Bears Training Camp Is Finally Here

Good morning Chicago fans! I hope you found time to rest this week like the majority of the Cubs and White Sox. Both teams had a single All-Star this season, and I don’t think anyone was snubbed. On the bright side, Shōta Imanaga had the opportunity to reunite with a decent baseball player who chose LA over Chicago.

⭐ ALL-STAR BREAK ⭐

Shōta Imanaga was the lone Cub at the All-Star Game.

Imanaga threw a 1-2-3 4th inning in the game, including a nasty strikeout of Adley Rutschman. Check out his 3 outs:

He was an excellent representative for the Cubs at the All-Star festivities and provided great entertainment for baseball fans with his camaraderie and humor.

Imanaga switched his walk-out song for his appearance from Chelsea Dagger to Be Like Mike. He somehow paid tribute to Michael Jordan 🐐 AND referenced his own coffee shop name with a single song choice 😂

RESULTS

L - Diamondbacks 5, Cubs 2: Not the second half start we hoped for.

• Justin Steele (4.2 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 6 K) had his first hiccup in a long time

• Cubs hitters struck out 13 times, hit 2-for-8 with RISP, and only scored 1 run after loading the bases with no outs in the 8th inning

• The home plate umpire missed a ton of ball/strike calls in key moments that killed a couple Cubs rallies

L - Diamondbacks 3, Cubs 0: The offense must still be on break.

• Ace Zac Gallen (5 IP) and the Diamondbacks bullpen shutout the Cubs and held them to only 4 hits

• The Cubs drew 6 walks against Gallen and couldn’t score. Their RISP woes continued with an 0-for-7 performance.

W - Cubs 2, Diamondbacks 1 (F/10): Big comeback win to avoid the sweep with Jon Lester in the TV booth!

• Nico Hoerner was the hero as he scored the game-tying run on a Seiya Suzuki single in the 9th inning and drew the walk-off walk in the 10th

• Shōta Imanaga set a career high with 10 strikeouts in 7 innings of 1-run baseball and took a no-hitter into the 6th inning

• The Cubs had no business winning this game after collecting ONE hit in the first 8 innings - they ended the game with 4

WEEK RECORD: 1-2

SEASON RECORD: 48-53 (4th place, 10 GB)

⭐ STAR OF THE WEEK ⭐

Shōta Imanaga

The All-Star has to be the star, right?

After his dominant start, he improved his season stats to:

8-2, 2.86 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 9.3 K/9

🎥 PLAY OF THE WEEK 🎥

Seiya Suzuki Game-Tying Single

ROSTER MOVES

Tuesday: Traded cash to the Kansas City Royals for RHP Jesus Tinoco, optioned Daniel Palencia to AAA

Friday: Activated Mike Tauchman from the 10-day IL, selected the contract of Jesus Tinoco from AAA, optioned Alexander Canario to AAA

Saturday: Placed Hayden Wesneski on the 15-day IL with a right forearm strain, recalled Hunter Bigge from AAA

NEWS & NOTES

The MLB Draft concluded, and the Cubs ended up with 11 position players and 9 pitchers. See their full draft class here.

Seiya Suzuki’s interpreter Toy Matsushita was dismissed by the Cubs

• The team wanted to improve the line of communication between the front office, coaching staff, and Seiya, and thought a change was necessary

• Current Cubs employee Nao Masamoto and Imanaga’s interpreter Edwin Stanberry will help fill the role

• Hopefully this was a mutual decision and Seiya was involved in the process

• …is this the plot for Toy Story 5: The Rise of Edwin?

Cubs bullpen vs. Diamondbacks = 0 runs allowed

Luke Little was diagnosed with a left lat strain and will most likely miss the remainder of the season

Craig Counsell was agitated and called it a “bad take” when reporter Jesse Rogers asked about their hitters’ approaches and Christopher Morel looking like he was “swinging for the lake”

Opening Day 2025 will be Cubs vs. Dodgers in Tokyo on March 18-19! You HAVE to watch this promo video featuring Seiya and Shōta:

Cubs vs. Orioles: 21 runs, 38 hits

Cubs vs. Diamondbacks: 4 runs, 16 hits

TROPHY TRACKER (6/10 ➡ 🏆)

NEWS & NOTES

Training camp started!!! Here’s what we learned:

• The defense is outplaying the offense

• The offense had good moments but struggled in two-minute drills

• Ryan Bates and Coleman Shelton are rotating with the 1st team at center

• Gervon Dexter is in great shape and participated in conditioning drills with the defensive ends

• Caleb Williams and Keenan Allen spent a lot of time together at the hotel during minicamp learning the playbook

• Caleb Williams made a “huge jump” from OTAs to now

• Keenan Allen believes Rome Odunze is better than he was as a rookie

Here’s a diving interception from Tyrique Stevenson at training camp!

