I have previously contested that pitching, while not sustainable, was not the reason for Cub losses over the past couple of years. They received excellent performances each year before blowing it up at the trade deadline. Also, I do not believe that they have demonstrably improved their offense for 2015. Taking these together, I think the stretch of .500 baseball they played last year is a best case scenario. More realistically, they are still a below .500 team, one that will realize intense growing pains in the middle part of the season. I expect they will finish below .500 and in 4th place in the division.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I think it all depends on how much you get from Arietta and Hendricks (and Coghlan). If those guys perform like they did last year (GIANT IF) they can be a contending team.

146-16

Most of the losses due to resting arms the last couple week of the season and setting up Lester to be able to start the all-star game. Gotta get home field advantage in the WS.

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84 wins

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

84 to 86 wins is reasonable I think.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

90-72.

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84 is a good number, a chance to be better than the Red or Brewer

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

82-84.

Going to start off cold and play above .500 ball from mid-July or so on.

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Team Cutler.

Is the offseason over?

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

83.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

87 wins

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

That's exactly how I feel. When Shark was here,how many 2-1 and 3-2 losses did he suffer?
I don't think Baez will be given a long leash this season. If he keeps striking out at a Dunn like pace,send him back to AAA. He needs to be in a platoon at 2nd with Valbuena and the boy wonder at 3rd to start the year.




Having said all that,120-42....."F' OFF,Sox Fan! This is Cub business.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I think the exact opposite. I think they start off strong and fade the second time through the league

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Unless Bryant ends up being awesome, in which case theyll improve after May

Outside of Bryant, there aren't going to be that many new guys get used to MLB pitching from the group that played over 500 ball for a few months last season. They won't call up Russell until September and maybe Almora next year. As long as Baez doens't start on a 300K pace, admiteddly big if, guys like Soler, Alcantra should continue to progress. Montero is an updgrade offensively and defensively over Wellington. Pitching should be better with a more consistent bullpen early on at least on paper.

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Team Cutler.

82

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@audioidkid

Montero really isn't that big of an offensive increase and I expect to see him continue down the natural career slide he has shown post 30.

Soler is exactly the guy I'd expect to regress. He was otherworldly for what seemed like a month

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

So is your Cuban.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

88 wins and a wild card.

It feels strange to actually care about baseball and the Cubs again.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

81-81

Gonna take a 2-3 seasons to sift out which prospects are real and which suck. Plus have to pencil in Arrieta's two 15-day DL stints.

Yeah, they usually say it takes about 600 AB for the league to figure out a guy

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I'm not convinced the Opening Day C, 3B or LF is on the roster yet. I'll probably revisit this topic in March

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Oops. Wrong win prediction thread...

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

I'll go 78 to 83 wins right now.

I will wait until i see the team, but no reason to think things go this way. mostly young players started slow last year, every reason to start slow again this year, with great chance of improving as they did all last year.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

75 wins tops. Good golly y'all. they're going to waste Lester's first (and perhaps best) season.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

The Cubs run differential got worse in the 2nd half,

No reason to hedge on injuries.....duh.
If I was betting $ and the season started today I would put the W total at 83 wins with the rest of the league knowing the big blue monster is about to eat you for the next 7 to 10 years.

Right handed power is the the BIGGEST deficiency in MLB and the Cubs have an embarrassing amount of it.

How'd you like to face a 3,4,5 of Rizzo, Bryant, Solar and the oldest one is 25.....

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Kenny Williams fell for the banana in the tailpipe

You think they are only 2 wins better than last year? Bernstein was referencing somethingsomethingSABR that suggested that they were pretty unlucky in their run sequencing. And I believe Maddon will use the roster more efficiently.

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Correct, I mean, teams just lined up to pay a right handed power hitter 25 million per year one day ago

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.