Cubs Coffee Talk: Can the team win 40 or more games?

Are the Chicago Cubs capable of winning 40 games in this type of environment?

It was another early morning at the office as I turned on the lights and made my way through an office cubicle-maze toward my work cubicle. Although I’m not a big fan of the ‘office cubicle’ as it were, as a former office manager, I understand their function while still providing the bare modicum of separation, which in this day and age is pretty crucial with all the social distancing concerns.

Drudging down the aisle between sets of cubicles and past cubicle doors makes me feel like I’m in a pet store passing all the pet cages. Needless to say, I reached my cube, took off my jacket, and hung it behind my ergonomically correct chair.

The greatest thing about the cubicle is there are four sides with shelves just screaming for tons of Chicago Cubs trinkets and stuff that I like to buy from Ali Babba online. There are apparent limits of course;  I can’t just hang a jersey in my cubicle without some planning and thought, although I’m sure some moron will write me now and tell me how I can do it.

One of the treasures in my inner sanctum cubicle is a foul ball I snagged at Sloan Park watching a minor league Cubs game. Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner was in the stands with Cubs outfielder and 2018 draft pick Brennen Davis. Both players were cool enough to sign my ball, and now it sits as the Holy Grail encased forever in the maze called ‘Cubicle-Pet-Land.’

As I jumped into my morning routine generating reports, I began to think more about the Cubs’ specific dilemma of trying to win 40 or more games in the upcoming short season when they don’t really have that type of record to stand on. I couldn’t wait to hear what the geniuses in the office had to say about this topic today.

Several of the guys on the staff have been die-hard Cub fans their entire lives and have an opinion about everything in Cubs-world. Sometimes they can be a bit nutty, but usually, there’s something productive that comes out of our coffee talks. Hey, even the smoker gives up his cigarette at 8:45 a.m. for Cubs Coffee Talk.

The group consists of Howard, Russell (the smoker), Kris (yes- spelled like Kris Bryant) and me.  I would introduce each of them to you, but trust me, you’ll never get that time back in your life again. Although I generally discount anything the stooges have to say as relevant, there are times that they make sense, and typically I have to admit that they do know a lot about the Cubs franchise.

My eyes glanced quickly down to the corner of my monitor screen to see it was 8:44 a.m. and time to head to Cubs Coffee Talk with the stooges.

Chicago Cubs: Do the Cubs have the stable of pitchers to win 40?

The group often discussed how Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations, Theo Epstein, was trying to put together crazy combinations of pitchers that he saw in his mind as necessary to the team. I even joked recently in an article that Epstein was more like the X-Men mentor Professor X, putting together superhuman pitchers when the Cubs’ recent fourth-round draft pick threw 105 mph at practice; maybe they’ll be called, ‘The Eps-Men.’

“We may just have the perfect combination of pitching personalities to pull this off in a short season, “said Howard. “Our starters are seasoned and smart like Lester and Hendricks but we also have crafty pitchers – like Darvish and Chatwood. Then we have finesse and power with Mills and Cotton. I would add Quintana to that power list as well, but he just had surgery on his thumb this week, “Howard said.

“From washing dishes!” interrupted Russell. “All the Cubs need caretakers; you know like Alfred was the butler for Bruce Wayne’s Batman.  Remember Morrow?  How does anyone hurt themselves putting on their pants? We’ve got great pitchers on the Cubs, but they can’t do everyday things like drive a car, iron a shirt or…”

“Make the coffee?” Howard asked. Sort of a slap at Russell, who never seemed to be around when coffee needed to be made.

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“I used to think our relief pitchers weren’t so hot, “said Kris. “But now I look at the lineup and it’s awesome! Do you realize the talent we have now? Seriously!  Jeremy Jeffress, Kimbrel and Wick coming back…”

“And that’s about it,” said Russell. “The rest of these guys are not proven winners. Some of them we had last season and they were terrible. Now they’re supposed to be much better in one and a half seasons? I don’t buy it.  Duane Underwood Jr., Maples and Norwood all have a lot to prove this season,” Russell added.

“What about Casey Sadler?” I asked Russell. “I think he was a great addition for the bullpen, and don’t forget we also have Trevor Megill,” I said.

“Old news,” said Russell.  I hated it when he did the ‘old news’ to me. “Those boys are unproven Cubs, “the all-knowing Russell added, but I wasn’t about to be shut down with his ‘old news.’

“For a longer season, you may be right, Russ, “I admitted. “But this is going to be a race to 60 to see who can get the most wins. The Cubs can afford to put in their best in this short season, and you and I know – their best is pretty darn good these days, “I added. “Don’t forget that Danny Hultzen is also out there, and my favorite, C.D. Pelham is just down the road in Iowa,” I added to throw some salt on Russell’s wounds.

“I thought your favorite relief pitcher was Brandon Morrow?” asked Kris. Why was Kris counter-attacking me? Obviously trying to be funny as he knows Morrow is on my crap list for blowing my kid off for an autograph in Los Angeles.

“Yeah, why don’t you do another article on him? The Stumbler!” giggled Russell, obviously being sarcastic and realizing Kris had saved him with the Morrow comment.

I gave another stink-eye look to Kris for making me lose the argument to Russell. I decided to give it one last shot and say precisely what I thought the major obstacle was going to be for the Cubs winning 40 or more games out of 60.

Chicago Cubs: Who guessed the Cubs will win 71?

It was just about time to go back to Cubicle-City, and so I delivered my final thesis to the stooges:

“The Cubs will do well because Ross won’t let them fail, and have you heard him since they came back? Ross said he didn’t care if the season was five days long – they want to win. The Cubs didn’t spend much, but they bought some quality and talent in Jeffress and a few others,” I explained like a professor to the stooges.

“The killer part of the whole deal is the Cubs schedule.  They are playing the top five AL Central teams! More than likely, the top three are really going to give us some fierce competition. Let’s not forget that we also have to play the usual suspects in our division, and they’re getting tougher to beat every season, “I added. The true beast this season could be the Cubs schedule.

“Time’s almost up,” said Howard. “So let me leave you with this. The Cubs won 42 of 60 in 2016, but their best-ever record is only 52 games, and they did that in 1906, sort of pre-World Series I must say… and I’m talking about the 1907 and 1908 Cubs World Series Kris, not 2016,” Howard pointed out as Kris nodded in understanding. “Just last season, the Cubs were actually able to put together 37 wins and 23 losses between April and June, “said Howard like a portly Sherlock Holmes deducing the answer. Maybe he was Watson trying to be Sherlock.

“What does that mean?” asked Kris. “My head hurts now,” he laughed out loud, looking around for one of us to join him, which of course, no one did.

“The chance of the Cubs winning more than 50 games is probably the most remote possibility, “said Howard. “However, because they did so well last season and the timing of this short season is pretty close to last year’s push… there is a chance that the Cubs could come very close to winning 40. Last season they got 37, I say this year they get 37,” said Howard.

“38,” said Russell.

“40,” I chimed in as both Howard and Russell shook their heads at my unwavering loyalty to Cubs.

“71! Kris Bryant’s number backward!” yelled Kris.

“There are only 60 games Kris! Haven’t you been listening to anything we’ve been saying?” asked Russell.

“I was just kidding Russell, I say 44 like Rizzo’s number,” Kris added.

The room burst into laughter as everyone made their way out of the break room. The stooges bounded their way through Cube-city as I headed back through pet aisle one, past all the animals, to my ergo-chair and the Hoerner / Davis Grail Ball.

One thing was clear from Cubs Coffee Talk today with the stooges; everyone agreed that the Cubs were going to come real close to 40 wins this short season. Will that be enough to get them into a postseason?

As I sat down in my ergo-chair and looked up at the Hoerner/Davis foul ball, I suddenly realized an alarming problem:

I had forgotten to get coffee.