MLB: Who to Root For This Postseason if Your Team is Eliminated
By Jason Burke
Chicago Cubs: 102-57, best in MLB
Last World Series: Defeated the Detroit Tigers in 1908
The Cubs provide a number of reasons to capture your rooting interests. Whether you’re a fan of curses being broken, a fun team that plays with a smile, Joe Maddon, or prospects, Chicago provides them all.
For years, the Cubs focused on rebuilding through the draft and acquiring talent to improve their minor league system, and that has been paying off in a big way. When the talent they had added was ready to make an impact at the big league level, Theo Epstein (the man that broke the Curse of the Bambino in Boston) started using the financial resources available to him to help supplement some of the team’s weak spots via free agency.
Prime examples of these additions over the past few few years have been Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo on the offensive side of things, and lefty Jon Lester via free agency. Bryant was drafted in 2013 with the second overall pick, one after Mark Appel went to Houston. This season Bryant ranks second in fWAR to Mike Trout, which, coupled with the fact that he is on the best team in baseball, should give him a good shot at the NL MVP.
Rizzo was acquired by the Cubs a year earlier in the Andrew Cashner trade with the Padres, and in his time with Chicago has become the leader of the team. The fact that he was willing to fight (he didn’t) Aroldis Chapman back when the Cubs were bad and Chapman was with the Reds, solidified that role for Rizzo.
Lester was arguably the biggest fish of his free agent class given his postseason pedigree, and the Cubs were able to lure him in with lots and lots of money.
The one downside in rooting for the Cubs is that they aren’t the underdogs, a role in which we have become accustomed to seeing them in. With the free agent spending and all of the media attention, it’s possible that some fans (ok, Cardinals fans) will look elsewhere with their rooting interests.