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That’s the four-lettered theme of this baseball season in Chicago. We want extra from the Cubs, who didn’t meet their excessive requirements final season. We want extra from the White Sox, who haven’t seen a lot progress on the big-league stage the final a number of seasons.
More playoff video games from the North Siders, who dipped a single toe into postseason baseball final season and misplaced a wild-card sport. Hell, extra World Series appearances from the Cubs, whereas we’re as regards to extra. And from the South Siders, extra dialogue in regards to the precise video games this season and fewer deal with subsequent season and the season after.
More consideration on what must be accomplished for the Cubs to achieve success this season. No extra references to their 95 regular-season victories final season, which some have used as a defend to keep at bay criticism of a disappointing end.
Albert Almora Jr. #5 of the Chicago Cubs (heart) is mobbed by teammates together with Willson Contreras #40, Kris Bryant #17 and Javier Baez #9 after getting the game-winning hit within the 10th inning in opposition to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field on June 19, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. The Cubs defeated the Dodgers 2-1 in 10 innings. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
More victories for the Sox, who received solely 62 video games final season as they continued their rebuild.
More.
That’s not asking a lot, is it?
There are at all times heightened expectations heading into a brand new baseball season. Hope makes up about 75 p.c of the sport’s genes. But there’s extra of an edge to the expectations in Chicago now. It wasn’t vital for Cubs president Theo Epstein to name this a ‘‘year of reckoning,’’ which he did the day after the 2018 season died in its sleep. Anyone with midway first rate imaginative and prescient might see that 2019 was going to be a pivotal season for the Cubs. But it was good that Epstein didn’t fall again on the snug cushioning of his group’s 95 victories. The 2016 World Series title ensured the air can be skinny the place the bar had been set.
That’s what winners need. Winners need greater than regular-season success.
In no specific order, the Cubs want extra this season out of Kyle Schwarber, Kris Bryant, Yu Darvish, Willson Contreras, Jason Heyward and Brandon Morrow. They additionally want extra out of supervisor Joe Maddon. Epstein stated the group grew to become complacent final season. That falls on the supervisor. It doesn’t matter that grownup baseball gamers ought to be capable to push themselves to play onerous every single day. Of course, they need to. But when a group begins exhibiting a nonchalance, a we’ll-try-hard-when-we-need-to perspective, it’s as much as the supervisor to eradicate it like a preacher rooting out sin.
If Maddon desires extra years with the Cubs, he’ll get that discovered. Otherwise, the group may let him stroll after his contract expires on the finish of the season. Who thought that might be a risk after the Cubs wandered out of their 108-year World Series title desert? Nobody.
But that’s what the necessity for extra does to individuals.
The Sox need extra, too. They need what the Cubs have. They need the victories, the standing and the large-print expectations.
We’re going to start out paying extra consideration to the current with the Sox, and that’s an excellent factor. Nothing in opposition to the longer term, however everyone will get just a little too snug when the here-and-now doesn’t matter as a lot because the later. Now lastly issues once more. It’s why the failure to land Manny Machado stung Sox followers a lot.
We want to start out seeing extra enchancment out of Yoan Moncada, who hit a disappointing .235 final season. That’s the best way this works. Not each acquisition goes to succeed for the Sox through the rebuilding course of, however it could be an enormous assist if this specific one did.
We must see extra moments out of Lucas Giolito, Tim Anderson, Carlos Rodon and, ultimately, Dylan Cease — moments while you say, ‘‘Oh, so that’s the massive deal.’’ Hard-throwing Michael Kopech, who blew into city on a bullet practice of…