Why the Cubs will repeat (or fail to repeat) as World Series champs

Life became complete for many Chicago Cubs fans in November, when the team won its first World Series since 1908.

Now the Cubs and their fans want to get greedy.

Can you say repeat?

The Cubs are the consensus favorite to win the National League Central for a second straight season, and many prognosticators believe they'll win the World Series again.

We're a long way from that, but if any team in recent years is poised to repeat, it's the Cubs. Major League Baseball, unlike other sports - see the NHL and the Chicago Blackhawks - does not have a salary cap, and the Cubs have flexibility to spend, as well as a deep farm system from which to draw in case of injury.

"Every year is so different," said veteran pitcher Jon Lester, who won two world championships with the Red Sox before last year's title with the Cubs. "I don't think you can put a blueprint out there and say, 'Hey, this is how you repeat. I think we just have to prepare and go out and play like we did last year.

"Obviously that's hard to do because we did do a lot of things. Defensively we set records. Offensively we were pretty amazing. And we had the best pitching staff in the league last year," Lester said.

"I hope everybody has the same year that they did last year. That would be really, really awesome, but that's not baseball. There are going to be some ebbs and flows."

Let's take a look at the reasons the Cubs will report - and won't repeat - as world champions.

Here is why it will happen.

Sheer talent:

The Cubs are stacked from 1-9 in the lineup and around the diamond. The key losses from last year's team are center fielder Dexter Fowler and catcher David Ross.

Fowler went to the hated St. Louis Cardinals, and Ross retired. It doesn't seem to matter. Fowler should help the Cardinals but not enough for his new team to catch the Cubs. Jon Jay (a former Cardinal) and youngster Albert Almora Jr. will replace Fowler in center field, and slugger Kyle Schwarber will take Fowler's role as the leadoff hitter.

Schwarber also is the third catcher behind rising star Willson Contreras and veteran Miguel Montero.

Otherwise, all-stars and/or Gold Glovers and Silver Sluggers dot the rest of the diamond, from Anthony Rizzo to Kris Bryant to Addison Russell to Jason Heyward.

Abd their starting-pitching rotation also goes six deep.

Confidence and naiveté:

One striking thing about this team, going back to the 2015 club that arrived in the playoffs "a year ahead of schedule," is how the young players have handled the spotlight.

The 2015 and 2016 teams weren't awed by the media attention and gave no signs of feeling "the pressure."

Lester believes that can be an advantage moving ahead.

"With our young guys, I think they're cocky enough and naive enough at the same time to just go out and play again and not worry about anything," he said. "You definitely see everybody's got a little pep in their steps, coming into spring training being champs and all that stuff. That's good to see. They deserve that.

"At the same time, when it's time to work, you can see they kind of flip that switch and go back to work. I think we've got a lot of positives on our side."

The Maddon factor:

Manager Joe Maddon was roasted last fall - and into the winter - over his managing in the postseason, particularly in Game 7 of the World Series.

He's also a big reason they made the 2015 playoffs and got to the promised land in 2016.

Baseball has a long season, and Maddon is good at resting his players, whether it's with canceling batting practice for several days at time or giving his regulars a day off now and then. Interestingly, Maddon makes little distinction between veterans and youngsters when it comes to rest. He believes young players become just as mentally and physically fatigued as older players.

Maddon's daily lineups are based on matchups, with an eye toward alternating between left- and right-handed hitters. He's not afraid to be counterintuitive, such as batting Schwarber first or his pitcher eighth.

Even though his pitchers may not like it, Maddon again is expected to drop a sixth starter into the rotation this season to help preserve his big guns for the fall.

And oh yes, the zoo animals and American Legion days and road-trip dress-ups all keep things light.

Here are some reasons why the Cubs won't repeat:

Simple mathematics:

With five teams making the playoffs in each league, the numbers work against the best team advancing to the World Series. From 1903-68, the top teams in each league squared off in the World Series. There were no divisional playoffs, no league championship series, no wild cards.

As Cubs president Theo Epstein put it this spring, the Cubs faced their "mortality" in each of the three playoff series they played in 2016. Wild-card teams go through four rounds to win a World Series. So a hot streak or a cold streak in October/November, with a short series, can send the league's top team packing in a hurry.

Beginning in 1991 and excluding the strike-shortened 1994 season, the Atlanta Braves won 14 straight division titles but captured only one World Series title during that span.

The X-factor:

No team wants to talk about injuries, but each tries to prepare for them, by having depth with their rotation, bullpen and position players.

For the past two seasons, the starting rotation was remarkably healthy. Lester worked through shoulder fatigue two years ago in spring training but was able to start the season. Last year, John Lackey was on the disabled list from mid-August through early September with shoulder strain, but that's as serious as it got.

Nothing will derail a good team's season faster than injuries, especially to key starting pitchers. With pitchers, especially veterans, there are no guarantees about health despite the good physical conditions Cubs pitchers keep themselves in.

The long season:

Although this team seems immune to many pressures of the pennant race, the long season takes a toll on players, Lester said, as does the stress from multiple playoffs seasons.

"You're asking guys to do stuff they're normally not used to (in the playoffs) … starting pitchers coming out of the bullpen, you're pitching on short rest, you're doing different things," Lester said. "That's what makes the Yankees so special. They were able to do it year in and year out.

"Teams now, I think, are better all across the board. I think it makes it harder that way. It's a hard thing to win one, let alone to do it two in a row. We're going to try real hard. All we can do is play hard and do little things like we do in spring training and get better and see what happens through the season."

• Twitter@BruceMiles2112