Now What?

The White Sox lucked out yesterday by winning the first pick in the 2026 draft. Depending how he does his junior year, UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is the consensus top talent in the draft. Do the Sox pick him? Right now, they have a promising shortstop in Colson Montgomery, and their first-round pick in this year’s draft was shortstop Billy Carlson, who wowed more than a few observers with his defensive abilities. Plus, in the same draft they picked shortstop Kyle Lodise, now ranked as the ninth-best prospect in the system (Carlson is third) while Caleb Bonemer, a shortstop/third baseman, is ranked right after Carlson. Who’s going to play where? Only time and talent will tell. It’s a safe bet, though, that third base and centerfield on the South Side will go to a couple of ex-shortstops before long.

DOAT

Hats off to sportswriter Grant Brisbee who wrote what I believe is the dumbest column I’ve ever read in my life. The piece, “Jeff Kent is a deserving Hall of Famer, and so is Barry Bonds,” ran in The Athletic, 12-8-25. Brisbee made one obvious if not-too-dumb observation, that Kent’s offensive numbers benefitted from having Bonds in the same lineup. After which, Brisbee races to the dumbest of the dumb, wanting to know “did you see what Bonds was doing at the same time? It was alien. Absolutely alien. The sport will never, ever see anything like it again.” Why do you think that is, Grant? Because Barry Bonds was using PEDs bigtime, that’s why. What makes Brisbee’s argument pathetic as well as dumb is he doesn’t even employ the “it wasn’t banned at the time” defense that Ken Rosenthal and others trot out. (If it wasn’t banned, then why didn’t PEDs’ users admit to using at the time? Because they wanted to minimize the number of cheaters so everybody wouldn’t have inflated stats, that’s why). No, Brisbee goes full ostrich and doesn’t mention PEDs or steroids once. Instead of letting juicers into Cooperstown, I have a better idea—kick out Bud Selig, the commissioner who turned a blind eye to PEDs.

Tick-tock

You could point out Calbe Williams’ inability to put together a strong performance over the course of four quarters or a secondary that trotted while Green Bay receivers zoomed, and that would help explain the Bears 28-21 loss to the Packers yesterday in Cheese Land. Or you could read all the epistles that have been and will be written about the game, and you won’t read the criticism that follows here—head coach Ben Johnson mismanaged the clock at the end of the game with his team down by seven. The Bears had a first down at the Green Bay 47 with 3:26 left to play in regulation; they managed all of two plays between then and the two-minute warning. My guess is that Johnson was being too smart by half, wanting to score and deny the Packers any time to answer. But they had the ball at the Packers’ 17 coming out of the warning. Then it was three straight runs, bringing up fourth-and-one at the 14 with 27 seconds left on the clock. Only then did Johnson use the first of his three timeouts. Why not a pass or two before? Say they score with a minute left. OK, challenge your defense to hold. Why not use a timeout or two rather than run down the clock and face a fourth down with just 27 seconds to go? Williams ended up throwing an interception in the end zone. I can’t help but think the result would’ve been different had Johnson not been so clock-focused. The Packers visit Soldier Field in twelve days. Let’s see what, if anything, Johnson has learned by then.

Great Expectations, Not

The baseball winter meetings heat up tomorrow in Orlando. If the White Sox sign any free agents, it’s likely to be another Anthony Kay, a first-round bust for the Mets back in 2016 who went 17-15 with a 2.49 ERA over the last two seasons in Japan. Kay signed a two-year, $12 million deal. I’m guessing he gets flipped before the end of that contract. What I expect, hope, to happen is a degree of resolution on the roster—come spring training, will it include, Luis Robert Jr., Lenyn Sosa, Miguel Vargas? And what will happen to rookie catcher Edgar Quero? Does he stay, or does he go? Some combination of the above could bring a nice haul in return. Or maybe GM Chris Getz will borrow a page from his predecessor. Rick Hahn loved working under the radar, announcing a deal or signing out of the blue. Good thing there isn’t another Yasmani Grandal out there. I don’t need a sequel.

