2019 Bold Prediction Time

[Tim]

1) Last year I predicted that Javy would learn how to hit righties better and become a star. This year, he does a better job laying off pitches outside the zone (he gets to average - still not great) and takes another big step as a result.

 

2) Bryant is fully healthy and the NL MVP

 

3) Milwaukee finishes under 85 wins

 

4) Schwarber has better fortunes with men on base, closes some holes in the swing and makes us realize we had Bryce Harper (lite) all along

 

5) Almora still sucks

 

6) Happ still struggles

 

7) as a result, Heyward becomes basically the full-time CF

 

8) Addison recovers some performance and provides 3 WAR at SS in a shortened season - and many of us will still hate him being on the team

 

9) The bullpen is the weakest part of the team and has to be addressed at the deadline

 

and finally...

 

10) Luke Hagerty makes MLB before the end of the year and becomes a big story

[Cubswin11]

1. We win the World Series

 

 

 

I’ll wait until a little later in Spring Training to make individual predictions to make sure nobody dies.

[CyHawk_Cub]

1. Javy puts up another 5 fWAR season, reminding the naysayers, who are certain he'll regress, that he can do whatever the horsefeathers he wants

2. the offense won't be the dumpster fire it was 2nd half of '18, but it'll be clear that Harper was a need, not a luxury (Schwarber improves, but Cubs outfield will still be bottom 10 in baseball in combined wRC+)

3. Cubs and Cards will be battling through the final week, making things on Cubs interwebs chippy & fun

[imb]

3rd place

[SouthSideRyan]

The Reds are a wild card team

[Sammy Sofa]

4th place.

[cl smooth]

* cubs win 93 games, beat the cardinals in the divisional series, dodgers in the nlcs and the astros in the world series. Edited February 14, 2019 by cl smooth

[WrigleyField 22]

1. We win the World Series

Haven't we paid enough already for the first deal we made with the devil.

[UMFan83]

-Either the Cardinals or Brewers will vastly underachieve.

-Rizzo finally breaks the 33 HR/110 RBI barrier and finishes ~35/120

-We get at least 1.5 wins from a player that starts the season in the Cubs minor league system

-One of these players is not a Cub by the end of the season: Montgomery, Schwarber, Almora, Happ, Bote

[Bertz]

Good Stuff

 

- The pitching is really good, top 3 by ERA and top 5ish by more advanced measures. It's basically the staff we thought we were going to get last season.

- Darvish in particular shoves, but Cubs Twitter continues to irrationally hate him because of some high profile blowup against like the Cardinals in May

- Bryant's awesome again, but doesn't top 25 homeruns. We constantly argue whether it's the shoulder or a tradeoff from his improved K/BB numbers

- Tyler Chatwood is a good reliever. Not quite worth his salary, but a strong Justin Wilson/Carl Edwards type

- Happ takes a huge step forward at the plate

 

Bad Stuff

 

- Rizzo's no longer a star. He doesn't fall off a cliff or anything but like last year the slumps get a little longer and the hot streaks a little shorter

- Javy gives back most of what he gained last year

-Zobrist is trash, but the team has a really hard time pulling the plug

- Harper's a horsefeathering monster for the Phillies

- We continue to have a weirdly hard time against the Reds. They finish a little under .500, but win ~12 games against us

[David]

-Either the Cardinals or Brewers will vastly underachieve.

-Rizzo finally breaks the 33 HR/110 RBI barrier and finishes ~35/120

-We get at least 1.5 wins from a player that starts the season in the Cubs minor league system

-One of these players is not a Cub by the end of the season: Montgomery, Schwarber, Almora, Happ, Bote

 

not to be all "look at me and how i don't look at triple crown stats at all" in 2019, but i had no idea this was even a thing

[ConstableRabbit]

Between April and September, there will be fewer posts about on-the-field performance, analysis, and potential transactions than there are about off-the-field player issues management, and player compensation.

[JennieGarthAlgar]

Joe Ricketts gets the Presidential Medal of Freedom Edited February 14, 2019 by JennieGarthAlgar

[Sammy Sofa]

MY OFFICIAL PREDICTION:

 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Maybe these aren't particularly bold, but here goes:

 

+ 2016-2017 Bryant is back

- The Cubs are shopping for a middle infielder in July

+ The bullpen is very good and especially deep

- Lester is the surprise failure of the rotation

+ The Brewers have a losing record

[David]

Bryce Harper is our opening day right fielder

[CubinNY]

The starting pitching is good at points in the season and worse than mediocre most of the season, but not terrible. The Cubs have multiple pitchers on the DL. Hendricks loses velocity and becomes incredibly hittable. Hamels performers like a number 5 starter, Lester can't pitch past the 5th inning most starts.

 

The bullpen is great but gets worn down by August.

 

The defense is among the best in the league, the offense in the bottom 3rd. Schwarber's batting average stays in the low 2s, but the power is up. Schwarber gets traded at the deadline to an AL team. Rizzo becomes a mediocre hitting 1st baseman. Javy's K rate balloons. Bryant maintains a high batting average, but his power is significantly down. Contreras is the lone Cub on the All-Start Team for the NL.

 

By July there is talk that Joe has lost the team. They have a bunch of team meetings this year. They finish a dismal 4th with a losing record.

 

NSB(B) takes out our anger on each other.

