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Theo Epstein Only Needs 6 Words To Keep Cubs Humble

(CBS) The Cubs have been tabbed by Vegas as the World Series favorites entering 2016, and they've responded to such lofty expectations with a new mantra as spring training has opened: "Embrace the target."

President of baseball operations Theo Epstein acknowledges that is quite the change from spring 2015, when the Cubs were a happy-go-lucky bunch who boasted plenty of talent but also so much youth that you didn't know what to expect in the season to follow. What came along with a breakthrough season that featured 97 wins and a trip to the NLCS.

Because of what he calls his team's "great character," Epstein has little concern about how his players will handle the championship-or-bust expectation from some.

Still, if he needs to keep anyone grounded, Epstein has a go-to line: "We're a defending third-place team."

"People's expectations are so outsized," Epstein said in an interview on the Spiegel and Goff Show on Tuesday. "I don't know that anyone could live up to what some people are projecting for us, but I think everyone here has done the right thing by dealing with it, acknowledging it and focusing on ourselves and focusing on the internal dynamic and not the external dynamic. 'Embracing the target' works from an individual standpoint and for a team, an organizational standpoint because we walk around here very humbly recognizing we haven't done anything -- zero.

"We're a defending third-place team. We're happy to remind anyone of that who starts talking about or worrying about complacency. How can you be complacent when you're a defending third-place team? All we have with this collection of great talent and great character is opportunity, and we make of that what we will through how we come together as a team, how we overcome adversity, how we prepare for the season and how humble we stay throughout that long journey's that just getting ready to begin.

"I don't think anyone's going to get complacent."

Listen to Epstein's full interview below.

Theo Epstein on the Spiegel and Goff Show

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