Pitching o/u
Brandon Morrow
29.5 saves
That kind of seems low, but you have to consider several factors and health is at the top of the list. Brandon Morrow has been plagued with injuries during his entire career and the Cubs are making sure they don’t push him in his first season on the North Side. However, I’m going to be on the optimistic side and say over 29.5 saves for Morrow this year. (-115) Cross those fingers for a healthy season.
Yu Darvish
3.40 ERA
13.5 wins
200.5 strikeouts
Yu Darvish had 209 strikeouts in 2017, his third year with more than 200 strikeouts in MLB. We’ve seen how nasty he is and this will be his second full season since Tommy John surgery and we should really expect more than 200 strikeouts, so smash that over. (-115)
No real strong feeling on the win total or ERA.
Jon Lester
180.5 strikeouts
13 wins
I was a little nervous before spring training started about Jon Lester. Too many times he looked down right awful in 2017, and the thought that maybe that bad version of Lester was going to be more of the norm going forward creeped into my head. Then pitchers and catchers reported to Mesa and Lester looked like he was back. Joe Maddon noticed how crisp Lester was from the start of Cubs camp, so give me that over 180.5 strikeouts. (-115) I mean, he still had 180 strikeouts last season, when he was brutal at times and didn’t get through six innings in one-third of his starts.
Fully believe Lester will be back to his old self in 2018.
But wait, there’s more! Let’s take a look at some odds for player awards and the Cubs odds in the playoffs.
