Speaking to the Chicago Tribune at baseballs Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista

The Chicago Cubs ... ahem, the world champion Chicago Cubs return as the favorites to win the World Series again in 2017.The best team doesnt always win the World Series, of course, but in 2016, it did. And while it did involve a few sizable investments in the roster to get there, it was more the culmination of a long rebuild, in which short-term fixes were generally eschewed and the objective was to contend for five years, six years or even longer.Chicago does have a few losses coming this offseason, and the Cubs will never go into a season with the mean projection being 103 wins, but heres the bottom line: The 2017 organization stands just as strong as the 2016 one. Were he to leave, impending free agent Dexter Fowler would be the teams biggest loss this offseason -- Aroldis Chapman is better but was part of the team for only a third of the season -- but Fowler was considered a short-term addition anyway. The Cubs seemed perfectly happy playing Jason Heyward in center field before the opportunity to bring back Fowler fell into their laps.The Cubs also get a full-season return of Kyle Schwarber, the left-handed bat they were missing to go along with Anthony Rizzos in 2016. And its way too early to call the Heyward contract doomed. He was terrible this year, but hes not old and has had better seasons in the past. With Heywards glove, he doesnt have to be an offensive superstar to be a valuable player; if he just gets back to the 110 OPS+ range, which is still likely, hell be a plus to the 2017 team as the Cubs try to repeat.Unusual for a high-payroll team winning the World Series is that even with the loss of players to the Yankees in the Chapman trade, the Cubs still retain a strong farm system. This gives the organization flexibility in the coming years and means that the holes that pop up for the franchise this offseason are simpler to fix, either from within or by trading prospects for a more experienced solution.The Cubs were at the top of our Future Power Rankings this year, and after doing what no other Cubs team in living memory has done, theyre certainly not going to drop as a result!With that, we take a look at the preliminary ZiPS projections for the 2017 season. Obviously these projections will change tremendously as players re-sign, sign or are traded, but heres what things look like right now. Wholesale NHL Jerseys . The 26-year-old Ireland striker, who has four goals this season, has signed a three-and-a-half year contract with his new club. Authentic NHL Jerseys . 9. Price, heading to the 2014 Olympics for Canada, was named the First Star after posting wins in three starts with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .971 save percentage. https://www.cheapnhljerseysjustwholesale.com/ . Kuznetsov, who was selected by the Capitals in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, has been playing for his hometown team Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL. NHL Jerseys China . Vaives lawyer Trevor Whiffen claims the former 50-goal man wasnt provided with a copy of the claim beforehand and that he would not have agreed to the allegations made against the NHL had he been asked to review its contents. NHL Jerseys 2020 . Speaking to the Chicago Tribune at baseballs Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Boras called the former home of the Expos a "tremendous environment" for baseball. Cricket Australias experiment with a youth team in the Matador Cup will continue this summer, with the Cricket Australia XI confirmed as a seventh one-day team for 2016-17.The CA XI were included alongside the six states in the 2015-16 tournament and the squad was made up of young players who had missed out on selection in their respective state one-day squads.Although they suffered some extremely heavy losses and finished last on the Matador Cup table, they also provided one upset by beating Tasmania by three runs.CA XI squad members included Queensland legspinner Mitch Swepson, who has been chosen in the Australia A squad for a series of upcoming winter matches.We said initially that we weree prepared to back this for a two-year trial and we are sticking to that for the second season as we felt that there were significantly positive results for Australian Cricket, CAs executive general manager of team performance, Pat Howard, said.dddddddddddd.With the postponement of the Test tour [to Bangladesh] last October, the CA XI came up against very strong state sides, which was wonderful for the competition but was also a tough introduction for the young group. It is important we continue to review the concept again this season, as there were many positives. ' ' '