Podcast: Blackhawks win the lottery, Bears schedule, Cubs/Sox baseball

ladies and gentlemen sports fans alike welcome to another edition of Bill swersky Sports Talk Chicago wanted a couple two three best podcasts around so sit back grab yourself a cold one and a Paula sausage Park your keister in the French room and listen to Bill Swarovski Sports Tech Chicago [Music] hey everybody welcome to another edition of Bill's where Ski Sports Talk Chicago this is your hosts Alex and Sean on this episode we have got some big Blackhawks stuff to talk about we've got Cubs talk we've got White Sox talk we got bears talk but first like to thank our sponsor the Rockford ice Hogs if you're not familiar with the Rockford ice hugs they're the AHL minor league affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks what does that mean for you you get to see the stars of tomorrow today at family friendly affordable prices uh so make sure you head on over to icehogs.com get yourself a hat shirt Jersey tickets and more tell them swersky Sports Center Alex I think there's one team we should probably start talking about first yeah yeah [Music] so where were you when the news happened when the when when it all went down okay so sometimes my buddies and I that I grew up with in the neighborhood uh when the weather gets nicer we'll go on like after work walks or whatever so shout out to my buddies Eric and Brian the three of us were just out walking in the neighborhood my buddy Eric was walking his dog we were enjoying the nice night and you know I'm remembering oh yeah the draft lottery is going on so I'm kind of scrolling through twitters we're walking and talking and then you know all of a sudden Blackhawks are gonna be top four Blackhawks are gonna be top three Blackhawks are gonna have one of the top two picks and I start you know freaking out because here we are in a position to get a top Premiere pick when we didn't know what our odds were really gonna be I mean obviously we weren't going to have the worst odds but we didn't have the best odds either and as it is just ticking down and down and down I'm thinking are we actually going to do this and I'm thinking I'm like okay either way even if we get top two if we got the second pick and you got Adam fentilly okay great I'm like is that the most I could realistically ask for then all of a sudden Chicago wins the lottery and I start yelling and the neighborhood could all hear it my voice was echoing off the buildings I was stunned I had to rub my eyes I had to keep scrolling and make sure what I saw was correct because we just lucked out so insane with this pick and I'm still still speechless about it like almost a week later yeah I actually thought the the lottery was on Tuesday and I don't know why in my head I had the right date but I just thought it was Tuesday and um so when I saw Monday morning it was that day and I'm like okay you know don't get your taupes too up because you know if they get that fifth pick it's uh tough draw but I'm like you know they only got a 9.5 chance of getting that number one pick just not great odds and uh and then I totally lost track of time and I went the Lottery's on and I turned it on and and as I was turning it on they already had down to the top two picks and when they showed the card for the Blackhawks I was like oh you know it was uh it was an exciting moment I mean that moment changed the course of this franchise it really really did and I think that this is where you start to discuss how this changes the franchise because look you and I have talked about this you need that rock to build your next great team the Blackhawks the past year have really increased their Farm stock right I mean you know Drafting korchinsky and Nazar and you know you're starting to look at your pharmacist and you're like okay you know you got those guys who are going to be growing in the organization over the next few years and then you have Lucas Reichel coming up you know those are hopefully going to be good essential pieces for your team but you need that Superstar I mean look at all these teams out there like look how quickly the devil's rebuilt you know they got Jack Hughes now that was obviously their big get and you look at all the other teams out there that have Superstars that they built around Conor McDavid on the Oilers and all the years of Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby on the capitals and the Penguins and then you go here you had Tas and Kane all those years those were the guys you built around and that I think is what the Blackhawks needed to really feel good about this going forward and now they have that rock they have a rock Plus in Conor Bedard and you know I I don't really know if we look at this as this makes the rebuild faster in terms of just time but I definitely think that it changes the Outlook of this rebuild the the dynamic has changed the long-term picture has gotten so much brighter it might not necessarily mean that you shave off a year or two of the actual rebuild maybe it helps a little bit but I think that when we look at how this changes the rebuild it's less about the time and just more of the dynamic how it actually is built right so I mean you're absolutely right it's you're you're not gonna make this rebuild happen faster but it makes it a whole lot easier um you see a much more clear pathway to this rebuild uh you know uh Kyle Davidson has done a really good job of selling off pieces and building assets and reshaping how our our farm system operates and you start looking at our young Talent you're like okay all right I'm starting to like where this is going and then you look at the draft picks that they have you're like okay the Blackhawks have a lot of ammunition to start building this this team going forward and you're like but you just need that one that one core centerpiece and you've got that guy now you have that guy and it's not a I mean without Bedard it is I mean you know granted it's still he's still an unknown you know it's because he's never played in the NHL and he's he's a teenager but um you know you have high expectations of him doing well and uh you know everybody else is is still uh you know a question mark that you may have high hopes for the korchinski and the Czar and Lucas Reichel like we we feel good about those guys but until they actually come up and do it you know we felt good about a lot of other guys in the past with the Blackhawks once you get that one anchor makes everybody else's job so much easier to in order to step in the pressure's not on you you have right you'll have your Ace your guy exactly now I don't know if you listen to any of the interview that Kyle Davidson had with mullion ha earlier this week did you hear any of that I didn't I read clips from it but I you know I missed the the actual interview well you know he said a lot of things that I really liked and one of the things he brought up was is that he's going to kind of stick to his guns here stick to the plan your vision has changed because of Landing this generational talent but the plan is going to remain you're not going to suddenly go out and say okay well you know we're just gonna try to sign a bunch of guys to contend next year he's sticking to this plan and I think that's a good thing now what's also interesting is that he's not ruling out using some of those picks to do other things with and I think that's good too is that he's keeping his mind open like he's sticking to a plan but he's keeping his mind open on how to execute this play plan so he has a vision he has a plan he's sticking on a path but he's not narrowing his mind on this path I think those are all really good things yeah and I saw that he was he's uh you know looking to potentially move up in the draft and I think that's a smart thing you know he's got 11 picks are you gonna make all 11 of those picks probably not might as well move up we already know that in the first round you're gonna have the number one overall pick the the Conor Bedard pick and then because the lightning lost and Toronto lost you know that your other first round pick is going to be number 19. yeah and this draft is deep there's a lot of talent here and that's good so these are high value picks even you know even the later rounds like there's value to these picks now there's one thing we have to establish here right he's drafting Conor Bedard oh yeah yeah like there's no somebody I work with is like what if what if they thought about trading him I was like that would be stupid there's not like there's what are you gonna give up to to get that pick nothing not enough you don't pay us on a guy like that you know the the real question is I mean you're taking Bedard that's given whatever June whatever the the draft is yeah um you're taking Bedard the question then becomes you've got you've got a ton of money that you need to spend to hit the cap floor and you know uh Kyle Davidson said he's sticking to the plan but I don't think any of us know what the plan is and you know is he going to try to bring in some veterans to maybe not to compete but to you know at least be respectable or is it to you know to keep building assets and then you know build through your your prospect pool well I think that you bring in some veterans to round out some spots on the roster I mean you're gonna have to I think that you bringing guys that you kind of like that fits in with your coaching philosophy that you have with Luke Richardson Max told me you bring him back honestly bring him back uh Anastasio I mean you could I I think that you can you're not go like I don't think you're gonna make a trade for some Blockbuster move but I think like on the free agent Market you can go out and find a number of guys where you say okay you know this kind of fits in with our philosophy this is going to help develop Conor Bedard and others and it might give you the opportunity to be like Hey listen you're not going to be a contender but you can at least be somewhat competitive I mean the nice thing is that we saw a team that was completely dismantled still play at a competitive level even if they weren't winning you know they weren't losing a lot of those games just completely helplessly they were losing a lot of those games because of the lack of talent but you at least saw what Luke Richardson was doing with this team playing hard playing smart and just a system that makes sense you saw that but when you have a bunch of AHL guys out there you're not going to win a lot of games so if you at least go out and improve your roster you bring in some more veterans you can be like Hey listen this is a good starting point where we can build a little more respectability you can help develop Conor Bedard fill these spots for now keep developing through your farm system maybe you find a guy or two that can be like a piece that could stick around for a few years I think you're gonna see you know your decent handful of you know one-year deals kind of like what we saw last year but a little more on a Competitive Edge but you know like I said I have zero expectations for them being a contender next year but just more watchable I I hope I hope they continue to weaponize their their uh salary cap space I think that would be a really smart move for them to take on bad contracts or you know not I think the sweet spot is players that are decent just overpaid um and take on those contracts you know you look at you look at tevo Teva was a you know a sweetener to take on the Bickle contract and you know it's I think if the Blackhawks they've got a ton of cap space too that