Which Crazy Surprise Things Will Happen?

[David]

Every year, crazy surprise stuff happens like huge breakouts or major underperformance...with the sheer quantity of young extremely talented players this team has, there's room for lots of that type of thing.

 

I swear I wasn't stoned when I came up with this

Edited February 15, 2018 by David

[David]

i wanted to put up something like Schwarber becomes a .950 OPS monster but i forgot

[Cubswin11]

I voted Happ, Almora, Willy and Chatwood ones.

[jersey cubs fan]

Dark horse candidate: Hendricks fails miserably

 

He is the same age as Jimi when he died.

 

This could happen, and conceivably barely hurt the Cubs chances.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

Dark horse candidate: Hendricks fails miserably

 

He is the same age as Jimi when he died.

 

This could happen, and conceivably barely hurt the Cubs chances.

http://www.okmoviequotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/401-Tropic-Thunder-quotes.gif

[David]

oh god i'm an idiot

 

i edited the poll and now everyone's votes are gone

 

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

Dark horse candidate: Hendricks fails miserably

 

Oh, I like it. Didn’t Epstein once comment that these sinkerballing pitchers have very short peaks? Hendricks has never developed a good breaking ball, which is going to bite him in the ass at some point.

You like it?! What in the...it's like that "If Zambrano starts your in trouble" guy never happened. Sinkerballers are money with this infield and we all know it. Now I have to go and buy a Hendricks jersey.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

What's the difference functionally between Hendricks' awesome changeup and a curve.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

You like it?!

 

It’s interesting. Hendricks was a weird pitcher even before his fastball averaged 86 MPH. Shallow repertoire, declining velocity, decling whiff rates, missed time with an upper body and throwing arm injury, more flyballs and hard contact....Smoke!

I don't really see an obvious decline in K rate. His velocity was climbing ever since his return from the DL. Shallow?! He has a 4 pitch mix with good movement on 3 of them with deception and control. If that is smoke, give me a toke.

[Cubswin11]

Some other ones I like off the top of my head... Cishek leading the bullpen in a stupid stat like saves or ERA, Heyward putting up a .730-.750 OPS and ~5 WAR season (like 2014), Russell putting it mostly together and staying healthy for a 4.5-5+ WAR, Carl/Maples/Morrow trio rivaling any bullpen trio in baseball for some metric(s), all 5 starters finish with a WAR over 3 and ERA under 3.8, Happ/Almora combine for a top 5 CF in MLB in their platoon, Bryant/Rizzo/Schwarber over 100 HRs combined Edited February 15, 2018 by Cubswin11

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Agree that Darvish and Almora seem the most likely. At first I thought it was Schwarber, but man .950 is a high high bar, he'd have to hit like .285 with best ever power.

 

Chatwood could happen especially with Hickey, maybe I think that's less likely because unless someone else tanks you're then in full-on cackle mode with the strength of the team.

 

Also, thank you for keeping Hendricks humble. Finally, some doubters that he can continue what he's doing.

 

The one that isn't listed here is something like the Conteras option, but for Russell.

[David]

Agree that Darvish and Almora seem the most likely. At first I thought it was Schwarber, but man .950 is a high high bar, he'd have to hit like .285 with best ever power.

 

Chatwood could happen especially with Hickey, maybe I think that's less likely because unless someone else tanks you're then in full-on cackle mode with the strength of the team.

 

Also, thank you for keeping Hendricks humble. Finally, some doubters that he can continue what he's doing.

 

The one that isn't listed here is something like the Conteras option, but for Russell.

 

I love this.

[Sammy Sofa]

Man, Heyward sucking is such a foregone conclusion he didn't show up in the poll or the discussion yet.

[jersey cubs fan]

oh god i'm an idiot

 

i edited the poll and now everyone's votes are gone

 

Did you add the Hendricks option? I didn't notice it the first time. I thought it was a bit heavy on upside surprises.

[David]

oh god i'm an idiot

 

i edited the poll and now everyone's votes are gone

 

Did you add the Hendricks option? I didn't notice it the first time. I thought it was a bit heavy on upside surprises.

 

i did.

[Banedon]

I went with Javy and Schwarber.

 

Mostly just wishful thinking .

[David]

Man, Heyward sucking is such a foregone conclusion he didn't show up in the poll or the discussion yet.

 

yeah that occurred to me after this list. even i've given up hope of him putting up much more than a 2 win type of season.

[David]

oh god i'm an idiot

 

i edited the poll and now everyone's votes are gone

 

Did you add the Hendricks option? I didn't notice it the first time. I thought it was a bit heavy on upside surprises.

 

the thing is almost nobody except rizzo and bryant would absolutely shock me if they had really bad years.

[jersey cubs fan]

Quintana, Darvish, Lester or Hendricks having a bad year would be a surprise.

[David]

Quintana, Darvish, Lester or Hendricks having a bad year would be a surprise.

 

Lester wouldn't shock me that much at this point. In completely arbitrary and made up probabilities, i'd have him like 1/3 being bad, 1/3 being meh/good enough, and 1/3 being very good.

 

Darvish and Q would shock me, yeah, depending on how bad we're talking.

[javy knows my name]

Quintana, Darvish, Lester or Hendricks having a bad year would be a surprise.

 

Man, that is a nasty playoff rotation

[chopsx9]

Quintana, Darvish, Lester or Hendricks having a bad year would be a surprise.

 

I'm well past the point of being surprised if any pitcher puts up a bad year.

 

I'll throw out 2:

 

5 Cubs finish in the top 10 in MVP voting (6 if you count Harper)

 

Russell has a season closer to 2017 than 2016

[David]

Quintana, Darvish, Lester or Hendricks having a bad year would be a surprise.

 

I'm well past the point of being surprised if any pitcher puts up a bad year.

 

yeah, i mean, just look at our staff in the first half of last year

[jersey cubs fan]

Quintana, Darvish, Lester or Hendricks having a bad year would be a surprise.

 

I'm well past the point of being surprised if any pitcher puts up a bad year.

 

yeah, i mean, just look at our staff in the first half of last year

a down half isn't the same as having a full on bad year. If you are asking for surprises you can't eliminate your top notch starting staff doing poorly as a potential surprise.

[javy knows my name]

At what WAR number would Contreras have led our team "by default?"