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Go.

Soriano/DeJesus/Scheirholtz (Sappelt, Hairston)
Stewart/Castro/Barney/Rizzo (Valbuena, Matherbridge)
Castillo (Navarro)

Samardzija/Jackson/Garza/Feldman/Wood
Marmol/Fujikawa/Russell/Villanueva/Camp/Wade/Rondon

Wood over Villanueva in the rotation. Rondon beats out Dolis for the last spot with his Rule V status basically being the tiebreaker. Wade makes the team as an NRI. I think Baker can start the season on the 60-day DL backdated by like 45 days and not miss too much time.

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Team Theo.

You just did this to give yourself a reason to write Matherbridge, didn't you? At any rate, the only change I'll make is Raley over Wade, with Dolis making the team as well. Marmol gets dealt. Vizcaino starts on 60 day DL.

That's going to be a thing all year. It's this years brettjackson.

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Team Theo.

(This thread doesn't have to be about Kyle.)

The back of the bullpen and the 25th man appear to be the only positions remotely in doubt in terms of 25 man composition, which I guess is not so different than most years. My guess is one of Lillibridge, Maysonet, or Bogusevic get that last spot, at this point the guess would probably be Lillibridge. Worth noting: Castro started 162 games, Barney started 147, and Rizzo started 85 of the 87 games he was on the roster. With Barney's flexibility and Valbuena already on the bench, they may not feel much of a need for the 25th guy to be able to play the IF aside from 1B.

The bullpen is far more difficult to predict. Marmol, Fujikawa, Russell, and Camp are locks barring injury. If the rotation is healthy, then one of Villanueva or Wood needs to be in the pen. Rondon needs to be kept or returned to Cleveland. Bowden and Dolis are out of options. There's a couple NRIs of interest, Wade being the best one but several could make their mark in Spring. And there's prospect talent that could force their way into consideration in Cabrera and McNutt. If I'm predicting right now, I guess I'll go Wood, Bowden and Dolis as the other 3 relievers, with Wade next in line if someone gets hurt or bombs really hard.

I'll predict Brett struggles in ST with the new swing, but shows serious improvement in AAA. Watkins is the youngster that turns heads for us in ST and tests the whole "full year in AAA" thing.

the two men up the middle are pretty solid
rizzo is a lock
outfield is outrageous
luckily our rotation is solid and stable
luis valbuena

1B Rizzo
2B Barney
SS Castro
3B Stewart
LF Soriano
CF DeJesus
RF Schierholtz
C Castillo
OF Hairston
OF Sappelt
IF Valbuena
IF Lilibridge (Bonus prediction; 2013's scapegoat for everything that is wrong in the Cubs world)
C Navarro
SP Shark
SP Jackson
SP Baker
SP Feldman
SP Villanueva
BP Fujikawa
BP Russell
BP Camp
BP Rondon
BP Takahashi
BP Wade
BP Lewis

Marmol and Wood traded.
Garza starts on DL
Vizcaino, Cabrera, and Bowden make up 3/5 of very intriguing AAA rotation

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Chicago Club has gone back on us. Please Send Expenses. Am Broke

Kyle's Lillibridge fixation is lol worthy. He will likely be barely below replacement level, and has much more of a chance than Mather ever did at being better than that. Kyle is running out of things to be the ultimate troll about, so he's resorting to throwing [expletive] at the walls and hoping something sticks.

Plus, the whole "I'm right" crap in your posts is gag worthy man, chill on that.

You are right half the time and wrong half the time. It seems a bit silly when you just brush off the wrong stuff as, "Hey look, everyone is wrong about some things" and then when you are right you act like you were sent from the heavens to teach us lesser beings the true and right way to think about the Cubs. You are so above us, so why do you even post here anymore? I don't post much because every conversation on this site that seems to be meaningful turns into a joke when you enter it, and you try really hard to make sure you are involved in anything worth talking about.

I'm going to keep reading, but honestly you should reevaluate your purpose here, it's not really adding to the site in a positive way.

ETA: I'm sure Kyle doesn't give a crap.

we must not speak its name

I think there've been some rumors about the Cubs teaching someone like Navarro or Hairston to play 1b, and I guess in that scenario we could just go with five infielders if we really wanted to go crazy with an extra pitcher.

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Team Theo.

True, but 13 pitchers? Has a team ever started a season with that configuration? Unless I'm mistaken, its very rare for a team to wind up 13/12. And when it happens, its usually due to an overworked pen and doesn't last very long. Lillibridge or Maysonet probably gets the 25th man spot, unless Clevenger looks improved and can still play IF at some level.

