Getting Caught Up

Another week down in Chicago sports, and this one carried a little more positivity than some of the other past weeks. The Bears actually won, the Cubs made a trade and may very well sign a major free agent soon, and the Bulls and Blackhawks have, for the most part, been winning. Let's get going.

So the Bears season is virtually over. Sure, they aren't mathematically eliminated, but even if they win out, they aren't guaranteed to go into the playoffs, oh, and they won't win out, I can guarantee that. Still, it was a decent win for the Bears, as any win is a decent or better one. The Bears still seemed like they were doing everything they could to lose the way, one meaningful interception from Cutler (and another meaningless one at the end of the first half, the way the plays were being called, it didn't seem like the Bears were trying to score anyway). He still threw 3 touchdown passes and for well over 300 yards at a 75% clip. The defense was solid against a bad offense, but the bottom line is that they won.

With the season pretty much over, I'm sure there's plenty of fans hoping the Bears tank. My view is that I don't condone tanking at all, but if the Bears did lose out, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to me.

Onto the Cubs. the Maddon signing is official, and today they traded away Arodys Vizcaino. Vizcaino still had some slight hope of becoming a starter, but it was very unlikely. He still has a good chance of being a very good bullpen pitcher though, but it won't be with the Cubs. Instead, the Cubs have taken Tommy La Stella from the Braves. La Stella is a second baseman who doesn't strike out too much, walks a lot, and plays solid defense for the most part at 2nd. He has almost no power, but is a scrappy, hustle type of player. Supposedly the Cubs have wanted him for a while.

I'm still a little uncertain how I feel about this trade. The Cubs do desperately need someone who can get on base and hopefully rub off on other players (although that rarely happens with things like taking walks). However, unless there's still a lot of uncertainty with Vizcaino, I really don't see why they'd get rid of him for a guy with a fairly low ceiling. However, they may see something more in him than I see from the scouting reports that I've read and his numbers. The big red flag on La Stella that I saw was that it seems like he fell out of favor with the Braves late last year. Still though, good plate discipline is something very welcome on this team.

On top of that trade, the Cubs also seem to be getting ready to sign Russell Martin. The 31 year old catcher brings a decent bat (good bat for a catcher) that has decent power in it. His real calling card though is his glove. He's one of those catchers that calls a great game and makes his pitchers better. He has won won both the Gold Glove and the Silver Slugger at times in his career, and he really should have added another Gold Glove this past month, but Yadier Molina got it on reputation. The supposed deal is a 4 year deal worth $64 million, which would be amazing for the Cubs due to Martin's age (even by the end of that deal he might be a bit old to be an every day catcher). This would be a deal that would really show that the Cubs are ready to start competing in the NL, although I don't see them in the playoffs until 2016 at earliest.

The White Sox have been quiet recently, but some reports are that they may go for a back end of the bullpen arm. This is something the White Sox could really use, as health has been an issue, as well as the bullpen just generally being weak. Andrew Miller's name has been thrown around a bit, and he would be excellent an excellent addition.

The Bulls and Blackhawks look to be in good shape. The Bulls are coming off of a disappointing loss to the Pacers, but also beat the Raptors on the road a couple of days before. They're at 7-3 right now after finishing off their pretty easy start to their schedule. Their biggest problem at this point seems to be not putting forth a strong 48 minutes, as 2 of their losses has seen them suddenly turn it on when it was too late, and in many of their wins already they have almost given the game away late after clearly being the better team earlier in the game. The Blackhawks won tonight and are now at 10-7-1 on the season (21 pts), but in the west they're still just tied for 8th right now.

Anyway, not a whole lot to go on there, I know, it's still at a pretty stale time right now, especially with how bad the Bears have been (probably the most disappointing Bears team in my lifetime). However, there could be some major changes coming soon.