Can the Cubs Match Their Three-Year Run? And Other Bullets

Oct 23, 2017

Absence makes the heard grow fonder is a truism applicable to spouses not only in their spousing capacity, but also as coparents. It turns out. Because yo. You are missed, The Wife.

Joe Maddon offered an excellent way to think about the season the Cubs just had, and the success they’ve had over the past three years (Cubs.com): “[Getting to the LCS three years in a row] speaks to the group, speaks to the organization itself. That’s not lost on me, believe me. That’s pretty special stuff. You could ask other groups in Major League Baseball who have not had that same situation and ask them what they think about it.” Any understandable disappointment you may be feeling that the Cubs aren’t playing in the World Series should be tempered by the fact that virtually every fan base in baseball right now would be thrilled to be in the shoes of a Cubs fan. It’s been a fantastic three years.

Will the next three be as fantastic? Well, I’m a bit of a cold, calculating sort, and I say no matter how good the Cubs are, it’s not likely they’ll be one of the final two teams in the NL for six straight seasons. I also have my questions about how easily the Cubs will be able to continue a 90-win pace over the next few years without a top tier prospect cache from which to promote and make trades. I do believe the positional core will continue to achieve at a very high level, but I think the pitching situation is absolutely unnerving. If the Cubs do want to have a chance to make the next three years as good as the last three years, these next two offseasons will be critical (as well as the development of their prospects at the lower levels).

Hence: I’m pretty pumped for this offseason.

It’s wild that these wonderful memories were one year ago:

Well that's a nice memory: last year, the Cubs *beat* the Dodgers to punch their ticket to the World Series. pic.twitter.com/Z7F6neUHpq
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) October 23, 2017

The World Series, which does not feature the Cubs, kicks off tomorrow night at 7pm CT on FOX in Los Angeles. Dallas Keuchel will face Clayton Kershaw, and I have absolutely no idea how excited or not I will be to watch the series. Normally, I love the World Series.

Michael hopped on Sports Feed last night:

.@Michael_Cerami recaps 2017 for the Cubs, looks ahead to 2018 on Sports Feed w/@paytonsun, @Andy_Masur1. More here: https://t.co/0QISReyBls pic.twitter.com/tfbAKFyc56
— @CLTVSportsFeed (@CLTVSportsFeed) October 23, 2017

If you missed it last night, Jake Arrieta made his annual beardless appearance, and it’s just as jarring as ever.

The Cubs are going to interview Jim Hickey for their opening pitching coach gig.

Too good not to share:

Sometimes, God does pick a side. pic.twitter.com/CoOnO8C8gf

— Brett Taylor (@Brett_A_Taylor) October 23, 2017

Over at The Ten-Yard Line, the Bears won again! Maybe they’re not awful! (Well, at a minimum, the defense is actually really, really good.)

Fanatics has a 20% off all orders sale going on today and tomorrow, so check out the Cubs gear.

Ooh, I want to play that – Amazon has an exclusive 3DS Super NES with Super Mario Kart pre-order thing going on. And Thermos products are the Deal of the Day if you need to put liquids into containers and take them places.

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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