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They are golfers?

Here's a wrap-up of the Fangraphs positional rankings.  In the end, the have the Cubs 22nd in baseball with 78 wins:



There are 5 teams bunched with 80 wins (Pirates, Brewers, Rockies, Royals, White Sox).  The difference between 17th and 22nd is very small, and the Cubs are very close to being solidly in the middle of the pack. 

I'm feeling pretty good about my 78 win projection now that Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs have come to that win total independently.

PERHAPS Jes was debarred....OH WAIT a minute, i was wrong....Jes WAS debarred

03:25 pm ET) The Cubs claimed pitcher Guillermo Moscoso off waivers from Blue Jays Wednesday. Moscoso is 0-2 with a 12.86 ERA and 2.57 WHIP in five spring outings between the Royals and Blue Jays.

Castro's spring training is done.  His girlfriend is about to have a baby and he has gone to New York to be with her.  He'll join the team in Houston on Friday.

Could you point to the post where either BR or I said that the bullpen is so much improved that PERHAPS it would catapult the Cubs into the thick of things?

davep, that has essentially been your contention for months, including your argument that the Cubs were signing a "number of good arms" and not just "a good number of arms" (which was the actual quote from the front office.  You have contended the front office was not writing off the season, has made major improvements in the bullpen, even referring to the scrapheap 2nd Japanese reliever as part of the improvement, and have argued that with just a bit of luck, that improvement, and others could well make the Cubs trade deadline buyers instead of sellers.... AND that this was good, since every season is precious, and that good leadership can handle more than one goal at a time (ignoring the fact that in this case the goal if winning now and building a long term dominant team are not just two different goals but are two conflicting goals) and blah, blah, blah.  That is essentially just what I wrote -- that you think the bullpen is so much improved that PERHAPS it would catapult the Cubs into the thick of things.

For br.... you only have to look at the post before my comment to find him essentially saying that (when taken with his other comments about how the Cubs could make the playoffs this season):

Last year, fangraphs rankings had the Cubs' bullpen as the worst in the majors, and that's where it ended up.  Of course, it had the Orioles as #29, and they made the playoffs largely on their performance in close games where the bullpen is most important.

Fangraphs also had the Cubs rotation at #24 last year, and they ended up 23rd in team ERA.  Of course, they had Samardzija pegged as a disaster and didn't have half the bad starters factored in. 

If the Cubs bullpen ends up with a 2.4 WAR as they have projected, that's roughly a 4 win improvement over last year just in the pen (-1.5 WAR in 2012).  And the actual impact is probably a little more than that because WAR is context-independent.  It doesn't consider that the bullpen is typically involved in high leverage situations.  It's likely that an improvement to the Fangraphs projection would actually be worth 5-7 wins.

No, Jes.  I have never said that the bull pen is so much improved that perhaps the Cubs will be in the thick of things.  Once again, you have misrepresented what I have said.  And since you set such a store on reading comprehension, I assume it is deliberate.

I have never even said that I think the Cubs will be in the thick of things for ANY reason.

I HAVE said that the front office has NOT written off the season.  But even you know that is not the same as saying that the Cubs will be in the thick of things.

I HAVE said that it is not IMPOSSIBLE that the Cubs could make the playoffs.  That is NOT the same as saying that I EXPECT them to.

Someone that believes that reading comprehension is important should try to improve his own reading comprehension.

Unless, of course, it is deliberate.