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Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. A big THANK YOU from me to you for reading Stat of the Week. Each week I do a Stat of the Week radio segment on WSCR—670 The Score in Chicago. Ninety percent of the time I focus on the Chicago teams. For my web and email Stat of the Week, I normally take a national perspective. Just for fun, today I’m going to share with you my Thanksgiving Day Numbers that I did on the radio.
Thanksgiving Day Numbers—numbers that Chicago sports fans have to be thankful for.
Chicago Bulls fans—1.7%
This was the percentage chance that the Bulls had to get the number one draft pick in the 2008 NBA draft. They were sitting in the ninth position overall yet beat the odds to get the number one pick. That pick became Derrick Rose. Rose put the team on his shoulders in the fourth quarter on Monday leading the Bulls to a 101-100 victory against the Utah Jazz. At Utah. Breaking their 13-game winning streak.
Blackhawks fans—1952
That’s the year when Rocky Wirtz was born. Rocky was two years old when his dad, Bill Wirtz, took over the Chicago Blackhawks. Now Rocky took over the team when his father passed away last year. What does that mean? It means televised home games in Chicago. It means bringing back Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita. It means a brand new era for hockey in Chicago. The Hawks are off to a great start this year.
Bears fans—11 to 4
That’s Kyle Orton’s touchdown passes verses his interceptions this year so far. It’s the best ratio in the last 24 years for the Bears, except for one incredible year (1995) put in by Eric Kramer when he had 29 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Orton has been something the Bears haven’t had in a long time, a real quarterback! Maybe going all the way back to Jim McMahon. And even McMahon didn’t generally have a 3-1 ratio of touchdown throws versus interceptions.
White Sox fans—17
The White Sox increased their victory total by 17 wins last year. They won 72 in 2007 and improved to 89 victories in 2008. That was the second highest increase in baseball (Tampa Bay increased by 31). Before the season everyone was raving about the Detroit Tigers and their incredible offensive firepower. They laughed at White Sox GM Kenny Williams when he said, “Well maybe the Tigers will be looking up at us, trying to catch us.” No one is laughing now.
Cubs fans—636
Is that how many years it’s been since the Cubs have won the World Series? OK, that’s not funny.
Since 2003 here is how Cubs hitters have ranked in drawing walks among National League teams:
2003 14th of 16 teams
2004 14th of 16 teams
2005 16th of 16 teams
2006 16th of 16 teams
2007 15th of 16 teams
In 2008, Cubs hitters finished first in the National League in walks with 636. During the five previous years the Cubs averaged 737 runs per year. With their newly-found patience at the plate, the Cubs increased their run production by over 100 runs, also leading the 2008 NL in runs scored with 855.
Here are a couple of additional numbers for and Sox Cubs fans to be thankful for:
White Sox second baseman Alexei Ramirez hit .380 with runners in scoring position last year, fifth best in the American league. Quite amazing for a first year player. On the Cubs, Aramis Ramirez led the National League hitting in the late innings of close games. He hit .423. Not too shabby.
Happy Thanksgiving to all Chicago fans out there.
Used with permission from John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™, http://www.statoftheweek.com/.
With Ryan Dempster signed, sealed and delivered back to Wrigley Field for the next four years, it now appears the Cubs are not so eager to back up the truck for the services of Jake Peavy. Manager Lou Piniella made comments over the weekend that starting pitching is all set, but they will look for a veteran arm for the bullpen.
Peavy would obviously be a top of the rotation guy in an already very solid lineup of Zambrano, Dempster, Lilly, Harden, plus Marquis/Marshall. But from the rumors I’ve seen being a 5-for-1 trade involving Samardzjia, Cedeno, Hart, Marshall, prospect Donnie Veal and various others, Jim Hendrywould be giving up his entire inventory of tradable talent. Yes, if we knowthe Cubs would a) win the World Series, and b) do it in 2009, and c) achieve the championship due to Jake Peavy, then yes of course one would give all those guys up and more. However, if a trade like this were to happen and let’s say Peavy gets a sore elbow, then the cupboard is bare of trade bait. To me, not a worthy gamble. Obviously this has crossed Hendry’s mind too.
Interesting to me that so few free agents have been signed so far this off-season. Could this be a <gasp> market correction in MLB salaries at play? I wonder if perhaps Kerry Wood might even re-sign with his old team if the market did not prove all that lucrative after all? Probably not, but the longer guys are on the market the less leverage they have. The baseball Winter Meetings will take place in lovely, beautiful, wonderful Las Vegas starting December 7th. Maybe some guys will get traded and start signing then?
