{"id":1277,"date":"2008-11-20T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2008-11-20T06:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=1277"},"modified":"2010-04-02T15:34:38","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T14:34:38","slug":"bgb-team-picker-1st-place-chicago-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=1277","title":{"rendered":"BGB Team Picker – 1st place Chicago Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once the data had been collated and all the scores checked, there was one team that stood out by a mile.\u00c2\u00a0 The Cubbies already have a decent smattering of fans in Britain and if our Team Picker is a good indication, plenty more Brits will be bemoaning the Curse of the Billy Goat and hoping that next year will finally be the year of the ‘Loveable Losers’.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Team Picker Scores<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n
Roots and Tradition<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nUnderdog Status<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nHope for the Future<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nFollowing from afar<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nRoad trip potential<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nTotal Score<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20<\/strong><\/td>\n13<\/strong><\/td>\n17<\/strong><\/td>\n20<\/strong><\/td>\n14<\/strong><\/td>\n84.5<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Cubs basically tick every box and their total score was a full 15.5 points higher than the second-placed Giants.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their history is second to none, being residents of Chicago since 1876 (although they were not always known as the Cubs throughout that time).\u00c2\u00a0 While our score doesn’t take into account their 100 year World Series drought or the historic Wrigley Field, those factors only reinforce the point that if a team’s past is important to you, the Cubs offer as much (if not more) than anyone.<\/p>\n

The north-siders also rank first in the ‘Following from afar’ category.\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks to the unique nature of Wrigley, the Cubs are only allowed to use their floodlights for a certain number of games each season.\u00c2\u00a0 This means that they play more day games than any other team in the Majors, allowing British fans to follow a good proportion of their home games live during the British evening.\u00c2\u00a0 Most especially, the Cubs often play home games on Fridays (normally starting at 19.20 BST), allowing you to watch their game before heading out for a (celebratory?) drink or two to start your weekend off on a perfect note.<\/p>\n

The Cubbies do have some excellent young talent, none more impressive than 2008 NL Rookie of the Year Geovany Soto, but the main reason for their high ranking in the ‘Hope for the Future’ category is the number of ‘Type A Free Agent’ ranked players that they have under contract for at least another two seasons.\u00c2\u00a0 They have spent good money to acquire (and tie up) a strong core of players, but they’ve been able to combine this with a relatively high number of regular season wins to keep their ‘Underdog status’ up.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, of course, arguably their 100 year and counting wait for a World Series win makes them the biggest underdogs out there.\u00c2\u00a0 With Chicago also being a popular tourist destination, the Cubs took first place in the first ever BaseballGB<\/em> Team Picker rankings by a comfortable margin.<\/p>\n

So, those were the top three teams.\u00c2\u00a0 How did the rest get on?\u00c2\u00a0 The full rankings will be published on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once the data had been collated and all the scores checked, there was one team that stood out by a mile.\u00c2\u00a0 The Cubbies already have a decent smattering of fans in Britain and if our Team Picker is a good indication, plenty more Brits will be bemoaning the Curse of the Billy Goat and hoping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[553,42],"class_list":["post-1277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2","tag-team-picker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1277"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7297,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions\/7297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}