Chicago Baseball 2017

March 27, 2017

Can the Cubs do it again? Unlike the Bears this team has been built for sustainable success. They should be playing in the post season for many more consecutive years. The core group and Theo will make this happen.

The Cubs should run away from a weak Central Division. The top two teams in The East (Mets and Nats) the West (Dodgers and Giants) will duke it out for division winners and wild card teams. You never know what can happen in a short series. In the past even wild card teams have won the World Series.

However, the Cubs top three starters are better than any other team. I also think they have many more offensive weapons than all the other contenders giving them a better chance to reach the World Series. Will they win 103 games? Aside from the aforementioned teams the National League is made up of bad teams and really bad teams to beat up on.  Last year the Cubs also proved they can beat the good teams more often than not. Therefore, if they don’t win 103 it will be close. Some questions do remain:

1)      Will Schwarber leading off work?

2)      Will Heyward hit better?

3)      Will Hendricks be as good as last year?

4)      Can Wade Davis stay health?

The Chicago “loyalty trumps winning“ White Sox will open up their season at Guaranteed Rate Field.  The fact that their logo is an arrow pointing down is apropos for the Sox. Attendance will be down, their ranking will be down and the future is down in the minors.

Speaking of the future what happened to all the trades? I have the feeling the Sox are overvaluing the players they would like to get rid of. Guys like Todd Frazier who was quoted saying if I could just get my average up to .250 that would be good. Well don’t set the bar so high. You may reach it if you come to bat with no runners in scoring position. A young Matt Davidson should get his chance.

David Robertson is a one inning closer with an E.R.A. close to four and Nate Jones usually precedes him. You will never win with a bullpen that blows twenty games a year. I know bullpens are volatile. Good relievers can be good one year and bad the next year. The problem here is I don’t recall bad becoming good.

The starters are a big question mark as well. Quintana is real good but he is the only tradeable player you can get a good return on. Rodon is on the disabled list. Shields and Holland could be this year’s version of Latos and Danks.

In the East, Boston, especially if Price is healthy along with Sale and Porcello rival the Cub starters.  In the West, Texas will have Hamels for a whole year or maybe Houston can bounce back from the horrible start of last year. In the Central there are not many good teams. If the Indians pitchers are healthy they are my choice. The White Sox, last place 73-89 or worse.