The Cubs split their opening series with the Marlins.  While it's easy to focus on the negatives of splitting a series with a terrible team, there are some positives to consider.  We discuss the series and look ahead to a two-game set with the Reds.  

It's our annual season prediction episode.  Listen as we share our predictions on a variety of Cubs stats for both the team and individual players.  

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Spring Training is cruising along, and we decide to take a few minutes to talk about a couple of individual performances.  The Cubs released Justin Grimm, and we look back on his years with the Cubs and talk about the impact his departure has on the bullpen.  We also look at the first month of the 2018 season for the Cubs.  There is a good mix of opponents, some weaker teams and then, series with the Cardinals and Brewers.  

If you are interested in hosting a game watch in your area for the Ivy Envy Global Game Watch, click this link:  Ivy Envy Global Game Watch

We also have a date for John Baker Day 2018, it's July 21st. 

On this episode, we answer a handful of listener questions.  We also take this opportunity to reflect on the Jake Arrieta years, and the incredible performances we witnessed.  

On this episode of the podcast, we look at six players that could experience turnaround seasons in 2018.  We look at Chatwood, Russell, Schwarber, Zobrist, Heyward, and Wilson.  After we look at each player, we rank them in order of likelihood to experience a turnaround.  

At the end of the episode, we introduce a new segment, and here are the links for it:

FourEyes Woodworking and Design

Boy Pablo - Everytime

This episode starts with a little discussion about the first few games of the Cubs 2018 Spring Training.  Then we get into the leadoff hitter discussion.  Joe Maddon plans to "audition some dudes," and we share our thoughts on four leadoff candidates, Almora, Happ, Zobrist, and Schwarber.   

On the 538th episode of The Ivy Envy Podcast, we talk about some of the 2018 Cubs Spring Training storylines.  Learn what storylines interest us the most and what we'll be paying attention to with specific players.  

If you would like to grab one of the remaining tickets to our 3rd Annual Ivy Envy Cubs/Brewers Tailgate in Milwaukee, go to https://groupmatics.events/event/Ivyenvy5

Welcome to the first episode of our 10th season of podcasting on the Cubs.  The Cubs signed Yu Darvish!  The rotation suddenly looks great, and we talk about how good it is.  We also talk about how good the rest of the team is by looking at the ZiPS and PECOTA projections for the 2018 Chicago Cubs.  

At the beginning of the season, we made some predictions for the 2017 season.  Most, if not all, of these stat predictions, were suggested by listeners.  Michael from Galesburg (The Awesome 80's Podcast & Cultivating Catuli) joins us to tell us how we fared.  One of the hosts will emerge victoriously.  

This episode wraps up our 9th season of podcasting on the Cubs.  Next week, we will preview Spring Training and go through the 2018 Cubs ZiPS projections.  Thanks for sticking with us through this incredibly slow off-season, and the next episode starts Season 10!

Thanks for downloading the 535th episode of The Ivy Envy Podcast.  On this episode, we talk about three Cubs signings, check in on Yu Darvish and Jake Arrieta, and we talk about Jason Heyward's recent proclamation that he will be the MVP of the Cubs in 2018.