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I like how the other two series gets the night off while the two series from last night go back at it tomorrow night. The Pacer-Knicks series will basically play 1 game in a 6 day span. If any team needs a break, it would be the Bulls, but the league is just not cutting us any slack.

I would like to see the professional scouts start to taking a serious look at Micah Johnson soon. We know he's pretty fast, but not this fast. It would be good to know if he is doing this with the right techniques or just taking advantage of inexperienced pitchers down in low A.

If we somehow win this series, even if we don't win the championship, this is the narrative for one of the best sports movies ever. We have a matchup of two teams that share one philosophy, defense. But that's about where the similarities end. We have on one hand the scariest and the most talented team in the past 15 years, who is absolutely steamrolling into the playoffs, led by the best player, yet one of the most polarizing players of this generation. On the other hand, we have a team who is the severe underdog, missing its superstar who mysterious gave up on the season, playing third string players after their starters were forced out of action, led by a center who is playing on one leg, who plays his heart out every possession. Together they believe that with tough defense, heart, and hustle, they can somehow slay the giant they are going up against, even if no one else gave them a chance. In a sport that is historically dominated by teams with the most superstars, this is the intangible oriented version of Money Ball. Build a team with character, heart, hustle and plays though defense, they will keep fighting till they are the last one standing. Gentlemen, that is your 2012-2013 Chicago Bulls. Those images of players puking during timeout, bleeding mouths, players lying on the floor, players struggling to stand up after giving all they got for 60 minutes define who this team is. We believe.

Chicago Bulls. We Believe.

Rose coming back at this point is sort of anticlimactic. He has became a villain in most Bulls fans' eyes, at least for the time being. With him coming back now against what he's preaching all along, the fans actually get what they wish for. All the bashing and the hate comments will stop and people will treat him like the golden boy again. I just can't picture the scenario.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 5, 2013 -> 06:56 PM) I really hope that Nate and Marco don't price themselves out of the Bulls range. If comes between them, take Nate, but still I like this... PG: Rose/Hinrich/Teague SG: Butler/Nate SF: Deng/Bellinelli/Draft Pick PF: Boozer/Taj/Thomas C : Noah/Nazr/Draft Pick Having both back is really asking for a lot. And with the way Thibs rides his starters, I doubt they will have much of a role coming off the bench. You are basically giving three pseudo starters this year - Nate, Kirk and Maro, 10-15 minutes a game barring any injuries. I doubt they are satisfy with that role. And Teague figures to play a bigger role next year, given the logical progression.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 4, 2013 -> 10:10 PM) Reggie and Derrick both talked about possible Round 2 return. Far from it. Rose just hasn't rule out a return, as usual. According to him, things remain the same.

Come on fellas, our plan is executing to perfection. Derrick is going to announce his unexpected return 2 hours before game 1 against the Heat fully healthy, and better than ever. This totally catches the Heat off guard, and leads to a series win and a trip to the finals. After all, this IS the only way anyone can stop the Heat.

One of the less underrated aspect of Jimmy Butler's game is he is a smart basketball player. He rarely makes mistakes on offense and defense. He is doing a fine job of slowing down D Will on defense right now and taking it strong to the hole on offense and making all the right passes. If he keeps on working that jump shot in the off season, he will be the best 2 guard option we can possibly have

Or the White Sox fans vote for the Cardinals to piss the Cubs off, because apparently Sox won the contest. I think it's got to be rigged to a degree. Or the fans mistakenly voted for the W Sox instead of the R Sox in the second round. Our team almost never wins any popularity contests.

I was lucky enough to be at the game, and from our angle, Nate's shots were of very high difficulty which some of them were "are you fking kidding me" shots, especially those bang shots late in OT. I think he hit like 10 shots in a row or something, he was locked in, late in the game when he had the ball, the whole stadium knew he was going to score. Reffing was BS in this game. Was there some contact? Yes, in some plays. We are in the f***ing playoffs for sake, let them play through minor contacts. At least from what I saw, we didn't get the same treatments as the Nets did. Even some of the calls we got were make up calls for the horrible calls from before. I love at the end of the game when we knew we had this one, the whole crowd was chanting "Ref you suck!", and rightfully so.

