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Chicago Cubs: Other teams have passed them by
Since 2016 the Cubs have been competing for the playoffs and made it two of the last three seasons, but unlike 2016 they were not necessarily the NL favorites. The fact of the matter is the Los Angeles Dodgers took the spot as the NL’s power house pretty fast. Since 2017 they have two pennants and have averaged 101 wins. We saw what they did to a Cubs team that was out of gas in the NLCS a few years ago.
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To the frustration of Cubs fans, they have seen teas in their own division pass them by. The Milwaukee Brewers under Craig Counsell tripped up the Cubs in 2018 and took a division title away from them and have finished above them in the standings since. Down the stretch in 2018 the Brewers outplayed and outcoached the Cubs big time. Even Christian Yelich came up and took a potential NL MVP award from Javier Baez that year. The team adjusted while the Cubs now are going to try to play catch up when (if) the season starts.
Other NL teams on the rise like the young Atlanta Braves were able to beat the Cubs good last year and the Washington Nationals finally rose above all to win a World Series.
Oh, we cannot forget to mention those dang Cardinals either getting revenge for the past several years in that four-game sweep at Wrigley Field. All those teams just mentioned made the playoffs last year while the Cubs did not, and most of them will be around to keep competing for a while.
One could probably dive a lot deeper into the reasons the Cubs have not made it back to the World Series since 2016. These reasons just show the tip of the iceberg. To sum it all up, they have overall been good just not good enough.