Since the early part of May, I thought the Cubs roster had the pieces to get to the playoffs and likely even win the Central. I was not optimistic about getting deep into the playoffs and became even less optimistic of this with the lack of significant moves at the deadline. As the team leveled off (being polite) after the break and into the middle of August, I still believed the outcome would be about the same but I'll admit to being a bit more cognizant of how the Reds were playing. All that being said, I think the offense overachieved in the first half but I also did not think they are as bad as they were for the 30 game stretch after the break. I'm still in the same spot that I don't expect any deep run because the starting arms just aren't there. I like Imanaga and Boyd but I also think they might be overworked by season's end. Horton is a bit of a wild card. And it's really about who gets hot at the right time which is why I'm not overly bullish on the Brewers. Maybe that's just my hopeful and biased view as a Cub fan but I'm not sure it's a great think to peak in July and August. They certainly know how to win but they also picked up a fair number of heroic wins which probably is not what you will get against elite teams in the playoffs. In summary, a good year but this is exactly what Ricketts wants - good enough to bring in the $$ and interest while not having to spend like a big market team. For what it's worth, I thought this was where ND football was headed until about 2-3 years ago but it seems we are all in now.

record in the NL. Let's see how they are doing at the the end of next month.

Classic example of shifting expectations. On April 1 I would have taken 72-54 all day long. Would have been thrilled. Some underlying metrics suggested a decent year was in store, but not this. Unfortunately, when you have the best run differential and record in baseball essentially up through the All Star break, and then hit an absolute wall of mediocrity, the narrative changes.

April 1 me...thrilled. Today me...disappointed and expecting the worst. Such as it is.

Coming in I thought they would land between 85-88 wins, and had the best chance of all NL Central teams to win the division. They should end up with more than 90 wins, though almost definitely in 2nd place due to the Brewers taking off.

Losing Steele for the season, Amaya for almost the whole season, and having Imanaga and Taillon down for good stretches have been a lot to overcome. Had I known that going in. I would have expected them to struggle to end up above .500.

I haven’t given up on winning the division, though it’s highly unlikely now. Basically they’ll need to win 2 of 3 and hope the Brewers play .500 ball from here out. Could happen but maybe 10% chance.

Barring that I think they have as good a chance as any NL team entering the wild card round. I hope they can earn a home series with the top wild card seed. If they survive that round, then they would be very capable to compete for the pennant with the Brewer, Phillies, Dodgers, or whoever. The Brewers are the best team and the Cubs just won the season series against them. The other teams all have real flaws just like the Cubs.

This season also has me very excited for the future with the emergence of PCA, Shaw, Caissie, and Horton. Bush is solid and Hoerner is very good. Swanson is older but should still have 2-3 more years of excellent play at SS, though his bat is fading. Also Steele and Amaya will be coming back strong, I hope. The other starting pitchers besides Steele and Horton are aging, which is a concern for next year.

I do not expect Tucker to come back. Hopefully he can pull himself together and contribute again this year. No clue what is up with him. Thumb, head, both… no one knows, maybe not even Tucker himself.

tie their worst record their history, 56-106 (1970). That would be a 15 game improvement from last year. That's how bad last year was.

Nothing before has ever come close. Even playing a distinct 2d fiddle in their home market, no large-market team should ever be this horrific for this long. Before this trifecta of trauma, Sox had a comfortable margin over .500 as a franchise--they fell below .500 lifetime last year. They were a solid franchise from 1981-2006, and they had a 17-year run of winning seasons from 1951-67.