Chaos and Wisdom: 2023 chicago cubs

Expect nothing, be pleasantly surprised.

I’m assuming Dansby Swanson will be worth an extra win or two. My dark horse player to watch this season is Jameson “Whiskey” Taillon, he’s got good K/9 numbers and a very nice K/BB ratio. I’m not thinking he’s going to pull off on Arrieta but maybe he’ll be a sub-3.50/200 k guy.

Nico Hoerner has a lot of promise and I like Christopher Morel.

Happ is boring but above average.

Bellinger is least likely to succeed but maybe getting outta L.A. will lead to a rebirth. He’s still young, and I think a lot of it is in his head. I do believe in the possibility of his return to form a lot more than Heyward’s for sure.

I like Taillon as well! I’m seeing them in the (lol) London series in June, so will be following them a bit this season too. Wish I’d gone to a game when I was in Chicago last year.

I saw Stroman is their SP for opening day, friend of mine saw Wisdom at ST last week and liked what she saw, good to see him get a start today as well.

Overall this team has likable guys but they really feel like one of the mid-90s post-Maddux/pre-Sammy breaking records squads, or one of the post-Bartman/post-Mark Prior teams. Just a lot of placeholders, a couple Hail Mary types plugged in where you hope for the best outcome, a very basic slugger in the mix. Everyone just waiting for prospects to emerge and the right chemistry to be created.

Taillon, great performance yesterday, then the cubs lost in the ninth. Pretty promising though.

The cubs need a masher in that lineup. Speaking of, Heyward is making me look a little wrong, he's doing pretty alright in L.A.

Hey these guys aren't so bad. Bellinger missed a lot of time but wow he's having an absolutely great year. If he had managed to play a full season and maintained his pace throughout, his bWAR would be 7.0. I feel like the Cubs have to seriously consider a multi-year extension, what he's doing appears to be real. Morel has mostly been great, Taillon has been better lately but mostly a disaster. Stroman and Steele, absolutely stellar. Jeimer looks like a guy who might pull a Castellanos the rest of the year, pretty amazing start with the new squad.

I’ve really enjoyed the Cubs, they got absolutely pounded when I saw them in London but they’re usually a nice team to watch and they’ve been hot af recently. Morel my favourite.

I keep missing this thread being bumped!

Cool mention in The Athletic today:

We don’t have to remind Cubs fans that their team was 10 games under .500 in early June. As The Athletic’s Jayson Stark pointed out last week, since the start of the wild-card era in 1995, only one team has made the playoffs after being that many games under .500 that late into the season: the 2022 Seattle Mariners. The Mariners, of course, were trying to end an interminable postseason drought. The Cubs’ drought isn’t nearly that long; they grabbed a playoff spot in 2020. But after a combined 179 losses in the last two seasons, this appearance could be especially sweet. — RD

Christopher Morel has been one of their most exciting players to watch, so much so that you can’t even go get a Chicago dog behind home plate in between innings if he’s due up.

I'm going to be very interested to see what they do over the offseason. Steele and Stroman are a great one-two punch. Kind of crazy to consider that the former could be top three in the Cy Young voting. I haven't digged down into the advanced stats to know whether he was really great or a bit lucky, but he really looked impressive when I saw him. Ownership aside, this is a very likable squad right now. The whispers are that Bellinger is not really likely to come back but they've got to try.

Fact: Belli gonna go for those sweet bags of cash. He gone. Cub’s fan pessimism: what we saw for a line up in the last game against the Brewers on Oct. 1 is our starting line up next year. Not great, unless the new, younger guys improve fast. I fully count on the Ricketts organization to F up any off season potential moves.

Rossy out

Craig Counsell in, as if it wasn't enough to turn Miller field into "Wrigley north" on road games.