Heyward to Cubs!

[TC in Mississippi]

Nate Silver is projecting the Cubs at 107 wins next year.

Well that's silly because 100 wins and over is a complete crapshoot. I'd probably say they're a 97 win team +/- 3 or so. That said right now they appear to be the best team in the NL.

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

Well that's silly because 100 wins and over is a complete crapshoot. I'd probably say they're a 97 win team +/- 3 or so. That said right now they appear to be the best team in the NL.

Get out of my brain! See last post.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Well that's silly because 100 wins and over is a complete crapshoot. I'd probably say they're a 97 win team +/- 3 or so. That said right now they appear to be the best team in the NL.

I'd rather Nate project the Cubs as the World Series winner!

Barring injury or unforeseen circumstances, I don't think wins can be guessed other than likely 94+. What matters in my view is that they are the clear frontrunner to win the NL Central. The Cubs, Mets and Dbacks would be the opening day frontrunners as of right now.

 

[chibears55]

More associated random thoughts. Good luck taking an extra base on the cubs next season if Soler and Heyward are in the OF. Both have cannons.

Also, the cubs last year had Montero #4 in OBP for C at .345, #4 for Rizzo at 1B with .387, #4 for Zobrist at 2B with .359, #4 for Bryant at .369, #21 for Russell at .307, #10 for Heyward in RF at .359, #21 for Soler in RF at .324, and Schwarber was #14 in LF with .355.

Dont forget Schwarber in LF, he got a pretty good cannon himself with the Catchers arm..

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

Dont forget Schwarber in LF, he got a pretty good cannon himself with the Catchers arm..

Schwarber is going to be the worst defensive LFer in the entire league next year. Mark it down.

 

[chibears55]

Schwarber is going to be the worst defensive LFer in the entire league next year. Mark it down.

Could be.. but it depends on how much and hard he works on that part of his game in the off season..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk

 

[TC in Mississippi]

Schwarber is going to be the worst defensive LFer in the entire league next year. Mark it down.

I don't think so. He actually wasn't bad last year outside of the playoffs and one thing about this kid is that he works his ass off. I don't expect him to be anything better than slightly below average, but worst? Nah, not at that team.

 

[FrankieLyrical]

Well with the addition of Heyward and Lackey and the subtraction of Castro, the Cubs added 9 wins based on WAR.

I am not even confident they win 95. Last season was an anomaly and shouldn't be used as a basis for next season. Too much chance in baseball.

I got them at 94-95 wins and winning the division.

Weird. I got them winning 161-162 games next year and winning it all.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Dont forget Schwarber in LF, he got a pretty good cannon himself with the Catchers arm..

Schwarber does not have a "cannon" out there yet. He certainly has the arm strength and the MPH is above average for LF, but if he's going to be successful there, he will need to work on his throwing motion.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Fangraphs-

Cubs best team in MLB regarding WAR for 2016

http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&teamid=17

Also article predicts a more reasonable 99 wins on 538.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features...s-wont-win-the-world-series-next-year-either/

 

[czman]

MLB Network last night said that Heyward had 200 mil offers but for more years. I think the Cubs offer may have been the highest AAV. Also we don't know where the other teams were in the opt out clause. I think Heyward might have taken the most lucrative deal offered when you actually consider what he is going to get paid per year and when he is going to opt out.

 

[Bear Pride]

What if they daringly trade Montero and have Schwarber and Ross?

This would depend on how high they are on Contrerus developing sooner than later. They would have to get a stud back to this, imo.

 

[Bear Pride]

Schwarber does not have a "cannon" out there yet. He certainly has the arm strength and the MPH is above average for LF, but if he's going to be successful there, he will need to work on his throwing motion.

That's tough, man, and would be a long term commitment to him in LF as catchers are trained to throw the ball differently from the get go.

 

[Bear Pride]

MLB Network last night said that Heyward had 200 mil offers but for more years. I think the Cubs offer may have been the highest AAV. Also we don't know where the other teams were in the opt out clause. I think Heyward might have taken the most lucrative deal offered when you actually consider what he is going to get paid per year and when he is going to opt out.

It just shows how smart and creative the Cubs are being with their contracts. They are probably looking at it as a 3 or 4 year contract going into a new TV contract.

 

[Parade_Rain]

That's tough, man, and would be a long term commitment to him in LF as catchers are trained to throw the ball differently from the get go.

It isn't that difficult to get longer. It's more about footwork.

 

[Bear Pride]

It isn't that difficult to get longer. It's more about footwork.

I agree, the footwork is a lot different, but I think people are making too big a deal about Kyle's defense, imo. Joe's too good of a manager, and the Cubs have too much flexibility, for this to be a significant issue. I also think that Kyle will get better as well.

 

[fatbeard]

Well that's silly because 100 wins and over is a complete crapshoot. I'd probably say they're a 97 win team +/- 3 or so. That said right now they appear to be the best team in the NL.

This is a nonsensical argument. The nature of winning 100 games is no different than the nature of winning 99, or 95. Or 83. There is no magical barrier at which point statistical projection becomes invalid and "crapshooting" takes over. It isn't "difficult" to project a team winning 100 games, it's only "rare" due to the amount of talent it takes in order to accomplish that, and that so few teams have it.

 

[Parade_Rain]

I agree, the footwork is a lot different, but I think people are making too big a deal about Kyle's defense, imo. Joe's too good of a manager, and the Cubs have too much flexibility, for this to be a significant issue. I also think that Kyle will get better as well.

I think he will work hard at it and be a lot better than last season.

 

[DanTown]

Cubs won games at 114 game pace the last two+ months. This idea that the team is going to fall back just seems to be based on personal opinion of the team with zero thought given to projection. I don't see them winning 114 games but I can't see how they all of the sudden just fall back. Even if their 1 run game luck regresses a bit (they were 34-21 in one run games; 13-5 in extras), I assume that a lot of things will even out (i.e the Cubs will probably be close to 42-23 in games started by Lester/Arrieta but it won't be 17-15 for Lester and 25-8 for Jake).

 

[A.C. Milan]

161-1 we drop 1 to the Sox