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The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #281: The Bears Are (Not) Back, Baby!

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

But we get to dream for another week. Plus: The Blackhawks Just Made Fools Of Us; A Farewell To Mick McCall; Fire Lovie Smith!; Club DubPaul; Boylen vs. LaVine; Cole Hamels Will Be Missed; and Zack Wheeler Chooses Phillies Over Guaranteed Rate.


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SHOW NOTES
* 281.
:30: “No.”
* Chance of making the playoffs rise 2% – to 5%.
* Next: The toughest stretch of schedule of the season.
* Run, Mitchell, Run – seven shows ago!


* But . . .


* Coffman: “Tolliver was sticky.”


* Sweep the Sheds award winner Kevin Pierre-Louis stepped up.
* Coffman: “Cornelius Lucas is a better pass blocker than Bobbie Massie.”
* Trubisky vs. Miller:


* Simultaneous catch:


* Bears draft inventory worse than Sears.
* Tom Thayer 🙄
* The Sheehan/Burton/Sims era gives way to the Horsted/Holtz era.
* Coffman: “You get to dream for another week.”
39:19: The Blackhawks Just Made Fools Of Us.
* But they did just upset the Bruins.
43:24: A Farewell To Mick McCall.
* The Top 10 Worst Moments Of The McCall Era.
45:14: Fire Lovie Smith!
* He just lost to Mick McCall, for godsakes.
47:26: Club DubPaul.


* The hyphenated kid.
54:35: Boylen vs. LaVine.


57:22: Cole Hamels Will Be Missed.
* Addison Russell will not.
* In July 2014, the Cubs traded Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel to the A’s for Addison Russell, who was Oakland’s top prospect and the game’s 11th-best prospect overall. The Cubs also got the A’s number two prospect, outfielder Billy McKinney, and reliever Dan Straily.
Samardzija went 5-6 for the A’s, logging 111 2/3 innings along with a 3.14 ERA (3.30 FIP), which is better than I remember. His ERA with the Cubs up to that point that season was 2.83/3.09, but Oakland is in the American League, meaning he was facing DHs, not pitchers.
That winter, the A’s traded Samardzija to the White Sox along with Michael Ynoa in exchange for Marcus Semien, Josh Phegley, Chris Bassitt and Rangel Ravelo.
Hammel went 2-6 over 67 2/3 innings for the A’s, with a 4.26/5.10 ERA. He signed back with the Cubs the following year as a free agent.
Prior to being flipped to the A’s, Hammel was putting together the best season of his career under the tutelage of pitching coach Chris Bosio, with 2.98/3.19 ERA/FIP split. Upon his return to Chicago, he recorded seasons of 3.74/3.68 and 3.83/4.48. He then signed as a free agent with Kansas City.
The once-touted McKinney never appeared in a major league game with the Cubs. Two years after he was acquired, the Cubs traded McKinney to the Yankees in the Aroldis Chapman deal. Also going to New York: Gleyber Torres, of course, as well as Adam Warren and Rashad Crawford.
Two years after that, the Yankees traded McKinney to the Blue Jays along with Brandon Drury, for J.A. Happ.
McKinney’s career splits over 370 major league at-bats: .274/.422/.696.
Straily appeared in 13 2/3 innings over 7 games in the months after the Cubs acquired him, compiling an 11.85 ERA (4.38 FIP).
That winter, the Cubs traded Straily along with Luis Valbuena to the Astros for Dexter Fowler (!).
Straily has since played for the Padres, Reds, Marlins, Orioles and Phillies. He is currently a free agent.
He has a career 4.56 ERA (5.05 FIP) over 803 innings (he has spent some seasons as a starter)
* Also, this is how the A’s fared after acquiring Samardzija and Hammel, via Wikipedia:
“The Athletics continued to play well throughout July. Still, they failed to gain significant ground on the Angels. On July 31, with a scant 2.5 game lead over Los Angeles, the Athletics stunned the league by trading Yoenis Céspedes for all-star starter Jon Lester and outfielder Jonny Gomes. In the week immediately following the trade, things went well for the team; by August 9th, they had upped their lead over the Angels to four games. From that point forward, however, the A’s were met with disaster. An historic collapse, defined largely by ineffective hitting and a spate of narrow losses, saw Oakland tumble in the American League standings; all told, the team won just 16 of its final 46 games. The Athletics only managed to clinch an AL Wild-Card berth on the final day of the regular season. The team finished some ten games behind the Angels, who clinched the league’s best record with an impressive 98-64 finish.
“The Athletics met the Kansas City Royals in the 2014 American League Wild Card Game. The Athletics held a 7-3 lead over the Royals through seven innings; a furious Royals rally, however, saw the Royals tie the game by scoring three runs in the eighth inning and one run in the ninth. In the 12th inning, the Athletics’ took an 8-7 lead on an Alberto Callaspo line drive; the Royals, however, would again rally for a 9-8 walk-off victory (their first playoff win in 29 years). The Athletics did not reach the postseason again until the 2018 season.”
* The White Sox drafted Marcus Semien in the 34th round of the 2008 draft, but Semien did not sign with the team. The White Sox drafted him again in the 2011 draft, this time in the sixth round. He reached the majors in 2013 and played parts of two seasons with the Sox, slashing .240/.293/.380. He committed 17 errors during that time, including 10 at third base in 2014.
That winter, the White Sox traded Semien to the A’s along with Josh Phegley, Chris Bassitt and Rangel Ravelo in exchange for Jeff Samardzija and Michael Ynoa.
In Oakland, Semien committed 35 errors at shortstop is first season and 21 his second, and has slashed .258/.326/.434 over the course of his five years there, but last year he exploded for 33 home runs and 92 RBIs, good enough to finish third in MVP voting.
1:06:07: Zack Wheeler Chooses Family Over Guaranteed Rate.
* Madison Bumgarner up next to reject White Sox.
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STOPPAGE: 8:35
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Comments welcome.

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Posted on December 6, 2019