2024 Bold Predictions Thread

[Bertz]

This is an annual thread around here.  What are your bold predictions for what we see in 2024?  I'll lead off with a few:

- Miguel Amaya has a 2008 Geovany Soto style breakout, and becomes clearly part of the core

- Owen Caissie is hitting cleanup before the season is done

- Kyle Hendricks pitches well enough to necessitate a qualifying offer, but thankfully gets extended before FA opens

[mul21]

Cody is meh.

Busch hits at a near All star level

Imanaga is awesome

Steele takes a step back

Morel turns into an above average 3B

[imb]

PCA has fewer than 100 major league at bats this year

Suzuki tops 30 ding dongs

alzolay turns into a multi-inning high leverage guy and cuas/neris end up leading the team in saves

hoerner slumps hard before the all star break and gets benched

[CubinNY]

Brown and Horton are part of the starting rotation by or after the ASB.

Shaw and Cassissie are both starting by or after the ASB.

The Cubs make a deep run in the playoffs. 

[JunkyardWalrus]

Suzuki MVP. 

Busch is the answer at 1b.

When PCA comes up, it's Happ moves to DH, Suzuki to LF and Bellinger to RF on most days. 

Nico hits 9th by the end of the season once Tauchman is dfa'd. 

[Outshined_One]

Ben Brown and Cade Horton both end the season in the Cubs' bullpen, with Brown handling closing duties and Horton handling long relief outings to give the rotation a breather in August/September.

Javier Assad finishes the season in the Cubs' rotation, and most everyone's okay with it.

Dansby Swanson makes his third ASG in a row.

Matt Shaw gets a midseason callup and becomes the everyday 3B.

The Cubs lock up the NL Central by mid-September.

The Cubs make the NLCS, but fall short to the Dodgers in 6 games.

[Stratos]

Brennen Davis rakes in AAA, re-enters the Cubs prospect Top 10, and makes his Cubs debut before the ASB....then gets hurt again.

Busch starts at least 25 games at 3B.

Garrett Cooper becomes a hitting machine and goes 2021 Frank Schwindel on the league.

Mervis comes back up and mashes.

Luke Little legally changes his name to Brailyn Marquez.

Edited March 26, 2024 by Stratos

[Jason Ross]

1. By the end of the season, Cade Horton is clearly the Cubs second best starting pitching option. 

2. Michael Busch has a 120 wRC+ on the season. 

3. Jaxson Wiggins makes his MiLB debut and shows the improved command that was reported he was showing in the fall at Arkansas. 

 

[chopsx9]

Bellinger is at least as good as last year

Hoerner, Steele take a step back

Suzuki rakes.

Happ battles injuries all year

Cade Horton becomes a factor for the big team

B Davis re-establishes himself.

Morel manages 3b

People are sleeping on the Pirates

[Transmogrified Tiger]

• The Cubs have a Top 3 run scoring offense in MLB
• They trade for a multi-year SP solution at the deadline(some off the cuff names: Cristian Javier, Zac Gallen, Aaron Civale)
• Taillon starts the 2nd game of a playoff series
• Swanson puts up a career high wRC+
• Morel spends the next offseason as a trade target again, because he doesn't take to 3rd and Suzuki(who finds another level above 2023 offense) is preferably a DH in 2025-26

[Rob]

• Bellinger has a mediocre season and doesn't opt-out at season's end.
• Busch rakes and develops into a solid, second-tier 1B.
• Morel is basically done playing 3B by the end of May unless forced there by injuries.
• Cuas develops into a set-up option.
• Our rotation stays in a permanent state of flux. At various points, just about everybody is getting a chance to start a game. We also do some openers and a brief experiment with a six-man rotation.

 

[sneakypower]

Morel acquits himself well at 3rd

[imb]

3 hours ago, TomtheBombadil said:

- Wyatt Langford runs away with AL ROY, also gets MVP votes

im a huge fan, that dude can horsefeathers ball. does he not look like mike trout out there? maybe not quite as explosive athletically but just a short stout dude that runs and defends. love him

[JBears79]

-Horton and Shaw are both regulars after the All Star break

-Justin Steele repeats his year from last season

-Michael Busch finishes 2nd in ROY behind Wyatt Langford

-Morel his 40 Hr's this season

[LBiittner]

The Good:

Belli plays so well and puts up astronomical numbers, he opts out. And then he fires Boras and gets a new agent.

