The White Sox’s fifth starter (and last year, their sixth) throws a completely unexpected perfect game. But maybe not so unexpected: a new approach, and some time for it to develop, suggests that Philip Humber has a bright future in the team’s deep, above-average rotation.
Starlin Castro is starting hot and showing speed on the basepaths, but his defense needs work; Jeff Samardzija looks like he’s for real this time; Bryan LaHair is raking; and Paul Maholm isn’t as bad as his 13.50 ERA.
Bowing to pressure from public officials, the Miami Marlins are keeping their new manager off the bench for five games after his “pro-Castro” comments. It might seem like absurd overreach… or it could be an exciting new frontier in public policy.
Of all the teams in major league baseball, only three cut their payrolls more than 20 percent over the offseason—and the two most drastic discounters are the Cubs and the Sox, with Theo Epstein leading all of baseball in payroll cuts in his first season. Otherwise, about the only notable thing remains what Ozzie said.
This year might not be the horror show lots of people are predicting—the White Sox might even have an outside shot in a weak division. But the most interesting player to watch could be a Royals minor-leaguer out in Kane County.
The Bears have had one thousand-yard receiver in the past decade, and two Pro Bowl receivers in the past 40 years. Today they added a three-time Pro Bowler who’s had five straight seasons with that many yards—and a new backup quarterback to boot.
The Cubs’ multimillion-dollar-man went from not worth the money to awful by any measure last year. But he did it in a way that suggests 2012 could be a bounceback year, replacing some of the offense that the team gave up this offseason.
One of Chicagoland’s finest athletes, a Northwestern alum and medal-winning Olympic swimmer, makes news from the medal stand: with gold, and this time diamond as well.
The conference makes a push to add a real, if small and short, playoff to the BCS system, as low TV ratings have the powers that be considering what fans have wanted for years.
The Cubs do what they have to do in getting rid of Carlos Zambrano, though it comes at a high cost. In exchange, they get a hard-luck young starter—perhaps the unluckiest in all of baseball.
