Couple Steps Back From The Ledge

There has been plenty of angst and frustration about both Chicago baseball teams at the beginning of this young season. Both teams fans are not happy about sub .500 records, and there has been plenty of "Season's Over" feelings of panic to go around. Before I felt the need to go the ledge with my baseball emotions, a friend of mine brought this to my attention today. It goes back through the last ten seasons and shows teams that had awful starts to their seasons, yet eventually made the playoffs. Here's the link to it here. So despite how icky the season feels so far, it's still VERY early.

1. 2009 Yankees were 13-15 on May 7

2. 2009 Twins were six games under (56-62) on August 17 and won the division

3. 2008 Phillies were 4-6 and then 8-10

4. 2007 Rockies were 5-8 and then 18-27 and went to the series

5. 2007 Yankees lost 7 straight from April 20-27 to fall to 18-23 and were 26-31 in early June but rebounded to make the playoffs

6. 2006 A's were 23-29 at one point and reached the ALCS

7. 2005 Astros started 15-30 and went to the series

8. 2003 Twins started 9-12 and won the AL Central

9. 2002 Angels started 6-14 and won the World Series

10. 2002 A's started 19-25 and won 103 games

You Mean THIS Guy Might Be A Dirtball?!

Sorry I've been a little late to the party on this one. In case you don't know, the man pictured is none other than the recently investigated for sexual assault Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger. Our friends at thesmokinggun.com provided a whole lot of details for us with a copy of the police report found here. There is also a report regarding another woman who was possibly sexually assaulted by the two time Super Bowl Winner found here. So if you're keeping track at home, that's three women now who have alleged that Big Ben and his Little Ben have a problem taking things that don't belong to them.

Make no mistake about it, even though he hasn't been found guilty, or lost a lawsuit, or even been charged with a crime, the damage is done. Roethlisberger has exposed himself (and his grayish wiener if deadspin is to be believed) as a complete Dirtball, plain and simple. Do we really need him to be found guilty, libel, or even charged with a crime, to figure out that this guy has problems ranging from serious to criminal with drinking and women? This latest one especially bothers me because this wasn't some woman that targeted him for money. This is some random girl partying with her friends that was served (even though she was underage) alcohol by Ben, and then locked in a bathroom with him by his bodyguards - of which Roethlisberger pulled his Little Ben out before he even walked in the bathroom door! Add all of it up and it becomes clear that Roethlisberger is hardly deserving of the benefit of the doubt in the Court of Public Opinion.

Enter Judge Goodell. He went on the record and stated that Roethlisberger HAD violated the Personal Conduct Policy. Goodell also went on to say that a player does not need to be convicted or charged with a crime to be in violation of it, and that a pattern of behavior plus bad judgements which reflect poorly on the player themselves, his teammates, his team, and the entire league are enough to demand punishment. Goodell also stated that punishment is forthcoming.

The Steelers are expecting a 4 game suspension. That seems realistic to some degree, but that's without knowledge of how Goodell's meeting with Ben actually went. If it went bad, meaning Roethlisberger didn't impress Goodell with any degree of remorse, or show any trace of a guy who normally makes good decisions but has just been unlucky, Goodell could impose a "conditional" suspension like he did with Michael Vick. That means the actual length of the suspension isn't immediately determined.

Whatever Ben does eventually get suspended for, it will have an impact on his trade value. If the suspension is announced on Wednesday, it will most likely have an impact on the Steelers draft day moves as well. If the Steelers are going to be consistent, they need to trade Ben like they did Santonio Holmes. The Steelers have long taken an arrogant stance of pride regarding their "family" franchise - even though that's a bunch of garbage as numerous criminals have worn a Steeler uniform over the past 40 years (i.e. Ernie Holmes, Greg Lloyd, and Justin Strzelczyk to name a few).

Let's just see how tight that "family" really is with this one. I can already hear Whitey Guccione laughing hysterically...

Dong-Whipped

If someone would have told The Beard ten years ago, or fifteen years ago, or better yet twenty years ago, that the Bulls would be in the playoffs against the Cleveland Cavaliers...and the prospect of watching the series would seem like such a chore, that person would have won a lot of money from me.

Nevertheless here we are. The Bulls have made one of the most perfunctory playoff runs which - minus a few exceptions - is playing out the way it is supposed to with the Cavs taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. We've already discussed why this Bulls team has made a playoff appearance completely uninteresting - Vinny will be fired no matter what, the expiring contracts to free up money for free agents next year, blah blah, blah...The only thing left really is to point out the obvious even further.

