90 wins?

[Ender]

Maybe the Cubs Bleh was the first 2 month of the season.

 

That could be, but it just seems like all the hot guys suddenly go cold again and thats when the team starts to lose, sort of a big winning streak hangover.

[Outshined_One]

Maybe the Cubs Bleh was the first 2 month of the season.

 

That could be, but it just seems like all the hot guys suddenly go cold again and thats when the team starts to lose, sort of a big winning streak hangover.

 

I believe that's known as "wishful thinking" on your behalf. :D

[hawkcub]

Maybe the Cubs Bleh was the first 2 month of the season.

 

That could be, but it just seems like all the hot guys suddenly go cold again and thats when the team starts to lose, sort of a big winning streak hangover.

 

I believe that's known as "wishful thinking" on your behalf. :D

 

Yep I'm a half full guy when we are talking about the Cubs.

[Ender]

Maybe the Cubs Bleh was the first 2 month of the season.

 

That could be, but it just seems like all the hot guys suddenly go cold again and thats when the team starts to lose, sort of a big winning streak hangover.

 

I believe that's known as "wishful thinking" on your behalf. :D

 

Yep I'm a half full guy when we are talking about the Cubs.

 

heh, i think that was meant for me since I'm a Brewer fan :).

 

I was being serious though, just seems like every time a team gets smoking hot they follow it up with a steaming pile of crap week, would be an interesting thing to run a study on. In this specific case though projecting what is going to happen during a cold or hot streak is going to always give you odd results, whether it be a team that is hot or an individual player.

[Keener98]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I think you're right.

 

Two weeks after every ball stops bouncing the cubs way is when you remove the question mark. Most teams that go on a month long hot streak follow it up with a week or two of blech, the Mets did, the Brewers did, the Braves did, the Red Sox did. After that week or two you get the real picture of the teams W/L record.

 

The Brewers had their "bleh" stretch because they were on the road alot(and they suck on the road) and were actually playing teams worth a damn. They are 36-17 against teams under .500 and 15-23 against teams above .500. The Cubs are only 3 games under against teams above .500 and are 30-22 against teams under .500. So seeing how the Cubs have a very weak schedule the rest of the year, its certainly possible the Cubs have seen their "bleh" part of the season.

 

note: These records are as of the 17th of July

Edited July 21, 2007 by Keener98

[Mephistopheles]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I disagree. The Cubs will go into a lull that keeps them from reaching it. Right now they're riding a prolonged hot streak that is keeping their stripes from being seen.

[Keener98]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I disagree. The Cubs will go into a lull that keeps them from reaching it. Right now they're riding a prolonged hot streak that is keeping their stripes from being seen.

 

They have a weak ass schedule the rest of the year, I dont see that big of a dropoff coming. Are they going to play .800 ball the rest of the way? Probably not, but .600-.650 would'nt surprise me with who they have left to play.

[Mephistopheles]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I disagree. The Cubs will go into a lull that keeps them from reaching it. Right now they're riding a prolonged hot streak that is keeping their stripes from being seen.

 

They have a weak ass schedule the rest of the year, I dont see that big of a dropoff coming. Are they going to play .800 ball the rest of the way? Probably not, but .600-.650 would'nt surprise me with who they have left to play.

 

They've had a weak schedule all season long.

[Keener98]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I disagree. The Cubs will go into a lull that keeps them from reaching it. Right now they're riding a prolonged hot streak that is keeping their stripes from being seen.

 

They have a weak ass schedule the rest of the year, I dont see that big of a dropoff coming. Are they going to play .800 ball the rest of the way? Probably not, but .600-.650 would'nt surprise me with who they have left to play.

 

They've had a weak schedule all season long.

 

They had a pretty tough schedule in May-June Texas and the White Sox were the only teams below .500 in June they played. Colorado was right at .500 when they played them

[Mephistopheles]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I disagree. The Cubs will go into a lull that keeps them from reaching it. Right now they're riding a prolonged hot streak that is keeping their stripes from being seen.

 

They have a weak ass schedule the rest of the year, I dont see that big of a dropoff coming. Are they going to play .800 ball the rest of the way? Probably not, but .600-.650 would'nt surprise me with who they have left to play.

 

They've had a weak schedule all season long.

