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TRENDING: How Mitch Trubisky is approaching Thursday's more-important-than-usual preseason opener. (See the football section for Bears news and NFL updates).
TRENDING: Vinnie Hinostroza training with Patrick Kane to help elevate game going into 'prove-it' year with Blackhawks. (See the hockey section for Blackhawks updates and NHL news).
TRENDING: Cap Mechanics: What In The World Are The Bulls Doing This Offseason? (Taken from sbnation.com/fanpost, 08/072017). (See the basketball section for Bulls news and NBA updates).
TRENDING: Posey busts out as Giants top Cubs. (Tuesday night's game, 08/08/2017);
Smith powers White Sox past struggling Astros. (See the baseball section for Cubs and White Sox updates).
TRENDING: PGA Championship 101: Guide to the year's final major. (See the golf section for PGA news and tournament updates).
TRENDING: Fire's Patrick Doody's breakout game and Juninho's controversial goal; Can reigning champions Chelsea handle the pressure? (See the soccer section for Fire news and worldwide soccer updates).
TRENDING: Who’s hot, who’s not, heading into Michigan. (See the NASCAR section for NASCAR news and racing updates).
TRENDING: Don Baylor, former AL MVP, Cubs Manager dies at 68. (See the last article on this blog for pertinent information).
Bears Down Chicago Bears!!!!! How Mitch Trubisky is approaching Thursday's more-important-than-usual preseason opener.
TRENDING: PGA Championship 101: Guide to the year's final major. (See the golf section for PGA news and tournament updates).
TRENDING: Fire's Patrick Doody's breakout game and Juninho's controversial goal; Can reigning champions Chelsea handle the pressure? (See the soccer section for Fire news and worldwide soccer updates).
TRENDING: Who’s hot, who’s not, heading into Michigan. (See the NASCAR section for NASCAR news and racing updates).
TRENDING: Don Baylor, former AL MVP, Cubs Manager dies at 68. (See the last article on this blog for pertinent information).
Bears Down Chicago Bears!!!!! How Mitch Trubisky is approaching Thursday's more-important-than-usual preseason opener.
By JJ Stankevitz
(Photo/USA TODAY)
Mitch Trubisky ended Tuesday’s practice with an interception in the end zone, which “sucks,” as the No. 2 overall pick put it. The next time he takes a snap will be Thursday at Soldier Field in front of a crowd hoping to see, for the first time, why the Bears invested so heavily in him.
We’ve already seen flashes of Trubisky’s eye-popping natural ability during practices at Olivet Nazarene University, and it’s almost to the point of mundanity to see him roll to his right, keep his eyes downfield and fire a perfectly-weighted pass to (usually) a tight end. But Thursday night, when the Bears open preseason play against the Denver Broncos, will provide a different and important atmosphere.
The last time Trubisky could be hit, he was being terrorized by then-Stanford defensive end Solomon Thomas (who was selected one pick after him back in April) in El Paso, Texas during the Sun Bowl. The Bears can simulate pocket pressure during practice, but as long as Trubisky is wearing that orange non-contact jersey, it can only go so far.
“I’m ready to get hit just to get that over with,” Trubisky said. “… We’re sitting back there in the pocket and we can’t really get a good feel in practice of when we need to get out of there, when we need to move on, when we might have been sacked. You see a couple of plays throughout practice where a big play happens but the defensive end might have had you down, might have gotten the ball out.
“So it’ll be good to play live on Thursday, to get hit, things will move faster and to know when you need to move on and what you’ve got to do, because we don’t get hit in practice. I’m anxious to just get back to real football.”
Trubisky, as expected, will be the third quarterback used by the Bears on Thursday, behind starter Mike Glennon and backup Mark Sanchez. Coach John Fox didn’t say if Trubisky would get some work with the No. 2 offense or how long he would play, but without a fourth quarterback (Connor Shaw recently had a screw removed from his leg and will be unavailable), Trubisky can expect to see a good number of snaps.
A worry if Trubisky is running the third-team offense for most of his time on the field is if there’s enough quality around him to make those snaps productive, but Fox said there will be enough mixing and matching between the offensive units that it shouldn’t be an issue.
“We’ll make sure we get quality work regardless of whether we call them ones, twos or threes,” Fox said.
Thursday will be another step along a long path of development for Trubisky, one that — if everything goes according to plan — will take him to being the Bears’ starting quarterback for well into the future. He’s not there yet, though, so these preseason games do carry plenty of significance given he may not get many opportunities when the games start to actually count for something.
““Just play great situational football, control the game,” Trubisky said of his goals for Thursday. “Each time I’m in there with my teammates just show command at the line of scrimmage, drive the ball down the field, be efficient, pick up first downs and hopefully finish in the end zone a couple times. It’s all about taking care of the football, going out there having fun and doing my job.”
Here it is: Bears release depth chart for first preseason game.
By CSN Staff
The Bears start their preseason schedule Thursday against the Denver Broncos at Soldier Field.
And now John Fox & Co. have provided a look at how the first, second and third teams will stack up in that game.
The Bears released their unofficial depth chart a couple days before Thursday's preseason debut.
There aren't too many surprises. The quarterbacks stacked up as expected with Mike Glennon on top, Mark Sanchez in the No. 2 spot and rookie Mitch Trubisky third. Cameron Meredith and Kevin White are listed as the top two wideouts. Dion Sims is ahead of Zach Miller at tight end, with second-round pick Adam Shaheen third. Prince Amukamara, Quintin Demps, Adrian Amos and Marcus Cooper are the four starters in the secondary.
Take a look at the entire depth chart below.
Mike Glennon’s advice for Mitch Trubisky: ‘You belong in this league’.
By JJ Stankevitz
(Photo/USA TODAY Photo Images)
Mike Glennon was backed up against his own goal line against the defending Super Bowl champs when he took his first snap in a Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniform four years ago.
The former third-round pick had tagged in for Josh Freeman at the end of the first quarter and faced about the most daunting situation possible for a rookie quarterback, even in a less intense atmosphere of a preseason game. We’ll let Glennon explain what happened on that play:
“I dropped back and my first read wasn’t there and I thought I was going to get sacked in the end zone,” Glennon said. “I remember flashing like, oh my God. And there was a guy open and it went for like 60, 70 yards. So it was kind of a good way to settle in and be going. It’s definitely a different experience going from college to the pros that first time.”
That player was tight end Tom Crabtree, and the play went for 61 yards. Glennon went on to complete 11 of 23 passes for 169 yards — with one interception and no touchdowns — in his preseason debut.
With Mitch Trubisky readying himself to see a good amount of snaps Thursday against the Denver Broncos, Glennon offered up some advice for the No. 2 pick going into his first (preseason) game.
“I think just the biggest thing is, you belong in this league,” Glennon said. “You don’t really know until you do it, and then once you do it you finally realize it. So just go out there, play like you have your whole life and you’ll be fine.”
State of the O-line: Bears' depth takes a hit as Eric Kush tears hamstring.
By Chris Boden
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
The Bears have their first major injury of training camp as interior offensive lineman Eric Kush suffered a torn hamstring on Monday.
Kush, who signed a two-year deal with the Bears this offseason, will undergo season-ending surgery after tearing the hamstring off the bone. The Bears placed him on IR and signed undrafted rookie OL Brandon Greene.
It's great that second-year offensive lineman Cody Whitehair is as versatile as he is, because if Kyle Long can't answer the bell to start the regular season, the former second round pick could be back where he was slated to start as a rookie last season.
Kush was going to be the left guard if Long needed time beyond the September 10 opener to be game-ready. But in Monday's practice, we saw Whitehair slide over from the center position he took over in Week 1 a year ago after Hroniss Grasu's knee injury and the signing of Josh Sitton. Grasu replaced Whitehair at center in those instances Monday in Bourbonnais.
We're not sure how big a roster bubble Grasu would've been on if everyone made it through the preseason, including Long getting the green light. His case now is definitely strengthened, unfortunately at the cost of Kush.
But before we play the very first preseason game Thursday, the offensive line can't really afford another injury hit. Depth in the middle of a unit that was projected to be one of their strengths would suddenly look a little thin. Waiver wire pickups Will Poehls and Cyril Richardson are next men up, with Richardson's 12 games and four starts the only regular season action between them.
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Vinnie Hinostroza training with Patrick Kane to help elevate game going into 'prove-it' year with Blackhawks.
(Photo/AP)
Six rookies cracked the Blackhawks' Opening Day lineup last year as part of a transition to infuse more youth into a roster with an aging core, and Vinnie Hinostroza was one of them.
But it was a roller coaster campaign for the Bartlett native.
He was an every day player during the first half of the season, appearing in 48 games and compiling six goals and eight assists, before getting assigned to the AHL's Rockford IceHogs for the rest of the year — aside from the regular season finale — to fine-tune his game and gain more confidence.
To help advanced that and search for consistency, Hinostroza has been training with Patrick Kane — and Ryan Hartman — this summer in Chicago, working on edge work and skating drills.
"Skating with Kaner every day, it's unbelievable to watch what he does," Hinostroza said Saturday at the Chicago Hockey Charity Classic in Geneva. "We skate with [Prodigy Hockey skills coach] Brian Keane, and he really works on the small details.
Going into the season, not only are we working on strength — that was my main focus last year — but also the little tiny on-ice thing like the edges and stuff like that.
"I think I'm getting a lot stronger, trying to do the right things, working out with Kaner and working out with these older guys. It's nice to be in the gym and on the ice every day."
There's an extra motivation for Hinostroza as well this offseason with the way the Blackhawks' playoff run ended in a four-game sweep to the Nashville Predators. The 23-year-old winger played in only one of those four tilts, logging just 6:48 of ice time in a 5-0 Game 2 home loss.
Does that sort of exit sit with a player and team all summer or does it get tossed in the trash can as quickly as possible?
"It's definitely motivating," Hinostroza said. "Who wants to lose that early when you've got such a great group? I think everyone was really focused going into the summer. Once workouts started I think everyone forgot it, but in the back of their mind it's still there cause you don't want to happen again."
The 2017-18 season is an important one for Hinostroza. He's set to become a restricted free agent at the end of it, and he is not only looking to secure a full-time roster spot but prove to management that he's worth keeping around beyond that.
It won't get any easier with the Blackhawks adding Lance Bouma and Tommy Wingels into an already crowded mix to compete for a bottom-six role.
But that's a challenge Hinostroza is looking to tackle head-on.
"I obviously just want to come in with confidence and try to prove myself," he said. "I feel like I wasn't always myself last year, I was up and down there. I just want to come in and play my game as hard as I can every day."
Patrick Kane believes Blackhawks might be better than last year ... on paper.
By Charlie Roumeliotis
(Photo/AP)
After initially struggling to cope with the reality of losing linemate and close friend Artemi Panarin, along with teammate Niklas Hjalmarsson to trades his offseason, Patrick Kane is slowly starting to like Chicago's reformed roster the more he looks at it.
The Blackhawks reacquired top-line winger Brandon Saad, brought back three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Sharp, got 24-year-old defenseman Connor Murphy in return to help ease the loss of Hjalmarsson on the back end, and made several depth signings up front such as Lance Bouma and Tommy Wingels via free agency.
But will it translate into on-ice success?
"It's tough to say," Kane said at the Chicago Hockey Charity Classic at Fox Valley Ice Arena on Saturday. "I think time will tell, obviously. But I'd like to think on paper we're a better team."
GM Stan Bowman wasn't kidding when he said changes would be coming to the organization after a first-round sweep at the hands of the Nashville Predators, and his moves helped extend the Blackhawks' championship window a few more years despite making the short term a more challenging task.