Hot stove talk is fun, but so much of it is just talk generated by media types who need to talk about something. I pay attention to it all, but I don’t waste a lot of time on rumors during the off-season. If you want to read the best in the business at tracking rumors, you must see Tim Dierkes’ MLBtradeRumors.com he does an excellent job of collecting info from various credible sources.
This morning’s edition of Crain’s Chicago Business reported Tribune chairman Sam Zell is determined to select a winning bid for Cubs by the end of this year. The article stated final bids are due November 26 and the winning bidder would purchase a controlling interest in the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise.
Later this morning the Chicago Tribune reported Cubs bidder Mark Cuban is being charged with insider trading stemming from his divestment in a dot-com company in 2004. The Trib actually posted a PDF of the 9-page SEC (the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission) complaint.
With this legal development, Mark Cuban’s pursuit of the Cubs could very well be over. It was widely speculated that in spite of his offer reportedly being dramatically higher than all others, Cuban would face a tough vote by other MLB owners to join their ranks. Fans of course generally like the idea of a fan-like owner taking over the club, but the exclusive MLB Owners club is thought of to not be fond of such a flamboyant maverick buying a franchise. So it seems the owners group may avoid the public scrutiny of rejecting Cuban publicly by having him disqualified as a result of these SEC charges.
Personally, I don’t count Cuban out just yet, but his chances appear to be 5 runs behind with 2 out and no one on in the ninth.
It’s tough for a guy to take a break around here! Just in the past week the Chicago Cubs have acquired Kevin Gregg from the Marlins, publicly announced Kerry Wood’s career in blue pinstripes is over, Lou Piniella has won NL Manager of the Year, Carlos Zambrano the Silver Slugger award for NL pitchers, and Geovany Soto named 2008 NL Rookie of the Year. Man, so much for the ‘off’ in off-season.
Kerry Wood - Cubs career is over
I have to say, the departure of Kerry Wood weighs heavy on this Cub fans heart. Kerry embodied so much of the Cubs spirit- or at least what we aspire to. As the face of the Cubs franchise, he’s been a class act that deserves the big contract Jim Hendry announced yesterday was not possible with the Cubs. The contractual relationship between Wood and the Cubs really has been a rare two-way street with both Kerry giving the ‘home town discount’ to sign below market and the team affording Wood every opportunity to get healthy and compete. He will be missed, but to be honest, it might very well be a good baseball move. There is no telling when his arm will give again and signing him to the multi-year deal he deserves could hamstring this club for years (again) if he goes down. Godspeed, Kerry, you will be missed.
Kevin Gregg - Acquired via trade
This one was a surprise. Jim Hendry gave up arguably one of his most promising young arms in Jose Ceda to get a guy who is at best a middle of the road closer. He allows a lot of base runners for a closer and has a career ERA of 4.00. He has racked up 61 saves over the past two seasons for a pretty bad Marlins club, but he is by no means automatic. Gregg had more losses, more walks (more than twice as many), more runs allowed, and far fewer strikeouts than Kerry Wood in 2008. My hope is Gregg moves to the 8th inning role and Carlos Marmol becomes the closer. If Kevin Gregg was brought in to close, this move is a step backwards for a team that came up short last year.
Lou Piniella - Wins NL Manager of the Year award
I absolutely, totally agree that Lou Piniella was the best manager in the National League during the regular season in 2008. In fact, the NL manager of the year voting took place prior to the postseason. So it makes perfect sense to me that Lou won this award, he deserves it. But make no mistake, Lou was entirely out-managed by Joe Torre in the playoffs. Lou was a boy among men in every phase of being a field manager in October this year. He blew seemingly every decision in grand fashion. From filling out the lineup, to his pitching rotation, to his in-game strategies. However, during the regular season, Lou Piniella was the best in the NL. Congratulations to him and his decision to donate his $100,000 salary bonus to charity.
Geovany Soto - Wins NL Rookie of the Year award
This one was the biggest no-brainer in the history of earth. Geo was outstanding; he hit, threw, fielded, called a good game, was clutch, played hurt, and did it all with poise. What’s not to like?
Carlos Zambrano - Wins Silver Slugger award for NL pitchers
Big Z loves to bat and it shows. A switch hitting pitcher who drives the ball and hits for average. This is his second of many Silver Sluggers to come.
As of today, Cubs GM Jim Hendry can negotiate with the present crop of free agents. There’s been a lot of speculation about Jake Peavy coming to the Northside. Some of the packages I’ve heard seem pretty excessive, even for a pitcher the caliber of Peavy. We’ll see what happens there. If the Cubs don’t sign Dempster, then Peavy is just a slight upgrade (providing Dempster puts up similar numbers in ‘09). Now if you’re adding Peavy to a rotation that includes Dempster… now you’re talkin’! Should be interesting to see the roster come opening day…
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