Cubs complete sweep of Mets, while White Sox improve to merely bad

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The Cubs capped off a four game sweep of the Mets with a 2-0 win Sunday.  Jon Lester went 7 scoreless innings, allowing only 2 hits.  Randy Rosario, Steve Cishek and Brian Duensing closed out the shutout.  Javy Baez broke a scoreless tie by stealing home in the seventh inning.  Later in the inning Willson Contreras scored from third on a popup to Mets second baseman, Luis Guillorme.  The win followed a 6-1, 14 inning victory over the Mets Saturday night.

John Smoltz is good at everything, almost

Saturday night’s game was carried by Fox with John Smoltz doing the color for the game.  I’ve generally liked Smoltz in the past, but prolonged listening to Smoltz Saturday night could make you lose your will to live.  Gripe, gripe, gripe.  That’s all John seemed to do Saturday night.  Fox needs to carry a warning to viewers about listening to John Smoltz.  Prolonged listening may cause depression.

A good free agent signing...

While Yu Darvish and Tyler Chatwood have been disappointing, Steve Cishek has been outstanding.  His versatility and effectiveness have helped the Cubs pen be one of the best in baseball.

Well, it's at least something

Jason Heyward has been hitting a little bit lately, albeit without power.  Still, any improvement is welcome.  Some of the young Cubs players are showing signs of growth.  Albert Almora Jr. looks like the real deal in center field.  Kyle Schwarber is settling in as the Cubs left fielder.  While Schwarber isn’t a gold glove candidate, he has improved defensively and has a strong arm.  I’ve seen worse left fielders.  More and more, the Cubs aren’t just Bryant and Rizzo.

That's a little better

The White Sox did themselves and the Cubs a big favor by winning two out of three from the Brewers over the weekend.  Sunday’s Sox 6-1 win over the Brewers was actually an enjoyable watch.  Sox starter, Dylan Covey put in another strong performance, going 5 innings while allowing only an unearned run.  He struck out 7.  Covey is settling in as a decent starter.  The addition of Carlos Rodon should make the rotation as a whole fairly good. The Sox pen has also stabilized a bit in the last while.  Even Chris Volstad has given some consistent work on a regular basis.

Dan Palka provide the big offensive blow, a two run pinch hit homer.  Palka the hitter is pretty good.  Palka the right fielder is very, very bad.  If Palka is limited to DH or pinch hitting duties, he’s an asset.  Palka has a defensive WAR of -0.8 in very limited playing time.  That’s hard to do.  His offensive WAR is 0.5.

Adam Engel’s metrics are puzzling to me.  He’s allegedly a defensive whizz, but has a defensive WAR of -0.4.  The eye tests scores him higher than that.  Engel homered in Sunday’s game and has raised his average to .223.  Not great, but it does give a glimmer of hope.

It's less agonizing this way

The Sox have been playing an outfield of Charlie Tilson, Adam Engel and Trayce Thompson recently.  While limited offensively, they can at least generally catch the ball.  The Sox may be making the transition from historically bad to just very bad.  Hey, baby steps.

Look for the Brewers to come back to earth

Going into the weekend series with the White Sox, the Milwaukee Brewers had been on fire.  Some of it was based on expected performance levels; some of it was because players are exceeding expectations.  Outfielder acquisitions, Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain have performed well, as expected.  The bullpen, however has been over performing.

Josh Hader is one of the best relievers in baseball, but I’m not sure even he can sustain the level of performance he’s been at this season.  Dan Jennings and Matt Albers had a rough weekend after a great start.  Expect the regression to the mean to continue. 

Here's what JR accomplished...

JR Smith did the near impossible Thursday night.  He made me feel sorry for LeBron James.  After a Herculean effort by James, the Cavs saw their chance to steal game one of the NBA Finals go up in smoke (make your own joke) when Smith pulled in an offensive rebound off a missed George Hill rebound and then dribbled out the clock.  Smith hasn’t been known as a heady ballplayer, but that was a little much, even for him.

The blunder overshadowed a tremendous effort by tremendous game by LeBron James that saw him score 51 points to go with 8 rebounds and 8 assists.  Watching LeBron try to win a title playing with Moe, Larry and Curly is like making Rembrandt paint with his feet. 

The other play that stands out in the first game of the finals is the reversal of the charging call on Kevin Durant to a blocking call on LeBron with 36.4 seconds left in regulation.  The call was reversed after a replay showed LeBron was not in the defense circle under the basket.  It seemed like a backdoor way to reduce a judgment call.  It seems like the Warriors have been the beneficiaries of some really iffy calls in the playoffs.

JR Smith’s saying he knew what the score was and his lame answer after the game was worse than his blunder.  Man up.

Why the NBA is losing it's appeal

I’ve watched less of the NBA this year than I have in years.  Because of questionable officiating, a bunch of teams tanking and some many teams that are just hard to root for, I find the NBA less appealing.  It’s taken on a WWE feel.

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