Disclaimer:  We based these rankings on best strength to win the World Series.  Therefore some teams that have an easier division to play in, with the least path of resistance to the postseason overall may be ranked a lot higher than a club who is equally talented, yet may play in a juggernaut of a division.

Chicago Cubs (1):  The Cubs are the defending champions, and with the amount of talent they were able to bring back, plus add Kyle Schwarber for a full year, this spells they will sleepwalk to their Division again this season

At the MLB Reports we stated that we believe that another club may even win more games than Chicago, but this may be a product of Joe Maddon resting guys ultimately throughout the campaign.

Season duplicating from Kyle Hendricks and John Lackey will be harder to reel in.  The loss of Dexter Fowler is not replaced by Jon Jay.

If the Cardinals or the Pirates are able to push the Cubs, then the 100 win plateau may still be valid.  Chicago wins the NL Central by 10 games in our view. Read the rest of this entry →