White Sox
It has been a long and arduous 11 years for the South Side faithful, but fret no longer; the wait will soon end.
The Chicago White sox will reclaim their 2005 magic and win the World Series.
It will be a tough hurdle to just get into the playoffs, given that the White Sox haven’t seen postseason play since 2008 and share a division with the defending World Series champion Kansas City. That said, the White Sox have the power hitting and star pitching to win it all.
Chicago comes into this season with one of the best home-run hitters in the AL in Jose Abreu.
He is only one of two players in MLB history to begin his career with two seasons of 30-plus home runs and 100-plus RBIs, the other being Angels first baseman Albert Pujols.
Along with Abreu, the White Sox acquired former Reds’ third baseman Todd Frazier in the off-season to bolster the lineup. Frazier is a two time All-Star and the defending Home Run
Derby champion.
With the pairing of Abreu and Frazier, there is no doubt fireworks will consistently be on display at U.S. Cellular Field.
Of course, a team is only as strong as its pitching staff, but that should not be a problem. Left-hander Chris Sale will continue to be that ace he has proven to be.
The four time All-Star and perennial Cy Young candidate comes into this season after recording a career-high 274 strikeouts, and he is confident he will hit that mark again, if not better it.
Many will laugh at what I have just written, and that’s OK, because come to the end of October, I, along with the rest of White Sox Nation will parade down the South Side of Chicago celebrating our 2016 World Series victory.
— Ricardo Ascencio
Cubs
Hey, Chicago, what do you say?
Don’t know what to say? How does 2016 World Series champions sound?
I won’t guarantee that. Far from it; I’ll go out of my way to knock on every tree on campus, pick every four-leaf clover, and carry a few different rabbit feet in my back pocket just in case.
But I’m here to make a case for the Cubs, and so I shall.
The starting pitching, front-loaded with the best one-two punch in baseball in Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester, will benefit from the off-season signing of John Lackey, who, with good friend Lester, helped the Red Sox knock off the Cardinals in the 2013 World Series.
Oh, and Lackey was signed away from the Cardinals. Anything that weakens the Cardinals by default makes the Cubs stronger, but the Cubs signing someone away from the Cardinals works two-fold.
Speaking of signing away key players, the Cubs also signed superstar Jason Heyward away from their arch (see what I did there) enemy.
Heyward shores up an outfield that struggled at times last season and brings bat capable of shouldering an equal load with Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Kyle Schwarber.
All three of the latter are back for another year of destroying baseballs and the dreams of everyone else in the NL Central.
Throw in Jorge Soler off the bench, plus the imminent return of Javier Baez at some point this season, and the Cubs have every piece in place to launch those baseballs to the Moon and themselves to the National League pennant and maybe even further.
— Ian Murphy