The obvious being that the Cavs are simply a much better team. You get the sense that they are simply toying with the Bulls the past two games. Tonight's game really summed up this matchup pretty succinctly. The Bulls were down ten, then with superb efforts from Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Flip Murray, and Luol Deng, scratched and clawed their way back into the game, and had a lead in the second half at one point. Then with the score 85-82 Cavs, LeBron decided to be LeBron by dominating the fourth quarter on his way to 40 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists.

The one thing that I will point out in terms of things I can look for, is that we're learning something about LeBron that the jury was largely still out on. We're learning just how much of a Killer Instinct he possesses, particularly against guys dumb enough to talk sh*t about him like Joakim Noah. Noah has dug his own verbal grave a couple times in this series with his opinions on Kevin Garnett and the city of Cleveland in general, but in case you don't remember, there was also an incident between LeBron and Noah in December this season and here's the video footage of it. Noah took exception to LeBron's frequent "rug cutting" that he's displayed over his career, and when Noah told him so, LeBron didn't appreciate the criticism.

With 4:30 left in the fourth quarter tonight, LeBron hit a 3 pointer over Noah, glared at the Bulls bench, and started dancing on his way to 11 straight points to close out the game. It's that kind of performance that tells me that LeBron does have the ability to turn on the switch and do what Doug Collins says the truly great players in the NBA know how to do - close out both the FIRST half and the SECOND half.

The Cavs Dong-Whipping of the Bulls will continue on Thursday night where it looks like they will complete the sweep on Sunday. The sooner the better in my odd little world because the sooner this season ends, the more interesting the Bulls will become as a subject.

Coping Skills

The best thing I can say about the White Sox start is, "It's still early". Other than that, they are playing woeful baseball right now. The pitching has been just fine more or less. The Sox are 7th in the Major Leagues in team ERA. Offensively though, they have been horrendous. Simply put, they can't get on base and when they do, they can't drive guys in.

Going into today the Sox are hitting .216 as a club. The only teams hitting worse than them? The Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros. On Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage are not much better as they are in the bottom third of baseball in both categories. I'd like to think they will all eventually hit, but knowing the White Sox they'll start hitting right when the pitching falls apart. Gavin Floyd's performance today didn't help convince me otherwise.

One of the things I like to do whenever the White Sox play like complete crap like they have is to look at the stats of guys the Sox said "see you later" to over the past two years. Sort of a "woulda, coulda, shoulda" torture I somehow take pleasure in against my better judgement (Stats through Saturday).

Hitters:
1. Scott Podsednik : .439 batting average, .521 OBP, 6 stolen bases.
2. Jim Thome : .238 B.A., .360 OBP, 2 Home Runs, 5 RBI.
3. Chris Getz : (15 Day DL) .207 B.A., .281 OBP, 0 H.R., 1 RBI
4. Josh Fields : (15 Day DL)
5. Nick Swisher : .222 B.A., .378 OBP, 1 H.R., 4 RBI
6. Orlando Cabrera : .234 B.A., .224 (you're reading it right) OBP, 2 HR, 8 RBI.
7. Juan Uribe : .333 B.A., .391 OBP, 0 H.R., 9 RBI

Pitchers:
1. Clayton Richard : 0-2, 4.38 ERA, WHIP 1.38, Opponents B.A. .271
2. Nick Masset : 2-1, 9.45 ERA, WHIP 2.10
3. D.J. Carrasco : 0-0, 5.40 ERA, WHIP 1.08
4. Octavio Dotel : 1-0, 5.40 ERA, WHIP 1.00
5. Javier Vazquez : 0-2, 9.82 ERA, WHIP 1.73
6. Jose Contreras : 0-0, 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.27 (4 GAMES NO WALKS!)

Despite Podsednik's freakish start (btw he'll return to reality soon), there's really not too many guys that were on this team in the past two seasons that Sox fans should really "miss". Juan Uribe and Jose Contreras were nice players, but I don't think they would solve the offensive problems on this team. So I feel a little better now.

At least we catch a break in the schedule next week with Tampa coming to town right? Ooops...

You Might Want To Re-Think This One O-Dawg

I meant to write about this yesterday but I was too busy re-attaching my crotch because it fell off when I initially read this. Orlando Hudson can't really be convinced Jermaine Dye isn't playing strictly because of racism can he? Hudson's not that clueless is he? Let me point a few things out to him, and anybody else who might agree with him:

1. Jermaine Dye has received at least three offers this offseason, two of which came from contenders in the Cubs and Brewers. The Nationals were the third team that's offered Dye a job. Dye turned down all three offers.

2. The money reportedly offered to Dye was around $3 million a season which for a 36 year old who can't play the field anymore and hit a walloping .179 and 7 home runs in the second half last season, is pretty fair compensation.

3. Jarrod Washburn and Braden Looper are out of work too. Washburn went 9-9 and was traded for at last years trade deadline. Braden Looper won 14 games last year. They also both happen to be white and (drum roll) OLD.

