By Dan O’Shea

Are there usually so many promising rookie call-ups joining big league clubs from the minors this early in the season?
Starlin Castro was called up to the Cubs in May of last year, and there were one or two other notable debuts by guys around the same time who had not made big league rosters out of spring training, but this year, with more than a month to go to the All-Star break, it’s suddenly raining rookies.
Here’s a guide to some recent call-ups and one anticipated arrival you should have your eye on (all available in more than 90% of Yahoo! leagues):

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Posted on June 15, 2011

By Dmitry Samarov

It’s hard to like or even trust a closer. A couple hiccups and the seven or eight innings a starter put in are washed away as if they never happened. The pressure rises as the innings dwindle until it’s the ninth and you’re up by a run or two and the guy on the mound can keep things as they are (as you think they should be), or, let it all go up in flames.
Very few pitchers in baseball history have had the temperament to last any significant time in the role and even the immortals have faltered from time to time. Dennis Eckersley had Kurt Gibson and Mariano Rivera has the Red Sox (he’s blown ten saves against them).
There’s no one on the White Sox pitching staff who should be mentioned in the same breath with those greats of course, but until recently, Sergio Santos had been doing a more-than-serviceable job. After the Thronton debacle that started the year, anyone would shine by comparison. Still, the man’s saved 12 games while only blowing two; not bad at all.

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Posted on June 14, 2011

By Jim Coffman

It would be such an awesome statement to give King Casual the boot before he can infect Starlin Castro with any more of his “why bother to go 100 percent when you can hit 30 home runs” attitude – except he can’t hit 30 home runs anymore.
Yes, Ramirez hit a two-run homer on Sunday and he saved a game recently with a diving play in the field, but those rare highlights only make more stark the fact that he hasn’t been able to rouse himself to play hard game in and game out even in his contract year – the last of a five-year, $75 million deal.
Haven’t we seen enough?

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Posted on June 13, 2011

By Marty Gangler

I have to admit that I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of this season before it started. The Cubs were in a weird place.
Instead of the standard, misplaced wait-til-next-year optimism of most years, you kinda thought that a ton of things would have to go right for them to have a chance. I was hoping for a little luck and at least a shot at the wild card.
But more than anything, I wanted to like this team.

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Posted on June 13, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

I had to walk up and down aisle after aisle last Thursday at The Cell looking for them. You can still find a few, but they are scattered throughout the ballpark, whereas years ago finding people penciling in scorecards was as easy as locating empty beer cups.
“It’s a lost art,” lamented Ed Wiklak who grew up just a few blocks from Comiskey Park. “I score every game. One time I missed in the last 50 years was because it was raining.”
We’ll forgive Ed for this omission, especially since he figures that he has 600-700 games stashed away at his Wheeling home. Decades ago he graduated from the scorecards sold at the park to a scorebook that he purchased at Sports Authority.
Wiklak likes detail. Even before the first pitch – the exact time of which he accurately records – Ed pencils in the temperature (it was a frosty 50 degrees for Thursday’s 9-4 victory over the A’s) and the names of the umpires. After the game, he tapes his ticket stub on the corresponding scorebook page, and he clips the box score from the next day’s paper and attaches that as well.

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Posted on June 13, 2011

By Carl Mohrbacher

The Cubs are done. Now what? Why should I watch?
-Debbie, Downers Grove IL
Exotic side bets and drinking games.
For example . . .
* Will Carlos Zambrano have more hits than wins this season?
* Over/Under: Number of Cubs to miss games due to facial injuries: 3.5.
* Take a shot every time Len Kasper sighs heavily before saying “Well, partner” to Bob Brenly.

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Posted on June 12, 2011

By Dan O’Shea

There’s a common understanding that power hitters will heat up along with the weather; that they will start blasting home runs with greater frequency as the majority of MLB cities migrate out of chilly spring into hot, humid summer.
It has something to do with arm hair having lower density or some such thing – I don’t know. You should probably ask Tom Skilling.
Anyway, I’ve always though the weather gets too much credit for home run production. Sluggers hitting more home runs during June, July and August than in April could have to do with plenty of other things – after a couple months of the season, for example, hitters have their timing locked in, and they are certainly more familiar with pitchers and what they might throw in given situation.
Fans of the Cubs and White Sox had better hope there is something to this hot weather home run business. Our hometown teams have two of the most disappointing sluggers in the league right now in Aramis Ramirez and Adam Dunn. The way they both look right now, I’m not sure even a string of 100-degree days will get them going.
It’s a good bet, though, that with the turning of the calendar to June, we’ll start seeing more round-trippers, maybe even by some guys who aren’t usually among the league leaders. Here are a few candidates:

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Posted on June 8, 2011

By Dmitry Samarov

Sunday afternoon, while working on the picture of Jake Peavy for this column, I listened as Peavy threw three perfect innings, then gave up six runs in the fourth and was removed from the game with a pulled groin.
In four innings, Peavy demonstrated the three modes of this year’s Sox team: great, awful, and just plain unfortunate.

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Posted on June 8, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

Frank Thomas has always been huge, but the affable Big Hurt more than filled the screen last Thursday morning on the WGN-TV news. He was there to hype Going Yard, The Everything Home Run Book, where the book jacket tells us that Thomas wrote the foreward and provided commentary for veteran sportswriter Lew Freedman. Frank was to appear at a suburban book store that evening to meet fans and sign autographs.
Thomas knows a few things about hitting home runs, having belted 521 over 19 seasons. Not bad for a guy who prided himself on hitting for average while utilizing a working knowledge of the strike zone. Perhaps his finest skill was hitting strikes and being content to draw a walk. For his career, the Big Hurt had a .419 on-base percentage, which ranks him 20th all-time.

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Posted on June 8, 2011

By Jim Coffman

My daughter Alana had a full slate of youth soccer games this weekend . . . and a couple baseball games, one of which was called after a half-inning due to the lightning storm that blasted through the area Saturday afternoon. It was probably excessive; it was definitely fun.
Regarding “probably excessive,” ever more attention is being paid to how youth sports are administered in this area and across the nation. There is growing awareness that many kids do too much, too soon. Alana’s parents are hyper-aware of this. Her dad (that would be me, of course) is on the Chicago board of the Positive Coaching Alliance (an organization devoted to improving youth sports coaching and the youth sports experience). But we also want her to have the most fun possible.

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Posted on June 8, 2011