Cubs Humming Right Along

... Until Soriano got hurt again. He is starting to remind me of Eric Davis; all muscle but not a huge guy, but strong and fast. I hope he is not as brittle in his later years. I'm not worried about the Cubs pitching at all; we have some pitchers who are off to slow starts, but those guys will get it together. Included in that group are Ted Lilly and Rich Hill. I'm not confident either of them can pitch as well as last year, but overall, we have a better team now than we did then.

The hitting looks better than I thought it would be, for sure. Derrek Lee looks like he is once again the awesome hitter he was in 2004 and 2005. I wasn't sure if he ever would be again, on this side of 30. But his wrist just needed more time to fully recover. Fukudome is the real deal, too. He works pitchers and fouls off good pitches. He will hit .300 for sure.

The bullpen is deep, with Wood, Howry, Marmol, Wuertz, Lieber, and Hart to with Scott Eyre when he returns. Lou and Hendry opted to go with the best pitchers they could get, rather than carry 2 lefty relievers. This works better.

Piniella uses his bench skillfully; he knows how to use guys like Mike Fontenot, and Daryle Ward to the maximum of their potential. With just about any other manager I can remember, the bench was not a weapon the Cubs really had. Maybe the last time goes way back to the Don Zimmer era.