I guess we’re still doing this?

After last year’s bloodbath/cliffdive/whatever you want to call it, it can be hard to summon up much real enthusiasm for this year’s team.  It’s maybe a mediocre team on paper with a slight chance of being better but a real chance of being much worse.  It’s pretty impressive to have a roster that makes it both obvious how cheap the owners are - $136mil opening day payroll - while also being totally overpaid (I’m looking mostly at you, Jason).  If you want to be kind to the FO, this is a transition year, one where they try to see if anyone is worth keeping and to give the very young - but potentially good - prospects another year to develop; less politely they’re inexperienced yet old.  This is a roster than only has 2 clear every day players - one a Japanese rookie and the other a soon to be FA catcher; there’s a chance they have only 1 player start 130 games this year.  They have 3 clear SPs, one of whom is a 35 year old who was more valuable last year than his previous best 2 seasons combined and is going to start the year on the IL.  Everyone in the pen is either over 35 or under 25 (or so it seems).  This is a Rays roster without all the talent and getting paid twice as much.  Or to borrow the marketing slogan, it’s different here - whether that’s good or not is in the eye of the beholder.

Trying to organize this into a typical season preview will be difficult.  One of the best case scenarios still leads to a massive sell-off at the trade deadline.  So I’ll just start typing and see where this goes….

The Good?
-By far, the most exciting thing about this team will be watching Seiya Suzuki.  He was a helluva player in Japan, and that should translate to him being a positive here.  I think it would be unfair to expect him to be an All-Star, but that’s well within the range of possibilities.  He appears to be a pretty funny and engaging guy, so he will be fun to root for and I can only hope he doesn’t get off to a rocky start that causes the fan base to sour on him.
-Marcus Stroman is a legit good pitcher, and at least from my perspective, another fun and interesting guy to watch and follow.  The length of his contract, and the Cubs likely badness, will also keep the thought of a future trade in the back of my mind.  But he seems to be saying all the right things, and appears to really want to be here.
-I’d expect Contreras to have a good year.  I wish they would have agreed to a contract extension by now (whether he’ll be worth it is for another discussion, especially after all of the previous core ended up signing for deals well under rumored extension from the Cubs over the years), because I really don’t want to spend the whole year thinking about him getting traded at the deadline or just leaving after the year.  I don’t think it’s just nostalgia saying that either.
-The veteran bench signings all have uses and seem to compliment the young old guys well - all of Gomes, Villar, and Simmons have actual strengths and hopefully Ross uses them appropriately.
-The countdown to Brennen Davis’s arrival.  He very clearly needs time at AAA, and I just hope the Cubs don’t feel pressured to rush him for any reason. 

The Bad
-Jason Heyward.  For my sanity, I’m going to try and not comment on him at all until he’s no longer on the Cubs, so I’m gonna try to get a bunch of pre-emptive comments out now: he’s playing too much, he should never face a lefty ever, he’s clearly lost a step defensively and isn’t that good in CF anyway, he’s getting paid too damn much, don’t be a dumbass and think his one hot week is actual progress because he’s done this every single year, etc etc
-Madrigal’s defense and lack of power
-Hoerner’s health
-Happ’s horrible first half and good second half that’ll fool us into thinking he’s not terrible
-Wisdom’s 40% K rate
-Probably Smyly and Miley
-Alzolay’s health and complete ineffectiveness against lefties
EDIT: The fact that the Cubs haven’t gotten the Marquee network onto any more services since it was launched; in fact, it’s no longer on Hulu.  So you can only get it on Comcast/xfinity, Dish, or FuboTV.  None of which I have or really want to pay for just to watch this team (FuboTV is the cheapest at $70/mon, but it’s more expensive and significantly inferior to YouTubeTV, which is what I do have).

The could go either way
-I want to see Hermosillo given a real chance to get regular playing time.  Prove he’s decent or bad once and for all.  He should get the most ABs in CF until Davis comes up, full stop.
-Madrigal’s and Schwindel’s contact skills.  They’re real, but are they good enough for them to be worthwhile players or not?
-Nico’s versatility.  I still am not convinced he should be an every day SS, but if he plays well enough he might earn the job which could be a bad thing; if he doesn’t play well enough, he might not be worth trying to play in multiple spots.  I guess I’m saying he should play, but I am not optimistic.
-Young pitchers that could stand out, including Steele (gets the first shot at keeping a SP’s job), Thompson, and Roberts (I’m buying the hype on him as a future closer).  Couple other guys in AAA that could come up this year and prove worth something including Abbott, Killian, Leeper, and Rodriguez.  I guess this could eventually include Marquez but his health is totally unknown and such a huge wild card. 
-David Ross.  I think we really still have no idea whether he’s a good manager or not (I guess that kinda implies not), but this roster is so matchup dependent top to bottom he’s going to have a huge impact on how successful so many of these guys will be.
-Hendricks.  He was so bad last year, and always felt like a guy with such a small margin for error, that he really could slip back into his old self without it being a surprise (the defense should be better this year than last, but his biggest problem last year was the home runs), or he could continue to suck and be completely worthless.  He’s going to throw a ton of innings either way.

Final Prediction: 75 wins, with at least 12 guys from the opening day roster dealt at midseason.