among other shortstops, the Red Sox’ Xander Bogaerts is at 152 wRC+, the Mariners’ J.P. Crawford at 145 and the Astros’ Jeremy Pena at 135.

Once defense is included, Bogaerts and Pena lead Fangraphs.com’s wins above replacement at 2.3 each, with Anderson at 2.2. Bogaerts’ edge reflects playing time, with 224 plate appearances to Anderson’s 173 (because of Anderson’s recent injury). Pena makes up ground with 8.1 defensive runs in Fangraphs’ calculations to 1.3 for Anderson and 0.2 for Bogaerts.

A tenth of a win is basically a wash. Anderson could start for the AL on merit.

Luis Robert

Robert has not been among the top three AL outfielders. The Yankees’ Aaron Judge’s 3.2 WAR is tops, and the Angels’ Mike Trout (2.5) and the Astros’ Yordan Alvarez (2.3) are also above 2. The same three lead AL outfielders in wRC+, with Judge at 200, Alvarez at 192 and Trout at 173.

Robert has been a level down, but he has been very good when healthy. His 124 wRC+ is 11th and his 1.4 WAR is eighth among AL outfielders. Hitting .296/.325/.440 with six homers and five doubles augmented by seven stolen bases in eight attempts, Robert has been fun to watch.

Jose Abreu

There’s a place in All-Star consideration for longtime stars off to slow starts. A ”star” is made in more than two months, after all.

Abreu’s .255 batting average, .773 OPS and seven homers haven’t been up to his usual standards. That’s largely due to a tough April (.216/.308/.348).

But he’s recovering, and Abreu’s 128 wRC+ is seventh among AL first basemen and his 1.2 WAR is sixth. Abreu’s exit velocity has been 95 mph or better on 56.5% of his batted balls, the fifth-highest hard-hit percentage in the majors.

If you want your vote to go to the AL’s best first baseman so far in 2022, that has been the Mariners’ Ty France at 2.2 WAR and 169 wRC+. If you rather would give some love to a White Sox standby who remains an effective player, that’s your business.

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Eric Nesterenko, a Blackhawks forward for 16 years and a member of the 1961 Stanley Cup championship team, died Monday. He was 88.

A native of Flin Flon, Manitoba, Nesterenko entered the NHL with the Maple Leafs in 1952 but spent most of his career on the Hawks, donning the red and white from 1956 to 1972. He was a two-time NHL All-Star in 1961 and 1965.

Versatile in his talent for both scoring and fighting, Nesterenko tallied 207 goals, 288 assists and 1,014 penalty minutes in 1,013 career games for the Hawks. He ranks seventh in franchise history in career games played –Jonathan Toews passed him for sixth in the Hawks’ last game of the 2021-22 season — and ninth in career penalty minutes.

Alongside fellow Hawks legends like Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Pierre Pilote and Glenn Hall, Nesterenko aided the 1961 Hawks’ championship run with 38 points and 127 penalty minutes in 68 regular-season appearances and another five points in 11 playoff appearances as the Hawks beat the Canadiens and Red Wings to win the Cup.

He spent his last season (1973-74) with the Chicago Cougars of the World Hockey Association before enjoying a colorful post-hockey career, starring alongside Rob Lowe in the 1986 hockey movie Youngblood and working as a ski instructor in Vail, Colorado.

“My best years were in Chicago,” Nesterenko told the Sun-Times in 1986 while promoting the movie. “I miss it.”

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Nostalgic fondness for a past era can all be well and good, but it sure isn’t enough to sustain a musical comedy.

“Skates A New Musical,” a new ’70s-infused musical with the cardboard sweetness and dissolvable texture of cotton candy, deploys roller skating (sort of) to provide sass and style to a female empowerment tale.

But when the tale itself feels utterly underdeveloped and, worse, self-pitying, and the characters come with nothing more than an attitude and a wardrobe, all that sass and style — along with several appealingly peppy performances — feels like decorative wrapping on an empty gift box.

The inauthenticity of the show takes less than a minute to become discomfiting.Two genuinely talented “American Idol stars” — real-life married couple Diana DeGarmo and Ace Young — play rock star Jacqueline Miller and her saxophonist boyfriend Blake Conrad.They’re touring the country — it’s 1994 at the start of the show — in support of Jacqueline’s newfound stardom from a chart-topping song.

But as soon as they open with that song, your attention goes not to the catchy tune but to the fact that the guitar and saxophone are both fake — and obviously so.Nothing sound designer Ray Nardelli can do will make that less problematic.

Note to first-time musical theater writers — unless the show is about air musicians, don’t start with an air guitar, followed by an air saxophone.Opening numbers are supposed to pull an audience in to whatever reality is being created, not make them go to war with their disbelief.

