Derrick Rose Wins MVP

All season long, one guy played day after day and played well. That man was and is Derrick Rose. I will agree to say that other players stepped up to help their team throughout the season, but not one player other than Derrick Rose played game after game to help the team. The Bulls finished the season as the number one overall seed, and the leader game after game was Derrick Rose. He scored points, got assists, and made everyone else better on the team. Luol Deng had a great season this year, and I don't doubt one bit that Derrick Rose helped that happen a little bit. He makes his team look better and play better. That is what an MVP is. LeBron or Wade can't win this award, because they play together. They both stepped up at different times to help that team win games, Derrick Rose was by himself for the most part. Game after game they turned to him to be their MVP and he stepped up every time, all season.

My favorite thing about Derrick Rose winning MVP is that at the beginning of the season he said in a press conference that he could be the league's MVP. He proved that all season and got the reward here near the end of the season. The only thing that Derrick Rose still needs to do is to win the Finals. In my opinion, winning the NBA Finals this year is not a must for the Bulls. They have a lot of years to come in which they can win a lot when the Lakers and Celtics fade from contention. Also, I think that the team people thought were take the Celtic's spot as controller of the east was the heat. The team that will actually take that spot is the Bulls.

The Bulls are the up and coming team; they proved that when they won the number one overall seed. They proved that they could play with anybody. My favorite stat from this regular season is that they beat every single team in the NBA at least once. Only good teams do that, and the Bulls are a good team. The thing that excites me the most is that this is only the beginning. I can't wait for the Bulls in three years, winning championship after championship.

Blackhawks vs. Canucks Game 2 Preview

This is not a real preview, I just felt the need to post this youtube video that I found on @RunsOnDuncan site. She got it off youtube, but I thought I would give her credit, check her blog out here: http://aeryssports.com/runs-on-duncan/ and also check out the other aerys sports blogs, they are all by women and they are all amazing.

Playoff Bound

Both the Blackhawks and the Bulls are headed to the playoffs for a second straight year. Last year I was not nearly as interested or as much of an avid blogger as I am this year and I missed the chance to write about such a great thing. The Bulls play tonight against the Knicks, which is their second-to-last game of the regular season. They will start off playing the Pacers in this year's playoffs. The Blackhawks played their final game on Sunday against Detroit and lost, but thanks to Minnesota beating Dallas (Thank You Wild!!) the Blackhawks slipped in. They will play the number one seed Canucks.


Bulls
The Bulls ended up sealing the number one spot in the East. If they win tonight, and tomorrow they can clinch the number one overall seed if they haven't already by then. They are playing the Knicks tonight, the only team they have not beaten all season. I think its important to win this game because it shows that the Bulls beat every single team in the league and deserve a ton of consideration as true contenders. I know that our team is young and this team has never won a playoff series together, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be considered. The Bulls are a good team and have proved that time and time again. Yes, the Celtics will show up in the playoffs and so will the Heat's big three, but Rose will show up in the playoffs too. The Bulls deserve to be considered contenders and nobody should be surprised if they win it all, but I actually didn't pick them to win it all. This team is young, like I said and they lack playoff experience. They are might end up facing the Lakers in the finals who have been there the last three years, they know how to win the finals and they showed that last year. This Bulls team is good and young, the Celtics, Spurs, and Lakers are all old teams and after this year they might not contend as well as they will this year and did last year. The Bulls have years to come of winning championships, Derrick Rose will not leave like LeBron and he will bring a championship to his hometown of Chicago. He is a true hometown hero. I didn't pick the Bulls to win this year because I still like to compare this team to the 2009 Blackhawks. They will make a splash and will be picked to win it all the next year and then in the playoffs they will make a great run to win it all. I will not firmly predict that the Bulls win it all, but if injuries subside I am firmly picking the Bulls to win next year's NBA Championship.


Blackhawks
The Blackhawks have the great task of being defending champs in this year's playoffs. They had trouble with injuries all year and were missing a lot of key pieces from last year's team, but they still held on to get in the playoffs in the very end. Now that they are teams should be worried. The Canucks are the number one team and they are very good. The Sedin twins are very good and so is Ryan Kesler. The Blackhawks are not going to let this chance pass them by, though. Jonathan Toews will be yelling and screaming at this team the whole playoff run and that is what will keep them going. Expect to see Kane, Toews, and Sharp playing like they did during that 8 game win streak and expect Hossa to be on the top of his game. The defense will be sturdy and hopefully with a little luck, Bolland will be back sometime during the playoffs. This is a team that can win and be a very good team if they give it their all. They can beat this team and the next team and the next. A great playoff run by the Blackhawks would not surprise me at all. They are a good team with a lot of heart, if they put everything out on the ice and give it their all they can keep the cup.