they have to use to hit the cap floor if they continue to do that and take on these bad contracts um and you know you're rounding out roster using your space cap space and still getting more assets right no totally totally I I think they I think they do do some of that stuff as well you know because you've you've got a actual metric [ __ ] ton of of draft Capital this year you've got the number one pick the number 19 pick and four second Rounders yeah they're loaded you're gonna be able to add young talent and the young Talent is going to be really good um in this class if nothing else Connor Bedard um and you know your I think your goal if you're Davidson is you want to make sure that you have a good line for for Bedard to play on next year oh absolutely I mean you want something that will help him develop you don't just want to be putting guys off the streets out there next year I mean this is the other great thing about this coming season we don't have to worry about tanking we don't have to worry about what our draft odds are going to be but you're not going to have that pressure of being a contender either this is just okay this is your next step in the rebuild we bottomed out we dug the foundation we now poured the concrete of this foundation and guess what you know what you're going to do now is you're just going to keep Building forward yeah um you know but it's a when you start thinking about the what lines you could have or line mates you could have for Connor Bedard it starts it starts to get a little fun um because you're like oh hey uh you know what about Vladimir Tarasenko I know it's a pipe dream but just hypothetically speaking and you have a line of Lucas Reichel Connor Bedard and Vladimir Tarasenko and just just imagine reichel's trying to fish out a puck from the corner and makes a nice pass to either Bedard or Tarasenko uh you know for who are two of the best Shooters in they're world-class shooters it's just sweet to think about you know it's not going to happen but that would be real nice yeah I mean vladi is a free agent but he's probably going to want to sign with a contender right oh I'm sure I'm sure there's another thing too we have to quickly just bring up again Kane isn't coming back no that chapter is closed and honestly is depending on what he does with his hip surgery I don't know I mean he might he might do one of those things where he comes in later in the season and right um and then just you know is a bounty hunter almost for for another cup right yeah because I mean aren't they supposed to find that out fairly soon what he's gonna do with his hip right uh yeah I have not heard any news but um yeah I mean so I he's not coming back and is as much as it would be cool to see him come back and play with Bedard and end his career as a Blackhawk it's just sort of done yeah it's done and I think I think that's okay honestly I think that's okay um I I like the fact that Davidson isn't married to anything from the previous era I like the fact that he wants to build his vision I'm totally cool with that um so I'm looking at an article here from from the athletic about candidates to to be line mates with Bedard and they have like broken down into their internal candidates so it has Tyler Johnson uh kuroshev Taylor radish Lucas Reichel external candidates uh Andreas Anastasio Tyler bertuzzi uh GT Comfort Max Domi Alex killern uh Ryan O'Reilly and James Van Reems Dyke um and then they even threw for fun Phil Kessel oh man I could totally see that happening though Bill Kessel yeah man yeah cause like you know I'm looking at the free agents right now and you know I James Van Reems like still playing huh you know he's not that old uh he's 34. yeah I mean though I just it seems like he's been playing forever oh yeah I agree with that but you know when you look at his age you're like ah it's not that old he's he's like chicken yeah he's not a spring chicken but he's not old either well I mean you know how old is hockey years and I know there are guys that play into like their 40 age but you know with how quick and intense the game is now and all these playoff games and series you know it's it's just it's got to be hard after you eclipse the 30 Mark when you have a lot of miles on you oh yeah I mean the name of the game now is speed right so you know you you start losing that at a certain point yeah yeah absolutely and I mean you look at what Alex or James Van Reeves Dyke has done he's been around over a decade I he's he's been around a long time and you know obviously we don't know if Tay's a good play next year he's been around over a decade same with Kane and I'm just looking at some of these other free agents I mean kylock post so he's 35. Matt Dumbo's only 28 feels like he's been around longer Eric Johnson Eric Johnson's a free agent 35 years old Jonathan Quick is 37. we need to pick up a veteran goaltender isn't to break it a free agent restricted free agent saying just a lot of people have brought up to bring it uh I mean I it's not a bad idea I mean I wouldn't hate having him back just depends on what kind of contract he's looking at right because I don't think Davidson's going to want to pour out too much at this point I mean you gotta pour out something you do you do but it's going to depend on what he wants yeah um looking at the the Blackhawks have a ton of a ton of cap space [ __ ] you'd never say with Stan Bowman around I know he'd have to trade the kind of a dard pick because he'd be over the cap yeah no kidding well you know I'm looking at um you know like I said I was looking at the free agent list here and I'm looking at most uh points scored by each of these free agents and debrinket was second now him and rot are both restricted free agents uh Timo Meyer from the Devils he had the most goals he's tied for second really he's got 66 as well as to bring it um you know Vince Dunn he's up there 64 points pure Luke Dubois Patricia Bergeron who's you know he's yeah didn't make it out of the first round but yeah I mean it's like you know you have some you do have some names as free agents it's it's just going to be interesting to see how Davidson attacks this yeah let's see what's the cap floor for for this year for this year cap floor so it looks like the confirmed salary cap for 2022 2023 as expected is 82.5 the payroll range for building teams seller cap floor is at 61. while midpoint is 71.7 foreign because I mean really who are the Blackhawks paying like outside Seth Jones so they've got to spend 60 over 60 million and they're at 37 million yeah so they got space they've got space to spend um let's see Seth Jones they're paying Tyler Johnson uh just under five uh Nikita zaitsev two and a half Connor Murphy 5.8 uh Peter mrazik 4.4 Jason Dickinson three and a quarter and then everybody else is like a Rhonda million or less yeah you're I mean it's like Seth Jones and a few little others um so yeah you don't really have anybody yeah I mean everybody from the old era is off the books now you remember all those big contracts Tays Kane Keith Seabrook all gone and if you look at the the 2024 24 25 so not this coming season the season after their books are Connor Murphy Seth Jones and Wyatt Kaiser wow and so they have to spend like 50 million dollars to get to the floor so Ryan poles and Kyle Davidson are flexing in front of each other seeing uh who has the most respective cap space hahaha I mean it's it's true you know they both they're both really managing the the the cap situation really well yeah I mean think about you know you combine both the Bears and the Blackhawks over the past year or so and you think about how many guys have been traded away just stripping both teams down to the studs you know Ryan pulls trades away Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn and roquan Smith the Blackhawks trade away Patrick Kane and you know a lot of the guys you signed this off season on short-term deals like Max Domi and then obviously you know Tay's leaves and he's not coming back so it wasn't a trade but you parted ways with him so I mean all these big names on both teams over the past year or so I mean the houses have been cleared yeah I mean it's it's absolutely right down to the studs and honestly it's it's the easiest way to build the way you want um yes you know it's one thing if you had like they think about a house like if you have like the the penguins have been able to retool a lot of times because they had a really strong Foundation you had you had a veteran like Sydney Crosby who's making a lot of money but he performs every year with with Jonathan Taves especially over the last few years uh you know he wasn't there wasn't playing or he wasn't playing well and he's making up a lot of cap your your foundation wasn't there but the penguins like with Malkin and Crosby you had a foundation there you could build around them right and um you know with with the Blackhawks that just the foundation wasn't there you need to just strip it all down and build the foundation exactly how you want and how you foresee things and and that's what they're doing and you know it it this was a painful is you know even though this was a the record was bad this year it wasn't nearly as painful it was painful but it wasn't nearly as painful as the last couple years of the Jeremy Carlton era oh no that was 10 times worse because at least this year one you knew what was going on and two Kyle Davidson had the team performing you know playing well even if they weren't winning a lot of games I mean the Colleton era it was miserable everything was just a muck and you know obviously there was the Dark Cloud hanging over the organization which you know obviously affected I think the mood of everybody rightfully so but even just the play itself on the ice was just really bad and the fact that it was more fun to watch a team full of who are you guys under Luke Richardson you know go back to October 21 when that team got off to a really really horrid start you still had tasin Kane you had Marc-Andre Fleury in net you still had Alex to bring it you still had some of those other you know depth pieces that you had uh you brought in Tyler Johnson you brought in Seth Jones you were trying to at least be competitive and you looked all but competitive this year at certain points you didn't remember who the hell half the guys were but you at least watch something competitive because those late Jeremy Collins a days that that wasn't competitive that wasn't just losing I mean that was just helplessness big difference if you sit down and watch the games it's a big difference and frankly I'm still surprised thinking about this last Hawk season and thinking you know this isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was gonna be now obviously if you were looking to be good this year and they played at this level it would have been really really bad but considering where our expectations were like I'm like okay we're in for like a historically terrible season and it was far from good but it's like man this is at least watchable at times this is at least where you see a vision this is at least a team that plays hard you can appreciate that stuff like it was better than I thought it was going to be yeah I mean they you know there wasn't a good team but they played hard they played smart and uh and you knew what they were doing admitted like the Bears this year were frustrating you knew what they were doing it at least you know when when the offense was started clicking towards the end of the season uh you know you were like okay I can watch this I can see the the future