What I Expect to See From the Bulls This Season

The final preseason game is in halftime as I start this. There's actually a lot going on right now. There's a ton of rumors surrounding Joe Maddon becoming the new manager of the Cubs, despite the Cubs already having Rick Renteria as their manager, who had a very solid year this past year outside of a few questionable moves. I won't really bother with that much since this is a Bulls post, but it's not going to be a long one, so I will say that when it was first announced that Maddon had stepped down I didn't even think twice about it as far as the Cubs were concerned, and actually thought he might go to the White Sox since I really don't think Ventura is more than a bench coach type of guy right now. Anyway, I heard there were rumors linking Maddon to the Cubs and thought that there was about a 25% chance of anything happening, heard that there were rumors that the two sides were absolutely talking, and thought maybe 40% chance at that point. The silence from the Cubs front office has made me go to about 60% chance of it happening, since they could easily just deny it, and now there's even rumors that they just need to work out certain things, which puts it around 80% to me, that is, of course, assuming those rumors are true, which is far from a sure thing in itself.

Anyway, the Bulls are what this post is about. There's a lot of high expectations for the Bulls this season. They're deeper than they've been since the 2010/2011 season, and they look like they're even more balanced than they were that season. So what do I think will happen this season? In the end, I think it will be a successful season, but how will it play out? That's what the rest of this post is for.

Worst Things About the Cubs Top Prospects

The Cubs' minor league system is considered to be the best in baseball. Lately there have been a lot of top prospect lists to go out, and many have said that once the top 100 prospects in baseball go out, the Cubs could have as many as 7 or 8 of the top 100, and that's after Alcantara and Baez are off the boards. Anyway, I'm going to go against my own wishes and include anyone who still has their rookie eligibility, so Jorge Soler will be in there.

Anyway, the point of this is to point out the biggest weakness of each of the Cubs top prospects. This isn't meant to be a negative post, because that's impossible with this group. What I'm going to do is take each of the top 10 position player and pitching prospects in the Cubs organization and say what their biggest negative is. After that I'll do a sentence or two to say what it really means, and spoiler alert, it's usually going to be pretty positive. So, with that, let's go!

This May Hurt, But We're Doing It (and other tidbits)

The Emery (and Trestman) era is over for the Chicago Bears. So, I thought it would be fun (well, not really fun, but informative) to look back at the Phil Emery era and the moves he made, starting with the draft, then going over other major personnel moves. I'll also take a look at all of the other Chicago teams and what's been going on with them.

John Sickels Releases Top 20 Prospects List for the Cubs

So, just like last year, I will be going over the top 20 prospects list that John Sickels just released. Like I've said before, there is no way to know for sure where these prospects will end up, but John Sickels has always seemed to be the most accurate of those who make these predictions. I won't copy and paste his article, but you can read it here. I will quote him on occasion and give his list and grade, then give my comments. The article is actually almost 2 weeks old (Dec. 7), but I was hoping he'd do the White Sox soon after and I could do it all at once. He didn't, and when he does the White Sox, I'll do one for them as well.

Jon Lester Is A Cub

There isn't a better way to say it, Cubs win! Jon Lester made his decision shortly after midnight this morning, about 17 1/2 hours ago. It was an interesting situation for me, as I had been following it on Bleacher Nation, and had all but given up on a decision before going to sleep. Right before laying my head down for the night, I decided to check one more time on my iPad, and lo and behold, less than a minute before I had checked he had made that decision. Needless to say, my bedtime went back about 2 hours and I enjoyed a beer to celebrate. So anyway, let's look at everything this says for the Cubs next year.

Winter Meetings Going Strong!

The winter meetings are nearing the end of their second day, and there has been a ton of news regarding the Chicago baseball teams. So far each team as acquired 2 key players, and neither seems to be letting up, as they're both still rumored to be feeling out other moves as well.

Is Jimmy Butler the Best Shooting Guard in the League?

After today's game against the New Jersey Nets I'm starting to think that Jimmy Butler may be the best shooting guard in the NBA right now. Well, at least so far this season, the sample size of him playing like he has been this year is only 15 games, but I'm going to look over the competition and tell you my final view on if he really is the best shooting guard in the league this season.