Full Court Press

All depends on how the Bulls close out the regular season. That loss to Cleveland was HUGE. Bulls enter the post season in the 2nd spot and they have a great chance to make it to the Conf. Finals.

Cubs will swing their way to the playoffs and should be a lock to clinch that division. Northside has a potent lineup and some descent arms.

Whitesox have a lot of questions in their rotation and bullpen. In that division, you have to have a solid 4 horses and a great pen/closer. To ask Dye and Thome to put up those kind of numbers is aksing a lot. We will need Iguchi and Podsednik to return to championship form. If we cannot manufacture runs at will like in 05, we will be fortunate to snag a wildcard. Buerle, Garland, Conteras will be solid this year, but asking Vasquez and company to back them up might be too much. I hope not. I am a huge Bull and Whitesox fan!!!!

Baseball season being 162 gmes long is almost impossible to predict. Injuries to key players can change an entire teams chemistry. With this morning's news that the Tribune is about to sell the Cubs who knows what effect that is going to have (hopefully it will be positive). Since I've never been a Sox fan I'll skip past that question.

Now on to the Bulls. Even with the OT loss to the Cav's Saturday the Bulls are still only 1/2 game out of the second seed for the play-offs with the Cav's loss to Boston yesterday. With Tyrus Thomas now making a difference and playing more minutes especially late in the game I believe that if they secure that 2nd seed they will make it to the Eastern finals. If they remain the 5th seed and face Miami in the opening round it's a toss up and if they make it past Miami then have to face the Piston's in round 2 they are going to have to play better road ball then they have so far. In any case Skiles needs to come up with something different at the end of a close game then what he's been doing of late. Teams expect the ball to be in Gordon's hands and he has made some crucial turn overs and forced some shots lately because of double teams. Ben is a much better shooter moving without the ball and Hinrich is an excellent set up man. Run Ben through a couple screens with Tyrus setting the last screen and Ben might get an open look at the elbow or Tyrus may even be able to slide down the baseline after setting the screen for an easy slam or Deng might even come open on the weak side. Regardless inbounding to Hinrich who then hands off to Gordon at the top of the circle has become to predictable.

Unfortunately I do not have high hopes for any of the Chicago teams. Have you seen the new Manager for the Cub's? Every time he appears on TV he is all disheveled. Did they pull him away from managing the local tavern's team??

I hesitate to be negative, with all the Cub euphoria around, but as I pointed out before, Big Z may not be the stud everyone seems to think he is. While unquestionably the best talent on their staff, I don't remember too many big games won by him. Seems to me he is part of the problem, with the slow starts he's had the last couple of years. While losing early in the season doesn't mean you can't still win the division, it sure makes it a lot harder when your 'studs' don't step up early, as we witnessed last year when Zambrano, Pierre, and Ramirez were left at the starting gate, and the team ends up losing 96. Putting up big numbers at the end of a season where you've lost 96 times, just seems rather a weak accomplishment. Do it when it counts....

When I was a young man of about ten or twelve in the early fifties, I won a trip to Wrigley to see the Cubs play the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was a game of catch and went extra innings and very boring to a young lad that didn't even know what baseball was all about. For that reason, as I grew and became more interested, I became a White Sox fan. Then after years and years of disappointment, (in the last century), the Sox were poised to win a pennant when "The Jerry" in all his wisdom, sold four or five players to get under the salary cap......resulting in failure and despondency for yet another year for the loyal Sox fans. His disregard for the paying fan frankly reminded me of the Cubs management and I quit baseball.
Who do I think should buy the Cubs? Someone that loves the game, not the dollar.