um it just makes it a lot easier but put this in perspective watching the Bears go 3 and 13 with Justin fields in this new vision and watching Luke Richardson coach a bunch of guys from the AHL that was they were both more fun than watching the end of the Ryan pay Sarah and the end of the Stan Bowman era and those rosters both at the end of those eras on paper were better right yeah um I'm just thinking what so the Bears had the number one overall pick and they traded it away but they had it right the Blackhawks have the number one overall pick they're not going to trade it they're going to keep it right what if the Bulls also get the number one pick yeah I I'm uh I am not setting myself up for hopes I mean oh I'm not either I don't even they're they're not but man it would just be fun to watch the chuds on Twitter lose their minds oh I mean it would be absolute chaos absolute chaos if you had three Chicago teams get the first pick because two of those three picks are lotteries the I mean the Bears there's no lottery in the NFL but the fact that the Bears were able to maneuver their way into being in a position to get that pick by completely tanking that final game not even starting Justin fields you know that's one thing but getting the luck of the draw twice and it's one thing for the NHL drafts but the Bulls odds to get the first first overall are like what one percent like right around there the Bulls yeah um um tankathon what does tankathon telling me um 1.8 percent yeah that's tiny that's just under two percent yeah that is not good but to get a top four pick eight and a half percent not great but a lot better than 1.8 if honestly if we get a top four pick I'll be ecstatic about that yeah the so the draft lottery is in is on Tuesday so you know our next show we'll be we'll be able to talk about Victor Victor wembayama and Connor Bedard in Chicago the United Center the future of the United Center oh my God people would just be losing their minds they're already losing their minds about the Blackhawks winning the lottery oh yeah oh I honestly I don't care let them whine let them complain we'll we'll be talking about Conor Bedard yeah and I'm not like look I'm not gonna act like we've been completely look into this I I'm not but um I'm you know I'm gonna obviously enjoy watching him on my team we skilled into it it was a skillful I I I still think Sean you were the one that went to the draft lottery when no one was looking you took all the ping pong balls out and you just you took like a Sharpie and you just blacked out every team and just slappily wrote Hawks I I drew a stick figure Indian Head uh but I don't know if you saw there was a EA Sports did a simulation of Conor bedard's career yes so it's so amazing and doesn't seem realistic but I'm gonna take it as realistic so in this simulation they played out the career of Conor Bedard he ends up playing 1455 games score 739 goals which I believe would put him forth all time oh my goodness uh scoring 1145 assists which I believe is fourth all time and with a total of 1884 points which I think puts it at third all time they have him winning The Calder uh trophy for his rookie of the year four heart trophies uh four Ted Lindsay Awards two Rocket Richard Awards and three Stanley Cups all right cool if that if that is his career that is amazing that would just be absolutely amazing you know there was uh I can't remember who said it but there was a hockey expert who was on the on the radio and I believe he said that he saw the floor of Conor Bedard being Sergey fedorov if he hits the floor and he's like Sergey fedorov it's pretty damn good right you know I I see a lot of people are saying Conor McDavid he's like a Connor McDavid and I I get the comparison because just both child prodigies and you know those everywhere they've gone their numbers have been similar at every stage but really I see Sydney Crosby except not a dick emphasis on that part I mean the skill wise like he's he's just ridiculous uh I'm I'm so excited to see him next year I'm uh you know I've never I've never owned the red Blackhawks jersey and I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna get a Conor Bedard red Blackhawks jersey the meatball sauce will blend right in with it oh that's what it's for it's when I when I bathe myself in meatball sauce nobody can see the stains I just want to read you something real quick here um his stats in the who last year have you seen them oh yeah yeah so I'm going to read it for our listeners he played in 57 games he tallied 143 points wait wait pause real quick how old was he 17. [Music] 71 goals 72 assists now the playoffs that was just regular season seven games 20 points 10 goals 10 assists over the last two years in regular season WHL play he scored 243 points Jesus yeah insane there's a there's one more aspect we have to talk about this though Sean did you see the numbers of the season ticket holders yes I haven't seen a final tally but as they were coming in just the sheer numbers like it was like a um like oh like two million dollars with the tickets within like a couple of hours after the draft lottery that's that's insane and I said this on the show and I'll say it now that it's come to fruition that that stadium is going to be filled those people are gonna go out to see him even if the team isn't that good people will go to see and play you know there was there was actually a good number of people at the games last year when they were terrible and didn't have an you know any stars they they drew better than I thought they were going to last year I mean I thought that we were going to be I don't want to say quite the bill wurtz era but I thought there were going to be some nights where we'd be like okay maybe 13 000-ish but for for what they were I really thought that they drew pretty well Conor Bedard last year scored a hundred goals in 83 games across the world juniors the WHL and the NHL Prospect games 100 goals in 83 games you know what this means though these tickets are going to be hot so you know I did enjoy at least two years of being able to say hey I can get some pretty nice cheap tickets might not be the case as much what's even funnier though about the Blackhawks winning is Vancouver Canucks were one number away from winning the lottery wow I if I was a Canucks fan I would be so pissed yeah the winning NHL draft combo was four five nine Thirteen the Canucks had four five nine twelve you know funny story my grandmother back in the 80s it was like the same situation she was one way one away one number away from winning like the Illinois lotto like the Mega Millions or whatever and she didn't get it but she still got like a nice chunk of change in compensation for it so uh you know she took like the whole family out to a nice dinner it's just kind of funny it was like literally the same situation like just one single number off from winning it all they would have been the Canucks were the lowest team that could move up to the number one overall spot because they were they would move up to 10. that's the max you can move up so they were one number away from from winning it he's probably a little pissed because that's his hometown team but you know what he's gonna wear the Indian head and he's going to realize that Chicago's pretty darn cool yeah I mean it's like okay Bedard we're gonna have to introduce you to a few things you're just gonna lay it out on a table this is Tavern style square cut Pizza this is Chicago deep dish pizza this is Italian beef this is Italian sausage this is an Italian sausage beef combo this is Italian ice and this right here is a Chicago hot dog and a Polish sausage and and this down here at the Chicago River is chunkasaurus our giant snapping turtle now chunkasaurus might look intimidating but Conor Bedard could take him have you seen the pictures of chunkasaurus yes I have yes I have shockosaurus so much better than chance the snapper yeah that was a thing for like 10 days and then it's kind of everyone just forgot about it uh so when's the NHL actual draft when's the day we officially have uh the draft is in 46 days it's a long time before I can get my Conor Bedard Jersey that's a long wait between the lottery and the draft but hey it is what it is yeah it's June 28th where is the draft uh the draft is in Nashville um huh now that gets me that gets the juices flowing oh you're thinking about going aren't you I'm thinking about going well that's what you want to do I'm off of work when did you say that date was June 28th hmm ideas are ripping through Sean's head they really are I'm already off work that week just tap and stance do and we were talking about going to Mammoth Cave but what if we do Mammoth Cave earlier in the week and then swing up through Nashville he's making edits to his vacation plans mid-show I really am uh just have my Connor Bedard Jersey there screw man don't even tell your family just be like uh Sean isn't this the tour to get up where we're going we're going to Nashville what yeah that's right we're going to Nashville why because the NHL draft is there why because I want to see Conor Bedard get drafted and get his jersey that's why duh I mean DOI I mean what do you think we were gonna go to Nashville to go to some on tree bar really uh uh all right where do you want to swing from here well um I was hoping that you and I can break down this 2023 bear schedule all right so uh the uh the bear schedule came out on Thursday and and for the first year in several years it didn't leak early no it did not we had a couple games leak early because other teams that they were playing schedule got leaked like the Packers um but they were leaked early yeah they they were like the Packers got leaked early so we knew two games um I think the the Washington team leaked early so we knew that one but there was but for the most part we didn't know exactly what was happening and uh um it's based on the schedule I think the NHL or the NHL the NFL might might think the Bears have some legs they've got a uh they've got a Monday night game they've got a couple Thursday night games um Sunday night game against the Chargers yeah I think the NFL thinks that they uh they might have some some legs and there's two tbds the week 18 versus the Packers and the week 15 versus the Browns there is potential for those to be flexed into Prime Time spots yeah so uh the schedule as it is is they start week one against Green Bay Packers which I hate um then at Tampa at Kansas City home against Denver at Washington on a Thursday um home against Minnesota home against the Raiders at the Chargers at the Saints home against Carolina at Detroit at Minnesota by week home against Detroit at Cleveland home against Arizona home against Atlanta and then go to Green Bay to wrap up this regular season yeah so you know there's another note here too there was rumors that the Bears were going to play the Chiefs in Germany that's not happening and honestly thank goodness that's not happening yeah there's so there's a couple of quirky things in this schedule so they've got two Thursday night games so they they have a short week um and one of them sort of really sucks is because they're at New Orleans and then on a Sunday and then they play Carolina on a Thursday uh I mean for the next game you end up with like a mini buy because you get a 10 days between games but you know those shortened those shortened weeks kind of suck yeah I will say this is the buy is fairly late but I'd rather have a fairly late buy than one that's super early right um you know you you really would like it right in the middle