Cubs Take 3 of 4 From Brewers; Get Healthy Tomorrow

I didn’t see much of the game today so I won’t talk much about it. The Cubs won and took 3 of the 4 games over the weekend against the Brewers. This was a huge series for the Cubs and they stepped up. They’ve played great baseball at home all season. The offense has come to life, but they also haven’t faced much good pitching of late. Still, they’ve scored more than you’d expect even against poor pitchers so that’s a really good sign. Tomorrow the Cubs will activate Aramis Ramirez, Reed Johnson and Angel Guzman before they take on the Braves tomorrow night at 6 pm at Wrigley Field. Much has been discussed about who will go and who will stay when those 3 are activated, but Len and Bob briefly mentioned something that we’ve talked about here from time to time. If the regulars perform as you’d expect the bench for this team doesn’t much matter. Sure, you’d always like the best players possible, but the simple fact that we’ve been so frustrated with Aaron Miles isn’t because he’s a bad ballplayer, but because others haven’t performed up to expectations. I don’t know who goes tomorrow. I was also reminded by Len that it really doesn’t matter either. This team isn’t going to win the division because of their bench. If they win it (and I think they will), it will be because Lee, Ramirez, Bradley, Soriano and Soto carry the offense. Lee has really turned his season around after a rough April. Soto has begun to hit more like we’d expect. Fontenot has been hitting the last few days after making a few changes at the plate. Milton Bradley has been excellent from the right side all season and has shown signs of improving from the left side too. Alfonso Soriano’s season has been the opposite of Derrek Lee’s. Soriano got off to a red hot start and looked prime to turn in perhaps the best season of his career, but for whatever reason (knee injury?) he’s had 2+ months of some pretty bad baseball. He’s not shown any signs of improving so if there’s one to worry about it, it’s Alfonso Soriano. Randy Wells excellent season has made up for Rich Harden’s crappy season. Ted Lilly continues to pitch very well and he was named the only Cubs all-star if that kind of thing matters to you. Carlos Zambrano got off to a bit of a rocky start, but he’s always loved June and this past one was no different. Ryan Dempster has had an up and down season so far, but is still pitching as we expected. The Cubs rotation is as good as any in baseball and if Rich Harden can remember that he’s a really good pitcher then it will only be that much better. Kevin Gregg got off to as bad a start as you could in his first 4 games, but since then he’s been dominating. Carlos Marmol has been much better lately and like the offensive players, is beginning to show us why we should expect him to be better than he has been. Angel Guzman has been the team’s best reliever to this point and he returns tomorrow night. Aaron Heilman isn’t fun to watch, but he’s gotten the job done this year. Sean Marshall has been as good as you can be as the LOOGY. This is an excellent pitching staff. They’ve carried the team to the mediocre record that they have so far and it’s time for the offense to keep hitting like they have the last week. If or when that happens this team is going to walk away with the division. They are tied atop the NL Central in the loss column, but have played several games fewer than the other teams in the division. They’re technically 2.5 games out of 1st place, and let’s be honest here, considering the underperformance to some of this team’s key contributors and the injury to Ramirez as well as the other injuries (Zambrano, Reed Johnson, Angel Guzman) this team is in fine shape. This team is 40-39 despite all of that. There’s been a lot of frustration among Cubs fans and some of it rightfully so, but this team doesn’t suck. This team isn’t done. This team isn’t lacking anything. Lou isn’t the reason the team has failed to win as many as we’d like. Neither is Gerald Perry who was fired. This is still a really good team and all things considered, I think we have to be happy with where they’re at right now. There are some good signs that things are getting back to normal and they’ve got 83 games left to put some distance between themselves and any other team in the division. The Atlanta Braves come to town tomorrow night for 3 games as the Cubs conclude a stretch of 22 games without an off day. After the day off on Thursday, the Cardinals come in for 3 days and 4 games. The two teams will make up a rained out game on Sunday as part of a day/night doubleheader. Then the all-star break. The Cardinals and Brewers begin a 3-game series on Tuesday so the Cubs can make up ground on one of the teams if they win. One last thing. Nate mentioned in the comments something that is important to remember. The Cubs were 2.5 out when Aramis Ramirez went on the DL. The Cubs played a ton of games on the road in June without Ramirez. They’re 2.5 games out when he returns tomorrow.