At the same time, the Blackhawks did finish the 2016-17 campaign as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference with 109 points before getting bounced in the opening round for the second straight year. There's a fine line when you're evaluating the season as a whole.
"If you look at our season last year, I mean, we had a pretty good season," Kane said. "We just kind of collapsed there at the end. Disappointing finish, but when that happens, you know there's going to be changes. You can't really ask for much more from a management standpoint, as far as asking for them to make moves to help us win. They did that."
Now the question is whether they can put it all together.
Getting the new (and old) faces acclimated to the Blackhawks' style of hockey as quickly as possible and ironing out the wrinkles before April will be key to avoiding another quick postseason exit.
"Obviously, there's some faces that have been here for a long time, and some faces you didn't want to see go that are maybe kind of the cause of some of those moves, but it's disappointing," Kane said. "At the same time, we've got some guys coming back in, like Sharpie and Saad, [and] they're pretty high on this Murphy kid, as well.
"We have guys that are going to come in. It looks great on paper, but we need to go on the ice and do it and make sure that we're playing the game of hockey we know how to play."
Blackhawks analyst Eddie Olczyk diagnosed with cancer.
By Tony Andracki
(Photo/AP)
The Blackhawks announced Tuesday afternoon broadcaster Eddie Olczyk has been diagnosed with colon cancer.
The 50-year-old serves as the color analyst for Blackhawks games on CSN as well as NHL on NBC and was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.
Olczyk released a statement Tuesday:
I have been diagnosed with a form of colon cancer and am currently undergoing treatment for the disease. I have been working with outstanding health care professionals and expect to be back in the broadcast booth after I complete my treatment. Having the support and encouragement from my family, the Chicago Blackhawks organization, NBC Sports and all my friends and fans means the world to me and will give me continued strength to beat this. My family and I appreciate privacy during this time as we focus our attention on my treatments.Blackhawks team physician Dr. Michael Terry released a statement as well summing up the situation:
Last week, Eddie Olczyk was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent a surgical procedure to remove the tumor. He is recovering well from the procedure and will be undergoing further treatment in the coming weeks, including chemotherapy. We look forward to his return to good health after the completion of his treatment.Blackhawks president and CEO John McDonough provided a statement on behalf of the organization:
Eddie Olczyk is a treasured member of the Chicago Blackhawks family and we will be supportive of him as he fights this disease. We encourage our fans to keep him in their thoughts as we all look forward to having him back in good health as soon as possible.Olczyk is wildly popular among fans and is a Chicago guy through and through. He grew up in Palos Heights, Ill., went to Brother Rice Catholic High School and was drafted by the Blackhawks in the first round of the 1984 Draft. He played with the Hawks from 1984-87 and came back to the Windy City for the 1998-99 and 1999-00 seasons after stops in Toronto, Winnipeg, New York, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Olczyk family at this time.
Just Another Chicago Bulls Session..... Cap Mechanics: What In The World Are The Bulls Doing This Offseason? (Taken from sbnation.com/fanpost, 08/072017).
By drock8686
This post ended up being pretty anti-climactic. When I was doing some rough back-of-napkin math it seemed like the Bulls probably made a mistake by choosing to be an "over-the-cap" team, but after going over the cap math in some detail, it doesn't seem like it matters very much whether they decide to be over the cap or under the cap, unless Niko Mirotic ends up signing for a number significantly below his cap hold of approximately $11 million.
The last couple weeks, there has been a lot of discussion about the Bulls remaining an "over-the-cap" team and what that means for their offseason. After seeing some discussion on Twitter, initiated by your friendly Bulls Blogger, I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring to try to examine exactly what the Bulls were trying to accomplish this offseason based on the timing of their moves and the order in which those moves were made. Here's the tweet that started it all:
"a lot depends on Niko, but this 'operate over-the-cap and keep trade exception' seems like just a cheap-out for now."
"a lot depends on Niko, but this 'operate over-the-cap and keep trade exception' seems like just a cheap-out for now."
BlogABull.com
@BullsBlogger
@BullsBlogger
This led me down a bit of a CBA rabbit hole, because I wanted to figure out the math of what exactly the Bulls were doing. To start, this link to CBA FAQ is incredibly helpful: http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q13 -- this explains exactly what counts against a team's salary cap, and I'll refer back to this a few times throughout this post. In mid-July, after the initial free agent frenzy, Sean Highkin tweeted this:
"As of right now, I’m told the Bulls are operating as an exceptions team (over the cap) and have $15.3m Butler TPE, but that could change."
Sean Highkin✔
@highkin
This struck me as odd and was significant news to me because I knew the Bulls had very little committed salary at the time. For reference, let's use the Wayback Machine to look at Basketball Insiders before the Jimmy Butler trade. LINK This is the most up-to-date picture of the Bulls' committed 2017-18 salary I could find prior to the Butler trade. Here's July 5, after the signings of Felicio and Holiday were announced: LINK Finally, here's the most recent update, valid today: LINK
What I'm going to do first is show what salary was committed before July 1, after the Butler trade, on the Bulls cap:
Dwyane Wade (player option): $23,800,000
Rajon Rondo (waived): $3,000,000 guaranteed
Robin Lopez: $13,788,500
Nikola Mirotic (cap hold): $10,986,655
Kris Dunn: $4,046,760
Lauri Markannen: $3,821,640
Zach LaVine: $3,202,218
Cameron Payne: $2,203,440
Denzel Valentine: $2,186,400
Jerian Grant: $1,713,840
Bobby Portis: $1,516,320
Paul Zipser: $1,312,611
Isaiah Canaan (waived): $200,000
Cristiano Felicio (cap hold): $1,671,382
Joffrey Lauvergne (cap hold): $3,248,466
Anthony Morrow (cap hold): $6,627,200
Rajon Rondo (waived): $3,000,000 guaranteed
Robin Lopez: $13,788,500
Nikola Mirotic (cap hold): $10,986,655
Kris Dunn: $4,046,760
Lauri Markannen: $3,821,640
Zach LaVine: $3,202,218
Cameron Payne: $2,203,440
Denzel Valentine: $2,186,400
Jerian Grant: $1,713,840
Bobby Portis: $1,516,320
Paul Zipser: $1,312,611
Isaiah Canaan (waived): $200,000
Cristiano Felicio (cap hold): $1,671,382
Joffrey Lauvergne (cap hold): $3,248,466
Anthony Morrow (cap hold): $6,627,200
This totals $83,325,432 in committed salary and cap holds for the Bulls prior to the Felicio and Holiday signings and Nwaba waiver claim. Two-way players like Blakeney and Arcidiacono do not count towards the NBA cap. The salary cap for this offseason is $99,093,000. So the question then becomes, how were the Bulls even over the cap at that time?? Well, as discussed in Question 13 of the CBA FAQ, referenced above, there's a little bit more to add to their cap figure:
A cap hold for the combined amount of any Mid-Level, Bi-Annual, Disabled Player and trade exceptions available to the team, if the team is under the salary cap. (Teams may renounce these exceptions, in which case they no longer are included in team salary.)
The Bulls had just received a $15,311,329 trade exception in the Butler trade, and also would have had their non-taxpayer MLE available ($8.406m) and Bi-Annual exception available ($3.29 million). They also had a $1,589,480 trade exception from the Gibson/McDermott trade. So these amounts would properly be added to their cap sheet for purposes of determining whether the Bulls were under the cap or over the cap. Including these exceptions, the Bulls had $111,922,241 on their cap sheet and could therefore be considered "over the cap" prior to the start of free agency.
Importantly, in that block quote from Larry Coon's CBA FAQ above, he notes that teams can renounce exceptions in which case those exceptions would not be included in team salary. So, going forward from this moment above, prior to the Bulls signing any free agents, I'm going to show two scenarios: (1) the actual moves and timing by the Bulls; and (2) the "under the cap" method that the Bulls could have taken.
The Bulls have made the following moves this offseason. I don't believe I'm missing any:
- Pull Joffrey Lauvergne's qualifying offer (thereby removing his cap hold)
- Sign Cristiano Felicio to a 4 year, $32 million contract
- Sign Justin Holiday to a 2 year, $9 million contract
- Sign Lauri Markkanen to his rookie scale deal (this has no effect on the cap because his contract number and cap hold are identical)
- Add David Nwaba on waivers (any team may claim a minimum salary player on waivers, and his contract is non-guaranteed, so again there is no real impact on the Bulls' cap sheet).
The Bulls' agreement with Cristiano Felicio was made shortly after the beginning of free agency on July 1st. They announced an agreement for 4 years, $32 million. Shams Charania tweeted it first:
"Chicago RFA Cristiano Felicio has agreed to a four-year, $32 million deal to re-sign with the Bulls, league sources tell The Vertical."
Shams Charania✔
@ShamsCharania
The Justin Holiday deal was announced July 2.
The Justin Holiday deal was announced July 2.
Sean Highkin✔
@highkin
Pulling the qualifying offer to Lauvergne was announced on July 8.
"Source confirms the Bulls pulled Joffrey Lauvergne's qualifying offer. First reported by @ShamsCharania"
Sean Highkin✔
@highkin
But Questions 36-39 of the CBA FAQ are instructive here. These sections describe in some detail how a team can order its signings to maximize cap space.
36. Can a team with cap room sign all the free agents it wants (up to the salary cap) and THEN re-sign its own free agents using the Bird exception?
A team's ability to do this is very limited. The team's free agents continue to be included in team salary. This charge is called the "free agent amount," which is a form of cap hold. There may not be enough money available under the cap to sign another team's free agent, because the team's own free agents are taking up all its cap room.
Essentially, if a team retains the right (i.e., Bird rights) to sign a player while above the cap, the league assumes the team will do so, and sets aside an amount of money under the team's cap in anticipation of that signing. This keeps teams from signing other teams' free agents using their cap room, and then turning their attention to their own free agents once their cap room is all used up, using the Bird exception to re-sign their own players.
The free agent amount is based on the player's current status (type of free agent, whether coming off a rookie contract, and previous salary), as a rough guideline to predict the amount he is likely to receive in his next contract. Such a rough guideline is obviously not perfect -- for example, in 2015 Kawhi Leonard's free agent amount was just $7.2 million, even though his value as a basketball player was much higher. By waiting to sign Leonard last, the Spurs also were able to sign LaMarcus Aldridge away from the Trailblazers. Had they instead signed Leonard first, they would not have had enough cap room to sign Aldridge. They eventually signed Leonard for a starting salary of $16.4 million.
This is what the Bulls could have done with Felicio. As a brief digression, the Bulls' negotiations with Felicio are an interesting case study. Felicio was re-signed with the Early Bird exception, since the Bulls did not use cap space. The Early Bird exception for players who made less than the average salary the year before like Felicio allows a team to offer up to the "estimated average salary" as a starting salary on a contract. For the 2017-18 season, CBA FAQ reports the estimated average salary as $7,843,500. Felicio's 2017-18 salary is exactly $7,843,500. The Bulls gave him the maximum possible salary under the Early Bird exception for 2017-18. His salary goes up in Year 2, but then goes back down in Years 3 and 4, so technically Felicio did not receive the full Early Bird Exception. I would guess the Bulls employed a similar negotiation strategy with E'Twaun Moore last year, trying to fit him within the Early Bird Exception, and then when Moore did not accept that, refusing to utilize cap space to re-sign him.
As an over-the-cap team, however, it didn't matter when (in what order) the Bulls signed Felicio, so they signed him shortly after the end of the moratorium. The Bulls used the Early Bird Exception, and still had all their other exceptions: the Jimmy Butler TPE, the Taj Gibson TPE, the MLE, and the BAE.
