GLENDALE, ARIZONA – FEBRUARY 25: Aaron Bummer #39 of the Chicago White Sox pitches against the San Francisco Giants on February 25, 2020 at Camelback Ranch in Glendale Arizona. (Photo by Ron Vesely/Getty Images)
One of the key pillars to the Chicago White Sox 2021 success is going to be their awesome bullpen. There are some star players, unknown commodities, two flamethrowing starters, and some young players that are on the come up. It is a recipe for success as they believe they will be a very good unit. The word around the team is that they believe they should go undefeated when they lead after six innings. Obviously, that isn’t realistic but it is a nice goal to have to go into the season with.
The Chicago White Sox bullpen is looking very scary right now as exhibition season moves on.
The Chicago White Sox have so many very good pitchers that are going to be throwing in the bullpen for them. So far, during this exhibition season, they have been very good. It has been fun to watch and it seems like something they will be able to carry into the regular season. They have really started to turn it on over the last few games.
For one, Liam Hendriks is there now. He gave up a solo shot during Monday’s game against the Chicago Cubs and that has really been his only blunder. He gave up two home runs all of last season and one of them was to Yasmanai Grandal in the playoffs. He is going to bring all that makes him good into the regular season.
Garrett Crochet also gave up a run in that game. Outside of that one run against, he has been lights out as well. These guys are going to give up runs but the elite ones keep them to a minimum. Having a potential starter like Crochet in the bullpen adds to its depth.
Speaking of hard-throwing starters, Michael Kopech is also going to be coming out of the bullpen. In his appearance on Monday, he was magnificent. It looked like he was working on his offspeed stuff a little bit more than usual. He did, of course, have one pitch go by a bat over 100 miles per hour. He knows that is his elite pitch but mixing in the offspeed stuff will surely be a big help.
Sunday’s game showed even more lights out pitching. The White Sox saw Evan Marshall, Codi Heuer, and Aaron Bummer throw gas. Neither of them allowed a single run or hit over 4.2 innings combined. There were only one walk and three strikeouts in that span as well. Performances like this are to be expected from this team going forward.
It is going to be fun watching this team play the way they play. With Crochet and Kopech joining the other typical relievers that they have, it has the potential to be as good of a bullpen as they’ve ever had. As long as Tony La Russa and Ethan Katz manage them properly, they should be one of the best in the league. Hopefully, the spring production so far is a good sign of things to come.
The Chicago Bears quarterback options are starting to thin and one option is emerging as a possible final candidate for the job.
NFL insider Ian Rappoport said on NFL Network that Andy Dalton is “generating significant interest” from teams that need a quarterback, like the ChicagoBears.
The Bears have introduced a lot of quarterback news to fans recently. First and most obviously, the Bears are set to allow their past starting quarterback from the last three seasons, Mitch Trubisky, to explore free agency. This comes as no surprise to fans because he has been unsuccessful in the last two seasons with the Bears.
The Bears are taking their hacks in securing a trade for Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. The trade would require a handful of day-one draft selections and possible high-level players off the Bears’ roster. It may even require a third team to help out, like the New York Jets.
Now, the Bears have been linked to showing interest in Dallas Cowboys‘ backup quarterback, Andy Dalton. Before every Bears fan storms Halas Hall, let’s talk about some surprising statistics you may not know about Andy Dalton.
Dalton is one place behind Russell Wilson in career yards, he has a better career completion percentage than Brett Favre, he has a winning record as a starting quarterback, and he has more fourth-quarter comebacks in his career than Aaron Rodgers.
Last season, things did not go particularly well for Dalton, who served as the team’s backup after Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending injury. Dalton went 4-5 as a starter, threw for under 200 yards per game, 14 total touchdowns, and eight interceptions. He also missed time last season with a concussion and COVID-19, causing the Cowboys to scramble for a quarterback, which ended up being Ben DiNucci and Garrett Gilbert.
Is Dalton a great quarterback? Not really. Is he a manageable quarterback? Sure, in the right system. However, the Bears don’t have a lot to offer Dalton on the offensive side. The offensive line is still in repair, and our wide receiver core could be left in shambles if Allen Robinson decides not to play.
The Bears might use their number 20 pick in the 2021 NFL draft to grab their next starting quarterback. The Bears were present for North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance’s pro day. They would need to trade up to secure themselves a solid starter in this draft, as the demand for a quarterback is getting stronger in the draft.
Let’s review. The Bears are down to limited choices at this time for a new quarterback. They could hope that the Seahawks would be willing to give up their star quarterback via trade. The Bears could pick what’s left of free agency — Marcus Mariota, Jacoby Brissett, Alex Smith, Andy Dalton, etc. They could go to the draft in hopes of pulling out Trey Lance or Mac Jones with their pick. Or, they could stick to their plan from the last offseason — Nick Foles.
Truly, only one of these plans sticks out to Bears fans and creates a probable winning season for the Bears’ 2021-2022 season, and it’s Wilson.
The bottom line is this — Wilson or no Wilson, the Bears’ performing a losing record next season wouldn’t be the worst idea. A losing season would lead to an inevitable domino effect of firings around the organization, and a really high draft pick in 2022.
