The Cubs

Last Sunday, when we were sitting at 1-6 after one week, I said that being 5-9 one week later would be a good second week for us. I said that supposing that we'd have to split with the Dodgers and take 2 out of 3 from the Cubs to get there. We did split with the Dodgers, and we did see some encouraging things in those four games. This weekend we see Sean Marshall, Jerome Williams, and Glendon Rusch. That means that I think our huge offensive outburst through 11 games can probably continue, though that may be contingent on Craig Wilson staying in the lineup (which is definitely not set in stone).

It also means that our pitching may have to do very little to keep us in games. Instead, I'd like to see one game this weekend where we win because of our pitching, not in spite of it. Colborn's getting a lot of crap for the way this season's started, but I'm not sure it's completely deserved. I mean yeah, the stats are horrific (our team ERA is something like 6.77, I don't even want to know what the team WHIP is). Still, one of the biggest critcisms of the prior regime was how often young pitchers got hurt. If Colborn found inconsistencies in Duke and Perez's motions, fixing them may very well prevent those injuries down the road. Now that we're entering the third time through the rotation, these guys should be able to start adapting to those changes and working through the trouble. Or at least that's what I'm hoping.