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Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa (1) during the second inning in Game 2 of a baseball American League Division Series against the Chicago White Sox Friday, Oct. 8, 2021, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) ORG XMIT: NYOTK | David J. Phillip, AP Photos

President Jed Hoyer has emphasized spending “intelligently” this winter.

Cubs president Jed Hoyer and new general manager Carter Hawkins have set out to reconstruct the team’s roster. Hoyer has been candid about the Cubs’ desire to be active in the free-agent market but said they would “spend intelligently.”

The Cubs are attempting to turn things around after a season that saw them lose more than 90 games for the first time since 2014.

The last time starter Kyle Hendricks had pitched on a losing team before 2021 was his rookie season in ’14. But after being out of contention so early this year, Hendricks is hoping things turn around quickly.

“I want to win at the end of the day, and that’s it,” Hendricks said. “That’s kind of where I’ve been my whole life. They know that, but I have full faith and trust in them. And that’s all they want, as well.

“From Jed all the way down. These guys are pros. They know what they’re doing. They know how to construct the team. They’ve been around the game so long, and they know how to evaluate talent.

With stars Kris Bryant, Javy Baez and Anthony Rizzo no longer sporting the blue pinstripes on the North Side, some might think the appeal of playing in Chicago may have taken a hit to pending free agents. But even without those marquee names, Hendricks thinks the Cubs still can be a destination for players.

The Cubs’ last major free-agent acquisition was Yu Darvish in 2018.

“It’s obviously a place you want to come play,” Hendricks said. “The fans, the stadium, everything that’s given to you. The organization, the support staff around you, what’s offered, there’s no better place.

“There’s a lot of positives. I know a lot of guys that love playing in Chicago. Obviously, coming in as visiting players, you hear it all the time that guys love coming here. So it’s gonna be really interesting for me. I’m going to be a fan like anybody else, sit back and watch what happens.”

There’s no question the Cubs need superstar talent, and they’ll have the opportunity to turn around their fortunes in free agency. There will be multiple impact players available, including shortstops Carlos Correa, Trevor Story, Corey Seager and Baez.

They also will have to find starting -pitching, which Hoyer called the team’s top priority.

Hawkins comes from Cleveland, where resources weren’t as vast as they will be for him in Chicago. But being versatile in reconstructing the roster is something that he wants to continue in his new role.

“I think it’s, not to get cute, but I would probably call it more constraints than limitations [in Cleveland],” Hawkins said. “I think we were forced to be disciplined in our processes, we were forced to be deliberate in our decisions.

“I think that’s something that’s applicable to any size market. Obviously, your range of options when you have more resources is a little bit wider. But the ability to be deliberate in those decisions, building processes in those decisions should be just as good.”

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The Devils celebrate after scoring on Kevin Lankinen. | Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

The Hawks have yet to have more goals on the scoreboard than the other guys at any point in any game.

Hey, it could be worse for the 0-4-1 Blackhawks. They could be the 0-5-0 Canadiens, the only team in the NHL with a more pathetic record out of the gate.

We lord this single point over you, Montreal. East our dust, nos amis.

In this week’s “Polling Place” — your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter — we asked respondents for their takes on this latest disappointing Hawks team assembled by personnel honcho Stan Bowman and coached by Jeremy Colliton.

“Why do Colliton and Bowman still have jobs?” @RonaldVoigt4 asked, getting right to it.

“Superstars [Jonathan] Toews and [Patrick] Kane are wasting away on a badly managed, badly coached team,” @Marcia3MS wrote. “Grr!”

How bad has it been? The Hawks have yet to have more goals on the scoreboard than the other guys at any point in any game.

“When a team can’t get a lead in over 300 minutes,” @MikeAshGoHawks offered, “I think it’s time to make a drastic change somewhere.”

What fun, right? On to the polls:

Poll No. 1: The Blackhawks are off to an awful start. What’s your read on this team?

Upshot: This isn’t why the Hawks went out and got defenseman Seth Jones and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, among others. Somehow, the Hawks appear to have regressed. They don’t connect on passes, can’t hang on to the puck and have a way of falling behind before there’s time for anyone to blink. It’s a recipe for — what’s that word again? — disaster.