 

 

They had a pretty tough schedule in May-June Texas and the White Sox were the only teams below .500 in June they played. Colorado was right at .500 when they played them

 

just because certain teams were at 500 at the time it doesnt mean they were good. it wasnt as easy as the rest of the season but it wasnt hard either. projecting the cubs to play 600 ball out is stupid.

[Keener98]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I disagree. The Cubs will go into a lull that keeps them from reaching it. Right now they're riding a prolonged hot streak that is keeping their stripes from being seen.

 

They have a weak ass schedule the rest of the year, I dont see that big of a dropoff coming. Are they going to play .800 ball the rest of the way? Probably not, but .600-.650 would'nt surprise me with who they have left to play.

 

They've had a weak schedule all season long.

 

 

They had a pretty tough schedule in May-June Texas and the White Sox were the only teams below .500 in June they played. Colorado was right at .500 when they played them

 

just because certain teams were at 500 at the time it doesnt mean they were good. it wasnt as easy as the rest of the season but it wasnt hard either. projecting the cubs to play 600 ball out is stupid.

 

We will have to agree to disagree on what they can/will do the rest of the season. Septembers schedule is especially weak, and considering they will be fighting for a playoff spot, where every team they play in Sept will be playing kids, I dont see why .600 or above is so far fetched.

[NCCubFan]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I disagree. The Cubs will go into a lull that keeps them from reaching it. Right now they're riding a prolonged hot streak that is keeping their stripes from being seen.

That's possible, but I'm not saying they'll definitely win 90 anyway. I'm saying I don't think there's any question that it's doable, but that term refers to whether it can be done, not whether it will be done. And I don't think there's any question that the Cubs reasonably can win 90; the question is whether they will. It's possible that we're just debating semantics here.

[CubinNY]

I often think of records needed to reach win milestones as well. Unfortunately the last few years it has been a pointless and frankly delusional exercise.

 

One team that really sticks out to me as a potential parallel is the 2004 braves. That was the first year I believe they were not favored to win the division (no parallel there, obviously). They had many new parts and it took the first couple of months for the team to find its identity. They languished below .500 and bottomed out at 33-39, only slightly better than where the Cubs hit bottom this year. At this point in that season, they had exactly the same record as the Cubs at 48-43. They managed to finish with 96 wins. It would seem nearly impossible for a team that far under .500 to go on an extended run like they did, but its been done before. And recent seasons have seen one team do it every year, so while that 95 win mark looks unattainable in a practical sense, it is not without precedent.

 

If the Cubs somehow manage to win 95 games with the same people they have playing right now I will be so happy I cannot begin to describe it in words. At the same time, I will be so shocked I'd probably die.

 

I just hope they keep playing good baseball. I keep waiting for them to come back to earth. They are on another planet right now.

[bhogg]

I'm not sure I understand the weak schedule argument. Outside of interleague games, we play pretty much the same schedule as the rest of the divsion.

 

162 games --- it's not weak and everything evens out.

[soccer10k]

I'm not sure I understand the weak schedule argument. Outside of interleague games, we play pretty much the same schedule as the rest of the divsion.

 

162 games --- it's not weak and everything evens out.

 

Some people are looking at the Cubs' remaining schedule as compared not just to the teams within the NL Central but to the teams in the NL West and East. While the Cubs are playing mainly the Reds, Pirates, Cardinals, and Astros in August and September (since they only have 3 games against the Brewers), the Dodgers will be facing the Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies and Giants. That's a much harder schedule than what the Cubs are facing.

 

Also, the Cubs only have three games on the road against a team with a record over .500 (Arizona) and four against a team right at .500 (Colorado). Other than that, their tough games (4 vs Philadelphia, 3 vs New York, 3 vs Milwaukee, 4 vs Los Angeles) are at home and then they play a bunch of games within the division.

[David]

I haven't been great about updating it after every game, but here's another update.

 

The goal has gotten every so slightly harder to reach as they've only gone .500 over the last four.

[David]

As another aside...

 

After 99 games...

 

The 2007 Cubs are 53-46

 

 

 

The 2003 Cubs were 50-49

 

The 2004 Cubs were 53-46 (the best Cubs team in recent memory)

[GlassCow]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I disagree. The Cubs will go into a lull that keeps them from reaching it. Right now they're riding a prolonged hot streak that is keeping their stripes from being seen.

That's possible, but I'm not saying they'll definitely win 90 anyway. I'm saying I don't think there's any question that it's doable, but that term refers to whether it can be done, not whether it will be done. And I don't think there's any question that the Cubs reasonably can win 90; the question is whether they will. It's possible that we're just debating semantics here.

