Realistic, Bold Predictions for '09

[Guest]

The Bad

- Soriano, Aramis, Bradley, Harden, Marmol, and Z all spend significant time on the DL

- By June the Cubs will be looking for someone else to play CF

- Lilly pitches terrible in 50% of his starts, people blame the WBC

- Gregg is removed from the Closer spot by June after blowing several save opps.

-The bullpen is a mess all year due to injury and crappy performance

 

The Good

-The Shark takes over the 5th spot and pitches well

-The cajun combo inexplicably continues to produce

-The talent in the low minors starts to show

 

The ugly

- The Cubs are 10 games out by June 15

[Mephistopheles]

Predictions by me, some are bold, some are not so bold.

 

Position Player Stuff

- kosuke fukudome develops into an upper third centerfielder, at the minimum.

- come mid-season we'll be looking to upgrade shortstop

- derrek lee has a resurgent season in power production, hits 30-35 home runs.

- alfonso soriano hurts his leg while hopping and catching a ball at least once this season.

- aramis ramirez's defensive "improvement" evaporates and the term error-miss becomes prevalent on nsbb.

- milton bradley breaks

- geovany soto is the third or fourth most productive catcher in the national league.

 

Pitcher Stuff

- Rich Harden makes less than 15 starts in the regular season and post-season combined.

- Carlos Zambrano has a season ending injury at some point this season.

- Ryan Dempster falls back to mediocrity, ends up with an ERA north of 4.00.

- Ted Lilly continues to be a useful anchor in the rotation.

- The Cubs second most productive starting pitcher by VORP will be Sean Marshall, provided Lou gives him at least 20 starts.

- Aaron Heilman, Jeff Samardzija and possibly Angel Guzman combine to make 25 starts.

- Carlos Marmol tears his UCL.

- Chad Fox tears his UCL.

 

Minor League Stuff

- Our system continues to suck.

- Cashner walks a ton.

- Vitters hits for an empty batting average.

 

Draft Stuff

- The Cubs piss me off.

 

Overall

- The Cubs pitching regresses to solid-to-middle of the pack in the National League (think around fourth-sixth range in ERA).

- The Cubs offense continues to produce near the top of the pack in the National League (top third).

 

The Cubs win 90 games, finish first in the National League Central. The rest of the league in the playoffs will be the Mets, Dodgers and Phillies. The Cubs face the Mets in the first round, and lose three games to one.

 

Red Sox over Dodgers in the WS.

[Mephistopheles]

Awards:

 

NL Cy Young - Chad Billingsley

NL MVP - Albert Pujols

NL Rookie of the Year - Colby Rasmus

 

AL Cy Young - Roy Halladay

AL MVP - Mark Teixeira

AL Rookie of the Year - David Price

 

 

and Mark Prior makes a non-simulated start somewhere.

[SweetZombieJesus]

Good:

 

Fukudome puts up 830 OPS

Josh Vitters hits 340 with 15 HRs before he is traded for Jake Peavy

 

Bad:

Cubs trade for Jake Peavy who blows out his shoulder in his first start.

Rich Harden never makes a pitch for the big club

Chad Gaudin makes 30 starts

Carlos Zambrano goes blind while throwing a shut out. Blows out his arm the next start.

Carlos Marmol develops LaTroyitis

Aaron Miles is the new leadoff man and gets 700 ABs

Derrek Lee turns into Mark Grace without the old timey baseball player charm.

Aramis Ramirez turns into 24 year old aramis ramirez

Ryan Theriot is the starter the whole season at SS

Ryan Dempster loses his pixie dust goes back to a 5 ERA and 1.60 WHIP type pitcher

Aaron Heilman is a massive flop

Alfonso Soriano breaks a leg which means the cubs bring back half shirt wearing fancy boy.

 

Cubs record 62-100

 

Cards win the division by 30 games and Khalil Greene wins the MVP.

[otis89]

Carlos Zambrano goes blind while throwing a shut out. Blows out his arm the next start.

 

Blind starting pitcher, eh?

[Mephistopheles]

Good:

 

Fukudome puts up 830 OPS

Josh Vitters hits 340 with 15 HRs before he is traded for Jake Peavy

 

Bad:

Cubs trade for Jake Peavy who blows out his shoulder in his first start.

Rich Harden never makes a pitch for the big club

Chad Gaudin makes 30 starts

Carlos Zambrano goes blind while throwing a shut out. Blows out his arm the next start.

Carlos Marmol develops LaTroyitis

Aaron Miles is the new leadoff man and gets 700 ABs

Derrek Lee turns into Mark Grace without the old timey baseball player charm.

Aramis Ramirez turns into 24 year old aramis ramirez

Ryan Theriot is the starter the whole season at SS

Ryan Dempster loses his pixie dust goes back to a 5 ERA and 1.60 WHIP type pitcher

Aaron Heilman is a massive flop

Alfonso Soriano breaks a leg which means the cubs bring back half shirt wearing fancy boy.

 

Cubs record 62-100

 

Cards win the division by 30 games and Khalil Greene wins the MVP.

