Cubs' Lester, Lackey Hope To Do It Again, Cardinals Exceed Expectations

They’ve already won a championship together, and now reunited teammates (and best friends) Jon Lester and John Lackey are hoping to do it again with the Chicago Cubs.

Lackey joined the Cubs this past winter as a free agent just one year after Lester signed with the team. The last time they were teammates for a full season was in 2013 for the Boston Red Sox. That team went on to win a World Series, the second championship for both players. Now they’re aiming for a third.

“We’re not here to play 162 and go home,” Lester said at Cubs camp. “We want to do the whole thing.”

The Cubs came close last season, losing to the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series, but first they beat Lackey and the St. Louis Cardinals. Fast forward to Saturday, when the pair held a joint news conference on Day 2 of spring training -- one day after throwing a bullpen session next to each other and a few minutes after they finished working out together. They’re as tight as any two teammates, both on and off the field.

“Our wives are friends,” Lackey said. “It’s a full family deal for sure.”

And there’s a hope that Lackey can bring out the best in Lester -- not that he was all that bad last season. But Lester and people around him think there’s another level of performance to achieve in his second year with the Cubs. Lester is a “comfort” guy. The thought is the more familiar he is with his surroundings, the better he’ll be. A second year in the NL with the addition of Lackey might be the difference he needs.

Cardinals Tend to Exceed Win Expectations

Are the St. Louis Cardinals projection-proof? Of course, we could argue that every team is, since the future is unknowable, but the Cardinals have tended to exceed the win expectations of computer projection systems in the past and they certainly hope they can this season. If they don’t, they’ll be left at home in the playoffs.

FanGraphs, which employs a blend of two of the larger projection systems in the public sphere, Steamer and ZiPS, has them winning 84 games, 10 fewer than the Chicago Cubs and not enough to get into the postseason, even as a wild card.

Some Cardinals were surprised to hear the computer thinks they’re only slightly better than mediocre considering they were ravaged with injuries last season and won 100 games. Matt Holliday and Adam Wainwright are healthy and the team is hopeful Yadier Molina will return by, or shortly after, Opening Day.

“We won 100 games with half the people in the room that we have here,” Matt Carpenter said.

In 2014, FanGraphs projected the Cardinals to win 89 games. They won 90. In 2015, it expected them to win 87 games, 13 short of the mark.

“Those things also have people like me hitting .260 with nine homers,” Carpenter said. “I’m going to guarantee you that I’ll hit better than my projected stats. I don’t buy into it. I believe that they’re always kind of not very accurate, first off, and we know what we’re capable of with this group of people.”