There were a few things that went down today in Chicago sports worth mentioning. One of them is only worth mentioning because I'm such a sucker for drafts and how things turn out, and the other is more of just a progress report from the Bears OTA's (which I had thought were over already, I was wrong). The first is the Cubs signing of Kyle Schwarber, which carries some other good implications due to what they paid him.
First things first, it looks like Kyle Schwarber has agreed to sign with the Cubs for $3.125 million. That is well under the slotted amount (by $1,496,200). Third round catcher Mark Zagunis also saved the Cubs quite a bit, $99,900 to be exact himself. The Cubs total bonus pool for the draft is $8,352,200. Therefore the Cubs have Zagunis for $615,000 and Schwarber for $3,125,000, making for a total of 3,740,000 spent, which is actually even less spend than I had hoped between those two. This also means that the Cubs have 4,612,200 still to spend, and they should be able to go under on a couple other guys, including second rounder Jake Stinnett. I still doubt that the Cubs are able to sign all of their high school guys that they're high on, but at the same time I have a good feeling that they'll get the vast majority of them.
On Schwarber they got outstanding value. They got the top bat in the draft for well under the slotted amount. If you didn't do the math earlier, Schwarber's slotted value was $4,621,200, and saving that much on him really opens things up further down in the draft. The Cubs have about 8 guys who I would love to see them be able to sign, those are all guys in that group where I said that I don't think they'll get all of them, but I see them getting at least 6 of them with the money they'll have.
Anyway, again, this is very good news for the Cubs, as it shows that their strategy is working and working very well. That's the best fans can ask for, that the plan that the front office has come up with goes as planned at every stage, which the whole plan in general, has.so far (of course there's been things that have worked out better and other things that have turned out worse, but that was obviously going to happen).
Moving forward, there was another report on espnchicago.com today. The biggest news in JD's observations article was that Brock Vereen seems to be right there in competing for a spot as the starting safety for the Bears. Supposedly he's shown very good improvement throughout the OTAs, and while this is all without pads and all that, it's still good to see that he's being given his chance, while Conte and Steltz are out, to show that he can start. As I've made obvious, I just don't feel comfortable with Conte starting.
Other notes were that the nickel package was consisting of Bostic and Briggs, with DJ Williams and Shea McClellin coming off the field for that. Likely the Bears are going to try to utilize his physical abilities there. Also, probably the 5th QB, Jerrod Johnson was lining up on special teams, although I doubt anything really comes of that. Also, Jon Greenberg had an article documenting how well Marquess Wilson has been playing so far in OTAs. Supposedly he looks like he's ready to step in there and be the third receiver in that offense. I get giddy just thinking about having weapons like Forte, Bennett, Marshall, Jeffery, and Wilson all on the field at once. The last OTA is tomorrow (Thursday, 6/12), then the veteran mini camp is next week. That will be it for around a month before training camp gets underway.
Next up for drafts is the NBA. That won't be for a couple of weeks still, so I won't get too deep into it, but one thing I know for sure is that it's been a while since I've seen a draft that looks so wide open to me. I don't see Doug McDermott or Aaron Gordon as even having a prayer of falling to the Bulls anymore, and Rodney Hood seems to go up or down 10 picks every 2 days in most mocks. James Young, Glenn Robinson III, Shabazz Napier, Jordan Clarkson, Adreian Payne, TJ Warren, Kyle Anderson, and a number of other quality choices may very likely still be available when the Bulls draft. Of course, they could always trade up to put themselves in position to get a McDermott, Gordon, Hood, or maybe even better.
So there's a quick dose of Chicago sports news from today, although the Bulls draft section was a bit of a bonus. The best part is that the news is all looking good right now.
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