The Price Was Right Hawks Lose 2-1 in OT

The best thing about tonight's game was probably the amazing play by both goalies. One got the win, but each goal given up was a good shot and good attempt at a save. Crawford went back to his hometown in this game, and was not treated as a hometowner would expect. He shrugged that off and played his ass off. I was very impressed with him in this game. It seemed like every few minutes I was tweeting a tweet that had the hashtag #CRAWESOME in it. That's always a good sign.

For the past few games, he has been the only guy stepping it up and that needs to change. When your goalie is the only player who decides to play you aren't going to win. Most good goalies can't make that many saves, so don't expect it. The Blackhawks need to learn from this rookie and learn from his work ethic and the way he always plays 110%. My favorite thing about tonight's game was that Turco had another heart to heart, goalie to goalie talk with Crawford. I don't know how he does it. If I was a professional hockey player that was sitting on the bench, I could not be mature enough to coach the rookie who took my place. I admire Turco so much for the way he has stepped up and helped Corey out.

The worst part of tonight's game was another injury. Brouwer went down in the 3rd period with a bad shoulder. I don't know the details, but I do know that we can't afford to have any more injuries. Sharp will be skating soon, but if we make the playoffs he probably won't be back for the first playoff game. If we make the playoffs these injuries need to end. We can't make a run at keeping the cup without Sharpie.



The only Blackhawks goal scorer was Patrick Kane. In doing so, he got his 300th career point. This is extremely impressive because it was done in only 314 games. Statistically that means that he only went 14 games without a point, literally he probably went more because he has had 18 multipoint games. Kane is an impressive player. He got cold through the middle of the season and I think people forgot that he is one of our best players. He has been the hot guy lately and has had a point in each of the last 8 games. (That's if my stats are right) Kaner is being the leader of the team right now. I heard that Toews was mad in the locker room after the game and that might lead to another win streak, but until the Hawks play again Kane is still the hot guy.

This game unfortunately and fortunately went to overtime. This was good and bad. I didn't want the Hawks to lose so overtime would have not been necessary if we didn't play like idiots during power plays. I like that we went to overtime because we still got a point. It's better than losing and not getting any credit even though your goalie and a few players played really well.

The Blackhawks started the game as if they had urgency, but did not continue to play that way throughout the game. Their energy trickled and led to them losing this game. They need to play a full 60 minutes of full on urgent lose you go home hockey. This team can win games if they all pull together and actually play well. I think Toews will get a goal the next game, and I think Kaner continues his awesomeness. Just for fun, I'll predict that Johnny gets an Ovechtrick.

White Sox Season Preview Take 2

I did a season preview way earlier in the year when the pitchers and catchers reported. There was a lot that I didn't know back then about this team. Spring Training doesn't mean much, but it can tell you a lot about how some of the younger players are going to play.

I got a good vibe from spring training this year. The wins and losses don't matter and that's not what I'm talking about. I liked what I saw with Milledge, Morel, and Beckham. With those young guys in our lineup playing at their best we are a good team. Konerko will be solid as always, and the rest of our offense seems like it will be ready to play. Our pitching was great, I'm extremely excited about Johnny Danks and Gavin Floyd. Both pitchers came to our team without experience. Buehrle groomed them and now every year they get better. The pitcher I am most excited about is Chris Sale. When he first started playing last year I knew he was a gamer. I was asking for him to be out there as much as possible, he seemed like one of the few guys who could actually win a game for us. This year he will be better and I look forward to him most likely being a starter next year.

The bad things that I noticed were very few. I remembered a few things. I remembered that Adam Dunn strikes out a lot, and that is an understatement. I also remembered how terrible Teahen is at defense and that is why he didn't get the third base job. Other than those two I can't think of anything that was a bad sign. Buehrle didn't pitch well at the beginning of spring training, but he will be fine in the regular season.

