Happ Happ Hooray!

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The Cubs evened their record at 41-41 with their 6-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds Sunday. Ian Happ was the offensive hero with 2 homers and a RBI single to account for 4 of the Cubs runs. Just as important was the performance of starting pitcher, Jake Arrieta. Jake went 7 scoreless to provide more hope for a bounce back performance in the second half of the season.

You Know it don't come easy

Since nothing comes easy for this Cubs team, the bullpen allowed a couple of runs in the 8^th before Carl Edwards Jr. came on to strike out Adam Duvall to close out a threat.

Not always good, but somewhat interesting

While they might not be a good team, the White Sox are at least watchable. Sunday's come from behind 6-5 win. Yolmer Sanchez's 2 run homer in the 8th put the Sox up by the winning margin. Closer Dave Robertson wiggled out of a bases loaded 9^th in jam to seal the win. Robertson had come on to get the last to outs in the 8^th before finishing the game.

Come on guys, clean it up

The Sox made 4 errors in the game. This is not a defensively sound club, but they have found some offense. Melky Cabrera hit his 9^th home run of the season. A club looking for a bat could do a lot worse than Cabrera. Cabrera is a tough out who usually makes contact. If the Sox can't get a decent return for him, I'd just as soon see the Sox keep him.

Are they coachable?

The Bulls continue to divest themselves of talent in an effort to find players docile enough to be coached by Fred Hoiberg. The latest talent casualty was Rajon Rondo. Apparently the Bulls feel they have a glut of talent at point guard. Any talent glut that includes Cameron Payne isn't a talent glut. It's self delusion by a clueless front office.

The Bulls look to begin rebuilding around point guard Kris Dunn and Zach Levine as well as seventh pick in the NBA draft, Lauri Markkanen. Both Dunn and Levine were acquired in the Bull trade of Jimmy Butler to the Timberwolves. The Bulls also acquired the seventh pick in the draft and used it to get Markkanen. So the Bulls traded one of the top 10-15 players in the NBA for a disappointing young point guard, an athletic player coming off a knee injury an a seven footer who likes to shoot threes.

One two, or even three of those guys might be okay. Levine in particular has some upside but I doubt any of them will be as good as Jimmy Butler is. And if any of them aren't that good, the Bulls have no building blocks.

Feels like old times, real old times.

The Blackhawks have been wheeling and dealing in the last week. They picked up winger, Patrick Sharp. I guess it's an okay pickup if your looking to fill out a third or fourth line. It just seems like the Hawks have a pattern of picking up former Hawks who are on their last legs. It's like these guys can go from being in a regular season game to being in an old timers game the next day.

More next time.