With respect to Justin Holiday, it was widely assumed that the Bulls would go under the cap and sign him with the full Room Mid-level Exception, which starts at $4,328,000 and can be up to two years. The 2 years and $9 million was assumed by many to be within this exclusion, because a contract starting at $4,328,000 with a 5% raise comes out to $8,872,400, which constitutes the Full Room Mid-Level. The difference between this and a $9 million contract is minimal. But again, the Bulls operated as an over-the-cap team and instead gave Holiday a portion of their mid-level exception. It seems that once they gave Holiday this contract under the Mid-Level Exception, they were locked in to being an over-the-cap team. Holiday's two-year deal was for $4,615,385 in the first year and $4,384,616 in the second year. This contract totals $9,000,001, which is greater than the Room Mid-Level. According to the CBA FAQ, a team can be above the salary cap and fall below it, losing its exceptions.
But this doesn't address the situation where a portion of an exception was actually used already, which it appears would lock in the Bulls as an over-the-cap team. [UPDATE: See comment section below, I believe the Bulls can still renounce all their remaining exceptions despite using a portion of the MLE to go back below the salary cap, should they choose to do so. Taking this action would essentially just switch the exception mechanisms under which they signed Felicio/Holiday into cap space signings.]For example, assume there is a $100 million salary cap, and during the offseason a team has $80 million committed to salaries, along with a Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception for $9 million, a trade exception for $5 million, and an unrenounced free agent whose free agent amount is $10 million. The team's salaries and exceptions total $104 million, or $4 million over the cap. What if the free agent signs with another team? The $10 million free agent amount comes off the team's cap, leaving its team salary (including their remaining exceptions) at $94 million. This total is below the cap so the team loses its Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level and trade exceptions.
Finally, Joffrey Lauvergne's qualifying offer was withdrawn, and Lauvergne quickly signed with the Spurs, eliminating the Bulls' cap hold. With this series of transactions, the Bulls' cap picture now looks like this:
Dwyane Wade (player option): $23,800,000
Rajon Rondo (waived): $3,000,000 guaranteed
Robin Lopez: $13,788,500
Nikola Mirotic (cap hold): $10,986,655
Kris Dunn: $4,046,760
Lauri Markannen: $3,821,640
Zach LaVine: $3,202,218
Cameron Payne: $2,203,440
Denzel Valentine: $2,186,400
Jerian Grant: $1,713,840
Bobby Portis: $1,516,320
Paul Zipser: $1,312,611
Isaiah Canaan (waived): $200,000
Cristiano Felicio: $7,843,500
Justin Holiday: $4,615,385
Anthony Morrow (cap hold): $6,627,200
Rajon Rondo (waived): $3,000,000 guaranteed
Robin Lopez: $13,788,500
Nikola Mirotic (cap hold): $10,986,655
Kris Dunn: $4,046,760
Lauri Markannen: $3,821,640
Zach LaVine: $3,202,218
Cameron Payne: $2,203,440
Denzel Valentine: $2,186,400
Jerian Grant: $1,713,840
Bobby Portis: $1,516,320
Paul Zipser: $1,312,611
Isaiah Canaan (waived): $200,000
Cristiano Felicio: $7,843,500
Justin Holiday: $4,615,385
Anthony Morrow (cap hold): $6,627,200
MLE remaining: $3,790,615
BAE remaining: $3,290,000
Jimmy Butler TPE: $15,311,329
Taj Gibson TPE: $1,589,480
This totals $114,845,893. If David Nwaba is included, it's $116,158,504. This is despite the fact that the Bulls only have $84,237,269 in guaranteed salary, counting Nikola Mirotic's cap hold. So the Bulls are about $16 million over the cap but with salary commitments well below the salary floor at this time.
So now, let's explore what the Bulls' salary would look like if they were attempting to be UNDER the cap:
The first moves the Bulls would have made would be to renounce the cap holds of Anthony Morrow, Joffrey Lauvergne, the MLE, the BAE, and the trade exceptions. Their cap sheet would have looked as follows:
Dwyane Wade (player option): $23,800,000
Rajon Rondo (waived): $3,000,000 guaranteed
Robin Lopez: $13,788,500
Nikola Mirotic (cap hold): $10,986,655
Kris Dunn: $4,046,760
Lauri Markannen: $3,821,640
Zach LaVine: $3,202,218
Cameron Payne: $2,203,440
Denzel Valentine: $2,186,400
Jerian Grant: $1,713,840
Bobby Portis: $1,516,320
Paul Zipser: $1,312,611
Isaiah Canaan (waived): $200,000
Cristiano Felicio (cap hold): $1,671,382
Rajon Rondo (waived): $3,000,000 guaranteed
Robin Lopez: $13,788,500
Nikola Mirotic (cap hold): $10,986,655
Kris Dunn: $4,046,760
Lauri Markannen: $3,821,640
Zach LaVine: $3,202,218
Cameron Payne: $2,203,440
Denzel Valentine: $2,186,400
Jerian Grant: $1,713,840
Bobby Portis: $1,516,320
Paul Zipser: $1,312,611
Isaiah Canaan (waived): $200,000
Cristiano Felicio (cap hold): $1,671,382
This would leave the Bulls at $73,449,766 in salary plus cap holds, prior to signing Felicio and Holiday. So if the Bulls had gone under the cap, they would have had over $25m to take on in salary before the season in order to absorb an asset in addition to that salary (or $20m assuming Justin Holiday was signed into cap space rather than with the Room Mid-Level). The time that the Bulls would have this large amount of space, however, would end whenever the Bulls signed Felicio, which obviously had to happen at some point before the season started. Even including Felicio and Holiday's salaries (and Nwaba's non-guaranteed salary) and Mirotic's cap hold, however, the Bulls still would have only $85,549,880 in money on their cap sheet if they elected to renounce cap holds and exceptions and go under the cap. This would leave them with $13,543,120 in room.
If Mirotic ends up signing for $9m/year under this framework, the Bulls would have about $15.5 million in room, more than the Butler trade exception. If Mirotic takes his qualifying offer, $7,228,063, the Bulls would have over $17 million in room.
To add some depth to these discussions, it's important to note how trade exceptions work, as opposed to cap space. Here are some rules about the use of trade exceptions from Question 87 of the CBA FAQ:
- Teams cannot use trade exceptions to sign free agents; they can be used only to acquire existing contracts from other teams. However, a team can acquire a free agent using a trade exception if he is signed by his prior team and traded in a sign-and-trade transaction (see question number 92).
- Trade exceptions are never traded from one team to another. Sometimes it appears like this is happening when one team uses a trade exception to acquire salary without sending salary away, and the other team gains a trade exception in the same transaction because they sent away salary without receiving salary in return. However, the trade exception the first team uses and the trade exception the second team gains are two distinct trade exceptions.
- Teams cannot combine trade exceptions with other exceptions (such as the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception or a taxpaying team's 125% plus $100,000 margin from another simultaneous trade) in order to trade for a more expensive player. For example, a taxpaying team with a $1 million trade exception cannot combine it with their $2 million player to trade for a $3 million player (see question number 90 for more information on combining exceptions).
- A common misconception is that players cannot be traded together in a non-simultaneous trade. This is not true -- players can be traded together as long as the outgoing salaries are not aggregated. For example, trading two $10 million players for a $20 million player requires aggregation, and therefore must be simultaneous. But trading two $10 million players for a $12 million player can be accomplished without aggregation -- one of the $10 million players would be used to acquire the $12 million player in a simultaneous trade, and the other $10 million player would be traded for "nothing," in a non-simultaneous trade, gaining the team a $10 million trade exception.
These restrictions do not exist when utilizing cap space. As a concrete example, the Bulls, as an over-the-cap team with a $15.3 million trade exception from the Jimmy Butler trade, could not have completed the recent Allen Crabbe for Andrew Nicholson trade the Nets just made. The Nets traded away approximately a $7 million salary for a $19 million salary. With cap space, the Bulls would be able to fit the $19 million player in if they traded away a salary that kept them under the cap. With a trade exception of $15.3 million, the Allen Crabbe trade becomes impossible.
Let's say the Bucks wanted to trade Greg Monroe to avoid the luxury tax. Monroe makes roughly $17.9 million this year. He would not fit within the Jimmy Butler trade exception. But he WOULD fit within the Bulls' cap space if Mirotic took the qualifying offer and the Bulls included Nwaba's non-guaranteed salary and Cameron Payne. The Bulls' purpose in doing this would be to receive an asset back from Milwaukee in addition to Monroe.
Essentially, being over the cap limits the types of players the Bulls can acquire in a trade like those described above to those players making less than $15.3 million, the amount of the Jimmy Butler trade exception. But this difference is probably not significant enough to say the Bulls are doing anything wrong by electing to be over the cap, as I suspected when I started writing this post. Had they chosen to go under the cap, they would have had a brief time period before signing Felicio where their cap space was significant enough to add almost any overpriced free agent to take on assets, but given the need to sign Felicio at some point anyway, such a time period would be very brief.
On the other hand, being an over-the-cap team creates some certainty, to an extent. The Bulls can utilize the $15.3 million Jimmy Butler trade exception no matter what happens with Niko Mirotic's contract. Cap space could vary depending on the amount the Bulls and Mirotic eventually agreed to (or if Mirotic elects to take the one-year qualifying offer). If over the cap, the Bulls would still be able to use the trade exception in several ways, including adding a player on a long-term deal in exchange for an asset or claiming a waived player with a salary less than $15.3 million. The Bulls exchanged the possible flexibility that being an under-the-cap team would provide (ability to aggregate contracts and trade them into cap space) for the certainty that being an over-the-cap team would provide.
Additionally, as an over-the-cap team, the Bulls now have no ability to sign a free agent to a deal in excess of the remaining amount of the Mid-Level exception ($3.79m). If they had cap space, if they wanted to they could sign a remaining free agent for an amount up to their available cap space on a one-year deal, like the Lakers did with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. However, this type of move would limit their ability to later trade to take on salary in exchange for assets, and Blog-A-Bull would probably pan such a move. This is another example of how being over the cap impacts flexibility, but with the Bulls' roster almost full and free agents dwindling, this aspect of being over the cap probably shouldn't matter.
With the Bulls' history of letting trade exceptions expire, though, the move to remain over the cap needs to result in the Bulls actually utilizing the Jimmy Butler traded player exception. If the Jimmy Butler TPE goes unused into next offseason like the Kyle Korver one did, it will go down as another failure by the Bulls' front office to maximize opportunities under the salary cap.
CUBS: Posey busts out as Giants top Cubs. (Tuesday night's game, 08/08/2017).
Buster Posey supplied early offense with a three-run homer in the first inning and starting pitcher Ty Blach was strong again as the San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Despite losing for only the second time on the road over its last 14 games, Chicago maintained a 1 1/2-game lead in the Central Division over Milwaukee, which lost at Minnesota.
Blach (8-7) allowed two runs while scattering seven hits and striking out three. With 100 pitches thrown upon exit, he went at least seven innings for the fifth straight game.
The 26-year-old did something few left-handers have accomplished against the Cubs this season -- he beat them. Chicago is 19-8 against southpaws, the best mark in the majors.
Reliever Sam Dyson saved his seventh game in eight tries since joining the Giants with a scoreless ninth.
Trailing 4-1 after five innings, the Cubs scored in the sixth on back-to-back doubles by Willson Contreras and Ian Happ. But the Giants retaliated in the seventh on Joe Panik's fielder's choice grounder to plate Kelby Tomlinson.