like week 10 but right um you know it's if you had to choose between late or early I'm taking late yeah um so honestly the schedule the schedule's not too bad so you know Sean this is one of those things where you think about a team on paper just purely on paper where their talent is but when you go into an NFL season there's always got to be those second evaluations that you do because you know NBA NHL you play everybody that never changes now in baseball you play everybody and in baseball you play 162 games you know it's different every year in the NFL you don't play everybody your opponents are different every year outside your Division and it's also very important to keep in mind where the games are and when they are so the way you think about a team on paper and then you look at your schedule I think it's easy to kind of overestimate on a schedule because in my mind I'm thinking around seven wins for the Bears next year just kind of where they're at right now but then you look at the schedule and you know you obviously don't Proclaim any absolute lockdown wins but look at look at the opponents you know Tampa Bay without Tom Brady winnable game at the you know versus the Broncos winnable game at the commanders winnable game versus the Raiders at home winnable game versus the Panthers at home winnable game versus the Cardinals at home winnable game versus the Falcons at home winnable game you look at a number of these non-division games and you're like you know there's a fairly amount of manageable opponents just thinking right here on paper really what it's going to be about is how well you're going to do against your own division because if you at least have a 500 record against your Division and it get at least one win against each team then you have a more of an opportunity to take advantage of those other opponents and you know maybe squeak into the playoffs here because you know it's it's fairly manageable there are a few games you look at like okay Kansas City you're probably not winning that one um going to the Saints that's going to be pretty hard at the Browns I don't know saints were Dudu sandwich last year they weren't good they weren't good but that is a tough place to play it is I'm uh but you know do you want do you want to go through a game by game and yeah yeah let's do that let's do it all right week one home against Green Bay Sean this is here's my meatball take I think that's a must win I think that is your chance right there right now to flip the script of this rivalry Aaron Rodgers is gone Justin Fields has his weapons lit the damn script right then and there don't give Green Bay or Jordan love any idea that Jordan love can now own the Bears put your foot down make a statement I mean offensively I don't have high expectations of Green Bay um defensively they probably should be pretty solid um agreed I'm still picking Green Bay in this one because until the Bears can do it I'm not predicting them to do it I usually go with you and I kind of want to go with you there but I'm gonna go optimistic and say the Bears are going to win that one I could totally see them losing don't get me wrong but I'll go with the optimistic pick Anything could happen in these games that's the NFL and right you know the one thing with you know you look at the schedule now and you're basing this on what they were last year plus what they did on paper and you just make projections but you know who knows like you could look and be like oh man no way they're beating Kansas City but you know what if what if Patrick Mahomes tears his ACL and is that sure sure that becomes a really winnable game yeah absolutely um you know so it's anything happens um so week two going to Tampa Bay I think you win that one I think you win that one that defense is older that their quarterback situation is not good um I I think this that's a win um week three going to Kansas City loss loss week four home against Denver if we're gonna see the Denver we saw last year that's a win but they're gonna have a new head coach and if things get figured out there then Denver is obviously going to be a very worthy opponent if not the Bears can beat them I like that they're playing Denver early yes it's having a new system new head coach it's gonna take some time and I think you're it's going to take a little bit for Russell Wilson to get in the groove with Coach with a new head coach but um Peyton Sean Payton's going to have this team cooking by the end of the season I think so it's good that they get them early I say close loss right now I'm gonna say close loss as well week five going to Washington on a Thursday night I may win that one I think that win that one too I'm not that impressed by Washington neither am I um the Bears played them last year literally played one of the worst games they could have possibly played and still almost pulled the game out hey think about this the whole course of Chicago Sports could have been changed if Darnell Mooney crosses the goal line and Jonathan Tay's uh finishes that overtime breakaway goal right yeah um so I have them winning Washington uh week six Minnesota in Chicago I think that's a loss I think that's a win if they don't have pass rush and they can't get to cousins I think that's trouble I'm just I think that's a team on the decline I mean I think so too I think so too if they had any pass rush I would say that's a win I'm gonna win okay um week seven Las Vegas I think they can win that I I I think they can stop Jimmy G yeah I'm not I think they win uh week eight at the Chargers loss I'm going win I'm not a believer in can uh in the Chargers at this point okay I like their quarterback I just don't think that they've put a winning team around him yeah I know I agree and I think that could be a really good game I just think that there's going to be that point where Herbert makes the big play on our defense and it's just that's the bat breaker I mean it's possible I'm I mean this is the we're we're doing this mid-may we're gonna be doing this again in a few months and then again right before the season starts oh absolutely but this is the fun that we we saw the schedule we kind of get a feel here yeah um then they go from the Chargers to New Orleans I'm saying win that's a tough place to play um but I think I kind of want to say close loss but I'm going to say they're going to squeak out a win let's go with that we'll still squeak out a win it's going to be uh it's gonna be a field goal As Time expires all right then back home on a short rest against the Panthers I think that's going to be a win but I think they're going to put up a bigger fight than we're gonna expect I think so too but I think they'll they'll win uh win a game uh I think Carolina team is not as bad as people think no it's not um you know Bryce young I think it's going to be really good if he stays healthy it's just man did you see the did you see the video of him taking Snaps during the the fight I did so little yeah yeah my only concern literally like I think he's a off the charts football IQ knows where to go he knows how to read the defense um he's got a good enough arm for most throws I there's nothing about him that says he's not going to make it other than he's just little if he was like eight inches taller eight inches if he was four inches taller yeah like if you put him if you put him in the body of Anthony Richardson oh my God this this would be the most Elite quarterback that you could imagine having we we would be like talking Trevor Lawrence type hype I think he would be more than that I think I think so I think this would be John Elway coming out of the draft hype hmm all right like or Peyton Manning like you would just be like this is the guy I think the Bears would have really thought about not about trading Justin Fields yeah um but he's just so little um but the Panthers I think they're gonna have rookie quarterback Growing Pains that are gonna Boo or you know uh keep them keep them from being as good as they could be the defense is good you know they don't have a number one receiver anymore and you know they have a rookie quarterback I think I think they'll be in that division they'll compete but I don't think they're excuse me they're that good um after that going to Detroit on 10 days after it'll be a 10 10 day buy or a 10-day break loss [Applause] I'm gonna say loss but I think it's gonna be a close game yeah I just I just if you can't get to Jared Goff you're probably giving up 40 plus um then they get a buy and then after that um Minnesota at Minnesota um I'm going loss I'm gonna be the last year where the Vikings sweep us and then it'll be over I think it's a split they the home team wins both games um so I have now all of them lose um then they have the bye week then Detroit comes to Chicago I'll give them a win in that one I'm gonna go win then they go to Cleveland I'm gonna say loss I think I'm gonna say lost too I think Cleveland's gonna be good this year I think so too now if they weren't would you be surprised no I wouldn't be but I I do think they are going to be better than last year until last year they were not good but I I think having a whole season or whole off season with uh your rapist quarterback and uh you know the additions you made to the team I think that's gonna make it go far but I think the Browns will be a playoff caliber team yeah um then Arizona comes to Chicago when that's a win I think that team is that team is a disaster yeah uh then Atlanta comes to Chicago I think you win that one too I think you win that one and then you go to Green Bay loss loss so let's see I hopefully that's not for anything I have them with one two three four five six seven eight I have them ten and seven a lot of people a lot of people I saw on Twitter had the same thing I mean there's a lot of winnable games in here I mean they're quite Detroit is is a good team I'm not [ __ ] on them but they don't have an elite quarterback and it makes it a lot harder because they I don't believe in Jared goff's ability to to bring you back if you're in a hole my my question is my honest question are the Lions for real because I think they are but is it possible that we see them just completely regressed next year like our team's going to figure them out now the advantage the Lions have is a good offensive line when you have a good offensive line that makes how you play a lot more efficient but are they going to be able to do what they did last year I honestly don't know what does kind of scare me a little bit about them is not as much their quarterback but I think their ground game is going to be pretty good if you have a line and listen I told you I like David Montgomery I think he's a perfectly solid back but if you have a good system and a line that could block he's going to do some pretty solid things there when you drafted a running back in the first round yeah so you have him and your new running back so if they're going to control the clock against you and if you can't stop the run that's that's big trouble that's that is true that is true um but I mean yeah that's that's the beauty of of playing a last play schedule in a division that is completely changing if Detroit wasn't good I would say this is a golden opportunity I just don't think they're better than Detroit yet maybe not but Minnesota is is regressing they are they are regressing I'm just not sure if the Bears are ready to beat them because like I said my big fear is that if you're not going to get pressure on Kirk Cousins as good as I think our secondary is going to be when you got Justin you could you throw