Chicago Cubs: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

Chicago Cubs: 2020 Preview and Prediction

Yes, their bullpen is a major concern with a bunch of guys nobody really knows and stars either having injury concerns (Morrow) or aren’t the players they once were (Kimbrel and Jeffress). But to me, it doesn’t seem like any different a situation for the Chicago Cubs than they’ve had in the recent past.

And until last season, they were a playoff team the previous four seasons, so this has been an organization that has developed a bit of a culture of winning after being the lovable losers for the better part of a century.

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What’s really going to come out of nowhere with this team is just how well they’ll mesh with David Ross being the manager of the team, and how well the pitching staff could perform. Ross was the backup catcher and Jon Lester‘s personal catcher during the Cubs’ 2016 World Series run.

Not only will Ross bring needed energy to the clubhouse to fill the shoes of a giant like Joe Maddon, but he will once again prove just how effective former catchers are in managerial positions.

We’ve seen it with guys like Joe Girardi and Kevin Cash of late, but the list goes on with big names like Bruce Bochy, Mike Scioscia, Joe Torre, and Bob Melvin (among so many others) all being former big-league catchers-turned-managers. Catchers know the game inside and out, and more specifically, how to call a game and manage a bullpen.

Bringing on a guy like David Ross is going to go under-the-radar, but this could very well be a situation where we look up mid-August and the Cubs are in a playoff hunt playing inspired baseball to everyone’s amazement. That’ll be in large part due to who’s at the helm.

1-4 in the Cub rotation isn’t by any means “elite,” but it’s worth mentioning just how solid it is, and how it can stack up to just about any rotation in baseball.

I’ve already mentioned Jon Lester who has actually turned in two very nice seasons in 2018 and 2019 since he’s had to shift to pitching more to contact. Lester is a guy to certainly watch with his buddy and former personal catcher back on the scene with him. He won’t be pitching to Ross, but just having him there to consult with is going to do wonders. I would even go as far as to say Lester might be a dark horse CY Young candidate.

After Lester, Kyle Hendricks has done nothing but win games as a member of the Cubs. Nobody really talks about Hendricks because he doesn’t throw hard and pitches more to contact with his sinkerball, but this is a guy who’s 20 games over .500 in his career record (63-43) and has a career ERA of 3.14. Jose Quintana is in a very similar boat as he’s 83-77 in his career with a 3.72 ERA. Neither guy has ever had a losing season with the Cubs.

As for Yu Darvish, look… he’s definitely taken a dip since the 2017 World Series where he got absolutely shelled. But he showed flashes last year of regaining his form and velocity, so even though he’s a big question mark, he still has a high enough ceiling (and now a recent catcher he competed against as his manager) that he can burst back onto the scene in 2020. I would seriously watch this Cubs rotation to all have great seasons.