Poll No. 2: After Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, who’s the best player in the NBA’s Central Division?

Upshot: Brief perusals of ESPN’s, CBS Sports’, Sports Illustrated’s and Sporting News’ current NBA player rankings reveal that Middleton — as well as Bucks teammate Jrue Holiday — comes before LaVine in every case. But what the heck do they know? Clearly, our respondents are sold on the guy who just so happens to play here in Chicago. Merely a coincidence, we’re sure.

Poll No. 3: The Bears are 12 1/2 -point underdogs Sunday against the Super Bowl champion Buccaneers in Tampa. What happens?

Upshot: “A great beating, I’m afraid,” @reesetheone1 warns. “Bears 54, Bucs 3,” @BillyMexico predicts, probably not agreeing on who’s doing the beating and who’s catching it. Or maybe Billy was just pulling our leg. You think?

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Kyren Williams leads Notre Dame with seven touchdowns, 363 rushing yards and 563 yards from scrimmage. Three of his touchdowns have been go-ahead scores. | Matt Gentry/AP

Star running back setting tone with his boisterous personality, boundless energy.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Tailback U. is the well-earned sobriquet for the football program at USC.

Yet, it’s Kyren Williams who will be the most dangerous running back on the field when the Trojans visit Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday night.

“Kyren,” Irish defensive end Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa said, “is nasty.”

Built like a fireplug and nearly as indestructible, the third-year sophomore from St. Louis leads the No. 13 Irish with seven touchdowns, 363 rushing yards and 563 yards from scrimmage.

Three of Williams’ touchdowns have been go-ahead scores, including two such moments in a 32-29 road win over Virginia Tech two weekends ago. That included an epic 10-yard run late in the third quarter on which Williams pinballed off at least four would-be tacklers despite the brevity of his scamper.

“He’s insane,” Notre Dame receiver (and former running back) Avery Davis said. “His ability to just maneuver through tight spaces to make people miss, his strength to stay up — he’s just entertaining, man.”

Generously listed at 5-9 and 199 pounds, Williams also has proved his worth in blitz pickup, standing in against the stoutest of linebackers and giving Notre Dame quarterbacks those precious extra milliseconds needed to get the ball downfield.

“It’s want-to,” coach Brian Kelly said. “You’ve got to want to. That’s who he is. That’s his DNA.”

Then there’s Williams the punt returner. Taking over this year for the risk-averse Matt Salerno, Williams is averaging 8.4 yards on his eight returns.

He has yet to break off a long punt return, but you get the sense with each passing week that moment is drawing closer.

Yet, it’s Williams’ role as spiritual leader where he seems to shine the brightest. When Hokies linebacker Dax Hollifield went headhunting against Williams in the waning minutes in Blacksburg, Virginia, the ensuing ejection for targeting seemed to ignite the Irish offense.

Eleven points followed in the final 2:26.

As the teams made their way off the field at game’s end, Williams could be seen shouting a few choice words at the ungracious hosts, no doubt a carryover from Hollifield’s unsuccessful knockout attempt.

Voted a team captain in August, Williams frequently sets the tone for the Irish with his boisterous personality and boundless energy.

“He’s wired that way,” Kelly said. “We test our kids, their central nervous system, on a day-to-day basis. His fitness level is off the charts. He’s just wired that he’s high energy.”

There are times, such as at the end of a long night in Blacksburg, when Williams might need to rein in his emotions. Chalk those up to growth opportunities.

“It has to be pointed in the right direction,” Kelly said of Williams’ energy. “He’s still young. There will be times that youthful energy needs to be redirected.”

As long as Williams can remember, that’s the attitude he has brought to the football field.

“I’ve always been that way ever since I was growing up,” Williams said. “My dad, he taught me that. It’s always been in my ability as a football player. It really just comes from my dad [Larry] being my coach all the way through Little League.”

Williams started out as a slot receiver at St. John Vianney in suburban Kirkwood, Missouri. He received his first scholarship offer (from Nebraska) the summer after his freshman year.

