By Roger Wallenstein

At 3 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, this silliness known as the Trade Deadline will be behind us. It can’t come too soon.
Not that there is a problem with players being dealt to new clubs. That practice has been part of Organized Baseball since the beginning.
Granted, until 40 years ago with the ascension of the Players Association, the athletes were completely at the mercy of the owners in terms of where they would be performing. Nowadays free-agents-to-be like Jeff Samardzija simply need to be patient and pitch where they are told until they can entertain offers from anyone.
What is redundant and bothersome is all the blather about buyers or sellers, who is going where, who are the best prospects, and which rent-a-player is most likely to make a difference. I have a lot of company from those who much prefer the action on the field to all the rumors and conjecture.

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Posted on July 27, 2015

By Marty Gangler

Today’s Cub Factor is all about loss. And not just losing on the field, because the Cubs sure did a lot of in the last week. It’s about the biggest loss on the roster in some time. Yes friends, I’m talking about the loss of Edwin Jackson.
The Cubs parted ways with E-Jax since our last installment of the Cub Factor and boy, was he missed. He could have easily got to pitch in at least three games in the last week in his “eat innings in mop-up duty in games they have little chance of winning” role.
Just so weird that the Cubs had so few of these games they had little chance of winning up until the point when they DFA’d E-Jax; then they got three in a week.
And what is the whole “DFA” thing about? Technically it means “designated for assignment,” but I always thought that was odd. Like you are assigning them a project or homework or something. So, with this in mind we here at the Cub Factor have decided to create a list of assignments that should be given to our newest ex-cub, Edwin Jackson.

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Posted on July 27, 2015

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Seasonal baseball disorder in reverse. Plus: The Same Old New Jay Cutler; The Chicago Fire Did Something This Week; Chicago Sky Still Rolling; and Duck, North Carolina.

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Posted on July 24, 2015

By Dan O’Shea

Late July is when the portion of the brain that has been entirely devoted to fantasy baseball since April starts to yield some space to a few inklings, thoughts and prognostications regarding fantasy football. I’m not ready to unveil my top pre-draft position rankings just yet, but here are a few points I’m mulling over as I prepare my list:
Does Adrian Peterson, RB, MIN, deserve to be the No. 1 fantasy draft pick this year, with his contract issues settled? I’ve read some observations that a restructured contract was the only thing standing between A.P. and a massive season to come. I don’t know about that. He’s 30 years old and has to shake off some rust, though he’s also in “ridiculously good shape.” He also returns to an offense, headed by second-year QB Teddy Bridgewater, that is likely to lean more than ever on him as a rusher and give him more work as a receiver. I’ll tell you right now he’s one of my top two fantasy players overall.

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Posted on July 23, 2015

Let It Ride On Babe The 50-Year-Old Filly

“An elephant race through Chicago in 1935 is among one million minutes of archive footage being uploaded to YouTube.”

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Posted on July 22, 2015

On The Streets Of Chicago, With No Time For Taylor Swift

1. BMX Day in Chicago.
From BMX Union:

Saturday, July 18th was international BMX day. Monster Energy threw a massive 5 event day with Street Series jams going down in Riga, Latvia, Glasgow, Scotland, Nagoya, Japan, Chicago, Illinois and San Francisco, California. BMX Union is excited to present to you a video from the Monster Energy Street Series stop in Chicago! Despite being incredibly hot with temps in the 90’s, there was a massive turn out of riders. This video features riding from Timmy Theus, Dan Kruk, Trent McDaniel, Joe Jarvis, Dylan Gold, Alex Duleba, Mike Stahl, Austin Auginbaugh, Julias Carrasquillo, Dylan McCauley, Mike Strong and Carlo Hoffmann! Filmed and edited by Andrew Brady.

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Posted on July 21, 2015

By Roger Wallenstein

I didn’t want to fall for the hype, but when the succession of convertibles carrying members of the 2005 World Champion White Sox rolled in from center field on Saturday, my interest was piqued.
I mean, that was a decade ago, a piece of history. I’m mired in the present, trying to digest this latest dismal edition of the South Side team. The short speeches by Aaron Rowand, Jermaine Dye, Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez, Jon Garland, Scott Podsednik, Paul Konerko, and Ozzie Guillen were not particularly unique. All of them thanked the fans for their support and said how happy they were to return to the scene of their greatest success.
I watched on TV, including the ensuing 7-6 13-inning loss to the front-running Royals. The Sox made a gallant effort, staging a ninth-inning rally after two outs to tie the game at 6 on J.B. Shuck’s two-run double, before Lorenzo Cain’s home run decided things.
But evidently Saturday’s scene made an impression because Sunday morning I was glued to the video highlights of the playoffs and World Series from 10 years ago. A.J. “stole” first base; Paulie smacked the grand slam; and Scotty Pods’ walk-off sunk the Astros. Geoff Blum lined an unlikely homer in the third game in Houston, and Juan Uribe flew into the seats to snag that pop-up. All were delicious moments, hurling me back in time to when it felt really special and good to be a Sox fan.

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Posted on July 20, 2015

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Damn Cardinals. Plus: Duncan Keith In The Pantheon; Blackhawks South; Elena Delle Donne, Superstar; and The Chicago Fire Actually Did Do Something This Week.

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Posted on July 17, 2015

By Thomas Chambers

The good news is that California Chrome is still alive.
There is no bad news, thankfully, but there’s a lot of sad news, all centering around a group of people – Dumb-Ass Partners Stable – who were and are ill-equipped to have been given a horse as magnificent as California Chrome. And a racetrack that I am glad did not get the chance to exploit this horse and the fans who would have come out to see him.

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Posted on July 16, 2015

By Dan O’Shea

The second half of the baseball season is a few days away, and without any roster changes to busy myself with during the All-Star break, I thought I’d make a few predictions on what the rest of the season holds:
Player Most Likely To Produce Second-Half Value Who Currently Has 0% Ownership in Yahoo! Leagues: Jonathan Herrera, 2B/3B/SS, Cubs.
He’s 7-for-18 in the last two weeks with one HR, four RBI and four runs scored. He seems destined for more playing time with the Cubs for a variety of reasons: 1) Addison Russell’s development at the major league level has stalled. He either needs rest or more time in the minors or both. Barring a trade Herrera appears most likely to benefit. 2) Kris Bryant needs rest. 3) Starlin Castro is either headed out of town or needs competition for starts. Herrera won’t hit many more HRs, but he is a big SB threat waiting for a bigger chance.

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Posted on July 15, 2015