Asides

MLB Future Power Rankings (ESPN)

Cubs in a landslide. 

The Cubs arrived a year earlier than expected, and they're not going away any time soon. This offseason they'll put the finishing touches on what should be a championship-caliber club in 2016. Team president Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer are committed to building a strong rotation after Arrieta and Jon Lester this offseason to improve their playoff chances, and I expect them to be players on the top free-agent pitchers. If they don't get one, I wouldn't be surprised if they traded one (or more) of their many highly touted prospects to get a top-of-rotation type of guy. Either way, they're positioned for a nice run of winning seasons. — Jim BowdenThe 

The Cubs had a score of 90.9 while the next best team (Dodgers) were at 78.8. Red Sox, Astros and Mets round out the top 5. 

The Offseason

Here at Obstructed View, the coverage never stops. Just because the Cubs are eliminated doesn't mean we are. Posting will almost certainly be less sporadic, but there will be things to cover:

The Arizona Fall League
The Hot Stove League
The Chicago Bulls
Man, Alvin's Latest Article Sucks

These are just a few of the potential offseason idea in store. Keep it here as we try to put out content that will get us reundiscredited.

The Cubs’ uphill battle in the context of a single game

If we make an assumption that the Mets and the Cubs are evenly matched (and who knows how good that assumption is), I thought it'd be interesting to see what the probability they come back from this deficit. It turns out to be 18.4%. Using a Win Expectancy Finder, that's roughly equivalent to…

Top of the Fourth, down 3 runs, runner on first base, no out.

Top of the First, down 4 runs, no outs and no one on.

Bottom of the Ninth, down 1 run, no one out and no one on.

An enterprising announcer could correctly note that it's like the Cubs are at the bottom of the ninth right now.

 

UPDATE: After last night's loss, it's now down 3 in the bottom of the 8th, or down 2 in the bottom of the ninth.

Castro: Ramirez Called Me After Benching

Despite the fact that many Cubs fans (and mustachioed commentators) love to hate Starlin Castro in the same, definitely-not-racist-at-all way they hated Aramis Ramirez, they're two of my favorite players. So I got a little emotional when I read that Aramis reached out to encourage Starlin after his demotion to the very deep Chicago Cubs bench. I love what Ramirez told him*:

Trust yourself and don't let any negative thing put you down. Keep working, you know you're good.

Miguel Montero predicts Cubs will win World Series

Apparently Miguel Montero has already predicted the Cubs will win the World Series. Cubs.com published their 5 reasons the Cubs will win the World Series post today and one of the reasons is this:

Catcher Miguel Montero already has predicted Starlin Castro will be the MVP of the postseason, and it would be quite a turnaround. Castro was batting .236 when Maddon took him out of the lineup on Aug. 7, and instead of pouting, Castro has accepted the move from shortstop to second and made adjustments at the plate. He led the NL in batting in September, hitting .426.

I guess I missed this. Obviously if he thinks Castro will win the MVP of the postseason, then he's thinking the Cubs win the World Series. I'll take it. That kind of prediction takes balls, but I like it. 

BP Wrigleyville with a great Wildcard preview

So that’s what Cole’s been up to. Before we go much deeper in hitter-by-hitter analysis, though, I think we can narrow things down just a bit. Jackson has never faced Cole, has a .655 OPS against right-handed pitchers in 2015, and until his last two games has really struggled in a Cubs uniform. He’s a quality defensive outfielder, though, so it makes more sense for the Cubs to have him on the bench, ready to pinch-hit against a lefty or be a defensive replacement late in the game. Denorfia, meanwhile, has a .686 OPS against right-handed pitchers over the course of his career, and—speaking more broadly—isn’t even a lock to make the postseason roster at this point. I think he’ll probably make the final cut, but Maddon hasn’t started Deno often during the regular season and I don’t think he’ll change that now. — BP Wrigleyville

h/t to SK

Cubs 10th in BP’s “Top Talents 25-and-under” list

I won't print the whole list because it's pay only (seriously, get a subscription already). I will, however, show the NL Central.

1. St. Louis Cardinals (fuck)
4. Pittsburgh Pirates (fuck)
10. Chicago Cubs
23. Cincinnati Reds
29. Milwaukee Brewers

A few thoughts:

Fuck, are the Cardinals good. They are #1 with a bullet; compounding the problem is the fact that the top 6 guys are all 23 and under. They are a team that is 25 wins better than the Cubs right now, and they have as strong of a farm system as the Cubs do if not stronger. 

The Pirates really surprised me at #4. McCutchen has aged out of this list, and Starling Marte is the #2 on this list. I'm not a big Marte fan (and I've seen him several times in the minors – Indianapolis is the AAA Pirates affiliate), but BP has him above Taillon, Polanco, and Glasnow. It's hard for me to put a list that has Jose Tabata on it as the 4th best team in baseball, but BP really loves their Pirates prospects right now. 

The Cubs have a really young list, with only Rizzo being even 24 years old. They also only have 3 of their 10 talents on the major league squad, so a lot can happen before they get to the majors. 

The Reds are misleading; Latos, Chapman, and Leake are all 26. Still, the Reds' system is not awfully impressive, which bodes well for the window in which Votto starts to decline and those pitchers attrite.

The Brewers are terrible. After Jean Segura, I wouldn't take a single player in the Brewers Top 10 over a single player in the Cubs' Top 10. 

Mike Olt says his vision is OK now

The Cubs are hoping Mike Olt can, at some point, take over 3rd base and put up some of the impressive numbers he did prior to 2013. He had a horrible season in the minor leagues last year and it's been blamed on a vision problem that he had after a concussion last winter. He says he's fine now.

“I don’t mind answering that anymore,” Olt says. “Last year was so stressful because we didn’t know what was going on. I don’t mind answering that this year because I’m better.” Olt has only taken batting practice against coaches and a few rips against Cubs pitchers, but already he knows he feels better than a year ago. Now it’s about finding his swing again — he hit 28 home runs at Double-A for Texas in 2012.

Olt has only taken batting practice against coaches and a few rips against Cubs pitchers, but already he knows he feels better than a year ago. Now it’s about finding his swing again — he hit 28 home runs at Double-A for Texas in 2012. 

“I haven’t had any problems so far,” he said. 

Olt has been taking ground balls at first base as well at third to make himself more versatile. 

Let's hope so. I would think it would be a fairly easy decision if he is healthy. Put Olt at 3rd base and move Luis Valbuena to 2nd.