Happ delivered a sacrifice fly in the eighth, but San Francisco's Brandon Crawford singled to score Posey to reset its three-run margin.
The Giants broke on top when Posey launched his 12th homer of the season, into the first row of the left field bleachers.
Giants ambushed Chicago starter Jose Quintana (6-10 overall, 2-2 with the Cubs) at the outset as four of their first five batters reached base. Gorkys Hernandez slapped a first-pitch leadoff single to left. Hunter Pence reached one batter later when shortstop Javier Baez booted a double-play grounder.
Posey picked on Quintana's first offering to make it 3-0 on a play that stood following review as his home-run ball caromed off the hands of a fan not judged to be reaching over the fence.
Blach's two-out single to right plated Crawford in the fourth for a 4-0 lead before the Cubs broke through an inning later when Jon Jay's infield out enabled Jason Heyward to score from third.
NOTES: The Cubs' streak of having allowed three or fewer runs on the road ended at 11 straight games, the longest such streak in the majors this season, according to STATS. ... 2B Joe Panik replaced Giants rookie Miguel Gomez in the top of the second inning. Gomez hurt himself running out a ground ball to short during his only at-bat in the first. ... Cubs 1B Anthony Rizzo celebrated his 28th birthday by going 1-for-4 with a fourth-inning single. ... Chicago RHP Koji Uehara left the game with a trainer after facing two batters in the seventh.
What runs through Joe Maddon’s mind with Cubs back in San Francisco and making a playoff surge.
(Photo/USA TODAY)
Joe Maddon always talks like a Haight-Ashbury philosopher and gets to play dress-up with the black leather motorcycle vests the Cubs wore for this “Easy Rider” road trip. But Major League Baseball’s hippie manager – the one who became rich and famous beyond his wildest dreams – definitely vibrates on this city’s frequency.
“It’s crazy how the human mind works,” Maddon said before Monday night’s 5-3 win highlighted by Jake Arrieta dealing like it was October and Javier Baez dashing for an inside-the-park home run. “First of all, no time elapsed. What was it, nine months ago? It’s incredible how we as humans – time just evaporates on us.”
It was actually 10 months ago. But forget it, he’s rolling.
“So the nine months evaporated,” Maddon said. “It was like we had just walked in yesterday. Driving in, the sky here always has a different method of blue. I don’t know if it’s the ocean being right here, the coolness to the air. But there’s a different method to the blue here. It’s not blue-blue. It’s just kind of like pale blue.
“And then it feels crispy. So it’s always got that feel. And when we walk in – even though it was nine months ago – we were just here yesterday. So that was very familiar as we drove up today.”
This is also where Maddon worked as Mike Scioscia’s bench coach when the Anaheim Angels outlasted Barry Bonds in the 2002 World Series.
“The Giants – you always have a ton of respect,” Maddon said of the proud organization that has cratered to 44-70 after winning World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014 and creating such a vibrant atmosphere inside and around a stadium that became an instant classic. “It’s a tough place to play, but I’ve had some good memories here. Last year probably can’t be topped.
“I thought that victory here last year really set up the entire postseason. I thought (about) all that stuff. To beat them here and not have to take it back to Chicago, I thought, was pretty much the whole linchpin, the key point, the seminal moment in last year’s postseason that permitted us to win.”
That ninth-inning rally saw the Cubs erase a three-run deficit by scoring four runs again five different San Francisco relievers. The Cubs then survived a 21-inning scoreless streak vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series and climbed out of a 3-1 hole against the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.
The been-there, done-that confidence contributed to the championship hangover that saw the 2017 Cubs at the .500 mark 21 different times and as recently as July 15. But the muscle memory will help in a division race the Milwaukee Brewers probably didn’t expect to be in, where the St. Louis Cardinals are at .500 and the Pittsburgh Pirates are two games under.
“I just went through that whole thing, but it doesn’t matter right now,” Maddon said. “This is a whole new situation. We’re trying to write a whole entirely different chapter. We’re writing this chapter in a much different way than we did last year.
“So regardless of all the nostalgia and all the warm fuzzies, it’s an entirely different moment right now – for them and for us. They’re having an entirely different moment themselves. So it’s just a different method right now. Last year is last year. It’s just a totally different day.”
The schedule will also ease up after this weekend’s series against the Arizona Diamondbacks amid the noise pollution at Chase Field. At that point, the Cubs might not face another team with a winning record until Labor Day in Pittsburgh, and one game above .500 on July 21 has so far been the high-water mark for the Pirates.
The Cubs have more home games left on their calendar this season (26) than any other Central team. Of their 51 remaining games overall, 39 are against teams with a record of .500 or below. Now up 1.5 games on the Brewers, FanGraphs calculates the playoff odds for the defending champs at 91.5 percent.
“Personally, I never take anything or anybody for granted in anything, in any walk of life,” Maddon said. “I learned that from ‘The Godfather.’ Mario Puzo taught me that.”
Inside the Javier Baez inside-the-park home run. (Monday night's game, 0807/2017).
By Patrick Mooney
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Javier Baez made it feel like the playoffs more than the 63-degree temperature at first pitch, the Halloween colors all around AT&T Park and a San Francisco Giants franchise holding auditions and playing for the future.
Baez became the game-changer during Monday’s 5-3 win, again stealing the show on a night where Metallica played the national anthem, Joe Montana watched from the stands, Jake Arrieta showed flashes of Cy Young Award stuff and Barry Bonds waved to the crowd on the 10th anniversary of breaking Major League Baseball’s all-time home-run record.
Baez didn’t exactly burst out of the batter’s box and admired this one for a moment in the second inning, a natural reaction to watching lefty Matt Moore’s 93-mph fastball soar out to right-center field.
“I was in the on-deck circle — I see Javy,” Arrieta said. “Most hitters kind of take a look, kind of assess the situation and then go from there.
“But he’s a tremendous athlete. I knew we were going to have a chance to have him get all the way around the bases, based on the kick. And this is a strange park. There are certain spots in the outfield. If the ball hits off the wall, good things can happen like that.”
Baez turned on the afterburners in between first and second base when he saw the ball slam off the angled wall and ricochet away from Carlos Moncrief, who made his big-league debut in late July for a last-place team that lost its identity and might now have the worst outfield defense in the game.
Third base coach Gary Jones still knew Moncrief had a “cannon” and calculated that sending Baez would be worth the risk with two outs in a scoreless game and the pitcher up next.
“I thought he ran hard the whole way,” Jones said. “I just try to read the situation. You try to play certain scenarios in your mind before they actually happen. And then when they happen — because you’ve already played it in your mind — it kind of slows down on you a little bit.”
Moncrief hustled after the ball and unleashed a strong one-hop throw that bounced up while Baez dove low headfirst under the tag from Giants catcher Buster Posey.
“That guy may have the best arm I’ve ever seen,” manager Joe Maddon said. “That’s Bo Jackson arm stuff right there. That was that good. That was Bo good. I’ve always thought Shawon Dunston and Bo Jackson. Shawon Dunston on the infield, Bo Jackson on the outfield. And I think Moncrief is among that group. It’s incredible.”
Baez stretched out in the dirt for a moment before slapping hands with Jason Heyward — who scored from first base — and getting back up to his feet with a big smile on his face.
“That’s everything I had,” Baez said.
“He told me after that he drank too much water, so he was a little heavy,” Jones said. It became the first inside-the-park homer for Baez since “Little League, I guess.” It marked the first by a Cub since Anthony Rizzo last season and only the 10th since this magnificent stadium opened in 2000.
“Everybody was really excited (in the dugout) — I was just tired,” Baez said. “I was trying to catch my breath for a few minutes.”
It’s hard to picture a more dynamic No. 8 hitter who can play Gold Glove-level defense at second base and seamlessly move over to replace an All-Star shortstop while Addison Russell is on the disabled list. With that mad dash, the defending World Series champs are now 59-52 and up 1.5 games on the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central. The Cubs and Baez are coming for October.
“Everybody’s got me as a really exciting player,” Baez said. “I’ll take it.”
WHITE SOX: Smith powers White Sox past struggling Astros.
The Sports Xchange
Kevan Smith doubled, homered and drove in four runs, and the Chicago White Sox held on for an 8-5 victory over the Houston Astros on Tuesday night.
Avisail Garcia, Jose Abreu and Tim Anderson each added two hits as the White Sox (42-68) matched their highest run total since June 30 while snapping a six-game losing streak.
Alex Bregman hit a three-run triple to lead the Astros. Houston (71-41) lost for the seventh time in 10 games but still owns the best record in the American League.
White Sox left-hander Derek Holland (6-11) earned his first victory since June 13 despite issuing a season-high seven walks. He allowed three runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings, and he struck out five.
Astros left-hander Dallas Keuchel (9-2) surrendered eight runs on 10 hits in four innings. He has given up 14 runs in three starts over 12 innings since a stint on the disabled list caused by a neck ailment.
Right-hander Tyler Clippard pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his second save of the season and his first with the White Sox.
Houston cut the deficit to 8-5 in the seventh behind solo home runs by Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel. Both players homered off Chicago right-hander Jake Petricka, who relieved Holland.
The White Sox jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning as Keuchel struggled with his command. Avisail Garcia, Yoan Moncada and Leury Garcia each drove in a run during the outburst, which included four hits and one walk for Chicago.
Houston evened the score at 3 thanks to Bregman's two-out, bases-loaded triple in the second. Bregman's line drive to right-center field scored Marwin Gonzalez, Brian McCann and Jake Marisnick.
The White Sox battered Keuchel again in the third to regain a 6-3 edge. Smith hit a two-run double down the left field line, and Adam Engel drove in another run with a single to left field.
One inning later, Smith clubbed a two-run homer into the left field bleachers to make it 8-3.
Engel robbed McCann of a home run in the fourth with a tremendous catch in left-center field. The rookie leaped at the warning track and extended his glove high above the wall for the grab.
NOTES: Astros OF George Springer took part in a rigorous workout before the game, and he could return from the 10-day disabled list before the end of the series against the White Sox, manager A.J. Hinch said. Springer has been out since July 25 with discomfort in his left quadriceps. ... White Sox OF Avisail Garcia was activated from the 10-day disabled list and went 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs. Garcia missed 12 games because of a strained ligament in his right thumb. ... White Sox 3B/DH Matt Davidson was placed on the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to Friday, because of a bruised right wrist. ... Astros SS Alex Bregman notched an extra-base hit for the ninth consecutive game. Bregman moved within one game of the franchise-record streak set by Richard Hidalgo in 2000.
Why the White Sox felt it's time to promote prospect Reynaldo Lopez.
(Photo/USA TODAY)
With nothing else to prove in the minors, the White Sox determined it's time for starting pitcher Reynaldo Lopez to move to the big leagues.
Acquired from Washington last December, Lopez is set to make his White Sox debut on Friday when they host the Kansas City Royals. The organization’s minor league pitcher of the month in July, Lopez went 6-7 with a 3.79 ERA and 131 strikeouts in 121 innings at Triple-A Charlotte this season. General manager Rick Hahn said Lopez has shown the White Sox all they needed to bring him back to the majors; the right-hander pitched 44 innings for the Nationals during the 2016 season.
“More consistency with the fastball, he threw quality strikes, trusting his off-speed pitches, being able to throw any pitch in any count,” Hahn said. “Again, taking the ball every fifth day and being prepared for that specific outing. The work that's done in between starts, some of the stuff that's not publicly seen. He's done everything we've asked of him and now's the time for him to take that next step.”
