The Cubs Needs to Maintain 4-1 World Series Odds

With what may have been the biggest off season in recent Cubs history, has created a lot of chatter about a World Series victory for the "Lovable Losers" of Chicago. Yes, You read it right. The Cubs have the best odds in Vegas right now according to SuperBook at 4-1. Followed by the Dodgers and Astros at 10-1. Just a few years ago in 2012, The Cubs were a 100+ loss team. They some how transitioned into becoming a NLCS finalist in 2015 and hope to succeed more in the upcoming season. From 2014 to 2016 the Cubs payroll jumped just a little over 100 million dollars. In 2014, their payroll was 59.8 mill & now after this off-season acquiring Jason Heyward, John Lackey, and Ben Zobrist they sit at 164 million. It goes to show that Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer knew when to capitalize at the right time to bring baseball back to life at Wrigley.

Looking on paper, the Cubs are overall set up for success in 2016. But even though the bar is set so high, They have to come out with the same mentality they did last year and that is just play the game of baseball each and every day. Joe Maddon has done a great job of that with being the manager. The skipper knows the expectations are high. "Never permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure" may have been my favorite quote from him last season. Now with the Cubs making their stand in the league, Joe is emphasizing "Embrace the target" this year in Spring Training already. Kris Bryant said earlier this week, "We're to young for that" when asked about letting all this hype get to their heads. With keeping composure, There are a few other things that need to happen for the odds to go right in Chicago's favor:

1. Top Of The Rotation- With Arrieta, Lester, Lackey, and Hammel in the front of the starting rotation it's hard to bet against them. It will be very hard for Arrieta to match his second half stats but he will be ready to go coming off his Cy Young year. I believe he will get the start on opening night vs the Angels. The last time Lester & Lackey were on the same team was in 2013 with the Boston Red Sox where they went on to win the World Series that year. These two guys are here to win and nothing else. They are hungry for a championship. They know what it's like and that is really crucial to have to share with the younger players on this Cubs team. The past two years now, Jason Hammel has had a stellar first half of the season and after the All Star game fell off and struggled. Watch out to see if Hammel can stay steady the whole year. Needless to say these 4 out of 5 pitchers in the rotation are scary and need to show up big time to lead this team to their expectations. The next question is who will be filling up that 5th starting role; Travis Wood, Kyle Hendricks, or even Adam Warren?

2. RISP- Think back to Opening Night baseball vs the Cardinals last year. Chicago fell short 3-0. Worst part of that game was struggling with Runners In Scoring Position, 0-13 the Cubs were! There were plenty of games where the Cubs had opportunities to pull out the victory and "Fly the W Flag" last season but just struggled with RISP. By signing Zobrist and Jason Heyward they hope to help that need. Projections have Rizzo, Bryant, AND Schwarber hitting 30+ home runs this season which will be a mid line up power house. They need to drive in those runners on second and third to win crucial games this upcoming season to push them to a hopeful World Series run.

Jonathan Herrera's helmet rub helmet

3. Enjoy The Ride- There is no doubt that this young team likes to have fun. You can see that from even watching this team on TV. The helmet rub, the magicians, the zoo animals, Starlin Castro's walk up song (Which will be missed), and everything else that was put into last season makes it that more special. They need to be loose and create team chemistry. Most of the team was at Spring Training weeks before the arrival date which is very unheard of. Goes to show how excited each one is to get back at it on the field. There should be no problem with the team having fun when the times right but know when to get serious. It's the old man, David Ross's, last season in the MLB... Nothing better to go out with a bang. Can the Cubs do it?