4. If Hudson is looking for a reason why Gary Sheffield is out of work, he only needs to look at his teammate Jim Thome. Thome is also a first ballot hall of famer, is also turning 40 this year, and is only working because he accepted a $1.5 million dollar deal which is HALF of what Dye was offered. Thome in case Hudson wasn't sure, is white.

5. Speaking of Jim Thome, he was also denied an offer from the White Sox this past offseason along with Jermaine Dye. Was he the victim of racism too? I'd like to think that wasn't the case. Also, is it really possible to claim Dye was not brought back by the White Sox because of racism when their general manager is black, and their manager is Venezuelan?

Hudson seems to be backing away from what he said according to this, but obviously he still feels racism is still a deciding factor in baseball decisions. That opinion is right up there along with Torii Hunter's "imposter's" theory regarding Latin American Black players in terms of unabashed ignorance.

If Hudson is looking for an -ism to explain Dye and Sheffield's predicament, ageism would be more accurate. Major League Baseball's days of throwing large dollars at guys 34 or older are long gone, especially in light of Testing for Performance Enhancing Drugs being implemented. Better still, Hudson can look at the contract of Alfonso Soriano. At 34, Soriano is clearly a player with diminished skills, yet his contract has him scheduled to be paid $18 million a season from now until 2014 when he will be 38 years old. Other General Managers see this, and it serves as quite the deterrent for them.

Can I say that racism has been eliminated from baseball, sports, or life? Absolutely not. Unfortunately for those of us living on planet earth, racism is still very much a part of our lives. What I can say for certain is that the days of the "Gentleman's Agreement" that prevented black players from playing 60-90 years ago, are thankfully long gone. Hudson and others can find evidence of this existing in Major League Baseball sponsored programs like R.B.I., and the annual Civil Rights Game that is played to honor the Civil Rights Movement, to embrace the history of Black players in Major League Baseball, and to generate interest for future black players in playing the game. Or better yet, Hudson and others can watch both white and black players wear #42 tomorrow to celebrate the legacy of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier 63 years ago. #42 being the ONLY number permanently retired throughout Major League Baseball.

Let's hope Hudson can permanently retire his antiquated and over-simplistic ideas that racial intolerance is the sole reason Dye and Sheffield are no longer playing, rather than dollars and cents/sense.

Apparently You CAN Screw Up A Cup Of Coffee...

The Bulls clinched the final spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs tonight beating the Charlotte Jordan's 98-89, but that's not what the main news story is.

In case you've been in a coma for the past 24 hours Yahoo Sports once again punked the Chicago Tribune's Bulls Beat Writer KC Johnson and broke the story of John Paxson shoving Vinny Del Negro on March 30 after Del Negro went over the allowable playing time minutes for Joakim Noah and his plantar fasciitis (aka "Carlos Quentin Disease"). Various sources have different takes on who initiated what and how often this sort of thing has happened. Gar Forman also did his perfunctory downplay statement, with a "Da Fiiiire and Da Passion" excuse, which anyone with a pulse knows that's B.S.

There's a million things about this story to be angry about, but I'll try to keep them as focused as I can. The first and most obvious to me, is how is Yahoo Sports breaking this story, and not the damn Chicago Tribune Bulls beat writer?! KC Johnson's official reason for not reporting it was "OUT OF RESPECT FOR VINNY". If I'm KC's boss at the Trib, my first reaction to that would be "WTF?!". My second reaction would be "YOU'RE FIRED!" That is so inexcusable it's almost sickening. "Respecting Vinny" is not KC's job description, it's reporting what he knows to be fact. He knew about it, yet chose to bury it for reasons that have nothing to do with journalism. If your respect for Vinny is too much for you to do your job, then go do something else KC.

As far as what actually happened, I'm of the opinion that John Paxson did in fact initiate the contact by putting his hands on Vinny. I was discussing this with a friend of mine today, John Paxson had already done enough to justify being fired before this incident ever took place. It's my contention that he ceased being able to do what's best for the franchise on December 24, 2007 when he fired Scott Skiles because Skiles was guilty of the crime of telling Paxson the truth - that this team couldn't win as currently constructed. Paxson disagreed and promptly fired him with a 9-16 record, and thus chased away one of the best young coaches in the NBA. Since Paxson's idiotic decision, Skiles has the Bucks in the playoffs this year after they were picked to finish dead last in the East and is being rumored as the Coach Of The Year winner.