Lopez was particularly outstanding in July, posting a 2.10 ERA and striking out 38 batters in 30 innings. After he earned the award for July, Lopez said he thinks he’s ready for the majors and said it has been difficult at times to stay at Triple-A.
The White Sox hoped to clear a space in the rotation with a trade before the July 31 non-waiver deadline. Hahn was unable to, however, and the White Sox will instead move Mike Pelfrey into the bullpen.
“The last four or five outings have been really, really good,” manager Rick Renteria said. “Think everybody in the city and obviously the club has been looking forward to starting to transition some of those guys who are ready to check off a few of those boxes and be able perform for us and we're looking forward to having him here. Obviously there's a lot of excitement, I'm sure in the city as well. It's just part of the process. Another piece we're going to be able to see."
Lopez is 32 1/3 innings shy of his career high for one season (he pitched 153 1/3 in 2016). But the White Sox currently have no plans to restrict him and will use Lopez every fifth day, Hahn said. This is part of the final stage of development and the White Sox don’t want to restrict Lopez from learning how to manage himself throughout and entire season.
“If we need to adjust because of innings load at some point or whatever reason we will but as I’ve said several times, we didn’t want to bring anyone here until we felt they were going to get the ball every fifth day and be part of a normal starter’s routine,” Hahn said. “The kid has worked extremely hard. He’s had an outstanding season so far in Triple-A.”
Eloy Jimenez knows exactly what he wants from his baseball career.
By Dan Hayes
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Eloy Jimenez, the White Sox prospect who homered on Friday after predicting one earlier in the day, knows exactly what he wants out of his career.
Pretty standard stuff really.
“Honestly, all that I want is to reach the Majors and be an elite player, one of the best of the best,” Jimenez said through an interpreter on Friday afternoon.
If he finds a way to maintain the pace he’s on, Jimenez should achieve his lofty goal. The performance of the No. 7 prospect in baseball has been nothing short of amazing since the Cubs traded him to the White Sox in the July 13 deal for Jose Quintana. Though he was only acquired 3.5 weeks ago, Jimenez was named the White Sox co-minor league player of the month for July.
In 22 games at Advanced-A Winston-Salem, Jimenez is hitting .354/.420/.671 with eight doubles, five home runs and 19 RBI. He’s performed well enough to merit strong consideration for a promotion to Double-A Birmingham, one that could come any day.
“Eloy has done everything we’ve asked of him since he arrived in the organization,” general manager Rick Hahn said. “You’re getting to the point in the year where guys have had success at a certain level, and you project where they’re going to be next season to start the season. You have that internal debate: Do you let them finish the successful year at the level they have been at all year or do you give them a taste where they’re going to start at next season, so they can get that acclimation process out of the way before the start of the ’18 season? Eloy is in that mix of guys we’ve had that conversation about.”
Jimenez said he initially felt sad after he was traded before he realized the opportunity he has with the White Sox. The 20-year-old instantly felt welcomed by his Winston-Salem teammates and looks at the trade as motivation.
“When the trade happened, you are not expecting them,” Jimenez said. “But then you have to realize, you have to analyze all the situations and all the options. And then once I did it, I realized ‘Ok, this is the best for me. Maybe I can be in the fast track here to reach my dream to play in the majors.’ And that was the way that I took it.”
MLBPipeline.com projects Jimenez will arrive in the majors in 2019. He’d love to be playing for the White Sox even sooner and has his mind set on that goal. Well, that and being an elite player, a level he believes he can attain after playing in consecutive All-Star Futures Games.
“That’s why I’m working,” Jimenez said. “That’s why I try to do my best and try to hustle every time here because I know that I can be that kind of player and that’s my goal — be an elite player in the majors.”
Golf: I got a club for that..... PGA Championship 101: Guide to the year's final major.
(Photo/Golf Channel Digital)
So, this is the championship of the PGA Tour, huh?
Sigh. You don't beat around the bush, do you? No, this is not the championship of the PGA Tour. That would be considered The Players Championship. This is the championship of the PGA of America.
Why the need to designate “of America”? What else would it be - the PGA of Timbuktu?
Obviously we need a history lesson here. We'll keep it as brief as possible. There used to be one PGA - the "of America" one, which was founded in 1916. In 1968, action was begun that resulted in an eventual split into the PGA of America and the PGA Tour.
Why the split?
The original golf pros were the people who work at golf clubs. You know, the ones who sell us logoed ball markers and take our green fees when they're not trying to cure our slices by giving us lessons. The better players among them also played the national tournament circuit.
As golf grew in popularity and tournaments became more lucrative, a class of pros evolved who were tournament players first and foremost. If they held a club job, it was often ceremonial.
Over time, more of these pros discarded the idea of working at a club at all, instead devoting full time to tournament play.
OK, I follow you so far.
So now you had one organization, the PGA of America, trying to represent the interests of two entirely different types of "golf pros." No surprise that the root of the dispute was money, specifically what to do with what was becoming a windfall in rights fees from the TV networks. The tournament players, a group that included Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, wanted that money to go to increased tournament purses, while the club pros wanted it to go into the PGA's general fund. Eventually the touring pros broke off on their own. The PGA of America remained in place, representing the traditional "club" pros.
If the PGA of America was no longer going to represent the interests of tournament players, why does it still have a championship? And why is it a major?
It wanted to keep the PGA Championship alive for many reasons, not the least of which is that it generates considerable revenue. As for your second question, that is a big ol' can of worms for another day. We will say this, however. For most of the PGA Championship's existence, it has had a justifiable status as a major. Whether that will ever change, whether it will ever be replaced in the major rotation by The Players Championship is anyone's guess. But golf is a game that respects - and clings to - tradition.
OK, but it’s the fourth major, right?
Well, if you mean chronologically within a given year, yes, it's the fourth and last major of each season (with the notable exception of 1971, when it was the first major played because it was staged in South Florida and officials wished to avoid the extreme heat of a Florida summer). However, if by "fourth" you're making a comment on the quality of the tournament, you're both right and wrong. No, it isn't a national championship like the U.S. or British Opens. And no, it doesn't boast a permanent venue like the Masters and Augusta National, nor is it associated with an icon of the game like Bobby Jones. What the PGA does have going for it is competition. It's often the most hotly contested of all four majors. And players are often effusive in their praise for the course setups of PGAs, which they deem challenging but fair.
Anything else about its history that sets it apart?
The most obvious thing is that from its inception in 1916 through 1957, the PGA was a match-play tournament. It has been periodically suggested that it return to match play, but that is not considered likely.
Why not?
Worst-case scenario - all the highly seeded "name" players get eliminated before the final. If you're a TV network that has spent big bucks to televise this event, do you want two guys you're never heard of in the final?
Speaking of the final, what's the name of the winner's trophy?
It's called the Wanamaker Trophy, and it was named after Rodman Wanamaker, a department store magnate who was influential in the formation of the PGA.
I probably should have asked this a lot earlier, but what does PGA stand for?
Professional Golfers' Association. Remember, in the early years of the 20th century, pros were looked down upon. It was only natural that they band together under one umbrella organization.
Let's get to the tournament itself. The Masters has Jack Nicklaus winning at age 46 in 1986 and Tiger Woods destroying the field in 1997. The U.S. Open has 20-year-old Francis Ouimet upsetting two of the top British pros in 1913 and Arnold Palmer's charge in 1960. The Open Championship has the Duel in the Sun in 1977 and Woods destroying the field in 2000. So, what have been the most memorable PGAs?
It would be hard to beat a then-unknown John Daly winning in 1991. He got into the tournament as ninth - ninth! - alternate, then just torched the course with a combination of absurdly long driving and incredible touch around the greens. Then there was Bob Tway holing a final-hole bunker shot to beat Greg Norman in 1986 - something we didn't yet know would become a trend. And who could have predicted that the player who would give Woods his toughest test would be one of his former junior-golf rivals, Bob May, who did everything except beat him in 2000?
Who's the defending champion this year?
Jimmy Walker, who won last year at Baltusrol.
Is he the favorite this year?
No, for several reasons, but the biggest two are that the 2016 title was his first and so far only major win, and he has since been diagnosed with Lyme disease, which has wreaked havoc with his stamina and endurance. He says he never knows how he's going to feel from one day to the next.
So who is the favorite?
Look to the usual suspects - Jordan Spieth, who's coming off a win in The Open; Rory McIlroy, who has been inconsistent lately but lights out when he's on; and Dustin Johnson, who has a similar storyline. And don't overlook Hideki Matsuyama, who obliterated the WGC field at Firestone last week.
Where are they playing?
Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C., a course the pros are familiar with because it's the annual site of the Wells Fargo tournament.
Who won that event this year? Seems like he should be favored.
Because Quail Hollow was being prepared for the PGA, this year's Wells Fargo Championship was played in May at another course, in Wilmington, N.C. So for your purposes, the winner (Brian Harman) is irrelevant.
In that case, I'm out of questions.
Good. Now you can start thinking of some for the Presidents Cup.
When and where is that being played?
Sorry, I'm afraid our time is up. We'll reconvene in September.
Mickelson, Els celebrate long road to 100th major.
By Ryan Lavner
(Photo/Golf Channel Digital)
They walked into the media tent at the PGA Championship, past the commemorative yellow cake, but Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els might as well have stepped into a time machine Tuesday at Quail Hollow.
Pointing to a monitor, a PGA of America media official wasted little time in transporting Mickelson and Els back to 1984. The Junior Worlds in San Diego was the first time they’d ever met; the first time, in fact, that Els, who grew up just outside Johannesburg, South Africa, had ever been in the U.S.
Playing in the 14-year-old division, Els nipped Mickelson by three shots, and so there he stood, beaming and holding a trophy the size of his torso, his blonde hair glistening in the California sun.
“Do you see how grumpy Phil looks there?” Els said, chuckling.
(Photo/Golf Channel Digital)
It was quite an introduction on the world stage, and 33 years later, Mickelson can still recall, in vivid detail, the moment that he knew this tall kid named Ernest was going to be a force. Third hole, par 5, 20 yards short of the green, and Els hit a skipping, spinning pitch that checked a foot from the cup.
“I hadn’t seen anybody else at 14 hit that shot,” Mickelson said.
They’ve been dazzling each other ever since, compiling Hall of Fame careers despite crushing near-misses in majors, family challenges and the domineering presence of Tiger Woods.
Whether they wanted to relive all of that two days before the start of this PGA Championship, who knows, but on Tuesday they officially became the 13th and 14th members of golf’s 100 Major Club. “It’s amazing that we’ve played together and against each other for so many years,” Mickelson said. “It doesn’t seem that long ago from those days, but it sure looks like a long time ago.”
Mickelson made his major debut a year after Els, at the 1990 U.S. Open at Medinah. Competing as an amateur that week, Mickelson moved into contention on Sunday, just a few shots off the lead, but made a few late bogeys down the stretch and finished in a tie for 29th. Little did he know that was the start of three decades of U.S. Open torture.
Fortunately for Els, he didn’t endure much major heartbreak early in his career, and especially not in the U.S. Open. He won in 1994 in just his eighth major start, and then took the 1997 title, too. As Els replayed his heroics down the stretch – the pure iron shots, the knee-knocking putts – Mickelson stared blankly into the monitor.
“I got the monkey off my back early on,” Els said.
For Mickelson, it took 47 tries to break through in a major, but that moment on the 18th green at Augusta was so significant that a silhouette of his victorious “leap” now serves as his personal logo. The player he beat that day in 2004? Of course it was Els, who was crushed, after thinking his Sunday 67 would be enough for his first green jacket. Eventually, Mickelson overtook Els in the major category, 5-4, but only after what he calls his “career-defining achievement” – The Open at Muirfield in 2013.