✍ Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze both signed their rookie contracts. Some fans were concerned about how long it took them…it was a non-issue. Both rookies wanted to be at training camp and keep building with the team.

Former Bear Eddie Jackson signed a 1-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens

TROPHY TRACKER (6/10 ➡ 🏆)

NEWS & NOTES

No news this week after a crazy draft and free agency period!

🤔 I’m curious how many prospects need to “make it” to successfully pull off a rebuild. How many of the 12 forwards and 6 defensemen need to come from your own system as opposed to the outside?

The Blackhawks hopefully have ALL 6 defensemen already in the organization with some mix of: Seth Jones, Alex Vlasic, Artyom Levshunov, Kevin Korchinski, Wyatt Kaiser, Sam Rinzel, Ethan Del Mastro, and others

They also have a ton of forward prospects: Bedard/Nazar/Moore/Boisvert/Reichel/Vanacker/Ludwinski/Greene/Hayes/Lardis/Kantserov/Dach

My initial guess is 50% of your roster spots being homegrown would be successful, and you can fill in gaps with other resources. I think the system’s in a good spot for the future! I’m excited to see who develops into major contributors at the professional level.

TROPHY TRACKER (2/10 ➡ 🏆)

NEWS & NOTES

Summer League concluded! The Bulls finished 2-3 and did not participate in the playoffs.

Matas Buzelis starred with 16.4 points per game. Conclusions about any player should not be made from Summer League action, but I do know this: some rookies show up and are clearly not basketball players. Buzelis looks like a basketball player.

Julian Phillips, Adama Sanogo, and DJ Steward also played very well in the 5 games

Bonus Play of the Week: Matas Buzelis impossible dunk

Signed another hometown kid, guard DJ Steward, to a two-way contract after he scored 19.3 points/game in Summer League

Josh Giddey is putting up near-triple double numbers for Australia in the pre-Olympics games 👀

Former GM (1969-1973) Pat Williams passed away at the age of 84

TROPHY TRACKER (1/10 ➡ 🏆)

Montez Sweat

Montez Sweat has a powerful story and has dealt with loss more than the average person will in a lifetime.

Dan Pompei wrote an amazing article on Sweat’s family history and his path to the NFL. It is impressive to see how he endured hardship and matured into a high-character leader.

Even after making it to the NFL, he was a single piece to a much larger puzzle in Washington. After the trade to the Bears, he was given more of a voice and was immediately elevated into a leader for the defensive line and the entire team. It sounds like the Bears believed in him from Day 1 and wanted to unlock even more of his talent.

Please read the whole story here:

Matas Buzelis should be in the starting lineup.

The Bulls’ starting 5 may be penciled in already, and I don’t expect Buzelis’ name to appear on that list.

Giddey/White/LaVine/Williams/Vucevic would be the apparent starters for now, although the Bulls are reportedly still open to trading LaVine or Vucevic.

I hope they can find a trade partner for LaVine. If so, I know the front office wants the team to improve and win more games, but Buzelis needs to start anyways.

Rookies don’t always get a lot of playing time in the NBA as some of them require a longer transitional and developmental phase coming out of a college program.

Looking at the current Bulls, Dalen Terry is slowly earning minutes and Julian Phillips flashed in short appearances as a rookie. Flashback to the Tom Thibodeau era, and we’ll remember that rookies rarely got playing time. They basically had redshirt seasons. Jimmy Butler only got minutes in 42 games as a rookie.

Billy Donovan plays rookies. We’ve seen it in Chicago. Patrick Williams was handed the starting PF job right after the 2020 draft.

We don’t know what Buzelis’ development arc will look like, but he learned under pressure in the G League and can make the jump to the NBA right away. He HAS to be a big part of the future, so play him now and find out who he is.

See Coby White and Josh Giddey feed Buzelis in transition. See Buzelis and PWill play off each other on defense. See Buzelis talk opponents off the court.

The 11th overall pick may struggle out of the gate, but it’s worth seeing what he can do and letting him improve.

K.C. Johnson - Billy Donovan III’s coaching path (NBC Sports Chicago)

Patrick Mooney - Impressions of the Cubs Draft Class (The Athletic)

Kevin Fishbain - Bears fan survey results (The Athletic)

Chicago Bears - 1920 Football Drive episode (YouTube)

Scott Powers - Laurent Brossoit hoping to prove himself (The Athletic)

Thanks for reading! I can’t wait to see how many games the White Sox can win before the end of the season. 27 and counting as of today!

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