Dutch avant-garde metal band Dodecahedron released two spectacular albums, 2012’s self-titled debut and 2017’s Kwintessens, that promised a bright future for the band with their use of disturbing dissonance, bleak synthesizer textures, and gnashing industrial rhythms. But tragedy struck before they could live up to their potential: front man Michiel Eikenaar (also of black-metal group Nihill) was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in April 2019 at age 42.…Read More
Ten people were shot March 15, 2021, in Chicago. | Sun-Times file photo
A 34-year-old man was accidentally shot by his friend in the 300 block of West 25th Place.
Ten people were shot Monday in Chicago, including a 34-year-old man who was accidentally shot by his friend in Bridgeport on the South Side.
About 10:20 p.m., he was shot in the hip in the 300 block of West 25th Place, after a 49-year-old male friend of his was handling the gun, and it went off, Chicago police said. The 34-year-old was brought to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition. His friend was brought in for questioning.
A man was wounded in a shooting in Fuller Park on the South Side. About 6:30 p.m., the 22-year-old was in the 200 block of West 44th Place when someone opened fire, striking him in the leg and hand, police said. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.
About fifteen minutes prior, a 17-year-old boy was shot in Englewood on the South Side. He was on the sidewalk about 6:17 p.m. in the 6700 block of South Sangamon Street, when someone unleashed gunfire, police said. The teen was struck in the buttocks and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.
A woman was among three people shot and seriously hurt while they drove in a vehicle Monday morning in Austin on the West Side. Someone in a black Jeep fired shots at them about 10:50 a.m. in the 5500 block of West Rice Street, the police department said in a statement. The gunshot victims drove to CPD’s 15th District station, at 5701 W. Madison St., where officers and paramedics treated them. The woman, 23, was shot in her head and taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood in critical condition. A man, 50, was shot in his back while another man, 51, was struck in his hand and leg. Both went to Stroger Hospital in serious-to-critical condition, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
A 45-year-old man took himself to a hospital after he was shot while driving Monday in the Ravenswood neighborhood. The gunfire came from someone inside another vehicle as the man drove in the 2800 block of West Lawrence Avenue, according to a media notification from police. Struck in the back about 8 a.m., the man took himself to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for treatment.
A man was grazed in a shooting in Chatham on the South Side. The man, 29, was getting into his vehicle just before 6 a.m. when someone fired shots in the 900 block of East 82nd Street, police said. The man was grazed on the head and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was stabilized.
A woman was among four people hurt in a shooting and subsequent crash into a street sweeper near the Six Corners intersection in Portage Park on the Northwest Side. A male driving a black Dodge sedan slammed into a parked vehicle about 2:30 a.m. in the 4000 block of North Cicero Avenue, police said. Video from media reports showed a street sweeper on fire at that location. The male and two of his passengers were hospitalized in serious condition. One of them, a 32-year-old woman, had been shot three times in the abdomen. A male in the parked vehicle was found on the ground nearby and hospitalized as well. His condition was unknown Monday morning. Police sources said the crash appears to be alcohol-related, and the driver was taken into custody. Charges were pending.
In the day’s first reported shooting, a man was seriously wounded in the South Loop. The man, 27, was found on the ground with a gunshot wound to his side about 1:35 a.m. in the 2200 block of South Wentworth Avenue, police said. He was unable to describe the shooter to officers and was hospitalized in serious condition.
Kirby Dach could return to the Blackhawks lineup in about a month, pushing the team’s other centers down the depth chart. | Getty
With Dach increasingly likely to return to the Hawks’ lineup this season, who will be the odd man out when he returns? Can Philipp Kurashev or Pius Suter remain top-six centers? And what does the future hold for pending free agents Carl Soderberg and Lucas Wallmark?
Kirby Dach remains likely at least a month away from returning to the Blackhawks’ lineup.
But when it comes to the Hawks’ playoff hopes, every game the recovering 20-year-old center manages to play in at the end of this season will be immensely helpful.
The Hawks’ need for another top-six center — or two, although Jonathan Toews’ return timeline is infinitely cloudier than Dach’s — has been especially noticeable lately with rookies Pius Suter and Philipp Kurashev experiencing simultaneous dips.
“It’s not a surprise that it’s a challenge sometimes when it’s your first year in the league trying to take that much responsibility,” coach Jeremy Colliton said. “There’s not many rookies playing in the first-line center spot across the league. So we’re trying to help them carry that load, respond to the challenge and keep at a high level.”
Both Suter, who excels at puck retrieval, and Kurashev, whose stickhandling leads to flashes of brilliance, have shown promise despite their recent downturns. But they’re clearly not first-line centers right now.
Dach, depending on how rusty he’ll be coming off his wrist injury and how smoothly he continues the exponential growth curve he demonstrated in 2019-20, might be. He’ll certainly be the Hawks’ best option.
When he returns, though, the lower rungs of the center depth chart will become even more complicated.