Williams set a state championship record with 289 rushing yards in his high school finale, capping off a 40-touchdown senior season that included 2,760 yards from scrimmage.

Should Williams ever feel his commitment wavering, he just looks down at the tape on his wrist.

“BAM” is the message scrawled there. It stands for “By Any Means” and dates to his freshman year, when Tony Jones Jr. brought that acronym to the running backs’ room.

“The receivers had ICE — ‘I catch everything’ — so we came up with BAM,” Williams said. “That’s what we live by. It’s our motto for anything that we do.”

It also happens to be the sound that results whenever anyone tries to get physical with Williams.

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Tim Anderson, Jose Abreu and Eloy Jimenez hit the ball on the ground too much for Jason Benetti’s liking. (Getty Images) | Getty

Jason Benetti, Steve Stone, Len Kasper share thoughts on 2021 White Sox

Don’t get broadcaster Steve Stone going on the notion that White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf doesn’t spend money.

“This idea that Jerry won’t spend is a bunch of crap. It’s ridiculous,” Stone said. “Jerry will spend more money. Jerry really wants to win. He gets this bad rap, and it’s infuriating to me.”

The Sox ranked 15th among 30 teams this season, according to Spotrac, and stand seventh with $167 million on the books for 2022.

Now, if only throwing money at their shortcomings would guarantee fixes where the Sox are broken. Stone, the team’s TV analyst, said the Sox’ house “has strong bones,” but he alluded to missteps on “the little things” that make a big difference in wins and losses, factors that showed up during the season and when the Sox lost three of four games to the Astros in the ALDS.

Stone, TV sidekick Jason Benetti and radio voice Len Kasper watched almost every game in 2021, and while they are employed by the Sox, they offered unbiased analysis this week on what they saw this season. They saw a talent-laden roster. They also saw flaws.

For Stone, missing cutoff men, throwing home from the outfield when there wasn’t a play, not completing double plays, pitchers failing to keep runners close and catchers not blocking balls and doing their part to defend against the stolen base all need attention.

That’s a lengthy list.

“The Sox had very good players and a lot of talent,” Stone said. “You don’t need a lot of additions, but you have to smooth out the rough edges in a lot of areas. It’s a team that plays pretty solid baseball at times, and when it does, it can play with anybody. But they don’t play a clean game quite often enough.”

The Sox ranked 26th in defensive runs saved, according to FanGraphs. They allowed 119 stolen bases, the most in the majors. They made 97 errors, the sixth-most in the majors, and posted a .983 fielding percentage, which ranked 27th.

Stone and Benetti are bullish on the future of the starting rotation and, as Benetti put it, “a treasure trove of live arms in the bullpen” that posted a strikeout rate of 10.58 per nine innings, second in the AL to the Brewers.

“There is overwhelming talent,” Benetti said.

But the lineup’s propensity to hit the ball on the ground is underwhelming.

“Doing the Statcast shows I do for ESPN makes it difficult for me to watch ground balls offensively,” Benetti said. “The White Sox [third at 46.1%] were the only team in the top 12 in ground-ball percentage to make the playoffs this year. The slugging percentage in the league on ground balls is .266. Slugging the ball is really important.”

Three of the final four postseason teams were among the bottom four in ground-ball percentage. Tim Anderson’s ground-ball rate was 55%. Eloy Jimenez’s was 48%. Abreu (46%) hit into 28 double plays.

“That’s not sustainable over the long haul,” Benetti said.

Stone is a much bigger fan of manager Tony La Russa than he was of La Russa’s predecessor, Rick Renteria.

“It’s going to be addressed in spring training, I guarantee you that,” Stone said. “I don’t think people realize how good this coaching staff is. They know exactly what happened and what they have to do. Hopefully, players will adapt to a more solid way of playing baseball because that is what will always win games. You’re not going to beat teams 10-1. You have to beat them 3-2 and 4-3.”

The Sox (93-69) won the AL Central by 13 games but lost decisively to the Astros in the postseason.