it to Justin Jefferson and he could do some good things if you give time in the pocket for Kirk Cousins and he's fighting Justin Jefferson they could put some points on you the good news is though is I think you'll be able to put points on them with zadarius Smith is gone which is a big loss and Dalvin cook the rumors are is and and not not regular fan rumors but like the beat writers from from you know that write about the the Vikings said Dalvin cook is about to be cut so that should be another huge loss there'll be no Dalvin cook I don't their offensive line is okay I don't I don't it's not great it's not bad um and you know so I I think they're a beatable team I think they are too don't get me wrong I think they are too I just wish the Bears had more pass rush I just think you're gonna need that in some of these games well you bring up the pass rush and they they brought in another Edge rusher Walker from the Titans um and Ryan poles has pretty much told this exactly what he plans to do he did and he he's he's very transparent and he just said that he's you know that he pretty much gonna trade for uh a veteran pass rusher so I foresee the the Bears bringing in another Edge rusher and that's you know with with that I think it gives you a lot better than what they had last year as far as pass rushing and if the two rookie defensive tackles give you what I think they can give you then suddenly you know you don't have to worry so much about the edge rush because they're collapsing the pocket from this the middle and driving driving the you know the center backwards that's a real possibility um Jaron Dexter I've been watching film and my my biggest knock on him was was he just slow off the off the snap but when I hear him talk about oh yeah that was that was what you know he was asked to do in Florida and the Bears are going to ask him to do something completely different they want him to be quick off the ball and just wreak havoc uh in in the center of the offensive line you know that I'm like okay I watched him do really well it was just that slow step and I I like the Pickens pick I think you've got something I mean I don't know if you'll see it right off the bat but I I think I'm I'm liking what these guys are gonna do and you know the the bear staff is basically telling you that hey this Javon Dexter could be the Chris Jones that you know the All-Pro defensive lineman that that really drives thing and if that's the case then it's going to make everything a lot easier for your Edge rushers because you're gonna it's it's a lot harder to it's a lot easier to stop an edge rusher because you can chip them you can roll protections um you know roll the play away from them or run directly at them when you're causing pressure from the center like from the middle of the offensive line and those defensive tackle spots it's real hard because you know uh you can double team them but then that creates one-on-ones elsewhere and you're really susceptible to a blitz at that point so um I'm cautiously optimistic about this defensive line I still don't know how they're going to do against stopping the Run but I think I think the the pass rush is not going to be anywhere near as bad if they make a few more moves then I might be singing a different tune and I get everything that you're saying I think that's all valid I just I I don't know I it makes me a little nervous and you know maybe that's just because we've been spoiled with Elite pass rushing during the Ryan Pace era one of the few good things that was done well you know when you had Khalil Mack and you had Robert Quinn I mean obviously it was it was an elite level and last year it was the worst in football you had the fewest sacks in football and you know you've made improvements already I just I to beat certain quarterbacks and certain teams it just it needs to be better than meh that's just what worries me I know we'll see what they they bring in because you know I have no idea who's on the trade block or who's um guys can still be cut guys can still be cut uh they're still they're still guys on the market um I know Bears Twitter is clamoring for Yannick but she's just so bad against the Run I just I don't know if it's worthy because he's gonna he's gonna command a decent amount of money and he's just so bad against the run and you think Ryan polls would go for that kind of thing no someone who's very emphasizing on beating you in the trenches and I I don't think as much as I think Jadeveon Clowney could be good on based on some of the comments that Ryan poles has made which were directed about Jalen Carter where he talked about Character Matters and the type of Team he has is not ready to take on those character issues so he's basically saying this is a young team this is a team that doesn't have an identity yet we're building an identity in a culture yeah you can't you can't bring on you can't test those Waters this early on and Jadeveon Clowney for as good as he is that what he what happened last year in Cleveland was a really bad look right on the team right bad luck yeah and I think that's the concern is you can't have that you can't have a veteran quit on a team if things don't go well with the Bears and it is hard to kind of play the character card and then bring in Clowney because then you're gonna have people asking a lot of questions like oh you know Jalen Carter wasn't worth going Acer but Clowney was I mean different different types of things but but still I mean think about it but I agree with you I agree with you is that if you're going to make these comments he's probably not the guy especially since um you know you're not expecting double-digit sacks from him right Brandon he's a very good run Defender uh but you need to get to the quarterback yeah I mean I'm still not writing it off but I'm I would be shocked right the fact that you're considering trading for somebody when he's available and right he doesn't count towards anything like he doesn't count in the the at this point in the calculation for compensatory picks he's he's just there you just costs money and the fact that they haven't brought them in does speak volumes and so I just don't know who is available for trade at this point and I'm sure he's been on the Horn uh that zadarius myth trade that they did not give up a ton for him no they did not that I mean that that was pretty like wow because the compensation wasn't higher than like what a fourth rounder um wasn't it a fifth and a six or something something like it was not a lot um look it up quick um the Browns will receive zadarius Smith uh and so the Vikings are sending zadarius Smith uh 2025 sixth round pick and a 20 25 seventh round pick and the Vikings are getting a a two-fifth Rounders so they're giving up two fifth rounders but getting to Darius Smith a sixth and a seventh that's that's not a haul no that is not a hall at all yeah um so that that wouldn't have been a bad move for the bears but I don't think and I would normally say the Vikings would not make that move in division in division but uh the the Vikings new GM he's already traded within the division for uh in the at the draft last year and and a favorable draft or a trade to the other team like so who knows um I just don't know who's on the trademark and I have no idea yeah I I think we're gonna find some answers pretty soon honestly yeah I would imagine so I mean you probably you would like to have that trade done before the veteran mini camp comes up um and definitely before training camp but you'd like to wrap this up soon and have that player in your house and you know meeting the team and being ready to to jump in because the the more time you have in in your building and learning your plays and learning your coaching staff and the style of play that it's all better for your team right exactly um and the only other bit of Bears news I have is uh Phil Emery retired yes he did I didn't really follow his career after the bears but yeah I didn't even know he was still involved in the NFL so uh uh that's funny didn't when he was fired didn't that when they brought in Ryan Pace correct because he was fired after the 2014 season so Bull Run Pace in 15. so both pace and Emery worked for the Falcons after that together yep yeah and then Ryan what did uh what do the Falcons do get a bunch of former bears how funny would that be to work with the guy that you got fired and replaced by and then you both got fired and then you worked at the same same new place well at least I Ryan Pace took the team to the playoffs a few times but yeah but you you hired a boner offensive minded coach that can't coach offense just like me better than hiring someone from the Canadian Football League yeah but my Canadian guy still was better than your bald guy my bald guy won us a division on the back of your defensive coordinator that you inherited doesn't matter still a division title [ __ ] I'm just picturing Ryan Pace calling Phil Emery of [ __ ] that would be a funny visual wouldn't it but you have trouble visualizing it because you barely heard from him no idea how they're going to look and offense I'm I'm excited to see because you know you got you got some really nice glimpses of what Justin Fields can be but now you're like okay um we've got a better offensive line and more weapons yeah and another year of experience under his belt and a full year of experience with Luke Etsy that and you know it's fine you know we talk about Justin Fields running is if you watched him run not last year the year before is every time he'd run you'd be like why is he not picking up big chunks of yards he's so fast and so big and strong but he ran so tentatively and even in the beginning of last year the same thing it was at one point where it just like I you saw the confidence you're like you know what I can do this and he ran so much more deliberately and he outran people instead of you know tippy-toeing and you just saw how much better it made the Bears offense having him his legs as a weapon I'm just waiting for that confidence step where he goes I can throw in this league too and I it might be it might be having a real number one wide receiver or having a healthy wide receiver core or could be just having a better offensive line the fact that I you know you just saw his growth in confidence and I'm just ready for him to take that third year jump yep that's what we can hope for you know we saw a big second year jump different than what we expected it to be but the fact that he he was very very close to Breaking the all-time quarterback rushing record in that second year says something it really does that's that's a that is not an easy feat to do no um what he did on on the ground especially behind a bad offensive line on a bad team and teams knew what was coming and they still couldn't stop it yeah he weaves around them what happens when a team can't just gear up to stop you on the ground that they have hope fully Jalen hurts yeah now we just need to we need him to Justin fields to squat 400 pounds or 600 pounds or whatever and so we can we can pick up every single one of those fourth and ones and third ones it's uh easy right simple that's all we need to do I hated that stupid Eagles one yard push like it was like cheat mode it was it was really like a cheat mode like there's no way to stop that oh it was frustrating as hell but you know what it was good for us in the long run right uh all right should we talk a little baseball here sure which which team do you want to talk first uh uh well I'll just kind of lead into it here very sucky yucky loss by the Cubs today 