By Dan O’Shea

There’s a common understanding that power hitters will heat up along with the weather; that they will start blasting home runs with greater frequency as the majority of MLB cities migrate out of chilly spring into hot, humid summer.
It has something to do with arm hair having lower density or some such thing – I don’t know. You should probably ask Tom Skilling.
Anyway, I’ve always though the weather gets too much credit for home run production. Sluggers hitting more home runs during June, July and August than in April could have to do with plenty of other things – after a couple months of the season, for example, hitters have their timing locked in, and they are certainly more familiar with pitchers and what they might throw in given situation.
Fans of the Cubs and White Sox had better hope there is something to this hot weather home run business. Our hometown teams have two of the most disappointing sluggers in the league right now in Aramis Ramirez and Adam Dunn. The way they both look right now, I’m not sure even a string of 100-degree days will get them going.
It’s a good bet, though, that with the turning of the calendar to June, we’ll start seeing more round-trippers, maybe even by some guys who aren’t usually among the league leaders. Here are a few candidates:

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Posted on June 8, 2011

By Dmitry Samarov

Sunday afternoon, while working on the picture of Jake Peavy for this column, I listened as Peavy threw three perfect innings, then gave up six runs in the fourth and was removed from the game with a pulled groin.
In four innings, Peavy demonstrated the three modes of this year’s Sox team: great, awful, and just plain unfortunate.

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Posted on June 8, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

Frank Thomas has always been huge, but the affable Big Hurt more than filled the screen last Thursday morning on the WGN-TV news. He was there to hype Going Yard, The Everything Home Run Book, where the book jacket tells us that Thomas wrote the foreward and provided commentary for veteran sportswriter Lew Freedman. Frank was to appear at a suburban book store that evening to meet fans and sign autographs.
Thomas knows a few things about hitting home runs, having belted 521 over 19 seasons. Not bad for a guy who prided himself on hitting for average while utilizing a working knowledge of the strike zone. Perhaps his finest skill was hitting strikes and being content to draw a walk. For his career, the Big Hurt had a .419 on-base percentage, which ranks him 20th all-time.

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Posted on June 8, 2011

By Jim Coffman

My daughter Alana had a full slate of youth soccer games this weekend . . . and a couple baseball games, one of which was called after a half-inning due to the lightning storm that blasted through the area Saturday afternoon. It was probably excessive; it was definitely fun.
Regarding “probably excessive,” ever more attention is being paid to how youth sports are administered in this area and across the nation. There is growing awareness that many kids do too much, too soon. Alana’s parents are hyper-aware of this. Her dad (that would be me, of course) is on the Chicago board of the Positive Coaching Alliance (an organization devoted to improving youth sports coaching and the youth sports experience). But we also want her to have the most fun possible.

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Posted on June 8, 2011

By Marty Gangler

If the 2011 Cubs season was a hand of hold ’em poker, you would have to say that Mike Quade was dealt a 9-4 off-suit.
For you people who don’t know poker, that is a lousy two-card hand.
Not as bad as, say, the Astros’ 7-2 off-suit, but a 9-4 is pretty bad. No matter what five community cards are on the table, it’s hard to make something out of 9-4 off-suit.
But in poker, as in life, as in baseball, there are always more than just the cards you are dealt. You have to play your hand and get creative with your bets, checks, calls, etc.
I mean, sure you can be happy just to be playing cards for a living seeing as how most schleps are breaking their backs for a paycheck or slowly killing themselves in a cube somewhere, but you are playing for high stakes and can’t just be happy to be there because you’ll get pantsed. And there are, unfortunately, no cash awards given to the nicest player at the table. If anything being the nicest guy at the poker table shows that you lack a killer instinct, a full understanding of what you are dealing with, or a poker face – which in poker is kind of important.
So yeah, I’m talking about my once-loved (by me) manager Mike Quade. There is nothing wrong with being a good guy and believing in your players, but you have to know that when you are holding a 9-4 off-suit in a big pot, Albert Pujols is calling your bluff, your table presence is for shit and big Al came to play some cards.

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Posted on June 6, 2011

By Carl Mohrbacher

Who is the most disappointing Cub so far? I mean, there are so many to choose from.
– Dan M, Des Moines IA
That’s a hard question to answer, but thanks to this exclusive video from inside the Cubs clubhouse of his recent visit, we now know how Kurgan would answer that question.
What metaphorical crime would you compare the 2011 season to?
-Clancy W, Springfield IL
There’s nothing metaphorical about the holes I’ve punched in my drywall to this point or my various stud-related knuckle injuries.
The 2011 season is an acquaintance breaking into your home with the intention of robbing you and failing, but successfully suing you after suffering an injury slipping on one of your kid’s roller skates.

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Posted on June 2, 2011

By Dan O’Shea

If your fantasy baseball team is in second or third place as we move into June, then you have plenty to be happy about. But, there’s another way to look at it: Why aren’t you in first place? Is the first place team that much better, or is your team, hobbled by one or two troubling stat categories, just not winning by large enough margins?
If you have a player you have been wanting to drop, or have someone you can stash on the DL to free a roster spot, now’s the time to act. Here’s a bit of potential help for whatever stat is ailing:

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Posted on June 1, 2011