Early Predictions:
San Diego Chargers
Oakland Raiders
Denver BroncosKansas City Chiefs
I know I'll take a lot of flak for that Raiders pick, but I think they have been on the brink for a while now and I think they have the right talent for the job. I think the Chargers are teetering, and while that will probably only result in a couple division losses I do think Denver and Oakland have the potential to unseat them. KC will be a wild card team this year, not in the sense that they will earn a wild card but in the sense that they have a lot of potential and could surprise a lot of people, though I see a .500 season in their cards. No Wild Card or win record predictions yet, I'll save that for my final picks before the start of the regular season. I have been monitoring the predictions over at NFL.com, out of three who have posted predictions only one seems to disagree with me on the West (Pat Kirwan has the Chargers winning, followed by the Broncos, Chiefs, and Raiders with no Wild Card for the West). I'm willing to stand behind my picks for now, and I think people will be pleasantly surprised with the division.
The Chicago Blackhawks have shipped Dustin Byfuglien off to the Atlanta Thrashers for some picks and prospects. It's hard to tell how this trade will turn out as most of what we're getting out of it is an unknown commodity (so make something good out of it, Bowman), but I still believe shipping Big Buff was a mistake. You simply can't replace a player of his stature that had his kind of burst, and 11 post-season goals don't lie as an indicator of his talent. On the plus side, this probably means we'll get to keep John Madden, but I personally saw Byfuglien as a commodity we couldn't afford to lose.
The White Sox have won eleven in a row, with many of those games spanning Interleague play. While many see it as a weak win streak, with many wins coming from the Nationals, Pirates, and of course Cubs, a streak is a streak and it signals hope for this club. The Sox split a series with division rival Twins before the streak, though, and swept a very good Braves team. What's more, their hitting has finally picked up, their defense is solid, and the lineup that was thought to be the best in the Major Leagues at the start of the season has a 2.33 ERA over the past 17 games. Their return to the AL was inauspicious as they dropped a game to division rival Kansas City behind bad pitching and lethargic hitting that left runners stranded, but there is still a lot of optimism for this team. If they can get their act together and put up a couple of runs against the AL that are half as impressive as their run against the NL then they should be poised to wrest the division away from Detroit and Minnesota. Hey, if Cubs fans can hope to have a winning club after a century of failure then I can hope for a small comeback from a real baseball team, right?
There are rumors floating about the Bulls picking up touted free agents LeBron James and Chris Bosh, and I, like the rest of Chicago, am salivating at the possibility. This team has already made what seems to be a good hire in new head coach Tom Thibodeau, has a good young core in place, and all-stars like James and Bosh would take this team to the next level. Tom Waddle got a crack out of me when he suggested, in a thick Chicago accent, that the pickup of both players would mean a, "five-peat, minimum," but despite intended humour it wouldn't be out of the question. Furthermore, as long as we're dreaming, what if the Sox made a run and captured their second title in five years? What if the Bears shocked everyone and took home the Lombardi Trophy? If the Bulls get Bosh and the King and win the Finals we could have an all Chicago 2010-2011. I know this is dreaming of a superfan variety, but what's the harm? At any rate, the rumors of a Bulls lineup consisting of Noah, Rose, Deng, Bosh, and James gets any Chicago sports fan's hopes up and brings back memories of the great Bulls teams of the nineties.
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