11-1 of the twins but you know at least getting blown out you don't feel that same frustration you do when you lost all those close games because listen you can look at these close losses for the Cubs in a number of ways it frustrates the hell that you couldn't get those big hits and have a better record but the fact that every game you've played in except like up to today outside of that small handful all these games have been competitive so I think it's a good sign for your future it's just frustrating when you lose so many of these games you don't want to be looking back in September and think about what could have been but at least they're competing right yeah it's on the one hand you're right it's they're being super competitive especially for a team that just doesn't have a lot of power right they they're competitive this was this was this you know we bitched about this for the last several years that so many of the cubs run such a high percentage of the Cubs runs were um based on home runs and now they're not they're driving in runs the old-fashioned way getting guys and runners in scoring position and hitting singles doubles walking guys home like their their manufacturing runs without the Home Run and which is good but at some point you need the that that power and you know I I think that's why you sort of have to keep morellup hit on Friday which was a very good game for the Cubs that was awesome um you know it that that adds some power to your lineup and that's really what you need another thing is the bullpen super spotty yeah yeah and I I want to preface this by saying I I'm I don't want to put too much blame on this but David Ross needs to get it [ __ ] together well you know I think that there's a number of ways you can look at the David Ross needs to get it together thing I'm more frustrated personally with some of the lineup decisions which I'll get to in a minute but that's part of it what's disappointing is that Fulmer and Boxberger haven't been the guys you had hoped for when you brought them in now Fulmer's been pitching better recently box Burger not so much I mean those are supposed to be two of your back guys and they just aren't playing well what frustrated me in terms of pitching decisions against the Cardinals Javier Assad was awesome but I I felt like they he pushed him to his limit and then it all fell apart in the ninth inning I thought okay he pitched like five innings whatever bringing the you know bringing somebody else I felt like he tried to push him a little too long yeah it's just you know there's some pitching management issues and the lineup issues it's the lineup in the pinch hitting that drives me nuts yeah and it it's just frustrating and I I I wonder if I wonder what Jed's mindset is about the situation you're not going to make a change mid-year period but I wonder if if he looks at David Ross as a long-term solution honestly I think he's their Yes Man I think he's just I I don't I I don't right now I don't see him going anywhere and if they finished around 500 he's certainly not going to go anywhere um it would really have to get out of control for that to happen and I mean we've left a lot of games on the table they're like a game under 500 now they're right at that 500 Mark you could have had so many more games you could have won but here's what bothers me and I don't like to pick on him personally because I seems like a great teammate and a great guy why are we still doing the Eric Hosmer thing why is he dhing yeah why is your DH a guy with a WRC plus of like 70 and a ground raw ground ball rate of 60 percent why are we still doing this I can't tell you it's listen Matt Mervis a little over matched right now but he's somebody trying to get experience in the big leagues for the first time this is a 33 year old veteran who's been around many years who's been on the decline for the past two or three years there's you're not trying to find anything with Eric Hosmer he had a very good career in his age 20s years he was an All-Star he was a World Series champion very nice solid respectable ball player for a good five six year run anymore been that guy for several years two teams didn't pay him or paying because they don't want to get they don't want him on their roster San Diego included him in the trade to get some of that money off the books and Boston despite getting him and picking up some of that stuff they didn't they didn't want to have him on the roster he's just he's not a productive ball player anymore He's 33 years old he hits the ball on the ground he doesn't drive it anymore he used to be a 20 30 home run guy those days are long gone he he left what six seven guys on base that one Cardinal game Jack Flaherty couldn't find the Zone the first inning you had a chance to pounce you had a chance to bury this team and it's a first pitch swing double play ball you're throwing away these games with this stuff you're giving the Cardinals life again with this stuff I know it's only may there's a long way to go a lot could happen you just don't want to leave all this stuff on the table right um you know you you need to be smarter about the lineup and you brought in Matt Mervis brought him up and you've been playing him and it hasn't been the offensive output that he by any stretch that he showed in the miners but I would rather have him seeing major league pitching and growing then see Hosmer there um hell I mean you've got Morel rather see morale have those at-bats hell I would even rather see uh Amaya coming up and getting at bats than that Hosmer I just he should not be having at-bats anymore and if Eric Hosmer really is that valuable to the team in the clubhouse don't start him don't put him at your starting DH if you're there's a situation where you have two in scoring position nobody out and you say Okay Hosmer we just need you to put the ball in play then do that I just he shouldn't be your starting designated hitter at this point yeah it's it's not a good look and I don't know what the you know the reason for him still playing is you know it's it's not money he's making the veteran minimum from the Cubs from the Cubs sorry from the he's making a [ __ ] ton of money elsewhere but the Cubs aren't paying him a big investment I mean literally they brought him in to be like a placeholder yeah and there's just no need for it no need and you know honestly like I was never huge on the signing but I was hoping he'd at least be a little better where he could kind of ride with it's like okay he's batting like 260 with a 330 OBP like for the first few months of the Season we'll make do and even the first few games in the season he hit decently well but you know again it's like when he gets a lot of these hits they're 10 bouncers that find a hole it it's it's crazy to think that this guy was once a really good baseball player hey you know how quickly he deteriorated yeah I mean you know what you what did they say in Moneyball we can't play the big game anymore sometimes we're told at 18 sometimes we're told at 40 but we're all told you know everyone everyone goes over the hump at some time and Eric Hosmer his prime was in his 20s and you know since he reaches 30s he's over the hump now it happens to everybody it's the timing's a little different but yeah this this is the situation for him look at Jake Arrieta when he came back he was watched everybody is washed up at some point and sometimes it is a gradual thing yeah sometimes it just life hits you hard I mean really it feels like when he went to San Diego is when things really started to decline when he got that big contract right right because you know he was a very good player for that Royals team and wasn't it him that went on that ball that aggressive base running play that tied the game and they eventually won the World Series against the Mets I believe that was Hosmer might have been my memory is not that good I believe it was so you know he could say he was a key part of a championship two pennants and he was an All-Star one year and he was a multi-time Gold Glove winner had a nice career nothing personal against the guy but you can't do this anymore and listen you can only optimize this team so much because there is a ceiling of this team and it's probably not more than a few games above 500. because look Mervis is there's Growing Pains here clearly there's big wrong pains for big growing pains and who else are you gonna bring up right now in terms of position players Owen Casey's killing it Pico Armstrong's killing it there's a bunch of prospects killing it but they're not ready to come up yet I mean really the optimization of this roster is going to be getting better in some areas you can bring in all the arms you could bring up arms you could find arms those are easy but in terms of position players unless you're making trades you can look at a few things I mean we've picked on Hosmer enough but you look around obviously Nico being hurt doesn't help that really stinks and Dansby Swanson's Obviously good overall but it's good to have those two in there Patrick wisdom's very streaky Saya Suzuki is very streaky and even when SEI has been hitting well we need to see more power right yes there's been no power and maybe part of it's because of that injury but if he's getting on base and hitting fine but we do need a bit more pop and it's not just on Suzuki you know you just you don't have that power that's really a big Achilles heel here it's like I talked about that when you were out last weekend is that's a huge factor for the Cubs is they're doing a lot of good things they just don't have any power if you added if you added more power to this team they could be a really potent offense and here's something else I wanted to talk about there's been talks that the Cubs would like to keep Cody Bellinger around and I think there's a lot of us that feel like that would be cool based on the way he's played so far I do think though it probably is important for them to see how this plays out over the next few months I'm not saying it's going to happen I'm not saying I think this is going to happen but what if he does just bottom out again yeah I mean that's a possibility but he's not that old he's not that far removed from an MVP season no and he's playing incredibly well um I I think you have to consider that especially you know when you start really looking at at guys you have in the miners and coming up um you know you were dead right Brennan Davis looks like it's he's really struggling those injuries killed a man it's a shame um you know so that's that's a guy that you expected to come up before the injury you expected him up this season and you know so you just those things those things happen you have a guy in house that's playing well is happy here he's a good teammate and a good leader and I think I think it's worth exploring and having those initial conversations you're right I would not lock him up early you want to see how the rest of the season plays out but um I I'm very very open to the idea of him returning oh me too I am too I'm not saying I'm not I just think that it's um I I think that it's just an issue of hey we're going to evaluate this and see how it's going but it's definitely going to be on their minds and I think that's good I think that's good um and you know we we saw the Cardinals early in the week come to town and take two or three from the Cubs and despite Wilson Contreras having a good series you you look at the predicament that the Cardinals are in with Wilson Contreras and you look at the stats of oh my God my watch here's Wilson Construction um the uh