The worst thing this off-season and spring training was the Peavy situation. The worst part was that I thought he would be out for a good chunk of the season, then he made a really rapid recovery and I loved what I saw. Right as he was about to finish his miraculous recovery he started to have tendinitis in his elbow and we are back to square one. Peavy will probably be back around the same time he was expected to with the first injury. White Sox fans shouldn't be worried. He will come back when he is ready and he will be fine.

Okay, now onto the future, where I think the White Sox are going to go this year.
They have gotten some love from some ESPN guys to be a dark horse in the league, and that's the position the White Sox like to be in. They have great pitching, and it will be even better when Peavy comes back. You could argue that this pitching staff is only second to Philly. The White Sox also have added a lot of good things to their offense this year. Our outfielders are going to be better than they were last year, and if one slacks off Ozzie won't hesitate to put Milledge in. Our infield is very young excluding Konerko. Morel, Beckham, and Ramirez are going to need to grow up and play well. Beckham needs to have a bounce-back season, which I think is very possible. I'm not too worried about the offense of the other two. This team is built to win a World Series. I'm not going to drink the kool-aid and say they will win, I'm saying that they are built to win it. If we do everything right and don't have very many injuries the World Series is possible. The twins and Tigers are tough, though and we are going to need to play well in every division game. If they play well against their division, and win the division they have a good chance at going all the way. The way the team is set up with great pitching and a good offensive core, they are built for the playoffs. Stay tuned to this blog for a AL Central preview soon, and for more up to date info follow me (@the_chicago_fan) and my blogs (@tcf_blogs)




I had to post this, since I love all team commercials, like the one goal series and I hope the All in series is just as good.

Shutout, Hawks Win 4-0

This game was the first game of our new forward Marcus Kruger who we called up for this game. He played well, he had his first penalty but overall had a good performance. I think he will do a lot of good things in the future and look forward to seeing him play more with the Blackhawks. This game was a first game for someone else too, this is the first game for Campbell after his ankle injury and he seemed to skate just fine. Sharp was still out today, but the Hawks didn't need him, because they scored pretty well by themselves.

In the second period, it was still tied 0-0 when Toews passed to Keith who passed to Seabrook who rocketed it towards the net and got the first goal of the game. Toews had another assist on the stalberg score in the 3rd Period. Also in the third period Kane scored on a sweet pass by Keith. Both Toews and Kane had multipoint games, this was Toews' 24th and Kane's 18th. Later in the 3rd the three slovs were together and teamed up to score an awesome goal. Frolik and Hossa got the assists and Kopecky got the goal.

The biggest story of the night in my opinion was that Corey Crawford was amazing. I can't even count how many times I tweeted something with #Crawesome in it. He was a beast and ending up holding on to get a shutout, his 5th of the season. He has been in net night after night and is still performing like that, I think we have a winner here with him.
The big problem of the game, at least in the first part of the game, was that there was terrible passing by the Blackhawks. They had plenty of chances that were killed because certain players couldn't pass the puck well. They have to improve on that, but later in the game the passes were the things that shined, so maybe Q mentioned it during intermission.
The three stars of the night were crawford, toews, and the number one star was seabrook because his goal opened up the shooting spree and helped lead the Hawks to victory. All three stars deserved it and they all played extremely well.
Overall the Blackhawks played a good game and played like they needed to win, which they did. Toews was a monster as always, and Kane got another goal. I don't think I could be any happier right now about this game.

HAWKS WIN. 2-1

The Blackhawks had a terrible loss a few days ago, and they knew going to Pheonix that they had to play well or they would not be in the playoffs. They rose up to that challenge and played a really good game. This game could have been a blowout for the hawks, but the coyotes' goalie made a lot of good saves, and most of those good saves were on Toews.
Nick Leddy had his birthday yesterday, and as a present got an assist on the Keith goal in the first period and got blamed for the yotes' goal. Kind of an up and down effect there.
The bad news from this game is that Patrick Sharp got hurt on a delayed penalty call. It is a knee injury and there has not been a comment on when he will be back or how he is doing. I hope he is back soon, he has been a vital part of our team this year and losing him for this final playoff push could be fatal.