Surely, players of their immense talents would mop up against any other generation, but both competed in the middle of the Tiger Era. Woods’ dominance was so oppressive that it stunted the careers of every other player, but no one was affected more than Mickelson and Els.
Mickelson has long claimed that Woods did more for his career than any other player, because Woods pushed him to work harder, to begin a training regimen that increased his flexibility and, in turn, contributed to his longevity.
“I don’t think I would have had the same level of success had he not come around,” Mickelson said.
Els, though, can’t help but wonder. By the time Woods took the golf world by storm at the 1997 Masters, Els was already a major champion, and he would add to that tally two months later, at Congressional.
“I was ready to win quite a few, if you know what I mean,” Els said, “and him winning the Masters in the way he did, that threw me off a little bit. I thought I was really one of the top players, which I was, but that was a pretty special display of golf.”
And Els saw it over and over again – at Pebble Beach and St. Andrews and Kapalua. Els’ five runners-up to Woods in Tour events were the most of any of his opponents.
“I could have had a couple more, definitely, without him around,” Els said.
Is the Big Easy’s window closed? Now 47, like Mickelson, Els’ body has begun to break down and he has only five top-10s since 2013. He says he’s still hungry, and that he’s in the process of rebuilding his game, and that he’s rededicating himself, but that’s easier said than done.
Encouraging results are scarce and off-course interests consume more of his time. Last month, Els was named one of the four finalists for the Sports Humanitarian of the Year for his efforts to help children with autism, like his son, Ben.
“That’s the legacy that I see when I think of Ernie Els,” Mickelson said.
As for Mickelson, his priorities are changing, too. He says his family life has never been better, after health scares in 2010, but earlier this year he skipped the U.S. Open to attend his daughter’s commencement speech, and he parted ways with longtime caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay.
Despite a few close calls over the past four years, Lefty hasn’t won since July 2013 – indeed, Woods has hoisted a trophy more recently – and conceded that his obstacles now are more mental than physical.
“Once that clicks in and I settle down and focus like I did, I think I’ll play at a level that I’ve played before,” he said. “I don’t feel that golf mortality. I feel excited about this challenge.”
Mickelson didn’t even realize this was his 100th major until he saw one of his sponsor’s websites last week. He did some quick math – 25 years, four majors a year, yep, that adds up – and shrugged. Jack Nicklaus’ record of 164 majors is safe.
“It just goes by so fast,” Mickelson said. “You don’t even think about it.”
He played along with PGA officials on Tuesday, going down memory lane, posing for photos, poking fun at Els’ cake-cutting technique. But during the half-hour obligation, it became abundantly clear that Mickelson and Els weren’t ready to look back, not yet. Not with so much still to play for.
Their victory laps can wait.
2019 schedule could end before football starts.
By Rex Hoggard
(Photo/Golf Channel Digital)
News that the PGA Championship will move from August to May and The Players from May to March beginning in 2019 dominated Tuesday’s headlines, but the bigger takeaway is what these pieces mean to a larger puzzle.
The moves are all part of the most dramatic makeover of the PGA Tour schedule since the introduction of the circuit’s four-event playoff series and are ultimately aimed at being able to end the season before Labor Day, which would keep golf from being engulfed by the vast shadow of professional and college football.
On Tuesday, officials were content to focus only on the date changes for the PGA and Players, and when asked specifics of how this could impact the overall schedule Tour commissioner Jay Monahan admitted this is still very much a work in progress.
“I’d love to be able to [talk about the 2019 schedule], but I don’t know the answer to that question because it’s so fluid,” Monahan said. “When you have the number of tournaments on our schedule and the potential changes that we’re looking at and the different variations, I would need to know exactly where we’d end up in order to answer that.”
Although officials were short on specifics, various sources with knowledge of what the ’19 lineup could look like describe a dramatic assortment of moving parts and potential changes.
Looking at the 2019 calendar, the season would begin in familiar fashion, with two events in Hawaii followed by the traditional West Coast swing. Following the Genesis Open in Los Angeles, the first change will be to move the World Golf Championship in Mexico, which was played during the Florida swing this season, to late February.
“We think that going from the West Coast to Mexico to Florida is the logical place for our schedule. We have work to do on that front,” Monahan said.
The Florida swing would now include the Honda Classic the first week of March, followed by The Players, Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas. Given the need to condense the schedule, sources said this could mean the Valspar Championship held outside of Tampa, Fla., could be relocated to the fall portion of the schedule.
The date for the ’19 Masters has already been announced, April 4-7, and the rest of the April schedule would remain unchanged depending on what happens at the Wells Fargo Championship, which had to relocate this year because of the PGA Championship being held at Quail Hollow.
Quail Hollow is also scheduled to host the 2021 Presidents Cup and there have been rumors the club wants to be included in the rotation for the BMW Championship, which could put its future as a regular Tour stop in question.
May would be the most significant makeover of the schedule, with the addition of the PGA Championship, May 16-19. This would break up the normal Dallas-Fort Worth swing, with the AT&T Byron Nelson played before the PGA followed by the Dean & DeLuca Invitational after the year’s second major.
June could also see significant changes, with the U.S. Open scheduled for June 13-16 followed by the Travelers Championship and preceded by the FedEx St. Jude Classic.
Uncertain is the future of the Quicken Loans National, which is likely in the market for a new sponsor after the deal with Quicken Loans expired this season, and the Greenbrier Classic, which some suggest would move to the fall schedule.
July remains relatively the same, with the John Deere Classic, Open Championship, RBC Canadian Open and WGC-Bridgestone Invitational; while August would serve as the circuit’s final run with the Wyndham Championship followed by three playoff stops (Northern Trust, BMW Championship and Tour Championship).
Under this scenario the playoff stop in Boston would no longer be on the schedule and the Tour would remove the traditional “bye” week in the playoffs to end the season on Sept. 1 in Atlanta, a week before football season gets underway.
“To culminate with three FedExCup events instead of four, and finish the year before football starts, when there’s nothing else really that we’re competing with,” Phil Mickelson said on Tuesday. “We can finish with a bang and really get some excitement around the FedExCup, and not have an extra week off where you’re requiring five weeks to play four weeks, just go boom, boom, boom.”
Although most players seemed in favor of a condensed schedule with just three playoff events, the Tour would likely need to adjust how many postseason points are doled out to increase the volatility and also adjust how many players advance to each event (currently, the top 125 players on the points list start the postseason, with the top 100 advancing to the second, 70 to the third and 30 to the season finale).
Officials would have the flexibility to tinker with the dates of the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup (which is scheduled to be played in Australia in 2019), which would provide a much-needed week off for top players before the matches, and the wraparound season would begin directly afterward.
“It does open up the door to potentially talk about changing the date, not significantly, but a bit perhaps with the Ryder Cup down the road,” said Pete Bevacqua, the PGA’s CEO.
Given the complexity of the changes to the ’19 schedule it’s no wonder Monahan was reluctant to address any specifics beyond the PGA and Players move, but whatever happens, it will be dramatic.
NASCAR: Who’s hot, who’s not, heading into Michigan.
By Jerry Bonkowski
(Photo/nbcsports.com)
Just four races remain for drivers to make – or miss – the upcoming NASCAR Cup playoffs.
This weekend, the series returns to Michigan International Speedway, which is the fastest track on the circuit. It’s a place where 200 mph-plus is the norm, not the exception.
This will be the 97th NASCAR Cup race to be held at the two-mile oval.
Kyle Larson has won the last two races there: last August and this June.
Drivers like Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch are among the hottest drivers going right now.
But other drivers are in big trouble, particularly Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. If they hope to make the playoffs, they’ll have to do so with a win only.
So without further adieu, here’s the hottest of the hot and, well, the not so hot:
WHO IS HOT?
Martin Truex Jr.
Won at Watkins Glen, his series leading fourth of 2017
Finished in the top-10 15 times this season, the most
Won 14 stages this season, the most
34 Playoff Points this season, 18 more than anyone else
Wins at Las Vegas, Kansas, Kentucky and WG
Led a series high 1315 laps in 2017, led the most laps in seven races
Best Michigan finish is second, twice
Finished sixth in June at Michigan after leading 62 laps, victim of the outside line on restarts
Clint Bowyer
Finished 5th at Watkins Glen, top 10 in five of the last seven races this season
Finished runner up three times in 2017
10 top-10s in 2017, had only three in all of 2016
Only one top five finish at Michigan in 23 starts
Best finish at Michigan in the last four races is 23rd, finished top 10 in his nine previous races there
Kyle Busch
Finished 7th at Watkins Glen after multiple issues
Won from the pole at Pocono, first win of 2017 and at Pocono
Had four wins at this point in 2016
Won the pole for the last three races
One Michigan win, this race in 2011 (last on the old pavement), only two top 10s there since (six finishes of 31st or worse)
Denny Hamlin
4th at Watkins Glen, top 4 finishes in six of the last eight races including a win at NH
Two-time winner at Michigan but last came in 2011
Finished top 10 in three of the last four Michigan races including fourth in June
Kevin Harvick
Finished 17th at WG, heavy damage on pit road
Finished top-10 in 12 of the last 16 races of 2017
One Michigan win, this race in 2010
Finished top 5, including five runner ups, in seven of the last nine races at Michigan
Kyle Larson
23rd at WG, third straight finish of 23rd or worse
Finished second in seven races this year
Two wins this season, ACS and Michigan
Won the last three races on 2.0 mile tracks including the last two races at Michigan
Daniel Suarez
Finished third at WG, best career finish
Top 10 finishes in the last four races
Won the Open at Charlotte
First career NXS win came at Michigan last year
Finished 24th at Michigan in June, only Cup start there
WHO IS NOT?
Joey Logano
24th at WG, ninth finish outside the top 20 in the last 13 races
Won at Richmond but was encumbered
Now 95 points outside the bubble, he must win to make the playoffs
Top 10 finishes in the last nine races at Michigan including two wins
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
37th at WG, ninth finish of 30th or worse this season
Only two top-10s in the last 10 races
Two-time Michigan winner
Top 10 finishes in five of his last six starts at Michigan including ninth in June
Kasey Kahne
Finished 16th at WG, his three best finishes in the last 11 races have come in the last three races
Won at Indianapolis ending a 102 race winless streak, took a super lucky timed caution and turned it into a win
One Michigan win, 2006
Finished 13th or worse in the last six races at Michigan
Will not return to Hendrick Motorsports next season, likely to be replaced by William Byron.
Jimmie Johnson
29th at WG, ran out of fuel late
DNF accident in three of his last five races in 2017
One top-10 in his last seven races (10th at New Hampshire)
Three top 5 finishes this season, all wins
One Michigan win, June 2014
Only one top-five at Michigan in the last 10 races, his win in 2014
Kurt Busch
Sixth at Watkins Glen, his best finish in the last eight races
Three DNFs in the last six races of 2017
Just 10 top 10 finishes this season, had 16 after 22 races in 2016
Has not had back-to-back top 10 finishes since Richmond and Talladega
Three wins at Michigan, all came with different manufacturers
Finished 12th at Michigan in June
Austin Dillon
26th at WG, only one top 15 finish in the last eight races
Won on fuel mileage at Charlotte
Only two top 10 finishes this season, had nine at this point last year
Only two top 10 finishes in 10 Michigan starts but they both came in the last four races there
AJ Allmendinger
Five top-10s in 2017 three were in the last six races (ninth at Watkins Glen)
Best Michigan finish is 11th, twice
William Byron to drive No. 5 Cup car next season for Hendrick Motorsports.
