Great Time to be a Chicago Sports Fan!

Look around at the major professional sports franchises in Chicago and just try to say that any one of them have nothing to be excited about. It's impossible right now. While there are not any teams that are currently champions in Chicago among the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks, or Bears, every one of those teams has plenty to be excited about and possible pieces of future championship teams. Every team is at least in position to be a playoff team either during their current season or during their next season. This really is a great time to be a Chicago sports fan.

Starting with the Bulls, while they aren't anywhere near the top of the NBA, they do have a roster that features a guy who can be their franchise point guard, and a great franchise point guard at that. They also have a strong mix of players with John Salmons being the efficient yet high volume scorer, Brad Miller being the rough yet wise veteran, and guys like Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, who, if nothing else, are impossible to predict. They're in position to be in the playoffs at the current time and have been playing very well over the last month or so. If Rose continues to develop and they do something with the money they'll be freeing up over the next two seasons, then they could be in position to really do some damage in the east.

The Bears are really all the talk of the town right now. Yesterday was the day of the huge Jay Cutler trade as well as the signing of Orlando Pace. First we should look at the trade. People are out there trying to say that the Bears gave up too much in the trade. However, if you really take a critical look at things, they did give Denver an awful lot, but they actually did not give much up at all. The third round pick really is the most painful thing for them to give up. Taking a look at the first round picks of the Bears during the Jerry Angelo era you have David Terrell, Marc Columbo, Michael Haynes, Rex Grossman, Tommie Harris, Cedric Benson, Greg Olsen, and Chris Williams. Now let's look at the third round which includes Earl Bennett, Marcus Harrison, Garrett Wolfe, Michael Okwo, Dusty Dvoracek, Bernard Berrian, Lance Briggs, Terrence Metcalf, and Mike Gandy. Clearly the third round hasn't been much, if at all worse than the first round for the Bears, and really, it's not supposed to be so close. The Bears have a history of failing in the first round since Jerry Angelo came around. Sure, Tommie Harris is a very talented player, but at the same time he's injury prone, and last season he didn't even have a very good season despite being healthy. As a whole he's a good player, but he does come with his baggage. Greg Olsen is probably the best of the bunch, and even he has a weakness with his blocking although he's excellent as a receiver. Anyway, with that all explained, what's not to be excited about with the Bears? Sure, their defense isn't going to be very strong again this coming season, but there's still an offense that now only lacks a clear #1 receiver. There's several good candidates out there, and with the signing of Orlando Pace there's now a better chance of being able to lure Torry Holt over here. If that would happen the Bears would have one of the most explosive offenses in the league. Despite Holt's age, he can still play like a clear #1 receiver, and if you give Cutler two tight ends who can catch the ball, a very good #1, and a running back who can not only run the ball very well, but can also receive the ball well along with an improved offensive line, and you have a recipe for a very strong offense. No, they're not going to win a Superbowl yet, but they're back on the right path.

The White Sox are a team that may have question marks and some aging players, but they also have strong cornerstones to be able to avoid too much pain during the rebuilding process. Alexi Ramirez is one, and who else is surprised whenever they look at his age and realize that he's going to be 28 at the end of next season? He looks like a 15 year old bat boy or something like that. However, he's a true five-tool player. He also helped the White Sox get Dayan Viciedo, a very young and talented prospect that could be a future star. Pierzynski and Konerko are at least young enough that they are not immediate worries as far as age goes, although Dye will have to be replaced before too much longer. However, on the other side of the outfield you have a young superstar in the making in Carlos Quentin. No, they're not a championship type of team anymore, but they won't have to go through any horrible rebuilding phases either with the strong foundation that they have in their young players.

The Cubs are ready for the second year in a row to be one of the best teams in the league. Let's just hope that this year they can carry it over to the postseason. Hopefully Lou at least allows Reed Johnson some playing time in the playoffs, as it hurt the Cubs to not have their spark plug in there at all during the postseason. They've made a couple of upgrades to their offense adding Milton Bradley, who when healthy is as good of a hitter as there was in the free agency market, and then they added a whole lot of speed in Joey Gathright. Kosuke Fukudome still gets a little too much criticism considering that he's still a very good fielder with a rocket for an arm, and he still had a very good OBP last season. He'll likely have made some adjustments and should be a solid piece of the puzzle along with Johnson in center field. The team is solid or better at every position, still has a strong starting rotation, and has just as good of, if not a better bullpen than they had last year. If they can be hot at the right time, then they have a good chance at finally getting things right this season.

Lastly the Blackhawks. The Bulls have one major young player to be really excited about, which is awesome, but look at the Blackhawks with their three very young players who are ready to take over the league. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are the first two players that come to mind, rightfully so, as they are both future superstars in the NHL, but also Chris Versteeg is very young and he could also wind up being a star player. Brian Campbell, the big free agent pickup, is 29 years old, which isn't old by any means, and is also probably the fastest defenseman in the entire league. The Blackhawks have a very strong core that should help to take them to very high levels in the upcoming years, and every Blackhawks fan should be excited for what's to come from them.

Things are only looking up for Chicago sports. There's a lot of great chances for every team to really make noise in their respective league. Let's just hope that there's not a lot of teasing here and that rather we'll actually see things materialize from all of this.