NL Central Discussion 2026

[Underachiever]

Imagine Brewerfanatic if the Brewers lost six in a row, with three of them to the Cubs in walk-offs. Add in a 1-0 loss to Pittsburgn when the Pirates scored their run in the bottom of the 8th. Redszone is a pretty depressed place right now. First to last in a week.

[Frisbee Slider]

12 minutes ago, Underachiever said:

Imagine Brewerfanatic if the Brewers lost six in a row, with three of them to the Cubs in walk-offs. Add in a 1-0 loss to Pittsburgn when the Pirates scored their run in the bottom of the 8th. Redszone is a pretty depressed place right now. First to last in a week.

Those are great points. That was a very fast regression to expectations for Cincinnati. Still significantly over performing their Pythagorean record.

[adambr2]

59 minutes ago, igor67 said:

If the goal is the World Series there is an argument that facing the Dodgers right away might be the best path. Just have to sneak in 2 road wins...

Last year was kind of the big monkey off our back. I can’t tell you how unsatisfying the end of last season would have been if we had lost game 5 to the Cubs. But, we didn’t. Got the monkey off our back, got rid of the “they can’t win a playoff series” talk, and did it against our hated rivals. 

The Dodgers series sucked, but I was pretty much at peace with whatever happened at that point.

I’m ok with however we can get into the playoffs every year at this point. Just get in and hope the randomness of baseball finally swings in our direction one of these Octobers.

One thing about last year is that it really felt like the gap has widened between the teams with deep pockets and the teams without deep pockets since our last deep run in 2018. But maybe that’s just the Dodgers going on a bender at the worst possible time for everyone else. Or, maybe it’s something that will be addressed in the new CBA.

[jay87shot]

The Cubs just lost Matthew Boyd which hurt their depth but he was struggling so much it might be a blessing in disguise. They have 11 offensive players worth over 0.5 WAR but only 1 pitcher. It will be interesting to see how that team holds up, the have been good offensively but not dominant and there bullpen has held up well despite not having high end arms after Palencia and Brown.

[Underachiever]

6 minutes ago, jay87shot said:

It will be interesting to see how that team holds up, the have been good offensively but not dominant and there bullpen has held up well despite not having high end arms after Palencia and Brown.

Looking at Fangraphs, Cubs have a 121 WRC+ as a team (2nd to the Dodgers at 123). They are 4th in MLB in OPS, 4th in SLG, 1st in OBP, 4th in BA, 5th in HR, and 2nd in runs scored. They are first in WAR. That's pretty close to dominant in 2026 MLB in my mind.

[tmwiese55]

And that is with Busch and PCA generally being bad so far this year.  Some of the other regulars are a notch above what you'd expect but nothing extremely fluky since they're all generally good hitters.   Cubs are gonna be there all year.  But their pitching has been destroyed by injuries, really not sure how their pitching can hold up all year without some good trades.  And of course, I have no real idea on if they have unknown AAA guys with promise like we do every year

[jay87shot]

32 minutes ago, Underachiever said:

Looking at Fangraphs, Cubs have a 121 WRC+ as a team (2nd to the Dodgers at 123). They are 4th in MLB in OPS, 4th in SLG, 1st in OBP, 4th in BA, 5th in HR, and 2nd in runs scored. They are first in WAR. That's pretty close to dominant in 2026 MLB in my mind.

I didnt look up data but like tmwiese55 said Busch, PCA, Swanson, and even Bregman are producing below expectations. Each guy has a 100 or higher ops+ but all are under .250 batting averages. Overall production is good because that lineup is so deep but they do have some more upside.