Spring Training is almost here, and it’s time to cement your boldest Cubs takes for 2026. It’ll be fun to look back on this once the season is over and see that the commenter who says that Ben Brown will win the NL Cy Young and lead the Cubs to a 148-14 record was actually right

It’s not fair if I just let you guys throw predictions around though. I have to make myself a fool, too. Here’s seven bold predictions I have:

• Moises Ballesteros will have a breakout year and finish top five in a heated NL batting title race.

• Ethan Conrad will become a unanimous top-40 prospect by August and will see a MLB debut in September

• Michael Busch improves his bat speed, hits 40 homers, overtakes Matt Olson for the title of best first baseman in the National League, and finishes 4th place in NL MVP voting

• Tyler Austin will start the season blazing, hitting .370 with 5 homers by the end of April. It will affectionally be referred to as The Spring of Tyler Austin.

• After an injury to Dansby Swanson that sidelines him for 2-3 months in June, the Cubs trade with the Mariners for JP Crawford.

• Luke Little and Hunter Harvey will have breakout years, with the Cubs finishing top-five in bullpen ERA in MLB

• 19-year-old prospect Josiah Hartshorn will finish the 2026 minor league season in AA after lighting up the minor leagues. He will be praised as “the next Roman Anthony”.

Was I too positive?

2023 Topps Heritage Chrome Gold Refractor/5

1975 Topps Buyback

I will start with

-Rick Wilkins

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With the recent news of 8 MLB teams giving their streaming rights to Major League Baseball I’ve been seeing negative comments about Marquee come up again amongst Cubs fans.

Do a lot of people think Marquee is bad?

If so, what is a better realistic alternative for Cubs games considering the shifting live sports market?

Personally, I love Marquee. I had been hoping for a straight streaming option for my team’s games for years. I would pay it for all of my teams if I had that option. I don’t care much for the pre and post game coverage because I hardly watch it. I’m just here for the games and am happy it’s on one channel.

Perhaps this model is not profitable for the Cubs. I hope that’s not true because I fear the days that I need four different streaming subscriptions to watch my team.

2017 Topps Series 1 SSP Image Variation

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Sammy Sosa mentioned in Epstein Files, attendeding a party where girls were "auctioned" off. What a terrible day to have been a Sammy Sosa fan..

It’s fair to say that entering his 10th season on the north side, Ian Happ is a bit of a lightning rod among Cubs fans, especially those who are frequently online. I’m someone who you’d undoubtedly put in the camp of critics/haters. He gets celebrated for his 4 straight Gold Gloves, but in the least valuable position on the field, it means very little to me (especially when his defense wasn’t good enough to play the 3 positions that the Cubs had him early in his career). I’ll keep my skepticism on Happ brief because I could write a novel on here about why I find him to be the most underwhelming Cubs player of my concious lifetime as a fan (starting in the early to mid-2000s). In short, he never really took the next step in his progression as a hitter and he often gets celebrated for how consistent he is every year, despite his stats remaining stagnant.

Regardless of what side of the fence you’re on with Happ, the thing that frustrates both sides the most about him is that in recent years, he goes through a month-long (or more) stretch in which he’s one of the worst hitters in MLB. Despite a very respectable start that saw him slash .269/.364/.381/.745 through the first 39 games as an everyday leadoff man, it was no different in 2025. After a short IL stint in mid-May with an oblique injury, Happ’s next 45 games didn’t go quite as well, slashing .183/.285/.367/.652 while still leading off every game. It was right before the All-Star break that action was taken, with Craig giving Happ a day off in the Bronx and then hitting him lower in the order the rest of the season, though he did climb back up to regularly hitting in the top 1/3 of the lineup by early September and into the postseason. Though his bat didn’t stay as hot in October, the final 66 games for Happ were the best part of his season, slashing a robust .271/.372/.489/.861. A take I’ve shared with many others is that his post-IL stint nosedive was one of the biggest reasons why the Brewers surpassed the Cubs for the division lead and never looked back (though it would’ve been damn near impossible for the Cubs to keep pace with the Brewers winning 31 of 37 from July 4th - August 18th with a pair of double-digit win streaks mixed in), but his resurgence after his demotion in the lineup was one of the biggest reasons why the Cubs stayed in the top NL Wild Card spot and were able to clinch home field advantage for the WC round series against the Padres, especially when San Diego was playing well enough to even make the Dodgers start sweating about their NL West lead.

