wOBAs Steamer projected:
| Position | Player | wOBA | lwOBA | pwRC+ |
| C | Montero | 0.319 | 0.305 | 105 |
| 1B | Rizzo | 0.374 | 0.328 | 114 |
| 2B | Baez | 0.306 | 0.298 | 103 |
| SS | Castro | 0.321 | 0.297 | 108 |
| 3B | Valbuena | 0.319 | 0.316 | 101 |
| LF | Coghlan | 0.312 | 0.318 | 98 |
| CF | Alcantara | 0.303 | 0.32 | 95 |
| RF | Soler | 0.346 | 0.316 | 109 |
| – | – | – | – | – |
| Position | Player | wOBA | Position | Player |
| C | Montero | 0.319 | 0.305 | 105 |
| 1B | Rizzo | 0.374 | 0.328 | 114 |
| 2B | Baez | 0.306 | 0.298 | 103 |
| SS | Castro | 0.321 | 0.297 | 108 |
| 3B | Bryant | 0.36 | 0.316 | 114 |
| LF | Valbuena | 0.319 | 0.318 | 100 |
| CF | Alcantara | 0.303 | 0.32 | 95 |
| RF | Soler | 0.346 | 0.316 | 109 |
That’s what it’s like, as of now. Depending on your pessimism for Arismendy Alcantara (I still think he’s a league-average CF for like 6-8 years), we should project to be above-average at every single position just as soon as Bryant is called up (assuming Valbuena moves to LF).
It’s not over, from the positional side. I think the Cubs sign an outfielder to patrol left (moving Valbuena into super-sub duty). The Cubs, all things considered, should be an average to above-average offensive unit.
| Position | Player | FIP | pFIP | FIP- |
| #1 | Lester | 3.28 | 2.84 | 87 |
| #2 | Arrieta | 3.48 | 3.45 | 99 |
| #3 | Hammel | 3.75 | 3.78 | 101 |
| #4 | Hendricks | 4.1 | 4.19 | 102 |
| #5 | Wada | 4.27 | 4.57 | 107 |
To get pFIP, I sorted the Top 150 (151 pitchers made 15 or more starts) starters by FIP, and took the 10th, 30th, 50th, 70th, and 90th quartiles.
The top end doesn’t look as good as it could, but it’s misleading. Steamer (along with every other projection system out there) regresses values to the mean (in fact, the 13th best pitcher last year by FIP: Jon Lester). That makes the best look slightly worse and the worst like slightly better (so you can probably walk back the #4 and #5 values a little bit).
It’s very reasonable to assume that the Cubs, as currently constructed, have an average offense and an average pitching staff. Our defense is pretty good, our bullpen is very good, and our bench is deep. If we stand pat (and we aren’t, I assure you), we’re probably an 82-84 win team at present. That’s pretty fucking fantastic news.