MLB.com has a fun little article that will whet your appetite for the upcoming 2016 baseball season. It’s about the simmering Cubs-Cardinals rivalry, which appears like will turn into a full boil next season.
The “rivalry” has been largely one in name prior to 2015, but the young upstart Cubs have loaded up this off-season after a successful 2015 campaign, adding Zobrist, Lackey, and much to many a Cardinals’s fan chagrin, Hayward. The Cardinals have not have as much success this off-season with their maneuvering, signing Leake, but only a damned fool counts the red birds out. This is a storied organization with a long history of success, although Fangraphs has predicted them to win only 84 games next season.
All I know is that this is going to fun season. Let the games begin. Aw, crap, it’s only January? F**********.
Fan Interference 
The Cards won 100 games last year, and one is hard-pressed to see how that was possible. Poor hitting (19th in team wOBA and 16th in WRC+) and key injuries all over the field. Even fielding was about average. Pitching (1st in ERA, 5th in FIP) seems to have carried them a long way.
But there it is. 100 wins.
It’s hard not to figure the Cubs will go further this year. Their prospect development has come to fruition, and they have really exercised those financial muscles. The Cards are a year older at key positions and pitching staff injuries have become very problematical.
I hope the NL Central is a three-team bloodbath again this year. That was fun to watch last year. But the Cards may indeed struggle to keep up.
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I’m already resigned to the Cards finishing second for sure, while offering a 20 percent or so chance of the Pirates moving ahead of them for that spot, and even 5-7 percent chance they miss the playoffs.
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a 5 – 7 percent chance they miss the playoffs, that’s a first world problem.
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Gotta say there are a large majority of teams (Houston included) who would feel terrific with a 93-97% chance of making the playoffs.
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Or 93-95%. Fast typing.
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In the case of the Twins I have to hit the cheap vodka to believe that they have a 50% chance, which I would be very happy with.
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You would be happy with the 50%?
Or you would be happy with the cheap vodka?
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I’ll have to think on that one.
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Yes, it is! We’re taking that rug of Kroenke’s head as the rally toupee.
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I’d take either.
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Cheap vodka you can buy in any liquor store. Playoffs are harder to come by.
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I was teasing, stex. Unless you’re a Cardinal or a Yankee, the playoffs are a rare and beautiful thing, and life’s too short to drink cheap vodka.
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Sooooo true Indie. I am a fan of vodka martinis….and really, it is all about the vodka. I know tastes vary, I tried a few different relative good vodkas, and Grey Goose is so good that it is worth every penny.
Of course, life is also too short to drink cheap bourbon, cheap rye, cheap Irish Whiskey, cheap cachaça, cheap tequila, or cheap absinthe. Cheap brandy is fine…because, you know…all brandy is cheap.
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Cheers. One of life’s elemental wisdoms is learning when to be frugal and when to splurge.
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That is wisdom indeed, although it was phrased a bit differently when I first heard it.
Most of my extended family made a point to attend holiday gatherings, dinners were generally large and well-populated. Because of this, I didn’t “graduate” to the grown-up table for Thanksgiving until 8th grade.
I remember being fairly quiet, just listening to the grownups making their grownup talk. Grandpa, as always, ruled the table with both humor and wisdom. During a bit of a lull in the conversation, he turned to me and gave me two pieces of advice that he said would serve me well for the rest of my life.
“It doesn’t cost any more to travel first class, you just don’t get to stay as long.” and “Be careful where you put your pecker.”
It was at that second one that my mom shot her iced tea out of her nose, which had of course been the real goal all along. Dinner wasn’t dinner until someone spewed beverage out their nose.
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I like the way your grandpa said it better.
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Paper, when I retired for the first time, I went out and bought a quality bourbon and a couple of single malt scotches. I told my wife, “I ain’t drinking cheap whiskey again in this life.”
Fortunately, she was okay with it.
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Poor Gadfly. In California, we project the California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels a 5% – 7% chance of contending.
There it is. I have no sympathy for your problems.
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The Cubs have at least a 5-7% chance of missing the playoffs. If Lester and Arrieta go down, they are in trouble. The Cardinals probably have more like a 30% chance of missing the playoffs right now.
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Don’t forget to subtract at least another 10% that they be struck by the malice of the Gods.
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God is a Cardinal fan.
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I should have explained that I was thinking of odds just within the division of playoff chances … the league as a whole, yeah, 30 percent could be about right.
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Right.
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@Happy, you mean this?
That computer’s been hacked, and the “smite” is hovering over some other team.)
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Yay! The White Sox are doomed.
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