Bulls Among Teams to Be Thrilled by Draft Picks

June 26, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Thursday thoughts (well, what we think passes for such things around here): The NBA draft is Thursday. The Chicago Bulls have two first-round picks (No. 16 and No. 19). What are the Bulls’ needs? You mean other than guard, forward and center? How about to get younger. Meaning that the chances of lowering the average age on the 2014-15 roster seem reasonably good. Well, assuming the players actually make the team.

There is video below of Vanessa Huppenkothen.

* Speaking of the draft, Bulls general manager Gar Forman will tell the media he is thrilled with the players the team selected. Pretty much like every general manager in the NBA. Or in the NFL. Or in Major League Baseball. Or in the NHL. Or … well, you get the idea.

* There should be a rule among journalists (or media members, if you prefer the nomenclature) that anyone who offers up a mock draft and fails to have at least 75 percent of the picks correct should have to sit out the prediction business for the next year’s draft. Oh, sorry. Forgot journalism in many places has fewer (not to mention lower) standards these days.

* Chicago Cubs manager Rick Renteria, who sent Mike Olt into Wednesday’s to pinch-hit in the ninth-inning against Cincinnati closer Aroldis Champan, really didn’t expect Olt to reach base, did he? Olt struck out on four pitches. He has struck out 69 times in 159 at-bats. If this is the Cubs’ idea of player development, they might want to rethink things. Well, assuming they thought things to begin with. Then again, with future Hall of Famer Kris Bryant waiting in the wings (OK, actually Des Moines), perhaps the Cubs figure this is going to be the only season Olt will have a spot on the big-league roster.

* The Cubs’ 4-1 loss to the Reds did feature 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief by the home team. Not much of a consolation prize, but it’s the best some of us can do on short notice.

* Speaking of consolation prizes, Jose Abreu hit a home run (his 23rd) for the White Sox in a 12-inning, 5-4 loss to the Orioles in Baltimore. Somethings says there will be several more games in which he hits a homer in a loss. Well, for some Sox fans, this actually will serve as some consolation.

* About the only thing to keep Abreu from 50 homers as a rookie will be intentional walks. Guess this means Sox fans can hope for lopsided losses so the opposing pitchers will pitch to him.

* Congratulations to Cathy Core — former director of the Chicago Luvabulls and Honey Bears (the Bears’ dance team that the franchise did away with after the team’s only Super Bowl title), among numerous other Chicago sports teams — on being selected for induction in September to the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame. If each of the sports teams that she toiled for purchases a table, the event easily will be a sellout thanks to her alone.

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