Chicago Cubs 2015 Preview: Expect A New Atmosphere At Wrigley
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Verdict
There will be more excitement surrounding Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs. With some of the experience gained last season, the young prospects will convert to real major leaguers. Yes, there will be some average players and some busts in the mix of all the prospects coming up, but there will be a lot more hits than there will be misses, and some of those hits will be big hits.
The 2015 Cubs have the potential to be what the Kansas City Royals were last season. They could be the surprise team of the major leagues.
Yes, this team may depend too much on some young players, but there are some very good veterans who were brought in to help them along. A catcher like Miguel Montero, who is one of the best catchers behind the plate in framing pitches, handles a pitching staff well and will help the young pitchers on the mound. He is a leader in the clubhouse as well, so he will help the position players as well. Having Montero and Lester will be valuable for the young Cubs.
The way the offense is stacked up, having a guy at the top of the order like Dexter Fowler will certainly help the Cubs drive in more runs. Fowler gets on base with regularity, and with Castro, Rizzo, Bryant and Soler there to drive him and others in, this team will certainly get on base more and drive in more runs than they have over the last four years.
There will be a lot of relevant games for the Cubs in 2015. I don’t believe they will win the division, but they will battle for one of the Wild Card slots.
I see the Cubs with a record of 85-77, and finish just out of the playoff race. That is with the club as constructed at this moment. If Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer are able to make a trade deadline deal on July 31st, all bets are off and it could be a special season at the Friendly Confines.
This may very well be the start of a new, winning era in the Chicago Cubs’ history.