Chicago Cubs: Playoff odds continue to fall for World Champions

The first two months of the Major League Baseball season brought plenty of surprises, including a disappointing performance by the reigning World Series champion Chicago Cubs.

Coming off their first title in over a century, the Chicago Cubs were supposed to steamroll their way to a second-straight National League pennant in 2017. Instead, the team enters the month of June two games below .500 in the midst of a six-game losing streak.

That skid, the worst of the Joe Maddon era, has reignited fear and panic amongst Cubs fans, just a week after a 7-2 homestand erased it (for the most part). Needless to say, the team’s current pace isn’t an option. Either turn it around or face an unthinkable proposition: risk missing the postseason.

Thankfully, Chicago enjoys playing in one of the weakest divisions in the game. Just a handful of games back, even after the losing streak, the Cubs are very much in the hunt for a second-straight division title.

Outside the National League Central, there have been plenty of surprises – as well as disappointments. Out west, the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks are white-hot. In the American League, the Houston Astros appear poised to win the franchise’s first ever championship.

Let’s take a look at how postseason odds have changed over the first two months of the 2017 campaign.

Rockies, Diamondbacks look to dethrone Los Angeles

The last time the Los Angeles Dodgers failed to win the National League West, the world was a very different place:

• The 2012 Summer Olympics were held in London
• Jerry Sandusky was sentenced for the Penn State scandal
• Mitt Romney lost the presidential election to Barack Obama

Just for starters.

Chicago Cubs

Colorado and Arizona enter June more than 10 games above .500. Still, after the Dodgers steamrolled the Cubs in L.A. and continued their hot play in St. Louis, they’re back atop the division.

But, if you ask Fangraphs, two months of good baseball does not a division contender make. The site pegs both the Rockies and the Diamondbacks’ division odds at less than five percent.  However, they do acknowledge that both clubs have better than coin-flip odds at factoring into the playoff picture.

On paper, Los Angeles appears to be the logical choice for a fifth-straight NL West title. Clayton Kershaw headlines the rotation and Alex Wood has backed him up for the first two months.

The offense is firing on all cylinders, too, thanks to a mix of young talent and experienced veterans. The Rockies and Diamondbacks hope to play spoiler, but face an uphill battle if they want to get the job done.

Bronx Bombers making their comeback

Last year, the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs hooked up on a blockbuster midseason deal. The Cubs, of course, landed coveted closer Aroldis Chapman. This filled one of the team’s only weaknesses for the stretch run – but it came at a steep cost.

New York acquired top prospect Gleyber Torres, outfielders Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford and Adam Warren in the deal. The four-for-one trade worked well for both sides. The Yankees reloaded a farm system and the Cubs eventually broke a 108-year title drought thanks, in-part, to Chapman.

Yanks Go Yard

Widely viewed as being at least one year away from returning to dominance, the Yanks tore out of the gates this season.

Rookie slugger Aaron Judge leads the bigs in home runs and former Cubs infielder Starlin Castro is enjoying one of the best offensive seasons of his career.

BoSox-Yankees back at it

With the most of the American League East struggling, New York has a great opportunity at-hand. Although Boston is still favored to win the division (56.7 percent odds) – the Yankees’ chances are creeping higher and higher.

As it does with most clubs, Brian Cashman’s team will have to pitch well – and that’s been a question mark for some time. Masahiro Tanaka has been spotty, but the young arms seem to be stepping into the spotlight for the first time.

Holes abound for reigning champs

If you ask Fangraphs, the National League Central is a two-horse race. That hardly comes as a surprise to anyone who’s watched this division in the last few years.

The Cubs and the arch-rival St. Louis Cardinals boast the best postseason and division odds. Chicago still has a 70 percent chance to win the Central. That seems solid, given how the team has played this year. But keep in mind that on May 1, those odds stood at 86.4 percent.

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Kyle Schwarber has failed in almost every regard. His time in the leadoff spot ended with disappointment and he enters the month of June with a .165/.286/.341 slash-line. We’re past the point of slump and it’s now inexcusable for Joe Maddon to keep the young slugger anywhere near the top of the lineup.

Apart from Kris Bryant, the entire offense has been ‘down’. Anthony Rizzo showed signs of heating up, but went ice-cold along with the rest of the team during the losing streak. Simply put, the team isn’t scoring runs – and the pitching has took a major step backward from last year.

Jake Arrieta looks like an entirely different pitcher, no matter what Scott Boras says. His earned run average hangs in the high-4.00 range and velocity has been down. Outside of Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester, the rest of the rotation has been a roller coaster. The Brett Anderson experiment went up in smoke and Eddie Butler is a placeholder on a quality big-league staff.

Things clearly have to change. The Cubs’ playoff odds fell nearly 15 percent in the month of May and a six-game skid entering June isn’t exactly encouraging. Needless to say, this team has been the disappointment of the year in baseball.