What's Wrong with Chicago Baseball?

Before this season began, Chicagoans had some high expectations for their baseball teams. The Cubs were considered a massive favorite in the NL Central, and the White Sox were considered to have just as much of a chance as any to win the AL Central. Now, as April is ending, the Cubs stand at 10-10 (awaiting the result of tonight's game, and the Sox are 11-10. The White Sox find themselves .5 games back of division-leading Kansas City, while the Cubs are 4 games adrift of 1st in the central, behind the division leader Cardinals, who are playing out of their mind. Both the Cubs and Sox have a negative run differential, and both teams seem to be playing without a certain level of confidence. This is odd in both cases, as Ozzie Guillen has always tried to promote his win or die trying, nothing to lose, leave everything on the field attitude, and the Cubs simply should be playing with confidence because they're the most talented team in the division. Currently, the Cubs are getting very good production from most of their hitters, with Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome leading the way. They are not, however, getting anything from Derrek Lee, who may just be getting too old to be an everyday player, Milton Bradley, who is already showing signs that he is having trouble adjusting, and Geovany Soto, who may be experiencing a "sophomore slump". These three are batting .200, .097, and .111, respectively, going into tonight's game. They also had a combined 2 HR and 13 RBI prior to tonight's game. The Cubs' pitching, as a whole, has been quite sub-par. Ted Lilly has their lowest SP ERA, at 3.80. Zambrano's is 4.64 and Dempster's is 5.40. As far as Zambrano's ERA goes, its safe to say that eventually it will drop. He's been generally getting rather unlucky this year, and has proven in years past to be a better pitcher than a 4.64 ERA. Ryan Dempster, however, is a little more concerning. He has simply pitched very poorly, and unlike Zambrano, he is not a proven horse in the rotation. While I am not saying that last season was a fluke for Dempster, I don't think that it was entirely representative of his abilities as a starting pitcher, in that he did better than he is capable of. At the end of the day, the Cubs are still the favorite in the NL central, especially with the Cardinals not having Chris Carpenter for several months. I don't see them keeping up this pace, and the Cubs definitely have the talent to win over a 162 game season.

The White Sox, at 11-10, are not so far adrift of their preseason expectations, as they were not considered such a huge favorite in their division. They are, however, still playing significantly below their potential. Thus far, they've been given great production from Mark Buehrle and John Danks, who both have ERAs that are 3.00 or less. Bartolo Colon has, at times, looked like his old self, and at other times, looked like Carlos Silva, and his current ERA of 4.15 reflects that. A major concern for Sox fans up to this point must be Gavin Floyd. Floyd, who had a breakout season last year, currently has a 5.52 ERA and has looked atrocious. His WHIP of 1.77 is reminiscent of Jeff Weaver's Seattle Mariners days, and he is extremely fortunate to have a 2-2 record. On the offensive side of the ball, Carlos Quentin is showing that last season's power surge was no fluke, as he is leading the AL with 8 HR already. His .253 average is significantly lower than last season's, but if he is able to have another 30+ HR season, that should be rather immaterial. Paul Konerko is having a resurgent season, with 3 HR and 18 RBIs to go along with his .333 average so far, and they are also getting great production out of Jermaine Dye. Jim Thome and Alexei Ramirez, on the other hand, have both largely disappointed this season. Alexei may be one of the biggest disappointments in baseball thus far, given his huge expectations. He is batting .214 with 1 HR and 9 RBIs, although he does have 5 SB so far. The Sox also don't have too much reason for concern though, as they're playing in a pretty weak division and have some players that have had devastatingly slow starts. Another encouraging thing for the Sox is the fact that no one has really had a beastly start to the season. This would suggest that the team is not playing over their potential, considering, with the exception of Konerko's start, everyone appears to be playing at or below potential, a good sign for things to come.

Other Assorted Sports Notes

Bulls-Celtics, Game 6
As we speak, the Bulls are blowing yet another game to the Boston Irishmen, who are just incredibly lucky to be playing a team that doesn't know how to finish a game. If nothing else, the Bulls have competed with the Celtics the entire series, and while one could make the argument that the Celtics are a much worse team without KG, its also important to remember how much of a shmuck KG is. Overall, while this series will ultimately be remembered for the Bulls being so bad in the last 4 minutes of the game, its nonetheless encouraging that they're competing so well against one of the NBA's elite teams.

Matt Garza
Matt Garza pitched the game of his life tonight against the hottest team in baseball. The Red Sox were 10-1 in their last 11 games going in to tonight's game, and Garza's line was as follows- 7 2/3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 10 K, 0 R. Here's to the most inconsistent pitcher in all of baseball (seriously, look at his start log for last year, he either threw 8 scoreless or 2 IP 10 ER every start.)

European Football Musings
I was extremely disappointed in European Football the other day. I'm going to be in Rome during the Champion's League Final, and I was toying with the notion of possibly going to the game to cheer on the Mighty Reds take on presumably Barcelona. However, upon going onto some online ticket brokers, the cheapest available tickets were about ₤ 1400. Yes, one thousand, four hundred British pounds. For those unfamiliar with the exchange rate, that's over $2,000. For a single ticket. Needless to say, I'll not be in attendance.

Franck Ribery has stated his displeasure at Bayern Munich's potential failure to make the Champions League next season, and went so far as to say that it will be very difficult for him to stay with Bayern if they fail to qualify for the CL. Keep your eye on this story, as every club in Europe would be delighted to have Ribery's services.

