Well, it was a little bit quieter this week, largely due to the All Star break. Still, there was news on the farm for both the Cubs and White Sox. Also, the Bulls introduced Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic. The Bears inch closer and closer to the start of training camp, and the Blackhawks had their convention this week, but I guess there's not a lot of news for that.
I'll start with the Blackhawks convention. Not a whole lot of news there, but it did look like a good time. It was great to see the tribute they gave to Pat Foley, who has been one of the best behind the mic for a long time. I also liked what he said about Ed Olczyk, who is also great in the booth. The player introductions looked fun, and Toews gave a good speech. Seeing the current Blackhawks, legends, and prospects was pretty cool too. There wasn't a whole lot said that was a surprise to anyone, but it looked like a good time.
Bulls news included Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic being introduced to the Chicago media. Mirotic does have some work to do on his English, but he should be fine with his translator, and especially Pau Gasol. I almost wish they had introduced them both together, but oh well, I'm not going to complain too much. The Bulls haven't stopped with Gasol though, they also brought Aaron Brooks on board, who can provide a very powerful offensive punch. This gives the Bulls a solid group of guys at the point guard spot. They have Rose, Hinrich, Brooks, and in case of emergency, Snell. I do worry a bit still since Rose has a bad injury history now, and Hinrich tends to break down as the season goes, but they at least have reasonable depth there now. Another thing that I should note is that during the introduction of, I think it was Mirotic, either Thibodeau or Foreman who mentioned that they were very impressed with Cameron Bairstow's summer league performance, and there are even rumors that the Bulls have made an offer to Bairstow.
So where does this leave the Bulls as far as their depth goes? Let's take a look (remember that past the third guy, usually the guys on the depth chart are for emergency situations):
PG: Derrick Rose, Kirk Hinrich, Aaron Brooks, Tony Snell
SG: Jimmy Butler, Tony Snell, Aaron Brooks, Kirk Hinrich, Doug McDermott, Mike Dunleavy
SF: Mike Dunleavy, Doug McDermott, Jimmy Butler, Tony Snell, Nikola Mirotic
PF: Pau Gasol, Taj Gibson, Nikola Mirotic, Cameron Bairstow, Joakim Noah, Doug McDermott
C: Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol, Taj Gibson, Cameron Bairstow, Nikola Mirotic
Like I put in parentheses above, past a certain point, guys are emergency options. Tony Snell is an emergency point guard, McDermott and Dunleavy (at this point in his career) are probably not good SG options, but if they have to be put into that role, I think they can handle it and at least not be a disaster. Nikola Mirotic is supposedly very quick and fluid for a guy his size, but I wouldn't put him in the front of a depth chart at the 3 just yet. Also, I think Dunleavy is the starter for now there, but that can change by the start of the season if McDermott knocks him off of there. As for the bigs, word has it that Pau is going to start at the 4, but I can see the big man spots being more of a rotation with only a couple of guys that only play one or the other (even Noah can be the 4). The current roster now consists of 12 players, so there is still 1 more player that needs to be added to reach the minimum. I'm thinking they add one more big, or maybe another point guard, one more of the pass first variety to add a little bit of injury depth behind Hinrich and Rose.
Next up, I'm going to put how many players at each position are ones that are more likely to be injured.
PG: 2 (Rose, Hinrich)
SG: 1 (Hinrich)
SF: 0
PF: 2 (Gasol, Noah)
C: 2 (Noah, Gasol)
So in other words, looking at the type of guy the Bulls could pick up, point guard will probably be the best option for that last roster spot. Jameer Nelson is out there, but I doubt he'll want to play for what the Bulls can offer. I believe Earl Watson and Luke Ridnour are both out there, they may be more realistic options for the Bulls.
Okay, enough Bulls talk for now, I just get carried away a bit with the roster starting to take form, especially with a roster that may wind up being very deep (depending on how McDermott, Bairstow, and Mirotic turn out). So, to the Bears. There is nothing as far as actual news goes, but at this point you can still take solace in knowing that training camp is not too far off. July 24 is the report date, and July 25 is when it all gets started. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that means that next week there may actually be something Bears related worth talking about. There still won't be any huge news then, most likely, but we'll be able to start to get a better idea of how players are doing. Then the preseason will start with the first game being on Friday, August 8, just 2 weeks after training camp starts. It's coming soon everyone, the football season is coming soon!
Chicago White Sox news is here as well. No, they're not in the heat of the wildcard race, they're still more than 5 games and 5 teams out, but they have announced that first round pick Carlos Rodon will make his debut in Arizona next week. When it was first reported it sounded like they were saying that the team planned to bring him up to the big leagues next month, but that's not the case, don't let them confuse you like they did to me. Anyway, they have made it clear that he will be working out of the bullpen. That's the smart thing to do with any college pitcher since they just got done throwing a college season. Rodon has had plenty of rest though, but either way, they're doing the smart thing.
On the Cubs front, there's good news that actually relates to the big league club, but sadly, it doesn't have anything to do with the team's record. That good news is that Anthony Rizzo, at 23 home runs, is now tied for the NL league lead in home runs. He has matched last season's home run total, and is also only 41 hits away from last season's total. He's also 23 walks away from matching last season's walk total. In other words, he's having more than just a bounce back year, he's having a great year by any standards.
As for the news on the farm for the Cubs, I wrote about them earlier this week, but there were some very good hitting performances this week. One night saw 2 cycles, by Albert Almora and Mark Zagunis. Also, we had a night where Soler, Russell, Bryant, and Baez all hit home runs. Then the next night Bryant and Baez went deep again. The Tennessee game was postponed, so who know what would have happened if that game had been played. Either way, Addison Russell seems to have snapped out of his mini-slump that he was in, he had 2 home runs today. Maybe I was wrong earlier this week about him not being a major power prospect.
One last note on the baseball front is that the deadline for signing draft picks has now passed. The White Sox got 30 of their 40 picks signed, leaving one top 10 pick unsigned. The Cubs signed 27 of them, getting all of the overslot picks past the first few rounds signed. Of course, I'm not certain on the White Sox signings. The source was mlb.com, but I noticed with the Cubs there were a few listed as unsigned that actually did sign with the Cubs, so I'm not 100% on that 30 out of 40 picks. Either way, anyone unsigned as of now is going back into a future draft.
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