2006 Chicago Cubs Predictions & Season Preview


June 5, 2008 | Posted By Larry Cook

With Houston and St. Louis, the National League Central Division is one of the toughest, if not the toughest division in professional baseball, although the American League East could make a strong case. This is why you aren’t going to want to be a strong backer when making 2006 Chicago Cubs predictions in division games. The best value will actually be in picking your spots to go against the Chicago Cubs, especially at home where they are almost always favored. This will give us a great opportunity to cash in on some nice underdog plays over the course of the season.

I am a little bit surprised by Chicago’s fast start in 2006, especially with Wood and Prior yet to pitch, and Zambrano yet to get a win, although they have came back to win 2 games he has started. Greg Maddux has emerged early as the ace for the Cubs looking more like he did in his prime in Atlanta. He has gotten off to rather slow starts the past couple seasons in Chicago, but maybe he has one more Cy Young award left in his hall of fame career. I’m not going that far yet, but if the Cubs are going to keep up with the rest of the pack in the NL Central, Maddux will have to continue to string together solid outings. One thing he’s been able to avoid is giving up the long ball. The past couple seasons, it has seemed like if he makes a mistake it’s out of the ball park.

Derek Lee was arguably the best player in baseball last season. And if the game wasn’t so geared toward just the power numbers at the plate, he was undoubtedly the best player in the game as is glove and his ability to steal bases easily puts him past Puljols. Lee was known as a slow starter in Florida and even in his first season as a Cub, but last season he wasted no time piling up numbers and it appears that he is picking up where he left off as he is already off to a solid start in 2006.

The Chicago Cubs have appeared to have filled the lead off spot in the order. Former Cubs center fielder and lead off hitter, Corey Patterson, struck out far too often trying to hit homeruns. Pierre is more of a natural lead off hitter, who has the ability to bunt for base hits. He poses a major threat on the base paths as well as he has more speed than Patterson, makes better reads on the pitchers, and most importantly, gets on base more often. Pierre getting things started with Lee and Ramirez clearing the base paths looks to be a good recipe for success and I think you’ll see the Cubs score a lot of runs this season. With that being said, look for the Chicago Cubs to be a good totals team in 2006. We should be able to cash in on them by playing overs, especially when they are at Wrigley against weak starting pitching.

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