By Dustin Long
(Photo/nbcsports.com)
William Byron will drive the No. 5 Cup car next year for Hendrick Motorsports, according to sources and multiple reports.
An announcement is expected in the coming days.
An announcement is expected in the coming days.
Sports Business Journal first reported that the 19-year-old Byron was expected to be announced as the team’s new driver, moving up from his Xfinity Series ride at JR Motorsports. SB Nation and Motorsport.com also followed with similar reports.
Hendrick Motorsports announced Monday that it had released Kasey Kahne from the final year of his contract, creating the opening with the No. 5 Chevrolet for next season. The organization stated it would announce plans for its four-car operation at a later date.
Byron’s success has fueled speculation he could replace Kahne. Byron has won three of the last seven Xfintiy races, scoring victories at Iowa, Daytona and Indianapolis.
Byron won the 2015 K&N Pro Series East title. He won seven races last year in the Camping World Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Byron signed a multi-year contract with Hendrick Motorsports on Aug. 18, 2016.
Crew chief Dave Elenz sought to explain what has led to Byron’s meteoric rise after Byron won the Xfinity race at Daytona last month.
“He’s just special,’’ Elenz said. ”I don’t know how to say anything other than that. He gets it done under the biggest moments. He never cracks under any sort of pressure. The more difficult situation you put him in, the better he does. That’s just a special individual. I don’t think we have a lot of them in the sport. Thankful to work with him.’’
Toyota’s recent domination no guarantee of Cup playoff success.
By Dustin Long
(Photo/nbcsports.com)
In this short-attention span world, it’s easy to see Toyota’s dominance the last few weeks and all but concede the Cup championship to Kyle Busch or Watkins Glen winner Martin Truex Jr.
Funny thing, it was only a few months ago when a Toyota car couldn’t win a Cup race.
Funny thing, it was only a few months ago when a Toyota car couldn’t win a Cup race.
It’s easy to forget but Chevrolet and Ford combined to win nine of the first 10 races this season. Admittedly, there were a few races Busch lost (Phoenix, Martinsville and Talladega) during that early stretch, but it hasn’t been until lately that Toyotas dominated.
Toyota, led by Truex and Busch, have led 88.2 percent of the 992 laps run in the last five Cup races. Toyota has placed at least three drivers in the top five in four of the last five races. A Toyota driver has won nine of the last 10 stages.
Brad Keselowski, who won two of the first six races this season, lamented Toyota’s rise after last weekend’s Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen won by Busch.
“The Toyotas in all three series just have so much (more) power and aero than everybody else that it’s like two different races,’’ Keselowski said.
So what does it mean for the playoffs?
Expect to see Toyotas advance but that doesn’t mean one will win the championship. Anything can happen in a single race for the title.
Truex, who has collected playoff points like a child hoarding candy, has put himself in good position to advance deep in the postseason. He has 34 playoff points after his victory Sunday. Truex is so far ahead in the points that he likely will finish as the regular season champion and collect the 15 playoff points that go with the honor. That would give him 49 playoff points that will carry through the first three rounds, provided he remains in contention for the title.
“I feel like with the way we run, coupled with the bonus points, we should essentially be a lock for Homestead,’’ said Truex, who has led three times as many laps as all Chevrolet and Ford drivers have combined in the last five races. “I really feel that way. But at the same time, this is racing, and anything can happen.’’
“I feel like with the way we run, coupled with the bonus points, we should essentially be a lock for Homestead,’’ said Truex, who has led three times as many laps as all Chevrolet and Ford drivers have combined in the last five races. “I really feel that way. But at the same time, this is racing, and anything can happen.’’
Or change.
While there weren’t playoff points last year, one can look at the 2016 season and see that even a poor summer stretch doesn’t preclude a driver from winning the crown.
Jimmie Johnson had four finishes of 30th or worse in a nine-race stretch from Daytona to Darlington last year. Yet, he won a race in the second round and another in the third round to advance to the season finale in Miami. He won that race to score his seventh series title.
Could Johnson repeat his run and claim an eighth series title? His finishes have faded in the last six races — he’s placed 25th or worse four times — as they did about this time a year ago.
Johnson was collected in a crash last month at Kentucky while running eighth. He crashed while racing three-wide for the lead late in the race at Indianapolis.
Johnson was collected in a crash last month at Kentucky while running eighth. He crashed while racing three-wide for the lead late in the race at Indianapolis.
As he’s always said, the final 10 tracks align well for him.
As for a Ford driver to watch, Kevin Harvick has shown more speed, while Keselowski and Joey Logano have struggled to find it for Team Penske. Logano, who has made it to the championship race twice in the last three years, is in danger of missing the 16-team playoffs after a penalty prevented his Richmond victory from counting toward playoff eligibility.
For as good as the Toyotas have been, Michigan International Speedway, site of this weekend’s Cup race, has not been a good track for the manufacturer lately. In the last three races there, Toyota has had only one car finish in the top five. Denny Hamlin placed fourth in the June race won by Kyle Larson.
With the playoffs still a month away, there’s time for the other teams to catch up to Toyota … or fall further behind.
With the playoffs still a month away, there’s time for the other teams to catch up to Toyota … or fall further behind.
SOCCER: Notes from the rewatch: Patrick Doody's breakout game and Juninho's controversial goal.
By Dan Santaromita
(Photo/USA TODAY)
Brandon Vincent has been lauded for what he has given the Chicago Fire's attack this season, but it took Patrick Doody to surpass his assist production from left back.
Doody had three assists in Saturday's win against New England to go with one assist he had in his first appearance the previous week in Kansas City. Vincent has one goal and three assists this season. Here's a look at Doody's big game and what he gives the Fire as opposed to Vincent and the controversy on Juninho's go-ahead goal late in the first half.
Patrick Doody's breakout game
Patrick Doody's first game in a year and a half had its ups and downs. He assisted on David Accam's goal in the second half in Kansas City, but he also got burned by Graham Zusi on KC's second goal. His second game of the season was more about the positive with three assists and cleaner defending.
Doody's first assist, Juninho’s goal, was a fairly simple pass from Doody. He picked his head up and saw Schweinsteiger. Passing to Schweinsteiger is rarely a bad option. Schweinsteiger saw one better and dummied the ball through for Juninho.
The second assist, Michael de Leeuw’s header, is a highlight reel caliber cross from Doody. Coach Veljko Paunovic referred to it as a “curveball” after the game and it’s not hard to see why. The ball curled out of reach of the goalkeeper and had enough depth to go over the centerback’s attempted headed clearance.
What’s good to see from Doody on this play is that he took on his defender. Doody moved more centrally to provide Dax McCarty with a passing option. Center mid Scott Caldwell stepped up to defend Doody. To get back to the wing, Doody had to take a big touch wide. He had enough separation from Caldwell to put in the cross and de Leeuw did the rest.
The third assist showed more aggression from Doody. He pushed forward to get to the corner late in the game. The cross itself may have been more hopeful than directed, but Solignac did the work to turn it into an assist.
Doody probably isn't as good in possession or defensively as Vincent, but his crosses are better. Vincent has improved in virtually all aspects this season, but Doody is probably still the best crosser on the team. His quality service on the wing has been apparent in practice, but he has been able to show it off in games finally. Now that teams are going to be well aware of what Doody can produce from crossing areas, defenders will be marking him differently. Let's see if he can still produce.
Controversy on Juninho’s goal
Juninho scored what held up as the game-winner and it was his first goal with the Fire, but New England wasn’t happy with the goal. It wasn’t the goal itself, but a foul that happened 20 seconds before it.
David Accam had the ball on the left wing, took a heavy touch and ran into Revolution defender Andrew Farrell as Farrell cleared the ball away. The Revs wanted a foul called. The ref waved for Farrell to get up.
Meanwhile, Schweinsteiger picked up the loose ball from Farrell’s clearance and dribbled right back at New England’s defense. Farrell gets to his feet a few seconds before Schweinsteiger goes back to that side with a pass to Patrick Doody. Doody then sets up Juninho for the goal.
“I think the second goal, really, really hurt us because we just felt like there was a foul on the play,” New England coach Jay Heaps said after the match. “Other than that, it’s going up the other way, we get to halftime 1-1 and we can still regroup.”
In the new era of video review in MLS, this play is something that could have been reviewed. One of the vague terms the league has been using is “attacking phase of play.” Goals can be reviewed not just for something that was clearly missed by the ref on the shot or the assist, but if at any point there is an infraction in the “attacking phase of play.” In this case, you could argue that Schweinsteiger picking up the ball is the start of the attacking phase of play, therefore the possible foul on Accam may not have been reviewable. Even so, Paul Tenorio said on the broadcast that the video assistant referee did check the play, but did not call for further review.
Real Madrid wins UEFA Super Cup over Manchester United, because of course it does.
By Leander Schaerlaeckens
Real Madrid became the eighth Spanish team in nine years to lift the UEFA Super Cup. (Photo/Getty)
For the eighth time in nine years, a Spanish team has won the UEFA Super Cup. This glorified exhibition between the last season’s Champions League and Europa League champions was claimed by Real Madrid for a third time in four years.
As it happens, the most successful club in continental soccer has also been European champion three times in four years. So the 2-1 win over Manchester United in Macedonia on Tuesday didn’t exactly cement this dynasty, but did add a little more polish to its shine.
Real took a two-goal lead thanks to Casemiro and Isco, before Romelu Lukaku cut it in half with his first competitive(ish) goal for United.
But if the score was close, the game itself didn’t really feel that way for much of it. Until Real, which started its preseason a week after United did and has played fewer games, tired in the last half hour or so, the Spaniards were utterly dominant.
Real had United largely pinned back early on. Although, as often, that felt like a conscious tactical choice by former Real and current United manager Jose Mourinho. Black jerseys swarmed around the United area until they finally broke through in the 24th minute.
Wave after wave of Real attacks stranded in United’s box, but then Dani Carvajal flipped a ball over the top into the path of Casemiro, who slid it behind David De Gea. Was he offside? Maybe a tad. But the goal stood anyway. And it wasn’t undeserved for being dubious.
Seven minutes after the intermission, the scintillating Isco, starting in place of Cristiano Ronaldo — who began his pre-season late — got the goal he deserved for all his energy and trickery. In a quick one-two combination with Gareth Bale at the top of the box, he freed himself up and finished cleanly.
It wasn’t stellar defending from United. But then this Ronaldo-less Real also looked like something it hasn’t resembled in years: dynamic and fast and uncatchable. The absence of the increasingly statuesque Ronaldo, who still very much merits his place and accommodations for the bundles of goals he produces, created space to slip and slice through.
United, for its part, continues to appear like an expensive but shoddy facsimile of a world-class team. Hundreds of millions have been spent since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013. But none of the legendary manager’s successors have managed to forge a collective that could compete in Europe. Or, in some seasons, even reach Europe’s top competition, the Champions League.
This team looks no closer to being a real European power in spite of the pricey additions of Lukaku, Nemanja Matic and Victor Lindelof. Instead, it plays muscular and direct soccer that feels incompatible with a sport that is becoming ever faster and more intricate.
At any rate, United got its equalizer after a threatening spell. Paul Pogba’s header from a sharp Ander Herrera cross was parried into Lukaku’s path by Keylor Navas. But the big Belgian striker airmailed it. He got another chance a short while later, when a Matic bullet from just outside the box fell nicely for him as well. This time, he slotted it in coolly.
United created the stray chance for an equalizer but converted none of them, with Navas denying Marcus Rashford well.
