1. Chicago Cubs
Starting Position Players: C Miguel Montero, 1B Anthony Rizzo, 2B Ben Zobrist, 3B Kris Bryant, SS Addison Russell, LF Kyle Schwarber, CF Dexter Fowler, RF Jason Heyward.
Starting Rotation: Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester, Jon Lackey, Kyle Hendricks, Jason Hammel.
Bullpen: Hector Rondon, Travis Wood, Pedro Strop, Justin Grimm, Trevor Cahill, Rex Brothers, Adam Warren.
Bench: C David Ross, OF Jorge Soler, IF Tommy La Stella, IF Javier Baez, OF Matt Szczur.
The Cubs pretty much have it all here, toonder in the lineup, a strong rotation a good bullpen and talent overflowing onto the bench. Adding Dexter Fowler gives them a true CF, but may downgrade the lineup a hair by forcing either Soler or Schwarber to the bench but I guess that's a good problem to have. If the NL Pennant was decided only by the best regular season record in the league, the Cubs would be the clear, almost runaway, favorite. Fortunately, the Giants only have to win 3 or 4 games against them in a postseason series, or if things break right, they might not have to face them at all!
At any rate, I'm not completely sold that their bullpen is a postseason-quality bullpen, the last 3 members of the rotation have had their ups and downs over the years, and there is still a lot of K's in that lineup, so there are cracks in the wall if you want to look for them. The Cubs are a serious team, though!
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Enjoyed reading your rundowns. Teams are going to need good left handed pitching to deal with this team. I used to feel sorry for Cubs fans due to their WS drought until I saw that ESPN 30 for 30 special on what happened to Steve Bartman.
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