“As disappointing as it was to lose to the Astros, overstating what happened in that series could be really dangerous,” Kasper said, “because the biggest strength of this team was the starting rotation, and they didn’t get long starts from anybody. Are there things to improve? Absolutely. But I don’t think connecting it to the loss to the Astros is the smartest way to do it. It was only four games.

“And if there is something about the postseason, there is this misnomer about all the little things. The Sox didn’t do all the little things well, but if they had hit like four more home runs, they still might be playing. Home runs do matter.”

But little things matter, too. It all matters. We’re just trying to see a way to get the Sox past the ALDS next time.

“There is not that much of a difference between the Sox and Astros, but there is a difference,” Stone said. “And the difference is, almost without exception, when a double play is turned, they turn it. If you don’t, a good team will bury you with that, and you saw that quite a bit.”

Stone would like to see Anderson fix his footwork around second base on double plays. He never hopes to see Jimenez airmail a throw home from left field again.

“We have some fairly young players that, if you allow it to go on, you are getting what you deserve,” Stone said.

You can take that to Jerry Reinsdorf’s bank.

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Diana Taurasi, fouling Candace Parker during Game 1, broke a door in Wintrust Arena’s visiting locker room after the Mercury’s loss in Game 4. | Mike Mattina/Getty Images

Antics by Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi, Sophie Cunningham in WNBA Finals help create budding rivalry.

Sports rivalries aren’t established in average, regular-season moments. They’re built on big stages, in single-elimination scenarios, with championships on the line.

A best-of-five WNBA Finals series provides numerous moments to create bitter feuds, the kind that are carried into upcoming seasons, fueling excitement and bringing in new fans.

So when the 2021 Finals ended with a title for the Sky, a meme-worthy staredown and a door busted by the fan-dubbed GOAT, Diana Taurasi, the league officially had itself a budding rivalry.

“I think this is good for women’s basketball,” Sky guard-forward Kahleah Copper said ahead of Game 3 of the series. “It’s OK for us to get fired up and get supercompetitive like that.”

Copper was referring to the moment in Game 2 shared between herself and Mercury guard Sophie Cunningham.

In the second quarter of the Mercury’s overtime win, Cunningham missed a layup and tripped over Copper’s foot as she went for the rebound. Copper also went for the ball and got wrapped up with Cunningham.

Before being separated by official Tiara Cruse, Copper stood over Cunningham, giving photographers just enough time to snap a photo that will live in WNBA fans’ heads.

As if that wasn’t enough fire for fans, Taurasi shoved Cruse in an attempt to get to Cunningham and subsequently was fined $2,500.

When she was asked during the Mercury’s exit interviews about the moment and resulting photo, Cunningham had her own opinion of what happened.

“Anyone who watched the playoffs knows she’s the one who grabbed my neck,” Cunningham said. “If it was me, I would have probably gotten ejected for doing that type of stuff.

“That picture can float around, but she knows what really happened. Any pub is good pub, so put me on all the T-shirts you want. My hair looked nice.”

A day after the Sky’s championship parade, Copper dropped her own line of personalized merchandise, including a hoodie and T-shirt featuring the photo.

Cunningham discussed another play in Game 2 during her exit interview that sent Diamond DeShields to the deck after Cunningham crossed her up.

“Guess you have to tape those ankles a little tighter,” Cunningham said.

When the series moved to Chicago, the Sky handed the Mercury a record-breaking loss. The 86-50 decision in Game 3 was the biggest loss in WNBA Finals history.

Taurasi vowed her team would be better in Game 4, but the Sky rallied from a 14-point deficit to secure their first championship. After the game, the Mercury declined to participate in league-mandated media availability, and the organization was fined $10,000.

The Mercury addressed the media days later during their exit interviews and said it was an emotional moment. Taurasi said her team was devastated, so much so that she reportedly broke a door in the Wintrust Arena locker room.

“There was a lot of doors in [Wintrust Arena],” Taurasi said when asked to set the record straight.

That door was on stage at the Sky’s championship rally Tuesday at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. When asked if it was the door that Taurasi had broken, Sky coach/general manager James Wade gave a one-word answer.

“Yes,” he said.

Since 2019, a rivalry between the Sky and Aces has been festering. Another playoff moment, the “Hamby Heave” by the Aces’ Dearica Hamby, helped spark it.