Not sure I'd call our rotation solid and stable. Maybe potentially solid but we are banking on a lot of unknowns.
Hoping that Samardzija continues his growth but he's been a starter for 1 season
We have 2 of our better guys coming off injuries, and Garza is hurt again, while Baker looks to not be ready for opening day
We are hoping that Feldman becomes Maholm and isn't the guy with a 5plus era
We are hoping that villaneuva or wood can become a solid starter.
and we hope Jackson lives up to his potential not his 4.40 career era (at least not if he is our 1 or 2)
We have some material to work with, so I hope it pans out but there are still a lot of questions to be answered.

ZiPS, which has pretty conservative projections for the rotation, projects it to be a touch above average(6th in the NL). There are questions for pretty much every pitcher in the league, such is the nature of the position. The Cubs have 7 MLB caliber starters, and several with a recent history of pitching very well. The rotation is in good shape.

It may be the nature of the position but there is no denying the Cubs have a fairly odd percentage of guys coming back from injury.

2 of 7 doesn't seem that odd to me. Even more so one one of those two is Baker, whose ZiPS projection isn't materially different than 3 other back end options.

Not sure why I stopped there but meant to say injury and/or part-time duty. They've got one guy who has been a steady full season pitcher.

You might be surprised at how common that is if you're using that criteria. Just glancing at a couple of the teams with better projected rotations:

Washington has a steady starter(Gio), a couple guys coming off their first season of 160+ IP(Zimmerman, Detwiler), and a couple guys with big injury/durability questions(Strasburg, Haren). Their current 6th starter is "pray for rain".

Arizona has 2 steady starters(Kennedy, Cahill), a couple guys coming off their first season of 160+ IP(Corbin, Miley) and a guy with big injury/durability questions(McCarthy).

Atlanta has 2 steady starters(Maholm, 37 year old Hudson), and several guys yet to log a full MLB season(Beachy, Minor, Medlen)

There are a couple teams that do have several anchors in their rotation, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Cincinnati, but they're not the norm.

And for the Reds, those anchors are all Dusty Baker.

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The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn't exist.

LA? SD?

That right there is a list of most teams in the NL and the Cubs having one steady guy and most guys coming off injury or part-time duty still stands out to me. It's still got the potential to be on of the better staffs, but it's littered with wild cards and volatility.

The Dodgers only have Greinke. Even Kershaw is coming off a leg injury. Harang and Capuano are injury-prone. Billingsley is coming off elbow issues, Beckett has a chronically bad back, Lilly is still injured(I think) and Ryu is an unknown. That being said, I fully expect their staff to be very solid to potentially excellent. I agree with TT, you can find lots of question marks in most teams rotations.

Kershaw is coming off multiple years of 200 IP and is slated as their opening day starter. He's not exactly in Matt Garza territory or a rehabbing from Tommy John situation.

Yes, middle of the road teams have questions in the rotation. I am pretty sure that teams like Cincy, LA, San Fran, Philly, Washington, Atlanta and St Louis feel they know what their starters are going to do barring injuries.
Washington was number 1 in starting pitching. They had a starting staff ERA of 3.33, we don't have a pitcher on the staff that is close to a 3.33 ERA, let alone all 5.
Atlanta has a question at the back of their rotation, bringing along Tehren, who is more highly thought of than Samardzija, AND that is only to wait until Beachy is back.

You simply can not in good conscience compare Wood,Villanueva,Baker, and Feldman in the same category as Strasberg,Detweiler,Zimmerman or Medlin, Minor and Beachy..or Tehren

Before last year, Garza put up consecutive seasons of 184, 203, 204, and 198 innings.

Kershaw also pitched 4 games post re-had last fall and had a 0.64 era
Beckett for all his injuries has 1 year that he started 21 games, and the rest are right around 28-30. Last year for all his troubles he started 28, he also had a sub 3 era in LA. Harang has been even more durable. He also kicked in a 3.61 era over 31 starts last year and is their number 5 pitcher.
Ryu is a question mark, but he is also a big money foreign pitcher, not quite as heralded as Darvish but they did shell out 60 mil to get him.
The dodgers trot out Kershaw, and Greinke..either is a good bet to win a Cy Young, Beckett as a 3,Ryu as a 4, and Harang as the 5. They have Billingsley waiting (and supposedly healthy) if someone is hurt, or doesn't work out.
Seriously compare their number 6 pitcher (Billingsley) with our supposed number 1's Garza or Samardzija.
Harang and Billingsley could easily be our ace.
I wish we had these types of questions for our staff. The Dodgers biggest question might be who is going to win the Cy Young.

By the way Capuano and Lilly are listed as 7th and 8th on their starting staff. Both have better career Era's than Jackson who is our big pick up...

And he missed lots of time to injury last year and got hurt at the beginning of this year. He's not in same boat as Kershaw.