I'm the man (obviously).

Posted in last week's article: "None of this will matter in a week after the White Sox have managed to deal Howry for nothing while signing Kenny Lofton..."

While only half right, I'm still all full of myself considering the daily news sites were predicting Lofton to Detroit even on the morning of last Friday, a few hours before he signed with the White Sox.

I'll save the rest of the White Sox news until later as usual. Hopefully we can hold to weekly updates, even if some weeks continue to provide us with relatively little news.

Chicago Bears

Good news/bad news all around for Bears' fans.

Good news: Dan Hampton elected to the Hall of Fame...
Bad news: …the weekend after his second DWI in five years.

Good news: Reports indicate Dick Jauron is close to an extension…
Bad news: ...but he shows no willingness to upgrade his offensive coaches.

Good news: We should have a replacement for an outdated Soldier Field soon...
Bad news: ...although it still appears to be the latrine design instead of a real stadium.

Good news: The Patriots beat the best team in the NFC, which beat the second best team that beat the Bears...
Bad news: ...so if we had beaten the Eagles, we would have beaten New England in New Orleans, again.

Chicago Blackhawks

Eric Daze scored two goals, also adding an assist on the way to earning All-Star MVP honors. Unfortunately, his North American team still lost 8-6 to the World team in his first All-Star game.

Other Blackhawks spending the weekend in LA included Alexi Zhamnov, playing for the World team, and Kyle Calder, invited to the Young Stars game. Coach Brian Sutter also assisted World Coach Scotty Bowman.

I believe the Hawks have four more games before the Olympic break, when we will send four players to Salt Lake City: Tony Amonte and Phil Housley on the US team, and Boris Mironov and Zhamnov for Russia. Hopefully at least some Blackhawk will bring home a medal, although the Canadians look awfully strong and might keep the gold out of Chicago.

Chicago Bulls

Shaq v. Miller and Oakley, Part II: Rumble in Staples Center might take place tonight, although Rumble in the Forum would have sounded much nicer.

Shaq continues to moan about his injured toe, and appears intent on skipping the All-Star game to rest. For him to gain league approval, he'll need to miss a regular season game or two, and missing the Bulls should please everyone.

Of course, if we win, we'll have swept the season series from the defending World Champs, and ignominious distinction for a team facing several strong contenders before even reaching the Finals.

Ron Artest is also talking about surgery for one of his various ailments, a decision that might remove the Bulls from all deadline trade talks. After Krause left Artest in town while dealing away his buddy Elton Brand, I'm not even slightly surprised that he's trying to make life difficult for the Jerrys. Artest might be wise in sitting out the rest of the year to insure his future, considering that the Bulls have done nothing to secure his role with the team for the long run this season.

Let's hope that we at least make one trade, moving someone like A.J. Guyton who isn't a long-term solution. Moving Charles Oakley out of town appears to be only a dream for disenchanted Bulls' fans who still aren't seeing the kids play.

Chicago Cubs

Christensen settled the suit with Molina for an undisclosed sum. Now he can resume his career as a top prospect while Molina continues his new career in sales. The Cubs should at least try to train him as a scout.

Now that this matter appears mostly resolved, we just wonder if Christensen ever apologized.

Meanwhile, the Cubs have made some mildly interesting acquisitions. Pat Mahomes, Alan Benes, and Donovan Osborne all agreed to minor league deals.

Mahomes, despite pitching a significant number of innings in relief over the past few seasons, doesn't even deserved a 40-man roster spot on a team with as much pitching depth as the Cubs. Benes likely will never regain the promise he displayed before LaRussa slagged his arm several years ago, but he still could emerge as a reliable pitcher over the next year or two.

Osborne is easily the most intriguing option in this group, as he was a solid lefty starter whenever he managed to stay healthy. If his arm is healed after two years out of professional baseball, he'd be a great addition to the roster, although he's as likely to break down again similar to someone like Bret Saberhagen.

Elaborating upon the Cubs' pitching, Jon Lieber, Kerry Wood, and Jason Bere own spots in the rotation by virtue of major league deals, and Tom Gordon, Jeff Fassero, and Kyle Farnsworth have bullpen jobs for similar reasons. Julian Tavarez and Jesus Sanchez are both guaranteed well over a million each this year, so that takes care of 8 of the 11 spots, including four starters, three short relievers, and a long reliever.

Juan Cruz pitched great in a short audition last season, and now that we know he's three years older and his arm can handle 200 IP, he certainly deserves the #4 spot in the rotation, leaving one middle relief slot and probably a situational lefty.

Among the candidates for these two spots are righties Courtney Duncan, Carlos Zambrano, Scott Chiasson, lefty Ron Mahay, Non-roster invitee RHPs Mahomes, Benes, Will Cunnane, Joe Borowski, Ben Ford, and NRI LHPs Osborne and Mark Watson.