And so now, with most all of the various super cups around Europe played, the club season is to finally begin. Real looks like the inevitable aging of Ronaldo won’t slow it down any so long as Isco — and Marco Asensio — are around. United, meanwhile, is still a diminished giant that has misplaced its identity.
It was only an exhibition, but the narratives for the upcoming campaign are already taking shape.
Can reigning champions Chelsea handle the pressure?
By Joe Prince-Wright
(Photo/Getty Images)
Repeat after me Chelsea fans: “This is not the summer of 2016. This is not the summer of 2016.”
It isn’t, of course, but similarities between the last time Chelsea were defending champions of the Premier League and this time are starting to crop up.
There is legitimate reason for slight concern among the Chelsea ranks as largely the same group of players who struggled drastically following their last title campaign may have to wrestle their minds to stop them from getting into a similar situation once again.
Antonio Conte was short and sharp with the media following Chelsea’s defeat to Arsenal on penalty kicks in the FA Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday. He looked like a man with a lot on his mind, and rightly so.
Conte’s debut season in the PL couldn’t have gone better with a record 30 wins from 38 games as he left the Blues to the title. Many times throughout their run to the title last season Conte revealed that nobody expected Chelsea to win the PL given their incredible collapse the season before. He was right. Everyone through it would be a two to three year rebuild and there was no pressure on the Italian coach and his staff.
Now the pressure is real and cracks have started to appear ever since the end of last season.
First the way in which his side lost the FA Cup final to Arsenal in May grated with Conte and over preseason plenty of things seem to have chipped away at him.
Diego Costa‘s impending departure seems to be making Conte uneasy with Chelsea’s top scorer not returning to preseason training and totally banished from the first team. His replacement Alvaro Morata comes with a club-record price tag but Conte has already issued a warning to the Spanish striker that he needs to work on his fitness just a few days before the new season. Star playmaker Eden Hazard is recovering from ankle surgery and will miss the start of the season.
Add in to that shaky defensive displays against Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in preseason, plus a less than a stellar performance in the Community Shield, and there are definite issues for Conte to iron out, especially with Chelsea expected to push for the UEFA Champions League this season after their return to Europe.
That in itself will provide more tests for a Chelsea side who only had to focus on domestic competitions last season with a smaller squad than their PL rivals. It perhaps explains why Conte is pushing for more transfers in each and every press conference he appears. He needs plenty of top quality additions, and fast.
Virgil Van Dijk, Serge Aurier and Danny Drinkwater have all been mentioned as potential incomings in the next few days but don’t forget that last season Conte decided to make moves for David Luiz and Marcos Alonso on deadline day so Chelsea may decide to not do any business for the opening weeks of the season.
It’s not all doom and gloom with the starting XI still packed with quality, N'Golo Kante running the show in midfield, William buzzing around in attack and Gary Cahill standing tall, but the preparation for Chelsea’s title defense has been far from ideal. There’s no getting around it.
With Morata not up to speed, Chelsea’s two other new signings aren’t ready either with center back Antonio Rudiger returning late in preseason after Germany’s Confederations Cup success and new holding midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko recovering from a minor injury.
That means Conte will be down to the bare bones of his squad when the season kicks off this weekend against Burnley at Stamford Bridge with no Costa, Hazard, Bakayoko and now Nemanja Matic sold to Manchester United.
Yes, Chelsea’s business model of selling off talent at top prices when they no longer need them is admirable, plus their ability to sign talented youngsters to long-term deals and loan them out looks great but Nathaniel Chalobah leaving permanently for Watford, Nathan Ake sold to Bournemouth and Ruben Loftus-Cheek joining Crystal Palace on loan shows they were never going to be given a chance. Surely all three would have got more minutes this season given the increased number of games?
Circumstances allowed Chelsea to dominate last season and they did just that after the switch to a 3-4-3 formation defined their season.
But this season much more than formation change will define their title defense and success in Europe.
Conte not only has to contend with star players departing under a cloud (Costa) new players getting off to a slow start (Morata) and frustrations in the transfer market (Romelu Lukaku), but he must also realize that the likes of Luiz, Victor Moses and Pedro may not perform anywhere near the level we saw last season and they could return to their mean.
It’s highly unlikely the 2017-18 campaign will follow the same pattern of the 2015-16 season which saw Chelsea towards the relegation zone midway through the campaign and Jose Mourinho fired. Still, just two years removed from that nightmare it’s easy to understand why Chelsea’s fans are starting to wiggle around a little uneasily in their seat.
They’ve seen this script before and they don’t like it.
Manchester United’s expectations have changed.
By Nicholas Mendola
(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Manchester United’s 2-1 loss to Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup proved two things to the Red Devils’ faithful.
The first is that their club is much-improved but not yet back to world beater status, and the second is that the Red Devils’ talent is enough to compete with any club on any given night.
No, Cristiano Ronaldo did not start for United and, yes, Real Madrid controlled the first hour of play. But even on a night with a largely absent Paul Pogba and a glaring miss from Romelu Lukaku, United could’ve found themselves going to extra time with Europe’s most successful team.
While this is still a team growing into its best self, United will be expecting much more from Jose Mourinho in Season Two.
Last season saw the Red Devils lift the Europa League and win the League Cup, finishing outside the Top Four as Mourinho chose to prioritize a UEL title as the club’s clearest route back to the UEFA Champions League.
This season, United’s supporters have to feel that Mourinho has assembled the talent to compete for both the Premier League, any Cup competition, and make a deep run in the UCL. That’s miles better than the “hit and hope” of last season, when a buy of Paul Pogba and the hiring of Mourinho conspired to provide long shot dreams in the slumber of Old Trafford faithful.
Mourinho has won everywhere, and will be expected to claim one of the two big trophies that eluded him last season. Whether that’s fair or not, especially on the UCL front, is a debate for another day, but given United’s success in winning the signatures of Lukaku, Pogba, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan while keeping David De Gea in town, wins have to come quickly.
United won’t be tested by a fellow UCL club until Oct. 14’s visit to Liverpool, and the best opposition in the previous seven matches is a mid-September visit by Everton. Compare that to every other Top Four candidate, and United hits the ground with the best chance to pile up early hay in the table.
Apart from surprising and dire results to start the season, this shouldn’t be a season that sees Mourinho’s job status find uncertainty. Yet it can go a long way toward deciding whether he has the potential to spend a long, long time at Old Trafford or fade out after a three- or four-year stint.
Things have changed, again, at United. Now it’s on Mourinho to make a difference.
NCAAFB: Bovada continues to tap Alabama as 2017 title favorite.
(Photo/Getty Images)
When last we left Bovada.lv‘s odds for the 2017 national champion, 2016 runners-up Alabama sat atop the initial wagering odds. On the cusp of a new season? Same old, same old. Pretty much.
Along with its updated Heisman Trophy odds, Bovada also revealed its updated odds to win the next edition of the College Football Playoff championship, with the Crimson Tide sitting as a comfortable favorite at 12/5. In January, those odds were a little longer at 4/1.
The next two teams, USC and Ohio State, saw their odds shorten as well, with the former going from 9/1 to 6/1 and the latter from 15/2 to 13/2. Florida State and Michigan, at 7/1 and 9/1, respectively, seven months ago, have lengthened a bit to 15/2 for the Seminoles and 16/1 for the Wolverines.
Prior to Bob Stoops’ retirement, Oklahoma had been at 9/1; after his abrupt departure, those odds have tumbled to 16/1.
Below are the complete set of updated 2017 national championship odds, again courtesy of Bovada.lv.
By John Taylor
Not surprisingly, the wagering favorite for one of the most storied awards in sports remains unchanged.
Back in January, Bovada.lv installed USC quarterback Sam Darnold as a 9/1 favorite to win the 2017 Heisman Trophy; a month later, those odds shortened to 4/1. Tuesday, the same wagering establishment released its updated Heisman odds, with Darnold remaining a 4-1 favorite.
Up next this time around, however, is Saquon Barkley at 7/1. In February, the Penn State running back was at 12/1 and behind four other players.
After that, it’s Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield at 15/2 (he was 13/2 in Feb.), Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett at 8/1 (12/1) and Louisville quarterback and reigning Heisman winner Lamar Jackson at 8/1 (13/2).
No other positions other than quarterbacks and running backs were listed.
Below is the complete set of 2017 Heisman Trophy odds, again courtesy of Bovada.lv.
NCAABKB: Kentucky, Syracuse, Louisville top college basketball in attendance.
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The NCAA released attendance figures for the 2016-17 season on Tuesday as Kentucky, Syracuse and Louisville were the top three draws in college basketball last season.
Big Blue Nation came out in full force once again as the Wildcats averaged 23,461 fans per game. Syracuse averaged 21,181 fans per game while Louisville brought 20,846 fans to each home game.
National champion North Carolina finished fourth with 18,067 fans per game.
Men’s college basketball regular-season attendance was slightly down from the 2015-16 season as 24.4 million fans watched Division I games last season (down about 379,770 from the previous season). While the regular season was down, the NCAA Tournament sold 16,595 more tickets in 2017 compared to 2016.
The Big Ten led the conferences in overall attendance at 12,235 per game during the regular season, followed by the ACC (11,257), SEC (11,080), Big 12 (10,427) and Big East (10,014).
One interesting thing to note is that the Big Ten’s conference tournament attendance was sixth among conference’s after the league made the controversial decision to move to Washington D.C. for last season. The Big Ten averaged only 13,281 fans per session as the Big 12 (18,972), Big East (17,556), ACC (16,543) SEC (15,023) and Pac-12 (14,485) all had better conference-tournament attendance figures.
Don Baylor, former AL MVP, dies at 68.
Former American League MVP and MLB manager Don Baylor died Monday after a long battle with cancer, his family confirmed. He was 68.
Baylor spent 19 seasons in the majors with six teams, including the then-California Angels, where he was tapped as the 1979 league MVP.
“Don passed from this earth with the same fierce dignity with which he played the game and lived his life,” Baylor’s wife, Rebecca, said in a statement provided by the Angels on Monday.
Baylor slugged 338 home runs and finished his career playing in three consecutive World Series for different teams -- the 1986 Boston Red Sox, 1987 World Series champion Minnesota Twins and the '88 A's.
Baylor was the Colorado Rockies' first manager in franchise history, guiding them to the first National League wild-card berth in 1995. He managed nine seasons overall between the Rockies and Chicago Cubs, posting a 627-689 record.
As recently as 2014, he served as Los Angeles Angels hitting coach but was not retained after one season.
On This Date in Sports History: Today is Wednesday, August 09, 2017.
Memoriesofhistory.com
1936 - Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics. He was the first American to win four medals in one Olympics.
1975 - The New Orleans Superdome as officially opened when the Saints played the Houston Oilers in exhibition football. The new Superdome cost $163 million to build.
1981 - Major league baseball teams resumed play at the conclusion of the first mid-season players’ strike.
1984 - Daley Thompson, of Britain, won his second successive Olympic decathlon.
1988 - Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. The trade was at Gretzky's request. He was sent to the Kings with Mike Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley. Edmonton received Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelina, three first-round draft picks and cash.
1990 - The NHL approved the sale of the Minnesota North Stars by George and Gordon Gund. The Gunds were granted the rights to a Bay Area team that could begin play in October 1991. The team was the San Jose Sharks.
2000 - Former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin was arrested on a Class B misdemeanor of possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana.
2012 - Shannon Eastin became the first female to officiate an NFL game when she worked as a line judge in a preseason game between the San Diego Chargers and the Green Bay Packers.
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