 

Not to be a jerk NC, but if all we are talking about is whether it is possible to get to 90 wins, we would just need to see if there are at least 37 games left on the schedule. Technically, it is possible that we will reach 116 wins this year, just extremely unlikely. The chances are about as good as me sitting with Jennifer Anniston, Jessica Biel and Jessica Alba in a luxury suite at Wrigley Field (and almost as nice to think about.) Meanwhile, the likelihood of 90 wins is about as good as me sitting in the bleachers during my next visit to Wrigley, i.e. pretty likely.

[SouthSideRyan]

As another aside...

 

After 99 games...

 

The 2007 Cubs are 53-46

 

 

 

The 2003 Cubs were 50-49

 

The 2004 Cubs were 53-46 (the best Cubs team in recent memory)

 

That's crazy, I would've guessed that '04 team was about 15 games over at this point.

[NCCubFan]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I disagree. The Cubs will go into a lull that keeps them from reaching it. Right now they're riding a prolonged hot streak that is keeping their stripes from being seen.

That's possible, but I'm not saying they'll definitely win 90 anyway. I'm saying I don't think there's any question that it's doable, but that term refers to whether it can be done, not whether it will be done. And I don't think there's any question that the Cubs reasonably can win 90; the question is whether they will. It's possible that we're just debating semantics here.

 

Not to be a jerk NC, but if all we are talking about is whether it is possible to get to 90 wins, we would just need to see if there are at least 37 games left on the schedule. Technically, it is possible that we will reach 116 wins this year, just extremely unlikely. The chances are about as good as me sitting with Jennifer Anniston, Jessica Biel and Jessica Alba in a luxury suite at Wrigley Field (and almost as nice to think about.) Meanwhile, the likelihood of 90 wins is about as good as me sitting in the bleachers during my next visit to Wrigley, i.e. pretty likely.

I probably wasn't clear enough, but I meant reasonably possible as opposed to mathematically possible by going undefeated. My point was that there's a difference between a realistic chance vs. definitely happening.

[inari]

As another aside...

 

After 99 games...

 

The 2007 Cubs are 53-46

 

Their late season run (not counting the dreadful last week) is what really propelled them well over .500.

 

The 2003 Cubs were 50-49

 

The 2004 Cubs were 53-46 (the best Cubs team in recent memory)

 

That's crazy, I would've guessed that '04 team was about 15 games over at this point.

[CubsNSkers07]

37-25 thats all we need and we'll be sittin at 90-72 to finish the season!

[GlassCow]

Updated

I think it's coming pretty close to time you can remove the question mark from doable for 90 wins.

 

I disagree. The Cubs will go into a lull that keeps them from reaching it. Right now they're riding a prolonged hot streak that is keeping their stripes from being seen.

That's possible, but I'm not saying they'll definitely win 90 anyway. I'm saying I don't think there's any question that it's doable, but that term refers to whether it can be done, not whether it will be done. And I don't think there's any question that the Cubs reasonably can win 90; the question is whether they will. It's possible that we're just debating semantics here.

 

Not to be a jerk NC, but if all we are talking about is whether it is possible to get to 90 wins, we would just need to see if there are at least 37 games left on the schedule. Technically, it is possible that we will reach 116 wins this year, just extremely unlikely. The chances are about as good as me sitting with Jennifer Anniston, Jessica Biel and Jessica Alba in a luxury suite at Wrigley Field (and almost as nice to think about.) Meanwhile, the likelihood of 90 wins is about as good as me sitting in the bleachers during my next visit to Wrigley, i.e. pretty likely.

I probably wasn't clear enough, but I meant reasonably possible as opposed to mathematically possible by going undefeated. My point was that there's a difference between a realistic chance vs. definitely happening.

 

I knew what you meant NC, just really wanted to use my analogy. :) Getting ready for school to get started back up again sir?

[NCCubFan]

Getting ready for school to get started back up again sir?

Pretty soon; classes start in about 3 1/2 weeks. It will be hard getting back into the swing of it after taking the summer off this year.

[David]

Figured it was time for an update.

 

 

It'd be nice if they went on a mini-win streak again soon.. Maybe a 6 gamer, or so, just to put a dent into those wins and get somewhat comfortably over the 10 games over .500 mark.