Speaking of people who have done enough to be fired, the same thing can be applied to Vinny Del Negro. For people like Charles Barkley who look at the Bulls from 35,000 feet above, they see back to back playoff appearances with a largely mediocre team. For people who have actually paid attention to this team though, they see a team that lost to the Nets TWICE (2 of the Nets 12 wins), as well as a team that blew a 35 point lead and lost to the Kings this season. Why The Beard himself was calling for Vinny to be fired in December, yet it didn't happen. The initial rumor as to why that didn't happen was because the Bulls didn't want to get into a Jim Boylan Interim situation as they did in 2007-08, but the juiciest rumor I heard was that Paxson himself would have been named Head Coach, and he was unwilling to do that.

So factor all of these little things in, plus - according to one account- Paxson saying to Vinnie "I should have fired you a long time ago" and Vinny responding in kind with a "F*CK YOU! DO IT NOW THEN!" and it's pretty much academic that Paxson put his hands on him in my mind.

Bottom line, a house cleaning is order just on principle alone. Don't give me this excuse of "Well who do you hire then?" garbage. There are plenty of candidates that know not to let things escalate to that. Players putting their hands on each other is one thing. Management and front office employees - regardless of who started it - is a completely different issue altogether. It should never be tolerated by any organization worth it's salt, let alone an organization that is poised to make a run at the 2010 Free Agent Class I.E. LeBron James. It's already obvious Vinny is going to be launched after this season anyway. It would be best to launch Paxson too if you are trying to be taken seriously by the available free agents.

Let's hope that Jerry Reinsdorf feels the same way.

What Have We Learned?

Well it's been one week into the 2010 MLB Season, and both teams are 3-4. Let's get the obvious out of the way though. In the small sample size of seven games, it's virtually impossible to draw any conclusions on how this season will play out for either team. There's just simply not enough information, or real statistics, or overall rhythm - for lack of a better word - to have a firm grasp of what we're looking at. That being said, here's a few things that have caught The Beard's Eye so far:

Cubs :

• New year, same problem with Soriano. Not only is he hitting a paltry .143 with 1 HR, he made an awful error in the eight inning of Sunday's loss to the Reds. At least Lou Piniella realized that he can't make the same mistake twice and pulled Soriano late in Monday's game against the Brewers for defensive purposes.
• Bullpen continues to be a big issue. The Cubs are still full go with their plan to extend starters through the seventh inning as often as possible. Especially in light of John Grabow's struggles. Sean Marshall has pitched well though.
• Fukudome is doing his Red Hot April act again, as he's hitting .400 at the moment. As most Cub fans realize, he does this every season. In '08 he finished April hitting .327 and ended up with a .257 batting average. In '09 he finished April hitting .338 and ended up with a .259 batting average. Until he proves otherwise, expect a swoon coming...
• New pickup wise, Marlon Byrd has been EHHH. Xavier Nady has been good, and might be asked to do more with Derrick Lee having thumb issues. Tom Gorzelanny and Carlos Silva have pitched well so far, even though Silva's shoulder is a little ouchy.
• Zambrano continues to be a infuriatingly good despite having the mental temperament of a three year old. If he, Ryan Dempster, and Randy Wells continue to pitch the way they are capable of, and Ted Lilly becomes available, the pitching staff will be very will equipped to help the Cubs make their move towards first in the Central Standings.

White Sox :

• Well they planned on being in close games all season and so far that has been the case. Unfortunately they've been on the wrong side of those games. Two 5-3 losses to Cleveland and two 1 run losses to the Twins last week are tough losses to take. Thank goodness they were able to wake Mark Teahen up last night and let him know that the season started last week...
• For as largely impotent as the lineup has been to this point, one positive that should be pointed out is Alex Rios. He's hitting .250 and doesn't look nearly as lost at the plate as he did a season ago. However he might be overshadowed if Andruw Jones keeps swinging the hot bat he has going right now. It's also nice to see Carlos Quentin healthy again, even though historically that won't last.
• Like the Cubs, the White Sox have serious bullpen issues. Despite his El Duque impression on Sunday, Scott Linebrink still scares the hell out of me. Same goes for Randy Williams. Jenks is no cakewalk either anymore. It's pretty sad that Sergio Santos seems to be the most reliable outside of Thornton. Putz has been OK at least.
• Alexei Ramirez continues to be the Anti-Fukudome with another slow start at the plate in April. He has however made some incredible defensive plays so far, including one Monday night in the sixth inning against the Blue Jays that prevented two more runs from scoring and kept the White Sox in the game.
• Jake Peavy might seriously be injured . There have been whispers all spring that he has been battling arm problems and once again did not show the velocity he usually features. As a result, he's been getting knocked around pretty good so far. I really hope I'm imagining things, but I believe the Rogers Centre speedgun when it says "90 mph" instead of "95 mph".

Like I said, it's impossible and foolish to draw conclusions at this point. I still think both teams are better than .500 ballclubs. Plenty of season left to go.