The good news from this game is that Chris Campoli got his first Blackhawks goal. That is the goal that broke the tie and ended up winning the game for the hawks. Both goals were great goals and from almost the same spot. Great setups on both, one from Leddy and one from Toews. I was really happy for Campoli when he got the goal and I hope that is only the first of many on this team. He fits in well with the rest of the team.
The final minute of the game was crazy, but the Blackhawks ended up holding on. Hossa was about to put it away into the open net, but the shot was blocked and the yotes still had a chance to put the puck in the net and make the game go to overtime. That was huge, I'm done with the overtime thing. The Blackhawks have played too many overtime games, yes it gives you a point but if you end up winning you just give the other team a point. The Blackhawks played well and the score doesn't really show that but they are back to the form they were in when they went on that 8 game win streak.

I thought I would share this because Keith scored last night. Great song and video. I love all the songs that the score puts out.

The 3rd Base Battle

The White Sox have one big problem with their infield. They don't know who will be the starting third basemen. They have four good candidates for the job. They are Omar Vizquel, Brent Morel, Dayan Viciedo, and Mark Teahen. They all have a good chance, and I don't think one guy is running away with it. This is going to come down to the last few days of spring training. This competition is good and bad for the White Sox. It is good, because it will pick the best third basemen and not the one that had a good season last year and will let Ozzie see who has a good competitive spirit. The bad effect on the White Sox is that a competition doesn't always help to have a good locker room atmosphere. I think this group has a couple of mature players, so that won't be a problem but it's something to worry about. I don't know who is going to win this, but I do know a thing or two about each player.

1. Brent Morel
Brent Morel played a little bit last year, but not enough to say that he would be the starter at the beginning of the year. He has great defense and pretty good offense. He impressed a lot of fans last year when he did get to play and one of those fans was me. I was quick to say that he should be in there as much as possible. He has arguably the best defense among all the contenders and also can swing the bat pretty well. I think that qualifies him to be our third basemen, but the other players are also good. The downside of Morel is that he won't always swing the bat well and usually if you are a good fielder you put your body in danger a little too much and injuries could be a problem. I really like Morel to be the third basemen, but the other guys have pretty good arguments also. The defense is the key, if Ozzie wants defense Morel is the best, but if he wants offense it will all depend on who is hitting well at the time because all of the contenders are hot and cold hitters.

2. Mark Teahen
The first thing I have to say is that I didn't and don't like the trade that we made for Mark Teahen, we gave two of our top young infielders for a player who has done relatively nothing to help the team so far, so I might be a little bias while talking about him. He has terrible fielding. When he did play last year before the injury he committed so many errors it made me want to cry. Every time the ball was hit to third base area I would worry. That is not even an exaggeration of how bad he was at defense last year. I don't know if that was normal or abnormal for him, but if I were Ozzie I would be afraid to put Teahen out there with a young pitcher or any pitcher. Teahen's hitting is nothing to write home about, but its probably one of the top 2 out of this group. Like I said before all of these players are hot and cold hitters, so it will probably come down to defense.

3. Omar Vizquel
I liked the way that Vizquel played last year, but he is very old and I don't think he will be able to play as well this year. I was surprised that he could play as much and as well as he did last year and I don't think he will be able to pull that off again. I do like him to be a guy that will go in for whoever is the starter if they aren't hitting well during the game and can play a couple innings every other day. I just don't think that he will be fit enough and young enough to play game after game for the whole summer. If he is fit enough and he has another year like last year then, yes, play him as much as he can handle. I just don't want to push him too hard so that he just gets terrible. He is a good contender for this roll if he can handle it. He is probably the most consistent hitter of them all and he is consistently good.

4. Dayan Viciedo
Last, but not least is Dayan Viciedo. He recently injured himself, but he is one of the White Sox top prospects. If he isn't on the team this year, or the third base starter this year, he will sometime in the future. He is the White Sox utility man, but he is still fighting for this starting job. He has good fielding and good hitting, but like most of the other players he is a hot and cold hitter. He has a lot of potential and if he taps into that this year I think he can do a lot of damage. If Morel or Teahen don't turn out to be stars, I think this guy will. He is a great player that still needs to mature a little, but if he does he will be a great infielder or outfielder. I personally don't think he will get this job, because he will be wanted to be used as a utility man, so that he can go anywhere off the bench.

I thought I would share an AMAZING White Sox video with you that sort of previews the season, and it gives me the chills at the end. Watch it, its a great video.
SOX PRIDE.

