Remember last year, when Baseball Prospectus’s PECOTA projections pegged the Cubs as a mediocre club and everyone flipped their ish? That was fun. The raw numbers aren’t much better this season, but finishing ahead of the Cardinals and Brewers is at least a step in the right direction. Only trouble is, the Cubs’ 85 projected wins still have them falling a game back of the very active Reds.
Just in case you’re grousing about how these projections are treating your team like a group of disgruntled umpires, remember that they’re actually objective.