The writers in this case, are book writer Christine Rea and composer Rick Briskin.Rea grew up outside of Chicago and then toured as Mary Magdalene in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”Briskin has been a sideman for big-name singers like Diana Ross and Cindy Lauper.

The apparently first-effort nature of this collaboration shows not just in that awkward start, but in the reliance on this entire 1994 outer narrative.The idea is that when things go wrong for Jacqueline — her manager runs off with her money, and Blake treats her like crap — she flashes back to 1977, when she was 12 years old and spent her Saturdays at the roller rink or dishing about boys nonstop with her bestie.

For the rest of the show, the adult Jacqueline follows around her adolescent self, played with plenty of pluck by the young adult Emma Lord.The concept is that older Jacqueline will re-discover the spark and confidence of her younger self.But it’s always a problem when our lead character, the older Jacqueline, is a passive participant in her own story.To be honest, it felt like the show could pretty much end with the early moment when young Jackie, upon meeting her older self, exclaims, “What I wouldn’t give to be a rock star with a number one hit in 1994.”Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Ms. Rock Star.Problem solved.

But at least now we get to the sass and style and the Windy City Skates roller rink, which seems to be the raison d’etre of a show that aspires to camp.Kelvin Roston Jr., recently a strong Othello at the Court Theatre, shows his range as a short-shorts-wearing skater with an atmospheric enthusiasm and no actual role to play in the plot other than leading group dance sequences.And Kelly Felthous, as young Jackie’s friend Meghan, and Adam Fane, as Jackie’s “hotty” crush, both pull off the oversized performance style as well.The older teenage characters who bully and snort coke, however, are caught in nowhere land — like “Rock of Ages” characters trapped in “The Sound of Music.”

There are some intriguing elements of the show, directed to a definite professional level by Brenda Didier and staged at the beautifully restored Studebaker Theatre.I found somewhat ingenious the fake roller skates the cast wears — slippery-souled platform shoes with rollers painted on them — allowing them to simulate skating without making the audience terrified for their safety.But I also think that given the freedom of motion, choreographer Christopher Chase Carter could have done more to express the fun and possibilities.

Briskin’s tunes, meanwhile, ring of familiarity without having much personality of their own, and the lyrics — from both Rea and Briskin — are filled with one clich? thought after another.

In the end, “Skates” goes absolutely everywhere you expect it to and nowhere you don’t, without enough wit or craft to make it worth the ride.

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Darnell Mooney has been a pleasant surprise with the Chicago Bears

One analyst believes a third-year wide receiver is the Chicago Bears’ most underpaid player. Darnell Mooney is entering his third season with the Bears. So far, he has made a big impact in an otherwise pedestrian receiving room.

In two seasons, Mooney has reached the endzone 8 times receiving and 1-time rushing. Mooney took a big step forward in 2021, beating out all wide receivers in receiving yards with 1,055-yards. Allen Robinson, who was traded to the Los Angeles Chargers in the offseason, was not on pace to surpass the 2020 fifth-round selection, Mooney, if he had played all 17 games.

Gene Chamberlain, writing for Sports Illustrated, thinks Mooney is a great bargain for the Bears. He listed Mooney as the Bears’ number one underpaid player. Here’s what Chamberlain wrote:

Money should come Mooney’s way from the league bonus pool for exceptional play. This doesn’t come from the Bears’ cap space. Mooney couldn’t be a bigger steal considering he makes only $965,512 this year and has 142 catches the last two seasons, more than any receiver the Bears ever drafted in his first two years. The only receivers from the 2020 draft class with more receptionns in their first two seasons are Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb, and Mooney was a fifth-round pick. That’s the reason he’s getting less than a million and is the No. 1 Bears bargain in 2022.

The fifth-round price value for Darnell Mooney is hard to beat for the Bears

Considering Robinson signed a 46.5-million dollar contract this offseason, I’d certainly say Mooney was a heist in the 2020 draft. Especially since Mooney eclipsed him in productivity last season. While former Bears general manager Ryan Pace made a lot of dumb draft picks, he occasionally hit on a few later-round gems like Mooney. Jefferson and Lamb, who Chamberlain mentioned in his article, are both first-round wide receivers. Jefferson’s contract is just north of $13-million, while Lamb is over $14-million, per Over The Cap.

The Bears need to make the most out of Mooney while he’s on his rookie contract. Justin Field’s will be in his second season with Mooney, and hopefully, we’ll see the pair be even better together this year. Mooney will be expected to have a greater role in the offense, given the Bears still lack elite talent at the wide receiver position.

If Mooney can improve this season and morph into a true number one receiver, he will deserve a lot more money after the 2023 season. This would also ease some pressure off of new general manager Ryan Poles, who has yet to sign a major player at the position due to a lack of cap space.

Make sure to check out our Bears forum for the latest on the team.

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