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Cub Tracks Has The Will To Win

Kudos to you, Hawk Harrelson. Every time you speak, I gain confidence that the out-of-date thought processes of generations past are getting pushed closer and closer to the margins. In case you missed it, Hawk thinks sabermetrics are phooey and all you need to "measure" is a player's will to win. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not an "anti-intangibles, everything must be numbers" guy. There is absolutely a place for not playing the game on a spreadsheet. But Hawk is just a fool. Still. He reminds me of whale poop, except ... well, read on.

These guys just know how to win, stats be damned.
These guys just know how to win, stats be damned.
USA TODAY Sports

Since nobody talks on Sundays, let's fan the flames.

The Chicago Bears made just an awful choice in the first round on Friday. It was a truly indefensible pick. O-Line matters. Of course. But there's a reason guards are very, very rarely selected in the first round (this year is a statistical oddity). That reason is: you can find guys to man this position in much later rounds of the draft. Scan any team's starting line. You won't find many first- and second-round picks starting at guard.

Add to that the fact that Long has a questionable personal background (kicked out of Florida State, my alma mater, which I can assure you is hard to do) and extremely limited experience (four major college starts. FOUR.).

If he's a starting tackle (he's the wrong physique for guard, for one, though he was moved there when he couldn't hack tackle at Oregon) in a couple years, then you might have something. But the entire defense is about to go over the age cliff with next to zero young talent and obvious holes. Win-now teams like the Bears don't need to be taking "projects" in the first round when you've got glaring holes and few draft choices.

To draw it back to baseball, this is swinging for the fences when you only need a base hit.

From Comcast SportsNet

From Cubs Den

From Cubs.com

From ESPNChicago.com

From the Chicago Tribune (register to see almost anything but videos)

From the Chicago Sun-Times (can read a paragraph, register to read the rest)

  • This is about the last thing we need. Bud Selig wants to see the plans for renovating Wrigley.
  • Hall of Famer, and former Cub MVP, Andre Dawson never thought he's see the Cubs with a small market payroll.

From miscellaneous sources

Today's food for thought