One step forward......

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After winning Friday's game against the Pirates and evening their record, the Cubs naturally lost Saturday's game to go a game below .500. Saturday's final was 4-2. Jake Arrieta was sailing along pretty well until the Pirates treated Jake like he was a Somalian cruise ship. Jake started the 6^th with a 2-1 lead but gave up 3 runs and was unable to get out of the inning.

This won't take long

The Cubs offense consisted of back to back home runs by Ian Happ and Kyle Schwarber. The most promising thing to come out of this game for the Cubs was Schwarber looked good at the plate.

They look pooped

The Cubs really need the All Star Game break. If and when (I think it will be when) they make a deal for a starting pitcher, they'll get an added benefit. One or more of their young positional players will be gone. They could be addition by subtraction in that the Cubs lineup will have more stability. That in itself should help the Cubs. Their young players could accelerate their growth with steady playing time and a steady position.

And playing incognito.....

I haven't said much about the White Sox lately. Well, the short version is they are still generally getting pounded. Friday night's game was a 12-4 loss at the hands of the Colorado Rockies. Derek Holland got shelled again. Remember was I thought Derek was a great pickup? I hope not.

I'm not so much concerned with the White Sox losses, I'm more concerned with what's going on with their AAA prospects in Charlotte. The Sox have three prominent starting pitching prospects there, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Carson Fulmer.

Reynaldo Lopez is doing okay, but both Fulmer and Giolito have ERAs over 5. Much touted fire balling right hander, Michael Kopech has struck out 101 in 78.1 innings. That's great. The 53 walks and ERA of 4.02, not so much.

If you think they're bad......

I'm bracing myself for a long, frustrating season of Bulls basketball. I'll never understand their attraction to Iowa State coaches. I obviously have no confidence in GarPax. Having said all that, as an alternative for Bulls fans, pay attention to the Minnesota Timberwolves. I thought they would be better last year, but they could be a sleeper this NBA season.

An NBA alternative?

I think TomThibodeau is an excellent coach. There's a young talent base in Minnesota and the Twolves have made some great additions. Start with Jimmy Butler. Add Taj Gibson and Jeff Teugue to that group and I can see them being a 3-4 seed in the NBA East. Admittedly that's not high praise, but it will be a big leap for them. Watching them figures to be far more entertaining than watching the Bulls. Interestingly, Minnesota seems to be more of a destination place in the NBA than Chicago. That says a lot. For example Jamaal Crawford is reportedly considering going to the Wolves. I guess in this case, Wolves are better than dogs.

Not everybody in Chicago is down on Jake Cutler

NFL Hall of Famer and key member of the 1985 Bears Super Bowl champion, Dan Hampton, said those Bears would have won four super bowls. It's not that Jake was that great, it's just that those Bears were that good and Jake would have been plenty good enough to win with them. I'm not a huge Cutler fan, but he took more than his fair share of blame for the Bears failures.

More next time.