Inter Milan looks like they want to give away the league title to their arch-rival, AC Milan. They've lost 7 points to AC in the last 3 games, and now hold a 7 point lead with 5 games to play.

Zack Greinke
Our favorite Kansas City Royal not named Joakim Soria finally gave up an earned run. SI did a phenomenal article on him in their latest issue, I definitely suggest taking a look.

Here's my obligatory shoutout to the Blackhawks. By default, Go Blackhawks, you're the closest NHL team to my house, so I'll not root against you.

Is Kansas City's Young Pitching for Real?

For more than two decades, the Kansas City Royals have been the joke of Major League Baseball. They have been the Los Angeles Clippers, but without the cool city to play in. They've been the Detroit Lions, but without Barry Sanders. They've been whatever hockey team is always bad, but without whatever their redeeming quality may be. The Royals have been pitiful for a long time. In recent years, however, due to an insane amount of high draft picks (because of how bad they are), and wise choices in the rule 5 draft (see Joakim Soria), they have become to gain some shred of respectability. Currently, the Royals sit at 8-7, in a 3-way tie atop the AL Central with the White Sox and Tigers. The Royals success has largely been a result of their young pitchers, several of which have dominated thus far this year. Currently, the Royals are getting huge success from both Zack Greinke, and Kyle Davies, with a decent start coming recently from Brian Bannister. They have also received fine starts from their "ace", Gil Meche, the old man of their rotation. Their long term success this season will come down to Greinke, Davies, Bannister, and Luke Hochevar, who is currently at AAA Omaha but should see major league action sometime soon. Therefore, a major question is whether their pitching is for real. Lets go through each pitcher and see-

Zack Greinke- Numbers so far- 3-0, 20.0 IP, 26 K's, 16 H, 5 BB, 0.00 ERA-Obviously, Zack Greinke will not keep this pace going, as anyone reading this article should know that that is very much not possible. However, Greinke did not get drafted #6 overall in 2002, at the age of 19, ahead of such players as Cole Hamels, Scott Kazmir, and Prince Fielder, for no good reason. Coming out of high school, Greinke was a monster, having been named the 2002 Gatorade National Player of the Year. After being drafted, he destroyed the minors before being called up, and had a fine rookie season, going 8-11 with a 3.97 ERA. However, Greinke then decided to go insane, and had to be treated for an anxiety disorder. He was forced to leave baseball for awhile and pull himself together, and came back in 2007 with mixed results. Last season, however, he went 13-10 with a 3.47, pitching 202.1 innings. He has showed thus far this season that he's over whatever inner demons he had, and its certainly not farfetched to say that he'll win 17-19 games this season after such a hot start. The verdict here is that Zack Greinke is very much for real, assuming he can avoid going insane again.

Kyle Davies- 1-0, 18.2 IP, 21 K, 13 H, 8 BB, 2.89 ERA-Davies has a similar story to Greinke's, being a beast in high school, being heavily recruited by many major college baseball programs, and deciding to go pro. Davies was drafted by the Braves in 2003, and made his major league debut in 2005, pitching very well against the Red Sox at Fenway during a Braves interleague game. For the next couple of years he shifted between the Braves and their AAA affiliate, and was ultimately traded to the Royals for future Hall of Famer Octavio Dotel. He pitched poorly for the Royals in the 2nd half of 2007, but had a respectable 2008, going 9-7 with a 4.06 in 113 IP. This season, he's pitched pretty well, and his numbers are even more impressive when you consider one of his starts was @TEX and one was @CWS. However, I don't think that Davies can keep up this pace all season, and given how bad the Royals offense is, I expect him to finish with a record around .500 with an ERA around 4, similar to last season.

Luke Hochevar-Hochevar was drafted by the Dodgers out of high school, but instead elected to attend the University of Tennessee. He pitched phenomenally at UT, winning the Roger Clemens Award in 2005. He was drafted again by the Dodgers, refused to sign while being represented by Scott Boras, then in an incredible turn of events, switched agents, signed a contract, then, even more insanely, switched back to Boras the very next day and reneged the deal. Needless to say, the Dodgers were not happy, and he never ended up signing with them. He instead went to play in an independent league, and was then drafted 1st overall in 2006 by the Royals. Hochevar's major league debut was in late 2007, and he has pitched rather poorly thus far in the majors. However, unlike many high school pitchers who are something of a wildcard, Hochevar was able to dominate the most competitive conference in college baseball for several years, and clearly has the potential to pitch in the majors someday. He was sent to AAA after Spring Training to work on pitching on both sides of the plate, and its a pretty safe bet to say that he'll be called up sometime this season, especially if Sidney Ponson's 7.04 ERA doesn't improve soon. Its rather difficult to make a call as to whether Hochevar is for real or not, as he has very limited experience in the majors, but given how well he pitched in the SEC, its safe to say that at the very least, he will be a fine #3 starter.

The Royals may be able to continue competing in the AL central this year if their young pitchers are able to pitch consistently well, but its even more important that they get some offense. Currently, their lineup is looking much improved over last season, mainly due to the addition of Mike Jacobs and the wonderfully named, but terribly overrated Coco Crisp. It does appear, however, that if nothing else, the one guy on ESPN.com who picked Zack Greinke as his preseason Cy Young favorite may not have been so crazy after all. Or at least not as crazy as Zack Greinke is.