Lastings Milledge

This is not one of the topics that I originally planned on posting about today. I was going to talk about the 3rd Base battle or the Peavy situation, then I got a great suggestion that I should post about Milledge and his effect on the White Sox this year and what his effect will continue to be as the year goes on. I still don't know for sure if he will be on the 25 man roster. Lillibridge is fighting for that final position also and today he hit a big home run. The White Sox lost, but that home run may have saved Lillibridge from being run out of the team. Milledge was showing Brent up in every way the whole spring. The race for that final spot was about to be declared over and then today he hit a home run. I'm not saying that that one home run he hit is going to get him on the roster, it will help him get momentum and maybe match up what Milledge has done this whole spring so far. For the purposes of what I say in the rest of this post, Milledge wins this race.
Lastings Millidge has been a relatively known name in the MLB so far in his career, but he hasn't had a good year in a long time. He will not be a White Sox starter on opening day, but as the season goes on he might. I think he will start as their 5th outfielder, but if he continues to dominate when he gets into the game he will move up to the 4th outfielder. By the end of the year I think he can be a starter for the White Sox. I think Juan Pierre might have a bad season, and if he starts to play bad I don't think Ozzie will hesitate to put Milledge in the game as a starter.
This spring he has a .267 average with 2 home runs and 8 hits. That's not a great showing of what he can do, but he has shown if you actually watch the games that he is a great outfielder and can be a very good hitter. He is only 25 years old and has a lot of good years to come and I hope those years are with the White Sox. By the end of the spring I expect him to have around 20 hits 5 or 6 home runs and a good average. That is a pretty good spring showing and will prove to be enough to put him on the roster.
I think that once he is on the roster he won't look back. He will go from the last guy on the roster to being a big part of our team. I have a feeling about this player and our outfielders could use a little pressure to play well enough so that they are not replaced. I think that will be the biggest effect he has the White Sox this year. He might not get to play a lot of time, but the fact that he is always there waiting for one of the outfielders to make a mistake will put pressure on the outfielders to play much better than they did last year and to not make any mistakes. Even by just sitting on the bench he will help our team. That right there is a player.

The Power of the Hamburger, Bulls Win 98-79

Last night the Bulls played the Wizards. By winning they gained sole possession of first place in the eastern conference, and added to their winning streak making the streak 7 games in a row. They will play the Nets on Thursday to try to extend that streak to 8 games. Through the whole streak Derrick Rose has been the MVP that he has been all year. I hope the Bulls can continue to win like this to finish out the rest of the season.

The Bulls have won most of the games during the streak without Boozer and last night they didn't have Noah either. Those two players have had troubles this season staying healthy, but it will be good to have Noah back on Thursday. I don't know when Boozer will be back, but this injury is not his fault. He got almost killed by Kwame Brown. Boozer did shoot a little today, but I doubt he will be back that soon. I hope Boozer will be back soon, because when the Bulls have Noah, Boozer, Deng and Rose on the court to start the game they win a lot more games than when they don't. I also hope that Boozer and Noah will be on the court throughout the whole playoff run, when it comes that time.
Another big part of the game that probably shouldn't have been a big part of the game was that fans were a little upset with Brian Scalabrine for not attempting a three as time expired so that they could get a hamburger. I don't think this had a huge impact, but I did think it was kind of funny that some fans are fat enough that they would get mad at a player because he didn't try to help them get a free hamburger. Another point, who says that Scal would've hit the shot? I seriously doubt that Brian Scalabrine would have hit a three.
To recap the game, I don't really have much to say. I couldn't watch the game because it wasn't on my TV, but from what I saw on twitter they were sloppy. That is not the kind of play that will help us in the playoffs. My favorite thing that happened last night was that the Bulls won big, they took first place in the east and yet after the game coach Thibodeau was mad at the team. That is why I love having him as our coach, he pushes them hard and never stops asking for more. Some people say he pushes them too hard and they may not like it, but from what I have heard so far he is well liked by the players and he is doing a great job coaching them. In my opinion he deserves to get the Coach of the Year award. Getting to the NBA Finals, or even the conference finals would help him get that even more. That was the best pickup we had this offseason, even over the Boozer pick up.
I hope the Bulls continue to get better as the year finishes out and I hope they go far in the playoffs. Derrick Rose will win the MVP, I don't think any other player can put up an argument, because no other player has played as well as Rose the whole year. There might be some players that are starting to play well recently, but Rose has been the best player the whole season.


I felt the need to share that picture, because when I first saw it I almost peed my pants.