Sports
Only 14 days until the baseball season starts again. Go Cubs go!
It is nearly 40 degrees outside and the first Cubs spring training game is on the air. Spring is coming.
Smith, Baines elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
Smith, 61, retired after the 1997 season with more saves than any player before him. His saves still rank third all-time behind Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman. A seven-time All-Star and three-time Rolaids Relief Man Award winner, Smith led his league in saves four times, including a career-best 47 in 1991, and had 30-plus saves in 10 of his 18 seasons with the Cubs, Red Sox, Cardinals, Yankees, Orioles, Angels, Reds and Expos.
Lee Smith more or less ascended to the closer role after Bruce Sutter went to the Cardinals, and was the Cubs closer through my high school years. He was a classic power pitcher who occasionally would grove a fastball for a home run. Sutter is in the Hall of Fame and I think it’s right that Smith joins him.
The Packers have fired Mike McCarthy, which given they will not make the playoffs, is in my opinion the remaining best outcome for this season.
I am a long critic of McCarthy. I don’t like how he contributed to running Brett Farve out of town. The team has clearly regressed in the last few years and while there has been a depletion of talent, McCarthy did not adjust well the personnel that was available.
Aaron Rodgers has been playing hurt and there isn’t enough talent on the offense to help pick him up a bit. I expect that if the Packers lose a couple more games to be completely eliminated from the playoffs, Rodgers will go on IR.
The real downside is that all the injuries provide an excuse to keep Mike McCarthy.
Ten years ago I was bemoaning another Cubs playoff loss. Ten yeas later, another Cubs playoff series loss. Of course the big difference is that within those years the Cubs won it all. :)
So, it turns out the 2018 Astros were not any better than the 2017 Cubs.
Nothing is static, particularly baseball. It is not likely your team will be exactly the same, someone is going to get injured. More importantly, the competition is not going to stay the same, they are going to get better.
The gist of the articles currently being written about Aaron Rodgers and the Packers is that the Packers are wasting what time they have left with Aaron. Frankly, I had the same complaints about how the Packer’s treated the second half of Brett Farve’s career.
You have one of the best, if not the best, quarterbacks in the league, but you do not keep him surrounded by good talent. Good receivers, running backs, offensive line, or defense. You put in place a coach who frankly doesn’t appear to have a sense of urgency.
The Packers were very fortunate to have drafted Aaron and that he was better than they most likely thought when he was drafted. Most teams do not replace one hall of fame quarterback with another hall of fame quarterback. It is not likely they will do the same when it comes time for Aaron to step down, and that means that every season that Aaron plays in which you don’t win a Super Bowl could be another year added to many, many years of not winning one.
I disagree a bit with Epstein’s view on the leadoff spot in the Cubs lineup. It clearly has been a problem, but it is also about the 2nd spot. When the Cubs have had success it has been due to the catalyst in the 1 and 2 spots in the lineup.
Theo Epstein on the Cub’s hitters:
It’s probably time to stop evaluating this in terms of talent and start evaluating it in terms of production
Yes, exactly! Looking forward on the conclusions and actions taken as a result of such an evaluation.