Does anyone know what's going on? lol

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 08:53 AM) I can't believe no one pointed out that, according to ESPN on last night's telecast, Derrick Rose said he's 100% physically, but not mentally. It's going to be really hard to care about this b**** again. Interesting. Who brought that up? I am surprised he would tell anyone that. I wouldn't be surprised if that's just ESPN trying to add fuel to the fire.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Apr 20, 2013 -> 10:40 PM) He made the Major Leagues, which is far more than most minor leaguers will ever say. There's no problem with letting him earn a living as MiLB roster filler. Whether he was deserving of that opportunity was questionable. His cup of tea performance is worse than using hitters as pitchers and throwing straight fastballs in extra inning situations. Over the past three years, he's struggled to post a sub 6.00 ERA in Double or Triple A. Like I said, his spot is better used on other minor league free agents out there who is worth a flyer. This guy is 30 years old and we've seen everything out of him. He is not cutting it as a pitcher.

What the hell is Wes Whisler still doing in the system? I would rather give his spot to a local walk on or tryout than to have him pitch again. That guy has no business being a pitcher. Jaye is doing pretty good so far. Looks like BP was right on picking him as a top 10 prospect.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 19, 2013 -> 01:59 PM) No gap power? He had 25 doubles and 7 triples last year in 500-ish AB's. That's not huge numbers, but it is not "no gap power" either. Jon Gilmore? He washed out at lower levels and much higher age, and played 3B. Ravelo is more similar in some ways, but is still at a much lower level, and was a 3B who is now a 1B. Not great examples, and Ravelo is still a question mark. Sanchez may or may not find that power. We'll see. 25 Doubles and 7 Triples in 500+ ABs, put that in perspective, that is .080 ISO+, which is the highest of his career. Again put that in perspective as well, Keenyn Walker, notorious singles hitter, posted at .110 ISO+ last year. While you can bash about Gilmore, once upon a time, we were praying for his power to arrived, he did put up .100 ISO+ at age 20, but never found his power. Not to mention some of Sanchez XBHs can be attributed to speed as well. Like I said, we've been down this road before with contact hitters, I don't have faith in him even becoming a doubles machine. Take it from BP, they rated his power 20/20 at the end of last year.

Ok I will admit I might be a bit harsh on his defense, I saw him as a average defender right now with potential to be above average. But you can't overlook his lack of power, and even BP rated his power at 20/20. Also from BP, while he has good raw speed, he doesn't have the instinct to be an effective base stealer. They see him as a fringe regular at 2B and a very nice utility guy. All these these fit right in with my initial post about Sanchez. Some of you can sit here and wish that he suddenly discovers more power, but it's highly unlikely at this point, as he hasn't even demonstrate any gap power at age 20/21. We've been down this road with young, good contact hitters before, Jon Gilmore, and right now Rangel Ravelo. It's highly unlikely.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 19, 2013 -> 08:50 AM) I agree with a lot of what you said, but... for one thing, Tyler Kuhn? Not really a great comp either. Different hitting tools and styles, and Kuhn was always considered below average (but acceptable) at all those positions. He was specifically known as a bat, and really just a bat. There was even a joke among Sox front office folks, labeling players with a good bat and no position as "he's Tyler Kuhn". Also, the reason they are moving him between 2nd and SS seems pretty clear to me - they want him to be ready for both in the majors. There is a good chance that one of Alexei or Gordon are elsewhere after this season (or maybe Sanchez), so they want Sanchez to be ready for either. Hence I said he can fill multiple positions, but not spectacular in a particular one. The sox saw him as a utility guy at the majors more than anything. I don't recall his defense being terrible at any positions. I am not comparing Sanchez to Kuhn outside of the fact that the Sox don't have a definite position for them. But I do say that the Sox want Sanchez to be able to play multiple positions, and where he ultimately ends up is determine by our need versus if he's better at SS or 2B