Sorry. No Cub comments here. Lifelong Sox fan. Ozzie had better get ready for a rollercoaster season. Again I see a pattern of inconsistency on both sides of our team. I was hoping that spring training was just a smoke screen, but after watching the opener I see things haven't changed one iota. True it's only one game, but the Tribe smoked almost every ball they hit --- fair or foul. Anyway, we'll right the ship and have an outstanding final 3/4 of the season (injury free) and the fast starting teams will run out of gas and ARMS come September. As for the Bulls. Like I've said in the past, until Ben Gordon starts picking his head up in the fourth quarter and dishing 50% of the time while taking OPEN shots instead of FORCING the middle the other 50% we'll never get to the next level. Thomas. You go boy! Reminds me of another rookie Thomas on the Sox years back who they decided to wait one year too late to bring up when he may have made a huge difference that year... Thank God Skiles and Paxson saw the light and pulled the switch. This kid is gonna make a difference if; Dang draws more fouls (he's VERY capable), Noce has his shot along with a harness to go with those fresh legs and sometimes uncontrollable energy, three less turnovers a game and 7% better free throw shooting than the regular season. Toronto, first round fellas. No problem. Detroit, second round guys. We can do it! Miami, third round team. Gotta have everything go our way. Sorry. Wade's a Chicagoland boy so I can't wish anything bad come his way. So if we beat them it'll be full strength both ways. After that I'll just keep the faith same as I did for the 05' Sox after all those knucklehead experts had them dead even before the Bosox series.

Keith, while the loss to the Cav's was big the Bulls are still just 1 game behind them with both teams having 7 games left to play and both playing Detroit in Auburn Hills and the Cav's yet to play one with Miami. If the Bulls were to go 6 & 1 and the Cav's 5 & 2 in the last 7 games, which is very possible, the Bulls still become the second seed in the east because even though they split the season series with the Cav's the Bulls own the next tie breaker with the better Comference record. In fact if by some unforeseen minor miracle they were to catch the Pistons the Bulls would own the tie breaker there also. Tonights game with the Pistons Could be bigger than the loss to the Cav's. A win in Auburn Hills would send a message that they are a serious contender for the eastern title.

Nocioni possibly returning for limited minutes Friday against NJ will only make the Bulls tougher to beat. I don't believe Nocioni's return will cut into Tyrus Thomas' minutes as one sports writer suggested the other day. I believe Tyrus will still come in for PJ and Noce will spell Deng. PJ's minutes won't be affected due to him spelling Big Ben. The energy the Bulls second unit would display with both Noce and Tyrus on the floor together would be hard to match. But I wouldn't rule out Tyrus starting in place of PJ and PJ coming off the bench with Noce either. In any case Tyrus's, play especially late in the game lately, I believe has earned him the minutes on the floor both offensively and defensively. At 6'9" he has given the Bulls what they had expected to get from the 7'1" Chandler and more. Even his free throw percentage lately has greatly improved(9 for 10 in the loss against the Cav's).

My comments are about the White Sox. The '07 team is picking up exactly where they left off in '06-stinking it up. The starting staff is iffy at best and the offense is still not back to small ball. The offense can be aptly described as a slo-pitch squad or everyone is taking part in a HR contest. Williams asks us to believe this year will be different with essentially the same starting position players except for CF. While Erstad is a definite upgrade over Bri-Kid who uses a broom to bat, Thome is in severe decline. I'm not sure why the Sox chose him to be the "face of the franchise" especially since he did not win the title in '05 with them. I can tell who the bandwagon folks are by their Thome jerseys. Anyway, this guy strikes out way too much and is a rally KILLER. Has he ever tried hitting to a wide open left field? Granted he hits a HR every one in awhile, but I ask how many times does he fail when he has RBI opportunities? Is there a dubious category on offense for most Left On Base? I'm positive Thome would rank in the top 5. Thank goodness Thome is a "good guy" otherwise his glaring shortcomings wouldn't be ignored.

'cmon,...'cmon....hurry up and trade Zambrano while you can still get something for him......The Sox are under the belief they need pitching....and the cubs can get some young arms and develop them properly on the farm-the Sox can't do anything with young arms-they gotta get them from the Cubs any way. Don't Sosa this Cubs!

I agree with stuckinwisconsin on this one. Big Z is not worth the money he is commanding. Market valuewise he is, but the Cubs have to ask themselves are they ready to make that move and is Z the man to take them to the next level? NOW DONT GET ME WRONG - BIG Z SHOULD ASK FOR THE PAYDAY!!! I am just saying the Cubs should let him go and pull a Florida Marlins. The move they are making is for teams that are in title contention (ala Greg Maddux). Cubs are only in contention with the Sox for Chicago fans! hehhehe!