Is wait finally over? Cubs predicted to win most games this season
The Chicago Cubs are going to win more regular-season games this season than any other team in Major League Baseball, according to over/under win-total projections released Monday by the online sportsbook Bovada.
The Cubs are predicted to win 92 1/2 games and are the only team with a projected win total in the 90s. That represents a 4 1/2-game step back from the 97 wins the Cubs totaled last season when they made a run all the way to the National League Championship Series before losing to the New York Mets. And the Cubs are widely believed to have significantly upgraded the roster in the offseason with the additions of Jason Heyward, John Lackey and Ben Zobrist. So make of the projection what you wish.
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Bovada previously installed the Cubs and San Francisco Giants as favorites to win the 2016 World Series.
Cubs fans are used to being disappointed like no other fan base in American professional sports. So they will likely take this news with a grain of salt and their fingers crossed. The franchise is trying to reach the World Series for the first time since 1945 and win a championship for the first time since 1908. But this season with this roster appears to be their best chance to get there in a looooong time.
Speaking of the postseason, we thought it would be fun to take a look at who Bovada thinks would be in the playoffs based on its win projections. Warning to St. Louis fans: You’re not going to be happy.
That’s right. Last season, the Cardinals led all of baseball with 100 regular-season victories, but this season they will come just shy of the playoffs in the National League with 871/2 wins.
[Joe Maddon traveled back to the ’70s at Cubs camp]
The NL Central was the most competitive division in baseball in 2015 with the Cubs, Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates all winning more than 90 games and advancing to the playoffs. Bovada doesn’t forecast a return to the postseason for the Pirates in 2016 either. They are projected to win 86 1/2 games.
So if Bovada is correct with all of its projections, the NL playoffs would look like this.
The Los Angeles Dodgers would travel to play in the Wild Card game against either the Mets or the Washington Nationals, both of which are predicted to win 89 1/2 games. The winner of the wild-card game would play the Cubs in one division series and San Francisco would play the NL East winner, either the Mets or Nationals.
The American League is a little tougher to sort out based on the projections. Texas and Cleveland would play a one-game playoff to determine the second wild-card team and then travel to Boston to play the Red Sox in the AL wild-card game. The winner would play either Toronto or Houston, both of which are projected with 87 1/2 wins and defending champ Kansas City would play the team whatever team ends up as the No. 2 seed.
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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