But the Sky and Aces haven’t met in the playoffs since, tempering the tension a bit. It’s hard to imagine any amount of time will be enough to cool down the red-hot rivalry between the 2021 WNBA champs and the Mercury.

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Defensive back Andrea Reyez (13) and kicker Isa Katz (2) are breaking norms as teammates on an otherwise-male football team. | Provided photo

Isa Katz and Andrea Reyes are out to show that girls can play football

Isa Katz contemplated one question when she was considering going out for the Walter Payton College Prep football team: “Would I think twice about playing if I were a boy?”

The answer was a resolute no. So she showed up to the team’s first meeting of the year, held over Zoom. There, she was surprised to see another young woman.

Andrea Reyes, like Katz, had grown up playing football for fun, starting unofficially in middle school with her friends at recess. It wasn’t organized — they’d just throw the ball around. But Reyes loved it. She began playing flag football in eighth grade as one of two girls on the team. Her coach encouraged her to keep playing once she got to high school.

“But there’s no team,” she recalled telling him. She meant no girls team.

By the start of her sophomore year, she decided to give tackle football a shot. She had no idea Katz was going out for the team, too. When she logged on to the Zoom call and saw her, a sense of relief washed over her. Immediately after the meeting, they messaged each other on Instagram.

Football is a no-cut sport at Payton College Prep, but that in no way means the team isn’t competitive. This season, the Grizzlies are 5-2, and coach Craig Knoche isn’t in the business of participation trophies. The best players are going to play.

Reyes is a defensive back but usually gets her game minutes with special teams. Katz is the starting kicker, a role she was promoted to in Week 5.

“There are a lot of stereotypes that get in the way of girls playing football,” Reyes said.

Stereotypes such as football being a sport for men. Football being too rough for women. Coed teams having no chance of being successful.

Reyes and Katz are helping to close the book on those ideas. In Payton College Prep’s last game against Back of the Yards, Katz went 7-for-7 on PATs. She’s now 11-for-11 on the year and 1-for-2 on field-goal attempts.

Reyes remembers the exact moment she felt welcomed as a member of the team. She was running out to the field for practice when one of her male teammates, without saying a word, tapped her helmet a couple of times — a symbol of camaraderie and friendship.

There’s less encouragement when it comes to opponents. The Grizzlies have faced seven teams this season, but Katz and Reyes haven’t seen another girl on the field.

“I remember one time I was walking out of the locker room and the other team yelled, ‘Is that a female on the team?’ ” Katz said. “They all laughed. But we won that game, and I proved them wrong.”

Neither Katz nor Reyes deliberately set out to do something against the grain. Both are multisport athletes, and football was just another sport that intrigued them. Now, Reyes is stopped at school a lot by peers who want to know more about her experience. Most of the time these are other young women questioning whether they should or could go out for football.

“A lot of my classmates have said they’ve always wanted to play, but they just didn’t have the courage,” Reyes said. “I always say, ‘Don’t let other people’s opinions get in your head. It’s definitely possible.’ ”

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Matt Metcalf runs the sportsbook operations at Circa Resort & Casino in downtown Las Vegas. | Courtesy: Circa

Metcalf is the first to post college football odds — at 11 a.m. Sunday

LAS VEGAS — Army’s football game at Ball State became a conundrum tucked inside a mystery to Matt Metcalf, the Circa Sports oddsmaker whose journeys to finished lines are laced with aha! moments and dastardly rabbit holes.

At 9 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 26, he sat behind his desk to apply one final polish to the numbers for the week’s 61 games. Circa prides itself in unveiling the first completely lined schedule unto the world, at 11 a.m.

At 10 a.m., Metcalf received a text message regarding Army quarterback Christian Anderson’s shoulder injury. Another text soon questioned reserve Tyhier Tyler’s health.

Army was 4-0, the Cardinals 1-3. Metcalf had planned to open it Army -8.

He reviewed figures from two co-workers. He sent a text to Ed Salmons, with whom he had worked at the Westgate

SuperBook, who’d open it Army -4.

