Manager: Lou Piniella
Arrivals: RP Jose Ascanio, SS Alex Cintron, OF Kosuke Fukudome, SP Jon Lieber
Departures: OF Cliff Floyd, OF Jacque Jones, C Jason Kendall, SP Wade Miller, OF Craig Monroe, RP Will Ohman, OF Angel Pagan, SP Mark Prior, SP Steve Trachsel
Offseason grade: B+
Starting rotation
If the Cubs aim to break their 100-year World Series drought, it is going to begin with their starting rotation. Carlos Zambrano should be the ace of the staff is his second-half troubles don't carry over into 2008–remember, Zambrano's ERA peaked at 4.35 on Sept. 3 and was as high as 4.20 (somewhere, Snoop Dogg is appreciating the irony of that statment) as late as Sept. 18. However, Zambrano should be fine and ready to pitch like a Cy Young candidate again in 2008.
Behind Zambrano are two solid lefties in Theodore Roosevelt "Ted" Lilly and Rich Hill. Lilly–no, seriously, his actual full name is Theodore Roosevelt Lilly–is a roughriding lefty who consistently gets outs from his bully pulpit. And, by "roughriding" I mean "crafty" and by "bully pulpit" I mean "mound." But if you've ever seen Lilly bat, you'd know he doesn't carry a big stick.
Hill doesn't have quite the famous namesake as Lilly, but gets similar, solid results. Hill has a sneaky low-90's fastball and an above-average curveball that led to him striking out 183 batters in 2007. Hill, who will turn 28 in March, should improve off his very good 2007 into 2008, giving the Cubs an excellent trio at the top of their rotation.
The final two rotation spots will be occupied by either Jason Marquis, Jon Lieber, Sean Marshall, or Ryan Dempster. With a gun to my head, I'd probably say the final two would be Lieber and Dempster, but really, who threatens to kill somebody if they can't give you their guess as to who the last two starters in the Cubs' rotation will be? I'm partial to Marshall (that's sort of a rhyme, ha), who fits into the Lilly mold of "crafty lefty" nicely.
Marquis has proven to be either inconsistent or consistently bad over the course of his career and really doesn't deserve a rotation spot when competing against the likes of Lieber and Marshall.
Notice that I left Dempster out of that last statement. I'm still not sure why the Cubs agreed to let him try to start seeing as 1) he's been halfway decent coming out of the Cubs' bullpen the last three years, 2) he hasn't started a game since 2005, 3) he hasn't been a regular starter since 2003, and 4) he hasn't been a good starter since 2001.
Overall, the Cubs have a very good rotation that will be the key to getting the north siders back into the playoffs in 2008.
Starting rotation grade: B+
Bullpen
6 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete