Oh, Those Anomalies

Bears’ president—and how exactly do you get that job?—Ted Phillips drank the Kool-Aid at the team’s New Year’s Eve press conference, saying, “[Chiefs’ starting quarterback] Patrick Mahomes is an anomaly.  I mean, nobody expected that kind of performance, right?”  The mind boggles.

What Phillips terms an “anomaly” other sports’ executives know as “talent”; the trick is to find players who’ve got it.  The White Sox drafted starter Mark Buehrle in the 38^th round of the 1998 draft, and Buehrle made his big-league debut two years later.  I guess Phillips would call Buehrle an anomaly.  I wonder what then-Sox scouting director Duane Shaffer calls finding a pitcher who went on to throw two no-hitters (one of them a perfect game) on his way to amassing 214 career wins?  Doing my job, maybe.

Or consider that the Astros signed a 16-year old Jose Altuve off a tryout camp.  In baseball, at least, you go where the talent is.  With the Bears, they can’t even identify first-round talent ready for the picking.  Bear down, fans.  Right?