Metcalf questioned his power ratings, why the previous week he had opened Toledo, which he deemed as good as Army, at -3 against Ball State. The mental jousts became oral deliberations, counter-arguments.

Several colleagues witnessed a magnificent 45-minute soliloquy.

“They were saying, ‘Matt, let it go!’ No,” says Metcalf. “This game . . . I had to talk it through until it made sense.”

He’d open Army -7 1/2 . Ball State money shaved the Black Knights’ edge to 4. Army cash eked it up to 6, 7, 7 1/2 , 9 and 10, where it settled that Friday.

Anderson didn’t play. Backup Jemel Jones floundered. Tyler ran it in twice. Ball State won 28-16. House wins.

Metcalf says he could have spared himself anguish by simply sticking to 8, letting some sizeable wagers pin it at 10.

“I never had to go down that rabbit hole. Was I right or wrong? Wrong because the game went to 10, right because of the result. Ball State won. We got lucky. We won. But everyone still makes fun of me.

“They’ll make fun of me forever, but they’ll make fun of me less because we won the game.”

THE COMMITMENT

Metcalf, 42, puts in a full Saturday at the gleaming 35-story Circa downtown. He arrives at his nearby home around 6 p.m.

Each second ticks loudly.

He works backward, from 9 a.m. Sunday, factoring in six hours to update his power ratings — from Saturday’s results — and produce the upcoming week’s sides and totals.

Decompressing from the long day requires a two-hour melt into the couch. He will rise at 8 a.m., eat, shower and scoot back to Circa.

If he can start massaging the numbers by 8 p.m., he can work for two hours, crash at 10. Needing four more work hours, he sets the alarm for 4 a.m.

He works manually, from power ratings in files, folders and notebooks that he has maintained for 15 years.

In 2018, after betting professionally for eight years, his aptitude and aggressive philosophy convinced Circa owner Derek Stevens to hire Metcalf to run his sportsbook operations.

In the summer of 2019, he and then-associate Matt Lindeman (now at WynnBET) discussed setting the first Vegas college football lines.

As they pondered the commitment in their office at The D, before Circa opened one year ago, Stevens strolled in and asked, ”Can we put the first college football lines up?”

That serendipity convinced Metcalf to go for it.

Two months ago, he questioned doing it for a third season. He had just had a summer of peaceful, regular sleep.

Stevens provided leeway. On Aug. 20 — a week before this season started — Metcalf again chose to go for it.

“Not to paint myself as a martyr, it was just more of an internal struggle. Did I want to commit to this process again? I love to do it, which, in the end, is why we decided to keep doing it.”

THE VACUUM

DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello posted the city’s first college football lines at Bally’s, in 1994, and then the Wynn.

“The art is to put up a number that doesn’t move 10 points,” says Avello, 68. “You don’t mind some movement, just not too much.”

Metcalf flirted with that possibility last Saturday. He opened Pittsburgh-Virginia Tech at Pick, either side at -110 odds (wager $110 to win $100, for example).

He had forgotten about Hokies quarterback Braxton Burmeister’s shoulder tweak. Money made Pitt a 3-point favorite. Circa has a $3,000 Sunday limit, which moves to $40,000, and higher, by the weekend.

Monday, it was Pitt -4. When it hit 6 1/2 , money came in on the Hokies. Within 14 minutes, it was driven down to 5. Twenty-four hours later, it hit 4 1/2 . It settled at 6 by kickoff.

“Numbers between one and six were live,” says Metcalf. “I knew I’d be sweating that game. I was looking for Pitt to win by seven or more, or Virginia Tech to win outright.”

The Panthers won, 28-7. Again, house wins.

“I’m almost living in a vacuum,” says Metcalf. “I’m trying to put up an initial number that I would have trouble betting into, that will elicit 50-50 action. It won’t always be the closing number.”

We chat about team biases and transitive values, and dreams. Every couple of weeks, these numbers do waltz across Metcalf’s nocturnal stage.

“I’ll dream about results, how I missed on a number. Usually in nightmares, like a game has moved 10 points but was a set-up, and it’s bet all the way back down. Weird.”

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