Ok, nice discounting of pretty much everything good about this organization. I'm certain you could do better. 80% of fans thought another TOR would have won the division? I mean really? No one with any sense of logic really even saw this team as a playoff team. A chance sure, but the division didn't seem achievable. Now at the deadline it would have been nice to get a pitcher. It seems the pricE was too high and with the special group that's here and the uncertainty at the deadline of even making the WC I can understand why that move wasn't made. Let's get back to the beginning of the season stuff. No one had any idea that Kris Bryant would have this kind of a rookie year, an awful lot of people were worried about Montero hitting, Fowler hitting and whether there would be a regression from Coghlan. Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber and Javy Baez all appeared a year away (Baez from setback, the other two as normal development). No one knew if Arrieta could handle a full season of innings having never gone over 150 and absolutely no one though he would be this good. I mean seriously if you thought this team looked like a division winner with the addition of one more pitcher in April well that wasn't based on much in the way of fact, wishful thinking maybe.
What happened this year was nothing short of a perfect storm of things going right. There were injuries but none to the core. Arrieta is one of the best pitchers in baseball, Bryant not only didn't struggle he thrived andis having and outstanding rookie year, Russell came up months earlier than expected and has been a defensive force and a positive WAR player despite not hitting a lick, Schwarber came up months early and contributed, Baez came up when expected and contributed and Starlin Castro, having been left for dead, figured things out and was a huge part of the team's August and September surge. No team since 1901 has ever made the postseason with 4 rookies as major contributors. Some days this team has 5.
I get it. I get frustrated with things too, but to nitpick like that isn't reasonable. This team has overachieved on every level and the organizations plan is a year ahead of schedule. The Pythagorean win expectation at the beginning of the year was 83.2. Most knowledgeable fans had them somewhere between 82-85 wins. Even if they had added another pitcher, say one with a 5 WAR expectation, you would have still looked at a projection at around 88 wins and that was projected to barely make a WC. As it turns out the Cubs will likely win 95 games and be the second WC. Everything went right this year and no one making predictions would have predicted that. There's still a lot of work to do but baseball is a funny game. If you get in the playoffs you have a chance at a WS. How many people picked the Giants to win last year as the WC, and how many thought they'd win with one very unbelievable pitcher and basically no other starter even remotely close? This is baseball things happen. The fact that the Cubs are here is nothing short of remarkable. I get the angst but don't make statements that don't hold up to scrutiny.