[CubinNY]

The starting pitching is good at points in the season and worse than mediocre most of the season, but not terrible. The Cubs have multiple pitchers on the DL. Hendricks loses velocity and becomes incredibly hittable. Hamels performers like a number 5 starter, Lester can't pitch past the 5th inning most starts.

 

The bullpen is great but gets worn down by August.

 

The defense is among the best in the league, the offense in the bottom 3rd. Schwarber's batting average stays in the low 2s, but the power is up. Schwarber gets traded at the deadline to an AL team. Rizzo becomes a mediocre hitting 1st baseman. Javy's K rate balloons. Bryant maintains a high batting average, but his power is significantly down. Contreras is the lone Cub on the All-Start Team for the NL.

 

By July there is talk that Joe has lost the team. They have a bunch of team meetings this year. They finish a dismal 4th with a losing record.

 

NSB(B) takes out our anger on each other.

My predictions are always wrong, so I'm hoping this one is too.

[Tim]

The starting pitching is good at points in the season and worse than mediocre most of the season, but not terrible. The Cubs have multiple pitchers on the DL. Hendricks loses velocity and becomes incredibly hittable. Hamels performers like a number 5 starter, Lester can't pitch past the 5th inning most starts.

 

The bullpen is great but gets worn down by August.

 

The defense is among the best in the league, the offense in the bottom 3rd. Schwarber's batting average stays in the low 2s, but the power is up. Schwarber gets traded at the deadline to an AL team. Rizzo becomes a mediocre hitting 1st baseman. Javy's K rate balloons. Bryant maintains a high batting average, but his power is significantly down. Contreras is the lone Cub on the All-Start Team for the NL.

 

By July there is talk that Joe has lost the team. They have a bunch of team meetings this year. They finish a dismal 4th with a losing record.

 

NSB(B) takes out our anger on each other.

You live in a dark, dark world.

[CubinNY]

The starting pitching is good at points in the season and worse than mediocre most of the season, but not terrible. The Cubs have multiple pitchers on the DL. Hendricks loses velocity and becomes incredibly hittable. Hamels performers like a number 5 starter, Lester can't pitch past the 5th inning most starts.

 

The bullpen is great but gets worn down by August.

 

The defense is among the best in the league, the offense in the bottom 3rd. Schwarber's batting average stays in the low 2s, but the power is up. Schwarber gets traded at the deadline to an AL team. Rizzo becomes a mediocre hitting 1st baseman. Javy's K rate balloons. Bryant maintains a high batting average, but his power is significantly down. Contreras is the lone Cub on the All-Start Team for the NL.

 

By July there is talk that Joe has lost the team. They have a bunch of team meetings this year. They finish a dismal 4th with a losing record.

 

NSB(B) takes out our anger on each other.

You live in a dark, dark world.

That's not a bold prediction. It's right on the money, unfortunately.

[jersey cubs fan]

The starting pitching is good at points in the season and worse than mediocre most of the season, but not terrible. The Cubs have multiple pitchers on the DL. Hendricks loses velocity and becomes incredibly hittable. Hamels performers like a number 5 starter, Lester can't pitch past the 5th inning most starts.

 

The bullpen is great but gets worn down by August.

 

The defense is among the best in the league, the offense in the bottom 3rd. Schwarber's batting average stays in the low 2s, but the power is up. Schwarber gets traded at the deadline to an AL team. Rizzo becomes a mediocre hitting 1st baseman. Javy's K rate balloons. Bryant maintains a high batting average, but his power is significantly down. Contreras is the lone Cub on the All-Start Team for the NL.

 

By July there is talk that Joe has lost the team. They have a bunch of team meetings this year. They finish a dismal 4th with a losing record.

 

NSB(B) takes out our anger on each other.

The first three paragraphs suggest the 4th is actually quite optimistic.

[Butterscup]

4th place at best

 

Clubhouse falls apart similar to 2004 (if i'm remembering correctly) and all our players start hating each other/the front office

 

NSBB shuts down because what's the point (at the very least i think Tim can delete the Transactions forum right now because it's not being used)

[Andy]

Between April and September, there will be fewer posts about on-the-field performance, analysis, and potential transactions than there are about off-the-field player issues management, and player compensation.

Second this prediction.

[David]

4th place at best

 

Clubhouse falls apart similar to 2004 (if i'm remembering correctly) and all our players start hating each other/the front office

 

NSBB shuts down because what's the point (at the very least i think Tim can delete the Transactions forum right now because it's not being used)

2009 was kinda like that too

[squally1313]

The starting pitching is good at points in the season and worse than mediocre most of the season, but not terrible. The Cubs have multiple pitchers on the DL. Hendricks loses velocity and becomes incredibly hittable. Hamels performers like a number 5 starter, Lester can't pitch past the 5th inning most starts.

 

The bullpen is great but gets worn down by August.

 

The defense is among the best in the league, the offense in the bottom 3rd. Schwarber's batting average stays in the low 2s, but the power is up. Schwarber gets traded at the deadline to an AL team. Rizzo becomes a mediocre hitting 1st baseman. Javy's K rate balloons. Bryant maintains a high batting average, but his power is significantly down. Contreras is the lone Cub on the All-Start Team for the NL.

 

By July there is talk that Joe has lost the team. They have a bunch of team meetings this year. They finish a dismal 4th with a losing record.

 

NSB(B) takes out our anger on each other.

You live in a dark, dark world.

The fact that this comes from CubinNY, who has been confidently predicting the Trump downfall for like, over a year now, makes it especially amazing.