With under 96 hours until the first pitch of the 2012 Cubs season, let me take a couple uneducated stabs at where I think this season starts, ends up, and leads to in the ever-brighter future.
Vegas and national media over/unders have the Cubs pegged at 74ish wins, which is a much brighter perspective than I expected to start the year. I have the Cubs at 73, which I think is entirely within the Cubs' boundaries as they are currently constructed. With a couple additions, the Cubs could stretch it to 82 or 83 wins, but I'm not sure Theo's willing to give up much for a far-fetched run at a somewhat open division race. If the current rotation experiments crap out and Rodrigo Lopez takes a spot by June, well, then a 67 win season is not out of the question.
Let's take a quick look at the four pieces of the roster - rotation, bullpen, starting eight, bench. I'll give some brief thoughts on where each player is at this point of his career and what he should be contributing to this Cubs team, but also take deeper dives into key contributors throughout the week as we prepare for the opener.
