Harry Chappas

For the playoffs it is two Lincoln Ways (west and central), Rita, Carmel of Mundelein (amazing QB), Downers North (great QB), Glenbard West and can't sleep on Batavia. There may be others but that's off the top of my head. In 8A LWE lost this past Friday which is crazy because their QB (one of best ever in IL) was out but they still should have won sets up a semifinal of Mount Carmel and LWE.

I see no path to Bears victory next week and that is ok Sounded like the Saints took away the pass and the Bears decided to just run

The year Brady was hurt appeared to debunk that but I think that may have a been a fluke as Brady succeeded with him and he has failed miserably outside of that one year.

Will depend on if Skubal can pitch three times. The NL division series myriad of off seems to warranted the cubs going Boyd game 1 but Tallion twice in the series would have been a better call..

I think the way the White Sox handled the Vaughn role is the epitome (one of many) of their failing as an organization. The bat was so special he had to be put in LF and RF. reality was he had to play LF and RF because the farm system was so bad they had no other options and they are cheap. He was the poster boy for a change of scenery. I don't think he will be anything more than a tad above average but I think he is ideal for the Milwaukee situation and will be put in a position to succeed. Exactly what the White Sox are not. The handling of the cubs pitching staff this series has been awful. This goes back to the Padres series.

LWE and MC in 8A final (should MC beat LA) will be a game to watch even if you do not like high school but appreciate football. Not sure I recall two more dominate teams.

Will be a great game 11 D1 offers from MC 7 for BR. BR is #4 in state and MC #1 BR is on Marquee in week 9 so buy it for a month. Decent games on it every Friday in October.

About spending money, contending or both?

The 3 pitching matchups are very meh for elimination games. Odd thing in cub game was Rea was warming up in the 4th, Soroka the 5th and Rea came in later in game. Just odd usage from Counsel. I dislike the wild card teams getting Monday and Friday (Dodgers Thursday) off. it is more of an advantage to the WC winners to have played while other teams are sitting at home. The starting pitchers on Tuesday can pitch Sunday and the NL is off Sunday so the WC winners in NL will get 2 of next 3 days off. I understand the option of losing is there. Just add two more teams to the playoffs in that case. I do not think the bye helps as much as it does in other sports.

Cubs going with an opener than assuming Imaga. Cease will be at 60 pitches through 2.

I'd have loved to have been able to care about games the last four years. Sucks to piss down your leg like the Sox and now Reds are doing but the one Houston game in 2021 was pretty cool.

I know I have belabored this point but the padres playoff runs just looks so empty. I'd love to have it but they are just meh come the playoffs.

cub bullpen 4 2/3 perfect innings

Sets up nicely for cubs to over achieve against two teams that can't seem to figure out how to win in the playoffs.

It's pretty amazing that with all the talent they get they end up short so often. I understand why the Brewers are always bounced from the playoffs but the Padres seem to be a player or two short.

You will find out Friday, then three weeks to get healthy.

My assumption is that Getz and Venable were given limited control to begin with and you are seeing now that they are cutting bait as the contracts expire. Both knew there was nothing positive happening in the short term so Thames and Katz were run out and now we look anew. Oddly players being called up seemed prepared for the majors and there was growth of younger players so the firings seems odd compared to prior years of young player results. Katz bullpen work seemed sketchy at best over the yeas but I was never certain if it was he or the talent.

I understand fully that there was no realistic chance they would but if they were running the model on pure statistics the White Sox always had a minuscule chance until mathematical elimination took hold, probably under 1% after May 15th but not completely 0. Maybe their model had the Indians at less than .5% thus rounded to zero. Sox could mathematically not be that low from day 1....well I guess maybe they could. I'm killing too many brain cells on this.

He'd be fun to watch in tank years....maybe tank years are behind us......maybe......hopefully Smith showing is great to see, I get they need bats but that arm can't be beat.

Is Nishida someone that should get a look or is he just a neat player for minors baseball?

Yes which is why their data is flawed. They are taking liberties with the data

He is a catcher. There is zero doubt he is the MVP. Will he win it????? Maybe. If the other option was not a Yankee and specifically Judge there would be no question. I am not certain how many games he has actually caught but if it was over 50% of them than he has put up one of the greatest season in baseball history in my mind.

I am not a BR guy, more of a CCL guy but all of them do the Saturday morning walk through. I think it is a recovery thing, give the bulk of Saturday off and minimize the post game nonsense that was big when Greg and I were in southside catholic schools. Go to channel 32 Friday night lights interview. BR coach was on. The interview was really good. He seems like a good guy, very well spoken. I looked at BR schedule. Starters will get a reduced workload in 4 of last 5 weeks based opponent. At some point they need to make certain they can play a whole 48 minutes so that made sense. I am not certain how much they played in first 3 weeks but thinking it wasn't a full 48. MC v BR will have18 D1 players on the field.

Watching that game was a joy after watching years of guys picking apart the Bears zone defense. The criticism of Williams is pure nonsense. They need to run the ball as that defense needs to be off of the field as it is awful. I loved Brady's analysis of Dak constantly checking down whenever Dennis Allen simply showed blitz. He is an elite DC but the talent is pretty sketchy on that side of the ball. The defense needs to rely on turnovers again and Dallas complied. Not sure that's going to go well. Drafting Loveland continues to be idiotic but I suppose they did not think they'd get Burden. O line was great yesterday let's hope it continues to jell.

Go look at the remaining schedules. I'd love to see Cleveland bump Boston then Detroit and then have Detroit face NY in the wildcard.