Cubs fans are well aware that the team now has a HUGE bulls eye on their back and from what I’ve been hearing coming out of Spring Training, they are ok with that. The team quickly has risen in the ranks of “most hated team” but current Cubs are laughing at the notion that they could ever reach the ranks of some of the most hated teams in history.
Anthony Rizzo doubts the Cubs could ever be hated the way the Red Sox and Yankees are, writes Gordon Wittenmyer. https://t.co/FBDdfhM3KQ
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) February 17, 2017
There’s no doubt that other NL teams will be gunning for the Cubs this year and they’ll be teams like the Mets, Nationals, Dodgers, and Giants that will be leading the charge. When you look back at the Cubs 2016 run and really think about what they did, it’s pretty damn remarkable. The ninth inning comeback to defeat the Giants, rebounding from back-to-back shutouts to defeat the Dodgers, and overcoming a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Indians.
Wild.
We understand that this is a new year and it’s a clean slate, or as Kyle Schwarber says, it’s time to “turn the page.”
It’s safe to say that most fans have turned the page now that Spring Training has started but Phil wants us to make sure that we’re aware that there are other good baseball teams in the National League.
*gasp*
What’s more annoying with this is the fact that Phil quoted the Dodgers PREDICTED win total for 2017 as a cause of concern for Cubs fans. The Cubs projected win total for 2016 was pretty spot on (101) but other teams had huge misses, most notably the other baseball team on the South Side. The Sox were projected to win 90 games in 2016 and stumbled across the finish line in 2016 with 78 wins.
Point being is these are projections. Every fan knows that the NL will be a tough haul to get through and it’ll be a bridge that we’ll worry about if we get another change to cross it.
