NFL

Patriots sign C Garrett Bradbury to two-year, $12 million contract

Ah, my favorite caveat — this deal is worth up to $12 million. It’s probably worth more like $10 million, but whatever, we’ll go with the reported amount.

Bradbury is a solid starting center — nothing more and nothing less. For New England, that’ll be an immediate upgrade, as the Patriots’ incumbent center, David Andrews, was at the end of the road. Any upgrade, especially on the offensive line, is good for a New England team that was obviously dreadful a year ago.

Grade: B

NCAAB

Indiana hires Darian DeVries as head coach

This isn’t the flashiest hire, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad one. DeVries has a track record of winning, compiling a 169-68 record between his tenures at Drake and West Virginia. The Indiana job is step up from both, so DeVries will have a full plate in Bloomington. Suffice to say, the Hoosiers need to nail this hire.

Grade: C+

MLB

Dodgers 4, Cubs 1

It’s so nice to have baseball back, isn’t it? I’m a fan of the MLB World Tour, as it gives us regular season games a week before we would normally get them. That’s a good thing — and there’s another Dodgers-Cubs game today!

Los Angeles is almost certainly going to be a juggernaut this season, and we received some evidence of that yesterday morning. Without Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman — Freeman was a late scratch — the Dodgers were just fine. Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a much better debut than last year, tossing five frames of one-run ball. The 26-year-old’s splitter was unhittable.

The Cubs should be good themselves this season too. While obviously not on the level of the Dodgers, Chicago can capitalize on a weak NL Central, especially with the addition of Kyle Tucker. The right fielder didn’t impact this contest, going 0-for-4, but he’s the big bat the Cubs have needed since 2017.