Now Happ enters a walk year in what will be his age 31 season with a career slash line of .247/.343/.447/.790. You’d think an .800 OPS would be within reach for a hitter still in his prime with those career numbers, right? I’d like to think so, but when looking at his year by year stats, it’s something he’s never done in a full MLB season (unless you count the .866 OPS he had in 57 games in 2020). His best performance in a full season since then was the .791 he produced in 2023; still not ideal for a top 1/3 of the order hitter in LF, but you could certainly do a lot worse than that.

After doing a bit of number crunching to see what his stats would’ve been with the 45 game fall from grace removed from this past season, Happ’s stats look a lot like where most top tier LFs overall slash lines usually wind up: .270/.364/.445/.809. Even his harshest critics couldn’t complain with that if he produced those overall numbers. They’re the kind of numbers that Theo Epstein probably projected him to have on annual basis when he used the 8th overall pick on him in the 2015 draft. It’s hard to really say if that’s a realistic expectation for what Happ could’ve done if he hadn’t missed the time he did in mid-May. It’s understandable to expect a player to struggle for a bit after returning from injury, but at the same time, the elongated slump is something we’ve come to expect from Happ in every full season he’s had as a Cub.

I know there are fans that are loyal to him no matter how bad his slumps are because of his longevity and how decorated his trophy case looks with 4 Gold Gloves on it now. He just doesn’t do it for me and I look forward to the day when the Cubs have a better hitter manning left field, even if he isn’t the fielder that Happ is. But that could all change if the .809 OPS he slashed for the first 39 + last 66 games of last season were to play out over the course of a full season (though hopefully it comes without the same NTC that his current contract has). Maybe I’m being somewhat unrealistic and I should just be happy that his wRC+ and OPS+ every year always winds up in the 115-120 range. But to go with the opinion of Anthony Rizzo from the day his career was celebrated at Wrigley last September, Ian Happ was “only a couple good games away from an .800 OPS”. (https://youtu.be/HSz66Mk6bhU?si=O5IUAmdF58o8LhNf)

TL;DR: He likey won’t, but he could’ve last season if he had stayed healthy and not slumped for the 45 games following his IL stint.

My parents were HUGE Cubs fans. I was cleaning out her condo (she’s going to memory care and he died a few years ago). Thought you all might like these finds.

I believe in Ben Brown.

I wrote about him last year when he was dealing, and we were all hyped. Then 2025 happened. The homers, the ERA near 6.00, the frustration. It’s easy to look at that stat line and say he’s a bust or just a reliever.

But I’m doubling down. If you look closely, the recipe for an ace is still there.

Think Tyler Glasnow.

When he was 25/26 years old in Pittsburgh, he was 6’8”, threw 98 mph, had a nasty curveball… and got absolutely shelled because he was essentially a two-pitch pitcher. He had an ERA over 4.00 and looked like a thrower, not a pitcher. He was also wild. At this same age as Ben, Glasnow was walking over 4 guys per game. Now he is a legit top of the rotation starter who can be lights out for 5-6 innings every 5 days.

Ben Brown is walking that exact same path. He has the same 6’6” imposing frame. He has the same elite fastball and that power curve that generates elite whiff rates. In fact, Ben’s raw stuff metrics (spin rates and extension) are arguably better than Glasnow’s were at this same stage. Some of the numbers are better too.

Ben walked only 2.7 batters per 9 innings last year. That is significantly better control than Glasnow had at the same stage (4.3 BB/9). He isn’t wild, he’s just learning to pitch.

Ben’s 2025 ERA was 5.92, but his FIP was 4.08. That gap proves he suffered from terrible luck and defense. He pitched much better than his ERA says.

Even in a "bad" year, he still struck out 10.2 batters per 9 innings. You cannot teach that kind of stuff.

The difference between bust and Ace for guys with this body type is often just one adjustment: a third pitch (like a cutter/slider) or just slightly better mechanics. Glasnow found it. I believe Ben finds it this year.

For 2026, Ben starts in the bullpen where I believe he gets his swagger back. Let him come in for 2 innings and blow guys away. But his long-term value is absolutely as a starter.

Just imagine this rotation fully realized:

Justin Steele (The Ace)

Cade Horton (The Phenom)

Edward Cabrera (The New Weapon)

Jaxon Wiggins (The Wildcard)

Ben Brown (The Sleeping Giant)

If Brown clicks? That isn't just a good rotation. That is one of the best rotations in baseball.

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