uh you look at the situation they're in and the pitching staff is a whole lot worse for them and they're like yeah we're just gonna stop having Wilson Contreras catch Wilson Contreras as Cubs fans we all knew that if you're paying him and you're giving him a contract you're doing so for his Bat he's not a good catcher he's got an arm he's not a good catcher and I I think I prefer it's you know would I have been opposed to them keeping him and making him the DH not at all but uh the the Yon Gomes catching was the much better decision and we're seeing so with the progression of the pitching staff well not only are you seeing it on the field but you're continually hearing it from the players they talk about it regularly Justin Steele talked about it the other night um this was the right decision and I'm glad they made it uh I still the way it all went down with with him I I still think there's something else that was going on and maybe maybe they came to him and told him hey we would like to keep you as but you would be a DH or a first baseman and he didn't didn't want that right um and then that led to kind of the I'm not going to say bad blood but the the awkward path that things went down but he's he was not the catcher that they wanted to go with and and that was the right call they they would much they were like well we'll sacrifice offense and to be honest with you Yan Gomes has been really good as a hitter yeah he's hitting over 300 he's got six home runs he returned to the lineup the other day hit a home run and kind of sparked this team it was it was pretty nice yeah so I mean couldn't be happier with the way things are going with the on Gomes um and you know the Cardinals seemed that they have buyer's remorse with Wilson Contreras yeah it goes forward though we never know but that isn't to say that two months into the season of that brand new contract if that is not an awkward way to start things to say the least definitely definitely awkward no doubt um that is you know you hear some Cardinals writers talk about it and you're like listen I don't know what the Cardinals expectations were uh did they think that I mean as much as I don't like him Yadier Molina was one of the best defensive catchers we've seen in our lifetimes and yeah takes a minute but yes yeah he was just fantastic at it and bringing in Wilson Contreras to replace him was just not the right move just two completely different players and ah you know I think they the Cardinals would have been better suited to um to bring in a more defensive minded catcher to to ease that transition from Yadier Molina to where you're going in the future um and I think they just were like they saw the the bat of Wilson Contreras and the fact that they could snake a a beloved Cub player and I don't think they thought it is thought it out as well as they could have and not saying I'm not saying it's a disaster as much as they're portraying it but they they're paying a lot of money for a DH they are they are um let's see what other notes we have this week Justin Steele is really good yes he is he's awesome and even when he doesn't have his best stuff he goes out there and grinds and still gets results yeah I'm really happy I love that dude um Smiley just continues to pitch really well um strowman uh who I figured he was gone but apparently they're talking about contract extension with him well I mean you know he's been really good so far this year I mean him and steel have been a really nice one-two punch so far and what's a shame about strowman is how little run support he gets but either way the results are the results and he's pitching very very well I think he's been one of the pitchers that benefited from the from the pitch clock yeah the Rhythm looks great with him I mean really really smooth like we even saw an opening day he might have been the first ever to get the pitchcock violation but everything else he was in a good Rhythm and he stayed in that rhythm um see uh I I don't know if you've been following the miners but Ben Brown is pitching really well nasty nasty uh nasty him and Jordan Wicks both look really good really good uh Ryan Jensen has been moved as a to a reliever role which I'm fine with and I think the fact that there's so much pitching Prospect in you know between prospects and young players on this team I think that the well is pretty full so being able to make that move early uh is it's kind of a benefit there but um yeah I I just there's some good things going on miguela Maya but he a cup of coffee but he's uh he got promoted to the AAA he got he got a promotion in his demotion um I liked what I saw Miguel Amaya what I really liked about miguela Maya was how well the pitchers seemed to work with him that is the energy he brought um you know we he was somebody we were very high on and injuries took a big toll for a number of seasons and I honestly I I was almost ready to write him off and and now he's and I I would venture to say that the Cubs organization had that in their mind too but it it's it's now looking like Miguel Amaya could be the future of the Cubs catching uh you know foreseeable future um that's not such a bad thing to have your guy in-house no it's not I mean if the fact that those two were working together you know you look at what Steele was doing with Miguel Amaya I mean no walks command look great communication looks there that's big the fact that you can establish that right off the bat that's big yeah I'm I'm happy I'm very happy I'm happy for him I'm happy for the Cubs this was this was good and you know even though he got sent back down when Yan Gomes came back uh kind of knew it was coming either way yeah and it's it's a tough situation because I've heard people say well you know why not get rid of Tucker Barnhart and I don't disagree but Magellan Maya is Young he needs those at bats he needs to be playing and and they're not going to be that quick to cut a veteran catcher that's just the reality of it yeah truth and you're not you're not benching Yan Gomes in God knows so you've you've got to give him playing time they move them up to AAA he's gonna have he's gonna be playing with Iowa um and if and the reality is is if Yan Gomes goes down again they'll probably bring Amaya up to play regularly and uh that's um you know that's it's good for him to continue to get at bats yeah absolutely um you know I like where things are going with this organization yeah as a whole I mean there's been a lot of frustrating moments over the past few weeks but at least you could look at the long-term picture and you could see some promising things and here's the thing about the frustration and I agree with you there's been there's been quite a few frustrating things but it's I I thought about it and a lot of the frustration is based on newfound expectations of this team which is true is you look at it and you're like early on you're like okay you know they're going to be better than last year um but didn't have a lot of Hope about this team but you saw what they're capable of doing starting pitching is pretty darn good they've got a number of guys up and down the order that can hit you know get on base and and get hits uh you're just identified hey you know where they need Bullpen help and they need more power that's those are their weaknesses but other than that it's a pretty good team the the chemistry is is really good um you know you you like a lot of things about this team and you get a much better feel now on the when they're playing a few weeks into the season than you did on paper going into the season um so when things things don't go as as you hoped even on a bad game or a bad pitching outing you you still look and you're like man I'm frustrated but would I have been the same frustration level last year when I had but they're like this is a bad team and I have no expectations no I my a lot of my frustration is I expect more because I believe in this team because you believe they're capable of more yes and you know today really sucked because I I for the most part I've really liked wesnesky as a pitcher and it seemed like he was making progress from his bad start and then things kind of went South again and you know we're gonna we're gonna see ups and downs he's a young kid but I I would like to see a little more consistency from him and you know I want to see where where is that nasty stuff that he was throwing in spring training right yeah because I mean spring training it was the he lights out um but I mean overall you know and Horner's injured which sucks um is I I don't know the prognosis they put them on the 10-day but I don't know if it's really a 10 day or if it's a 10-day and observe yeah I think it's 10 days starting last Tuesday um you know you need his Bat back in the lineup uh but overall I mean I think I I like this team I like this team quite a bit and you look at the division and I I still don't understand the Pirates are starting to come back to earth and figure out that they're the Pirates and the Brewers are starting to come back to earth because I know they just they just won two in a row now but they're playing the Royals yeah but the Brewers are are three and seven in their last ten um you know this this division is still open this division is still wide open yeah it is it is uh should we talk about the White Sox all right this team is a disaster um you you looked you're like okay you know they they started poorly but they had a pretty rough schedule going into this you're like okay we've got a lot of games against the Royals coming up that can really start padding our our stats and get some wins under our belts and in a Four game stretch against Kansas City you lost three of four you're only one game ahead of the Royals who are one of the worst teams in baseball yeah losing that series to the Royals was not good you are 13 and 27 right now 14 and 27 they just beat uh oh they just beat the Astros oh okay all right um so there's that yeah but you're you're basically you're winning a 30-year games it's not good this is not good at all um you know you've got still got injuries your you know your ace pitcher that you you know you rely on just had an absolute clunker on Monday against Kansas City um Lance Lynn had a clunker against Kansas City yeah the things have been ugly for Lance Lynn so far and you're gonna need him to turn it around if you have any sort of Hope but he just turned 36 and you know when you're throwing 91 92 down the middle you're not putting the movement to location or any sort of deception on it and it's gonna get hit hard and the Royals did just that against him um and you know Ben attendee's been fine but just zero power zero power right this he's slugging like I I his OBP and his slugging are the same like it's not a good look uh uh you know Tim Anderson is back but Andrew Vaughn is not swinging the bat particularly well um at least he's hitting with men in scoring position fairly decently it's just this this team I I don't know where to go from here I mean I'll the one things I can give is Luis Roberts been hitting great lately Lucas giolito has looked really really good um and you almost caught his back and he had a good night tonight helped lead them to a win um but injured again you know Tim Anderson is still kind of get back to the swing of things um because I wonder if his injury is still bugging him a little bit I don't know um but yeah I mean there's you know the Eloy appendectomy that's just more crazy crap bad luck for him and you gotta feel for the guy yeah you do feel bad I I he's gonna be out a while yeah um is that's that's