How About 99 Wins for the Cubs? And Other Bullets

Feb 10, 2017

By the time you’re reading this post, I’ll be in la-la-land, with a doctor seein’ what’s what in my colon. The past 24 hours of prep sure have been fun, but I mostly just can’t wait to eat food again. Gonna shove a burger in my face so fast …

USA Today came out with its own projection for 2017 records, and you will immediately assume their methodology must be genius, because it has the Cubs winning 99 games, 7 more than any other NL team (Dodgers). You can read the article for the full rundown, but, in all seriousness, it all just kinda … feels right:

The order of teams in each division looks almost exactly as I would have it if I were completely unscientifically putting together a list myself. Even the win totals seem reasonable. I’d probably have the Cubs at, say, 95 wins myself – I’m conservative – but it’s not as if anyone could criticize a 99-win projection, given that the Cubs won 103 games last year, and arguably look as strong this year.

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David Schoenfield analyzes the chances that Kyle Hendricks and Aaron Sanchez could repeat as ERA leaders, and, although there are reasons to expect some regression for Hendricks on that particular number, there are also many reasons to expect that he can still get very high-level results.

Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria is not especially well-liked among the baseball commentariat, and, thus, when word broke yesterday that he had a handshake agreement to sell the team, I knew reactions would be strong. So I’ll just leave this right here:

The eradication of Jeffrey Loria, the most odious figure in baseball. Column: https://t.co/0WzYy41sv6 pic.twitter.com/6bSuvWXMcE

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 10, 2017

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Whatever the final purchase price actually winds up being – $1.6 billion is the lofty reported number – Ken Rosenthal points out that you can be sure players will take notice of the ever-skyrocketing team valuations. Moreover, I’d argue that, by the time the sale goes through, players will have even more evidence that the recently-signed Collective Bargaining Agreement was extremely owner-friendly, and the seeds of future discord will be further sewed. Frankly, I hope the owners and the players start laying the groundwork for the next CBA multiple years before it is set to expire in 2021, because I’m expecting it’s going to take a long time to reconcile the finances of the game.

About the potential Marlins buyer? Early reports had it that Charles Kushner, father of Jared Kushner (Donald Trump senior advisor), was in the group to make the buy, but the New York Times reports that it’s actually Joshua Kushner, Jared’s brother.

Earlier this morning, I looked at Jake Arrieta’s time in Iowa, and his ascension to the Cubs.

Thank you to Luis for the great shot:

Cubs are gonna #FlyTheW all winter long. pic.twitter.com/Rx52EcuRGI

— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) February 10, 2017

A bit of a macabre souvenir for Cubs fans, but it’s on a huge sale (just $10.50): a plaque commemorating Cole Hamels’ no-hitter … you know, the one that came at Wrigley Field against the Cubs, the first time they’d been no-hit since 1965. It has game-used dirt from Wrigley, though.

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written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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