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 19, 2013 -> 12:51 AM) The reason I brought up Gillaspie is because there's no set answer for 3B, and nobody in the minors in waiting...Alexei's getting older, and Beckham's a huge question mark. (And this is another reason our players tend to get moved all over the field, because the needs of the major league team keep changing...if you look at the examples of position changes for Viciedo and Beckham, for example). In my opinion, Sanchez only makes sense as a middle infielder, period. It's hard to say really what we have in him, because it's a lot like the Hector Santiago situation, where he just arrived on the scene and "got it" after years laboring in the lower minors. (For that matter, it took Jose Quintana 6 years to get out of A ball, the he essentially jumpe over both AA/AAA in one month). So to judge his past performance as a cumulative whole rather than looking more specifically at last season is a mistake, IMO. The whole idea of playing at one position is overrated...without power hitting tools or PED's, all players need to have more versatility than ever before. Ideally, a born SS with a rocket of an arm stays at that position all the way up through the minors, but we haven't had one of those in ages that we've incubated in our minor league system and brought up to the big leagues after developing them ourselves. And then when he has that kind of season at age 19, it's even more noteworthy...keeping in mind the advanced competition and ages of the players he's competing against. And I sometimes also wish you would make more relevant comparisons. Last time you compared Richar Shelby and Harris to Micah Johnson, now you are comparing Santiago and Quintana's situation to Sanchez? Really? Let's have sanity check here, we all know Santiago became a whole new pitcher after he learned the screwball, and pitcher developments are not the same as hitter developments. And why are you even trying to construe a misleading analyze for Quintana's minor league track? First of all he did not spend 6 years in A ball or below. He only pitched 5 innings as a 17 year old and was suspended his entire age 18. So if you want to count it, that's 3 years in Rk - A+, which is totally typical for a pitcher. He's also been consistently good those 3 years, but scouts didn't view him as a big time prospect because he lacked the "stuff", which he still doesn't have, but he pitches with the poise of a veteran, which is giving him the edge so far. Again, totally irrelevant to a batter's development. Also, why are you comparing Viceido and Gordon's position switch to Sanchez's? For the record, Sanchez never officially switched positions, he keeps bouncing around between SS and 2B, while Viceido and Gordon's switch were long term changes. His situation is more like the Tyler Kuhn situation, where he can fill multiple positions, but not spectacular at a specific one. If the organization doesn't even have a defined position for him, I wouldn't trust your "sources" and label as a plus defender just yet. It's very simple, if the organization feels he's a plus defender, he will be playing one position full time. If he's blocked by someone at his current position or another position opens up, then they will have him permanently switch over to the other position. That was how the Viceido/Beckham situations were handled. Really, none of the comparisons you offered really applies to Carlos Sanchez.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 18, 2013 -> 09:22 PM) There are lots of conflicting reports about his defense. Some describe him as a "plus" defender or having the ability to be elite. If he can play that type of defense at SS, then he has a chance to be a regular, or 2B (assuming they will replace Beckham, which isn't a sure thing quite yet). He doesn't hit for enough power to play 3B. As far as Gillaspie's power goes, we'll have a better idea two months from now, especially when the weather starts to heat up in Chicago. He has three big assets going in his favor right now. His walk/contact rate, his speed (maybe a 20-25 SB guy at the major league level) and his age. Sometimes I wish your posts stays on one point. Who's talking about Gillespie's power? Not to be a downer, his contact tool is not plus plus, maybe a plus, if that. He's only put up one .300 season so far. He has some speed, but he's been caught stolen far too many times to be an effective base stealer, see Alexei. I am not sure if it's a result of his technique or lack of top speed, I am hoping it's the former. Last thing, I wouldn't buy the scouting reports of him having a great glove, the organization wouldn't have him split between positions every season and slow down his development if he's elite at one position.

Guess I was reading out of context

That's gotta be the worse k% I've ever seen. Between Mitchell, Walker, Thompson and Hawkins, I think our system is jinxed. Keep in mind Tyler Flowers also went through the same crap a few years ago, where he started striking out a bunch and lost the ability to make any contact at all. As far as Sanchez, I don't see him being a regular at the majors. There is no indicators of power at all. He's never shown any gap power with doubles or triples in his minor league career. A no power, average defense player isn't going to be an everyday starter. The most likely projection for him is a slightly better contact version of Chris Getz.

QUOTE (Jake @ Apr 18, 2013 -> 04:07 PM) I will insist to myself that anyone can win the NBA title simply by getting in and getting hot, like other sports. Couldn't disagree more. In baseball or football, you've seen wild card teams get hot and win it all. But basketball is the most superstar driven sport of them all. No team in recent memory won it all with a superstar except for the 04 Pistons. And I couldn't remember the last time a team outside of the top 3 seed has won the championship. I also don't think anyone has ever won the title without home court advantage beginning the first round.

It's sickening how the refs keep baby sitting these turds, there is no way that is a clear path foul or least anything that deserves a review.

I vaguely remember having this same race/comparison debate last season lol. Semien and DeMichele are worth following, in our system. We just don't have a lot going for us even this year in our farm. Another guy I am looking at is Jason Coats down in Kanny, he would have went in early rounds had not for the injuries. If he starts to put up big numbers down in Kanny, it's something we can really get excited for.