Weren’t the Cubs Supposed to Dominate?

I’m not sold on the arms in St. Louis & I still think they have too much youth (lack of experience). But LaRussa seems to get the best out of guys. I still like the Cubs chances in the end, just not by 10 games. It might be a close one this time around due to injuries.

Hate to say it, but I’m starting to see 1985 all over again…they were picked by many to capitalize on their ’84 divisional title and they had a lot of the same issues. Guys getting hurt, not playing to their potential, and aging.

What team doesn’t have injuries? The Cards, who seem to be the Cubs biggest challenger in the Central (along with the Reds), have had numerous injuries as well. I would say, considering the past, the Cubs are actually overdue to have some injuries. They’ve been relatively injury free over the past few years. And considering how many “power” pitchers they have, that seems to have been quite lucky for them. Also, this team is aging and their championship window is closing. Ramirez, Soriano and Lee are the pillars of this offense and they are all pushing their mid-30′s now. That’s normally the time when injuries become more prominent in a players career.

As for your “struggling” list, I have a few comments.

Samardzija has done virtually nothing in organized baseball. He had a decent month of baseball last year and was hyped beyond all reason by a few members of the national media because of his two sport acumen and the fact that he played for Notre Dame. The fact is that he has never shown the ability to get anyone out consistently in his short pro career. It also should be noted that the Cubs organization hurried him through their organization (probably because of the huge 10 million dollar bonus they gave him) and he just hasn’t pitched enough in his career to be a major league pitcher right now.

Dempster is simply receding back to his normal career numbers this season. I don’t think his first month was too much of a surprise, when you look at his career numbers. He won’t struggle like this all season long, but it was fairly obvious to most that his numbers would come back to normal this season.

And one more thing. Do you honestly think the injury to Chad Fox is a big blow to the Cubs this season?

Dhaab– we are in major agreement!

I think the exact same thing about Dempster and I don’t know if you’ll remember but I had ND fans onmy case because of what I wrote about Samardzija.

I put Fox in there just because it points to the instability of the bullpen.

Yeah, I remember about the ND fans. Funny how loyal those Golden Domers are.