The single best guide to the upcoming baseball season is usually the output of projection systems like Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA or FanGraphs' Steamer. These algorithms make use of past history and statistics to forecast how each team will do next season, often with uncanny accuracy. Those same systems are down on the Cubs’ pitching for 2017, predicting major regression across the staff. But because of the Cubs’ incredible defense, they aren’t likely to be as bad as the machines think.
It should surprise no one to learn that the 2016 Cubs were historically great at...
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