Other candidates, including Mike Meyers, Steve Smyth, and Mark Prior, will begin the year starting in the minors. Meyers and Smyth will be part of a AAA rotation that should also include Chris Gissell and Mike Wuertz. Prior should head to AA in a rotation that should include Christensen, Jose Cueto, and Matt Bruback.

Mahomes, Cunnane, Borowski, and Ford will likely comprise the bulk of AAA Iowa's bullpen, likely also including LHP prospect Rick Short. Watson will likely fall all the way to AA because of the roster crunch.

Courtney Duncan deserves a bullpen spot after a fantastic 2001 season that included him striking out over a batter per inning in the majors. This decision leaves Zambrano, Chiasson, Mahay, Benes, and Osborne to fill one major league bullpen spot, one AAA rotation slot, and one or two AAA bullpen slots. Obviously, something needs to give in this sequence.

The Cubs need to focus on the promotion of top prospects over likely organization material. Zambrano needs to start, so he takes the last AAA rotation slot until a likely mid-season promotion. Chiasson, while likely capable of pitching in the majors now, can return to close at AAA until Gordon breaks down, probably some time around Memorial Day.

Both Osborne and Benes deserve a chance to start at least in AAA, and since they're both still recovering from injuries, alternating them in one rotation spot gives both their arms plenty of rest. Meyers gets moved to long relief at Iowa to open the rotation spot, and Ben Ford is moved down to close at AA, likely a more comfortable environment for him anyway.

Baylor needs a second lefty, so Mahay, almost by default, earns at least a month-long audition in the majors until someone more deserving arrives on the scene. Major league spots will likely open up during the season due to injuries to Gordon and perhaps Fassero, and Bere, Tavarez, and Sanchez all could be great trade bait to teams in direct playoff contention.

The Cubs have a wealth of organizational pitching depth at the upper levels, and the primary goal of the team this season should be to keep the young guys healthy and maturing while they begin to determine who will emerge as a long-term member of the ballclub.

Helping Corey Patterson, Bobby Hill, Hee Seop Choi, and Dave Kelton develop on offense is equally important, but we're willing to trust Jeff Pentland, who developed Sammy into a superstar, will rehab Hundley this year, and usher the next era of hitting prospects into the majors very soon.

Chicago White Sox

I said the Sox would sign Lofton. Kenny Williams apparently reads this article.

Hi, Kenny, and thanks for reading.

Despite their intended plans for him, I like this signing a lot. Unlike a lot of Sox and prospect fans, I don't believe Aaron Rowand can play every day in the majors; he simply doesn't walk anywhere close to the acceptable minimum of 10%. He'll be a great fourth outfielder, but Lofton should start with Willie Harris as his likely successor.

Unfortunately, Chicago seems committed to leading off with Lofton, dropping Ray Durham to the #2 hole, lining up the three solid right-handed hitters behind him in Mags, Thomas, and Konerko. We've seen commentary that suggests that Mags and Thomas might switch, an idiotic decision considering Ordonez's speed and the likelihood that he'll post a higher OBP than Thomas this season. All these moves leave the lineup looking like:

1. Kenny Lofton, CF-L
2. Ray Durham, 2B-S
3. Magglio Ordonez, RF-R
4. Frank Thomas, DH-R
5. Paul Konerko, 1B-R
6. Jose Valentin, 3B-S
7. Carlos Lee, LF-R
8. Sandy Alomar, C-R
9. Royce Clayton, SS-R

The Chicago papers finally seem prepared to acknowledge that Durham, Alomar, and Clayton will all leave after the season, shifting Valentin back to SS, as we've always advised, and adding Hummel at 2B and a Olivio/Johnson platoon behind the plate. Harris can likely take over from Lofton, with Borchard also allowing Carlos Lee to be dealt.

All the South side fans not smart enough to root for the Cubs will start clamoring to add veteran help, not realizing that the Sox's best long-term hope is to add perhaps one very high-salaried player like Scott Rolen to a young and talented nucleus.

The 2001 White Sox seem perfectly capable of winning the division, but more importantly for Chicago, as long as Sammy and Kerry stay healthy, both teams should finish above .500 in consecutive years for the first time since 1936-1937.

Winter Olympics

The primary competitors from the Chicago-area are Men's Figure Skating's medal hopeful Timothy Goebel, Women's Hockey star Cammi Granato, and barring injury, two members of the Women's Curling team.

In the next week, Granato should help lead the US over Germany next Thursday afternoon, and I believe curling begins on the 11th.

With Amonte and Housley on the US team, we will, as always, be strongly rooting for the United States in Men's Hockey. With nothing else really happening in the next week other than the Opening Ceremonies on Friday night, we'll wait until next time to predict what we think will happen for the area athletes, while also filling you in on the one or two things that will take place between now and then.

Until Steve Goodman can rest in peace, these are your Good Chicago Sports.