 

No, that's all next season in a conspiracy to draft Bryce Harper in 2011.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Jim Hendry aquires a well past his prime ex Cubs at the waiver deadline for no good reason other than that Hes bored.

All Cubs main starters win at least 15 games

Cubs never aquire Jake Peavy

Cubs entire starting lineup voted to all star team

No major injuries to Cubs players

Milton Bradley wins MVP

Cubs win World Series

Andre Dawson voted into the Hall of Fame

[Little Slide Rooter]

Good:

 

Fukudome puts up 830 OPS

Josh Vitters hits 340 with 15 HRs before he is traded for Jake Peavy

 

Bad:

Cubs trade for Jake Peavy who blows out his shoulder in his first start.

Rich Harden never makes a pitch for the big club

Chad Gaudin makes 30 starts

Carlos Zambrano goes blind while throwing a shut out. Blows out his arm the next start.

Carlos Marmol develops LaTroyitis

Aaron Miles is the new leadoff man and gets 700 ABs

Derrek Lee turns into Mark Grace without the old timey baseball player charm.

Aramis Ramirez turns into 24 year old aramis ramirez

Ryan Theriot is the starter the whole season at SS

Ryan Dempster loses his pixie dust goes back to a 5 ERA and 1.60 WHIP type pitcher

Aaron Heilman is a massive flop

Alfonso Soriano breaks a leg which means the cubs bring back half shirt wearing fancy boy.

 

Cubs record 62-100

 

Cards win the division by 30 games and Khalil Greene wins the MVP.

 

No, that's all next season in a conspiracy to draft Bryce Harper in 2011.

 

Too bad they couldnt have done it last year to get us Strasburg.

[hardcorecubfan]

Z suffers knee injury while breaking bat over knee.

Peavey does become a Cub July 29 11:05 PM

Theriot wins Homerun derby at All-star game.

 

Hendry collapses after he opens a box of donuts and it is empty.

 

Hardcore and Mojo agree on something.......nah that will never happen

[Mephistopheles]

greg peavey isn't draft eligible. we can't sign him by then.

[sneakypower]

a few

 

Marlins make playoffs (desp 90+ loss pecota/tht projection)

Nolasco wins CY

Orioles finish over .500

James McDonald finishes 2nd in ROY

Wieters doesn't win

Giants win division

Brett Gardner gets at least 1 MVP vote

Rangers win division - Cruz has more valuable season than Hamilton

Phillies miss playoffs

Brian Wilson leads league in saves

Lester leads AL in wins

Bradley plays 135 games

[Bull]

severe sophomore slump for Geovanny Soto. As in, he is bottom half of nl catchers in OPS.

[sneakypower]

thats simply not realistic

[BCVM22]

Cubs make the playoffs, draw Stockton in the booth for the first round again, we get at least three instances of "Michael Hoffpauir".

[TruffleShuffle]

thats simply not realistic

 

neither is the marlins making the playoffs.

[otis89]

Cubs make the playoffs, draw Stockton in the booth for the first round again, we get at least three instances of "Michael Hoffpauir".

 

Erruh.

[Brian]

at least one person freaks out over something each day of the season on nsbb.

[TruffleShuffle]

at least one person freaks out over something each day of the season on nsbb.

 

this is very realistic but not bold at all.

[Hector89]

The Cubs win at least 1 playoff game.

[hardcorecubfan]

at least one person freaks out over something each day of the season on nsbb.

 

That is ridiculous, that will never happen. We are all level headed fans. :roll:

[sneakypower]

thats simply not realistic

 

neither is the marlins making the playoffs.

if their top 5 stay reasonably healthy, they probably have the best pitching in the division and a much improved defense. it really wouldn't surprise me at all to see them make the playoffs.

[QcCubFan]

Touching on the Dick Stockton thing ...after a great reg season, we not only get Stockton, we get swept again, and our stunned silence watching at home is only interrupted by the awful previews for "Frank TV".

[NCCubFan]

Frank TV has been cancelled, so at least we'll be spared those commercials.

[dew1679666265]

• Z is better than most projections think.

• Fontenot fills the shoes of DeRosa nicely at second, but the Miles/Gathright combo replacing DeRo's versatility are awful

• Gregg is excellent in the closer's role, but still leaves town after Patton proves himself to be good enough to take over Marmol's fireman role next year and Carlos becomes the closer

• Samardzija gets some spot starts for Harden during the season and then overtakes Marshall as the fifth starter by September

• Theriot regresses badly, but Hendry swings a deal for a good offensive SS

• Colvin becomes a decent bat off the bench in September

• Fukudome has close to the kind of year we hoped for last season

• Bradley is hurt more than he's healthy

• Lee improves on last year's numbers, especially the power

• The Cubs win just over 90 games, advance through the first round but are eliminated in 6 games by the Mets

• Peavy is traded, but not to the Cubs

 

Non-Cubs:

• The Reds contend for the playoffs

• The Royals finish a close second behind the Yankees for the WC berth

• The Indians win the AL Central

• The Braves have a losing record

[Guest]

Cubs win it all.