Look Out Below

This is how bad the Bulls are right now. The four-win Pacers beat them last Saturday, then lost their next two games, which brought them to the United Center last night. End of losing streak, 120-105. Meanwhile, the Bulls have lost six in a row. If Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis are the future, they can’t cough up the ball like they did, five turnovers for Giddey, four for Buzelis. Giddey got himself a nice $100 million contract extension in the offseason. Let’s just say nine points on the night don’t erase those turnovers or justify that contract. Yes, the Bulls are injured all of a sudden—Ayo Dosunmu, Kevin Hherter, Tre Jones, Issac Okoro, Jalen Smith, plus Coby White’s calf is keeping him on restricted minutes. Maybe everyone comes back, and they dig themselves out of their hole. That still doesn’t explain the play of Giddey and Buzelis. Go, Bears.

Your Bias is Showing

I just finished looking at The Athletic. Talk about bias. Anyplace that doesn’t touch on the Atlantic Ocean—or the Pacific, provided it’s Los Angeles—doesn’t count, at least when it comes to baseball. Must be hard to make a case for the Giants and the Jets. Unlike baseball. Start with Jim Bowden’s winter-meetings’ wish list, which could’ve been written by the Mets’, Red Sox and Yankees’ front offices. In addition, Bowden takes on HOF balloting. If it were up to him, he’d have the Contemporary Era HOF Committee elect Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Gary Sheffield, likely steroids’ use be damned. The ex-GM of the Reds and Nationals also wouldn’t mind Don Mattingly’s selection. Hey, “It wasn’t his fault he had injuries, but that’s why he hasn’t gotten in.” [quote from story in today’s The Athletic] As ever, there’s more. Ken Rosenthal, to be specific. He of the bow tie thinks, “As Baseball Hall of Fame standards change, voters must recalibrate with them.” Pitchers don’t win 300 games anymore, injuries keep players from accumulating stats that were once used to guide Cooperstown enshrinement. Like Bowden, Rosenthal thinks the effect of injuries on careers has to be weighed, even at risk of going down the “slippery slope.” He also wants consideration given to character. Contemporary Era HOF candidates “Mattingly and [Dale] Murphy were considered shining representatives of the sport, as were [Carlos] Delgado and [Fernando] Valenzuela.” If “bad guys” like Bonds and Clemens—both of whom Rosenthal voted for—are to be kept out, then “good guys” should get a boost on character grounds. [quote from story, 12-4-2025] This is what I want to know: Will the standards that a HOF voter like Rosenthal employs to make his decisions ever evolve to include the likes of ex-White Sox stars Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle? I mean, no injuries for either and never a hint of scandal. In fact, in 2014 Konerko and Jimmy Rollins shared the Roberto Clemente Award for outstanding character. One of my daughter’s favorite players also collected 1412 RBIs on 439 homeruns and 2340 hits. Keep in mind Rosenthal is ready to grant HOF entry to Giants’ catcher Buster Posey, with just 1500 career hits and 729 RBIs to his name. I can’t wait to see what A.J. Pierzynski, with over 500 more hits and 180 more RBIs, will have to say about that. As for Buehrle, those 214 wins, including two no-hitters (one a perfect game), didn’t happen for an East Coast or Dodgers’ team. Which means, in the world of The Athletic, they count for nothing at all.

Crash and Burn

With their 113-103 drubbing at the hands of the now five-win Nets last night, the Bulls have lost five in a row—to the dregs of the NBA, no less, to which their name will soon be added—and eight out of their last twelve after getting off to a 5-0 start. Oh, my. There’s nothing to see here, unless your tastes run to six turnovers from Nikola Vucevic or having your shot blocked eight times by the opposition while returning the favor just once. Yes, these Bulls have a lot of injuries right now, but nobody given a chance to start or log significant minutes is seizing the chance to make a statement. I mean a positive statement. On top of everything, first-round draft pick Noa Essengue is out for the season with a shoulder injury. Bad luck? Maybe, but what do you expect to happen when an 18-year old generously listed at 200 pounds is plucked out of European club-play and deposited in the NBA G League? Gosh, you don’t think a lot of guys frustrated over their exile from the NBA took out on the kid, do you? This is all another feather in the cap of Arturas Karnisovas, the NBA exec who apparently can’t be fired.