Our chances this year

[Tracer Bullet]

Don't know how many saw the Nate Silver (from BP) chat on ESPN that just ended, but there were a lot of Cubs questions and a few Cards questions, my favorite of which was:

 

Aaron (StL): Speed Round: Taguchi, Bigbie, or Schumaker? Spivey, Miles, or Luna? ugh...

 

SportsNation Nate Silver: (4:00 PM ET ) This is why the Cards are looking at 86-76 this year.

 

He also said that the Cubs may be NL Central favorites if we get 250 innings from Prior/Wood combined. That seems a little optimistic to me, but it's early in the year, so I'm willing to be optimistic. And hey, if the Cards finish with 86 wins, who knows?

[Dr. Cub]

Don't know how many saw the Nate Silver (from BP) chat on ESPN that just ended, but there were a lot of Cubs questions and a few Cards questions, my favorite of which was:

 

Aaron (StL): Speed Round: Taguchi, Bigbie, or Schumaker? Spivey, Miles, or Luna? ugh...

 

SportsNation Nate Silver: (4:00 PM ET ) This is why the Cards are looking at 86-76 this year.

 

He also said that the Cubs may be NL Central favorites if we get 250 innings from Prior/Wood combined. That seems a little optimistic to me, but it's early in the year, so I'm willing to be optimistic. And hey, if the Cards finish with 86 wins, who knows?

 

That seems a little low to me. That's approximately 20 starts each. I just don' think that 20 starts from each of them is enough. Give me 25 starts each and I think we will be in the playoff hunt.

[Tracer Bullet]

I tend to agree. But I like seeing an "expert" predict good things for us (and not great things for the Cards).

[soccer10k]

Don't know how many saw the Nate Silver (from BP) chat on ESPN that just ended, but there were a lot of Cubs questions and a few Cards questions, my favorite of which was:

 

Aaron (StL): Speed Round: Taguchi, Bigbie, or Schumaker? Spivey, Miles, or Luna? ugh...

 

SportsNation Nate Silver: (4:00 PM ET ) This is why the Cards are looking at 86-76 this year.

 

He also said that the Cubs may be NL Central favorites if we get 250 innings from Prior/Wood combined. That seems a little optimistic to me, but it's early in the year, so I'm willing to be optimistic. And hey, if the Cards finish with 86 wins, who knows?

 

I think the 250 innings from Prior/Wood could be enough to consider us favorites IF Wade Miller can come back around the end of the month and give the Cubs a productive 5 months. If Miller can get 15-17 wins then limited production from Prior/Wood could be overcome. We'll still have an ace (Zambrano) and, assuming Miller does what I said above, a solid #3 with Maddux. I'm not saying that's going to happen, but I think it's possible.