Current Cubs Could Be Reincarnation of the ’98 Yankees

Earlier in the season, baseball pundits were comparing the 2016 Chicago Cubs to the 2001 Seattle Mariners. The Windy City’s National League team was on pace to at least match Seattle’s 116 wins that year.

A losing streak before the All-Star break stopped such talk of that win total, which actually relieved many Cubs fans. That Mariners team, which totally dominated baseball, failed to reach the World Series, falling in five games to the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

When the Cubs clinched the National League Central division last week on September 14, the event led to comparisons to the last team to accomplish that feat. Back in 2008, the Los Angeles Angels nailed down the American League west on September 14, thus becoming the quickest team to do that in ten years.

The Angels, just like the Mariners seven years earlier, failed to reach the World Series. They, too, fell in the A.L.C.S. to the Yankees, who went on to sweep the Colorado Rockies in the Fall Classic.

A different Yankees team from ten years before might serve as a better comparison to the 2016 Cubs. That roster of the Bronx Bombers dominated not only in the regular season, but the postseason as well. By late August they had clinched the A.L East, going on to win 114 games.

The Cubs will not quite reach that many victories, nor are they likely to enjoy as easy a time in the playoffs as did those Yankees eighteen years ago. Chicago does, however, possess some of their strengths.

New York boasted of three Cy Young candidate starting pitchers, namely Andy Pettitte, David Wells, and David Cone. Pettitte won sixteen, Wells won twenty, and Cone recorded eighteen wins, while the entire Yankees staff had the lowest team earned run average in the A.L.

Chicago has a staff that also leads the league in ERA, anchored by 2015 Cy Young winner Jake Arietta. The rotation also features lefthander Jon Lester and righthander Kyle Hendrick, while veteran John Lackey provides a very impressive fourth arm.

That rotation, which is even deeper than that of the ’98 Yanks, should help the Cubs to the World Series. The Chicago offense, however, is not nearly as potent as that New York lineup, which led the A.L. in runs scored, team batting average, and home runs. They even had four guys hit over .300, had every player in the regular lineup reached double figures in home runs, and had four of those even hit more than twenty.

The Cubs, even though they lead the N.L. in runs, are not nearly as imposing. They have exactly zero players hitting .300, and they are seventh in overall team batting average. Only two have reached the twenty home run mark, Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant.

While those two All-Stars certainly provide a potent lefty-righty one-two punch in the heart of the batting order, history shows that a club needs a more balanced lineup to go all the way in October. Chicago’s deep rotation, though, could compensate for the good but not spectacular lineup.

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