one of those injuries that not I don't know if you call that an injury the it's a situation where if if you come back too early you risk you risk further injury uh right you've gotta you've gotta take the time to uh you know to really really heal um so he's gonna be out a while and uh you know some of the young guys that you were you foolishly were counting on uh just just haven't been producing and got sent down um you know the the crazy part is is you look at the flaws on this team and they're not flaws that should shock anybody there were the flaws that all the fans said oh yeah here are the flaws can you fix these please and the White Sox just sat on it sat on it sat on it and we're like nah we're good we're good well I think one of the yeah I mean especially when you don't have depth right now um yeah you don't have depth you don't have uh you know you you just you lack you lack help your bullpen's terrible and hopefully Liam Hendricks comes back and helps that a little bit well uh I'm hearing he might be back in like a week or two and he's throwing real hard and you know I don't know maybe that's a little bit of a morale boost for people maybe that charges people up a little bit I mean it should it should absolutely should your teammate just be cancer you're like hey I beat cancer I'm coming back here and I'm gonna dominate I'm gonna make this Bullpen better because if he is a reliable closer that makes things better for you yes because you take away an inning that you have to give to Ronaldo Lopez you know I I have rooted so I've been like one of the biggest cheerleaders for Ronaldo Lopez for years and I just think I have to hang up my my Penance and my you know my cheering section Horn uh it's he's not the guy and I think he was good last year and I thought he was going to be really good on the pen this year but it's been disastrous so far this year you know there's there's been glimmers of Hope but overall you're just like what the hell um and I you know there's this this team is bad and it's weird to see Kenny Williams act like I'm just I'm really fresh I'm pissed off like look in the mirror do you not have a mirror in your office you are the guy you helped create this like you know imagine how frustrated we are we have no control over this situation you have control yeah it's rickon Kenny Williams M and ownership that they're they're the ones that they they have no room to be frustrated because this is they're reaping what they've they sewed like this is this is the team you put together we all saw the flaws we all been for the last several years telling you where where you should improve and they're just not willing to do it not willing to do it it feels like they're continuing to let them get hope because they play in one of the most embarrassing divisions in sports like you here you know what's crazy the White Sox are 14 and 27. just beat the Astros so now they have 14 wins their winning percentage is 341. you would think a team with a record like that would be 12 13 games back right eight and a half I mean I'm not saying they're right there but that's that's not miles back for a team with that record I just think that's crazy right I mean this is this division is not very good it's more than not very good it's a train wreck there's a the twins are the only team above 500 and we're in mid-may now and they're barely above 500. they're like four games above 500. Cleveland is under 500 the tigers are under 500 the White Sox are under 500 and the Royals are under 500. the Royals have a 300 winning percentage they have 12 wins and they're 10 back the Athletics only have a few less wins than them they're 16 back what does it tell you about that the Red Sox are 22 and 18. a 550 winning percentage their last place in the AL East and seven and a half back of the race they are one game closer to first place than the White Sox with an above 500 record but see this this is where you look at the situation what if the White Sox do get hot then they're going to look like they're right there again so then what do you do you stand Pat again I don't know how much you can buy right I mean these are all questions you have to ask right right because they could go on a run and make it closer I know people will roll their eyes at that but if you get Liam Hendricks back and Tim Anderson starts hitting again and if Joe Machado can actually stay on the field and hit like he has been you can win more games but if you were in any other division you would already be buried but in this division they're not and that's going to be something that rickon is going to say well look we're you know we're still within Striking Distance so how are they going to approach this these are just the questions I'm trying to ask here I it's at this point do you see any remedy not short-term long term any remedy working that doesn't involve transfer of ownership at the very least I would have to say major decision uh the words major changes within the organization or the very you know the the small chance that they actually do turn this around this year it's gonna be one of those too I uh because Sean I'm gonna I'm gonna pound this like a drum this division is the only reason that there is even a crack of the window still open this year right absolutely if they were in the AL East oh my God ale East that so the team in last place in the AL East would be tied for first in their division exactly they would be uh like 16 and a half games out of first it's just that would be over it'll be overdone that would be 100 over this AL West there at the bot you know other than the Oakland they would be well at the bottom and no hope of getting to the top uh NL East they'd be at the bottom no hope of getting to the top um and El Centro that'd be at the bottom with minimal hope to get to the top um and the NL West they'd be at the bottom with no hope of getting to the top you're right this division is the only thing keeping them any hope alive and what and what if what if the twins go on a on a big winning streak and and start putting this division away then what do you say because you're you have no hope of a wild card right you have the the socks have to come back and win the division if they want the postseason yeah you have to win this division you have to there's no chance of you winning a wild card at this point or not at this pace right you have to win this awful division yeah and it's it may not look likely right now but it's not impossible again I'm not saying it's going to happen I'm not saying that but yeah but right as of right now uh you are nine games out of the wild card and you would have to LeapFrog one two three four five six seven teams that's tough to do that's really tough to do um well you know Sean the other thing about the AL Central is take away the twins for a second Cleveland is really falling back down to earth from last year yeah but if they get healthier maybe they'll play a little better but I I just that offense isn't very good and the tigers are playing better but I think by the end they're going to be right there with 90 some losses the tigers are not good and they're they're gonna sell off anything that they can um and the Royals are just they're bad because my my whole point of this is is I think that Jerry and the team is going to be really hesitant to sell off if they're within arm's length of this because don't factor in how the team has played if you just look in May and you're eight and a half back that's not over it's difficult but it's not over now people could look at how the White Sox have played and have very little faith and I would understand why to this point but it's it's just one of those things where this team should not be this bad right they have their flaws they have their problems but they shouldn't be this bad and that's why on paper this should be a much much much better team right and that's why there's that part where you say they what if they do rip off eight of nine wins you could get right back into it but do you feel like that's going to sustain over a season where's the confidence level in that the organization I think is going to try to milk that for much as they can I think they're trying to avoid selling off as much as they can but I you know this is just I don't know it's it's very very strange you know all my Sox fan friends they've given up and I've been kind of like well let's see let's see let's see and we'll see where this is in a month if they're within five games in a month the White Sox are gonna try to I think in my opinion not sell off right like five five games is Within Reach especially in the [ __ ] division but I don't know where this is going to go from here I I don't know can you build off this win tonight against the Astros can you say hey moncada Robert came up big build off that can you say when Liam Hendricks comes back that's going to be a big morale boost for this team and maybe start playing a little better we'll see you know we we keep saying all these things with the White Sox is maybe this is the Boost they need maybe when Tim Anderson comes back maybe when the schedule gets easier and they're playing the Royals right every time we say that it doesn't come true and I I think this team might be cooked it's it's May 13th we're recording this I I think it might be time to say the White Sox are cooked and that's a shitty thing to have to say with a team that has so many good hitters and and pitchers that have had such a good you know career or career so far and it's uh it's tough to say that but I'm that's really where we are yeah and again one of the reasons I continue to do the what-ifs is because this division is so bad because if you were if you were 16 games back and you had like every team ahead of you in the AL East even if you ripped off like a big winning streak you still wouldn't still wouldn't be in the cards these these all these teams in the AL Central absolutely suck the twins are the best team and they're mediocre at Best in my opinion good pitching but their offense is me I just I I think the twins are like an 85 win team might be enough to win the division but they're they're not going to go anywhere in the post I just I don't think they're that good they're a mediocre team and if they go on a losing streak of the White Sox go on a winning streak you know again I'm playing all hypotheticals I'm just saying this stuff isn't out of Realm of possibility with a division this bad uh it's just it's a shitty situation it is it is a very very it's been a very very shitty situation and it's you know for the fans very frustrating very very very frustrating huh was there anything else you wanted to talk about nope I think I've said my piece well I think that's going to do it for this episode of Bill swersky Sports Talk Chicago I want to thank everybody so much for listening please hit subscribe however you listen to podcasts with iTunes Stitcher YouTube Google play Spotify Etc share this podcast with your friends that's how we grow the show follow us on social media at Swarovski Sports facebook.com sports.com uh or shy fam Pat 2 for Alex on Twitter or Alexander jpaccreative.com for all the cool stuff that Alex does and again thank you guys so much for listening until next time Bear Down top of the land what are lucky break the good Lord wants the Cubs to win we think [Music] we think Cubs win Cubs win Cubs win oh I don't want her you couldn't have purchase she can't fit in my van and she looks like Timber New Yorkers smoking crack is not legal on the planes Bears 31 to negative seven oh when the bears go bearing down taiwana