Dylan Strome’s concussion recovery timeline is also cloudy, but he has been far more effective as a center than as a wing during his young career. The real question is whether he’s capable of being a second-line center, and results on that front earlier this season were bearish.
Kampf has been overslotted lately but is reliable and consistent defensively. Ryan Carpenter can play center, although he’s mainly been used on the wing. Carl Soderberg and Lucas Wallmark have added depth this year.
Add Suter and Kurashev into that mix, and suddenly the Hawks arguably have too many centers — pushing Strome, Soderberg and Wallmark could potentially onto the trading block.
There are logical reasons to trade each, but also logical reasons to keep each. There’s also the fact that the Hawks would have to decide before the April 12 trade deadline — likely before Dach actually returns.
Wallmark, who hasn’t found a steady role in Chicago, and his expiring contract could fetch a late-round pick. The Hawks wouldn’t feel much heartburn parting ways, although Colliton did say Monday he has liked Wallmark during his most recent stint in the lineup.
Soderberg will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and does have some trade value, with 12 points in 25 games. He’s an interesting case, as his even-strength possession stats have been awful lately (22.4% scoring chance ratio over his last six appearances) but were good before that: 54.4% over the six previous appearances.
He’s also been a great net-front presence, particularly on the power play.
“[Carl has] created some goals that he hasn’t gotten any points on,” Colliton said recently. “But because he’s there…a half-chance becomes a great opportunity… He’s been a nice addition.”
And Strome, despite slowly fading from relevance this year, just signed a two-year contract with a $3 million cap hit in January and could arguably still be considered part of the team’s young core. The Hawks would demand a high price for him on the market.
The Hawks will nonetheless need to soon determine some solutions for their center conundrum, both to fill the holes in the top two lines — presumably partly with Dach — and to sort out the logjam below that.
As a surging pandemic gives way to a rocky vaccine rollout, Chicago’s top doctor has been trying to hammer home a simple message: Keep calm, carry on, and trust the system.Read More
The ChicagoBears front office and in particular Ryan Pace continues to show off their ability to unearth defensive talent, this time with the re-signing of defensive end Mario Edwards, Jr. to a modest three-year extension earlier in the week. Edwards, Jr. had quite a productive season in only 238 total snaps under the watchful […]
The Chicago Bears offseason has been heavily dominated with quarterback talk and deservedly so. After two years of back-to-back 8-8 records, the front office knows if they want to win to save their jobs they have to improve the offense dramatically. It explains why the GM Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy are making a strong push to acquire Russell Wilson. The acquisition of a player of Wilson’s caliber would immediately shoot the Bears up to contender status.
The Chicago Bears can not lose focus on building a solid foundation for the eventual next quarterback.
On the flip side, what happens if the Bears can not acquire Wilson? I would imagine they would shift their focus to the draft. Keeping all their picks, the Bears should still fortify the offensive side of the ball while they wait for that QB to fall in their lap.
The Bears have the potential makings of a pretty solid offensive line. The interior line played well and was part of the reason why the offense had some success towards the end of the season. The draft is deep at offensive tackle. A top prospect should fall to them at pick #20.
The Bears placed the franchise tag on Allen Robinson. The belief is the front office wants to keep Robinson long-term but it will be an added obstacle if they can not acquire a top-level QB to entice Robinson to stay. The Bears can do something similar to the Vikings’ last offseason with Stefon Diggs. That is to trade him to a contender team for a high draft pick and draft his replacement with the first two round selections.
Whether Robinson is here or not, the Bears still have to rebuild the talent in that WR room. Anthony Miller has not lived up to his draft status, both Javon Wims and Riley Ridley are just bottom-of roster guys. Strengthening this position with reliable pass catchers with speed should be a priority.
Take a page out of Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ playbook, Tom Brady picked them over the Chicago Bears part because of the solid skill position players and solid offensive line on offense they had. If the Bears can not land Watson or Wilson, they have to prioritize strengthening up the personnel on offense to make it attractive to the next top QB whenever one comes available again.
The Chicago Blackhawks are in a good spot. They are far from a perfect team but they have surprised a lot of people so far this season. They have a subpar roster but they have all bought in. The playoffs are looking like a real possibility for them as they get to the halfway point of March. They might be both buyers and sellers at the trade deadline but we don’t actually know their direction.
They have been getting a lot of their scoring from Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat, and their rookies. Jonathan Toews and Kirby Dach have not played a single game this season so that is a huge hit to the forward group. They also traded Brandon Saad to the Colorado Avalanche which was another hit to the group from a year before. With those losses, they have still managed to have success with their group this season.
The ChicagoBlackhawks might consider a big trade before the season is over.
If they believe that making the playoffs in a secure way is important, they might consider a trade. They can also consider a trade after the season when they have significantly more salary-cap space. It is going to be interesting to see what they do with the roster and how much they would be interested in going on one more run with Patrick Kane there.
The Blackhawks might even be interested in acquiring a big-name player and not just a rental. They are going to get Kirby Dach back from his injury soon which is like a trade deadline acquisition on its own so going for a rental doesn’t make sense. There are some stars out there that are worth saving and these three players stick out above the rest:
