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

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.