The Bad: 

Mervis is traded for a ptbnl. That ptbnl is Javy Baez

[Derwood]

Justin Steele regresses, but its balanced out by a resurgent Jameson Taillon

The Cubs never figure out a regular 3B all year, bouncing between 3-4 guys

 

[Hunter]

• Justin Steele isn't quite as good as last year
• Michael Bush proves to be a quad-A guy and gets sent down. Garret Cooper takes over at first
• Dansby Swanson is a little better offensively this season
• Jameson Taillon is better this season
• Imanaga is so-so
• The Drew Smyly experiment finally ends
• Cubs miss the playoffs

[muntjack]

Dansby puts up the lowest wRC+ of his career. 

Suzuki gets MVP votes

Imanaga is 2nd in ROY voting

Every starter ends the season with an ERA between 3.80 and 4.50.

The offense finishes right behind the Braves and Dodgers. 

The Cubs win 93 games.

[Bertz]

https://theathletic.com/5351937/2024/03/27/sarris-ten-bold-predictions-2024-mlb-season?source=user-shared-article

Bold predictions column from Eno Sarris includes a Cub

Quote

 

Christopher Morel is an All-Star

“I see the ball, I hit the ball hard,” said Benito Santiago after he hit a game-winner sometime when I was an impressionable lad. And though Christopher Morel doesn’t always make contact, he does follow suit in these terms.

Does he see the ball well? He chases on pitches outside the zone at about a league-average rate. What he does do really well is swing at strikes. Robert Orr at Baseball Prospectus made a statistic that quantifies the fact that discipline is not only about laying off the bad pitches, it’s also swinging at the good ones. It’s named SEAGER because Corey Seager is the best at it, naturally. And Morel is a top-50 hitter in SEAGER, which might surprise people staring too big of a hole into his strikeout rate.

And he hits the ball hard. Here are the top 10 players 25 and under who had 400 or more plate appearances last season, ranked by their Barrel rate, which is a strongly predictive measure of batted-ball power. Let’s also include these players’ maximum exit velocities as a measure of their raw power.

That is a fun list of baseball’s best young sluggers. It’s fair to wonder about his defense, but it looks like the Cubs are going to give him a regular spot and let him play a ton. Early returns are mixed on his glove at third, but the resolve is there.

“We have high expectations for him, he does too,” Cubs coach Jonathan Mota told Sahadev Sharma about Morel’s defense. “But mistakes are going to happen.”

 

 

[CubinNY]

13 minutes ago, Bertz said:

https://theathletic.com/5351937/2024/03/27/sarris-ten-bold-predictions-2024-mlb-season?source=user-shared-article

Bold predictions column from Eno Sarris includes a Cub

 

Keith Law also has them winning the division. 

[Derwood]

I think most writers are in the “everyone in the NL Central is ‘meh’, so gotta pick someone” camp

[Petrey10]

On 3/25/2024 at 2:51 PM, JunkyardWalrus said:

Suzuki MVP. 

Busch is the answer at 1b.

When PCA comes up, it's Happ moves to DH, Suzuki to LF and Bellinger to RF on most days. 

Nico hits 9th by the end of the season once Tauchman is dfa'd. 

Why are we moving our gold glove Lfer to def?!? lol very bold prediction 

[Petrey10]

Morel leads majors in Homers. 
 

imanaga and Steele become a great duo atop the rotation

 

cubs win 88 games just not quite enough to truly contender for a WS

[JunkyardWalrus]

failed at quoting to whom I replied.

Edited March 27, 2024 by JunkyardWalrus
'quote'

[I owned a Suzuki]

Bellinger disappoints

Suzuki gets MVP votes

Taillon and out of rotation by end of year

Mastrobouni does not suck