While I still have cringe-inducing memories of Bowden as GM of my “other” team, the Nationals — namely his man-crush on toolsy, troubled outfielders — I still think he basically knows what he’s talking about. And he makes some good points in the ESPN piece.

Basically, Bowden said the new regime entered Phase 1 of the rebuilding project with the goals of adding more depth to the rotation, making the lineup more left-handed, improving the defense and beefing up the farm system, and the Cubs’ recent moves have accomplished these tasks.

There’s no doubting that the rotation is now over-run with arms, for lack of a more flattering word. Not pitchers, mind you, but arms. A pitcher is someone who is at least somewhat a master of his craft; an arm is a guy who can throw a baseball fairly well. Chris Volstad, Travis Wood and the more recent add-on, Paul Maholm, are arms. What they are today is what they will be tomorrow, next year and probably the rest of their careers. They are guys that expansion teams populate their rotations with.

But I’m not knocking them. I’d rather have experienced arms like this trio than baby arms like Casey Coleman who are more likely to give you 2 innings and 6 earned runs than a quality start, or geezer arms like Rodrigo Lopez who wouldn’t even make an expansion team. Keep in mind, this is a rebuilding project. It will take time to develop and acquire pitchers, so in the meantime, and for the sake of being at least mildly competitive, we need solid arms. And now the Cubs have more arms than Vishnu.

When it comes to restocking the farm system, I love the Anthony Rizzo acquisition. Yes, he flopped horribly with the Padres last year — I think he had like a negative 300 WAR, but he was actually a 0.1 WAHSC (Wins Above Hee-seop Choi) – but he probably wasn’t quite ready for the big stage and San Diego’s Petco Park is so huge it can sap the confidence of any young slugger. All Rizzo might need is to pop a couple of wind-aided taters over the ivy on a hot summer day in order to feel like he belongs in The Show, and from there the sky is the limit. All indications are that he has the maturity and drive to ultimately make it — it’s just a question of how good he will be.

So all in all, a promising start to The New Era. Now if we could only get rid of those damn blue alternate jerseys …

Say this for the Cubs new regime — it’s grounded in reality. No proclamations about how we’re going for it in 2012. No scoffing at the thought of rebuilding. Nope, the Cubs’ new honchos know full well that (A) the team they took over stinks and (B) that team will continue to stink for at least a little while longer.

Acting upon these sensible notions, GM Jed Hoyer recently made some moves that will have no consequence on the team when he signed pitchers Andy Sonnanstine and Manny Corpas. Sonnanstine had decent years in 2008 and ‘10 and was atrocious in ‘07, ‘09 and ‘11. Since 2012 is an even-numbered year, I guess we should expect blessed medocrity. Even so, given Andy’s penchant for serving up homers, the Bleacher Bums should get their throwing arms loosened up whenever they see him warming up in the bullpen.

Corpas came out of nowhere to capably fill in as Colorado’s closer when the Rockies made their unlikely run to the 2007 World Series. Then he became terrible, and then he became seriously injured (Tommy John surgery) and missed last season. So there’s a good chance he won’t even make the team.

With skads of real pitchers still available on the open market, this is what we get. And that’s a good thing. No sense in blowing meaningful money in order to turn a bad team into an average one. But in case you have any doubts about Hoyer’s dim view of the Cubs’ immediate future, look no further than the recent trade of Sean Marshall to the Reds. Simply put, you don’t deal one of your best hurlers to a division rival unless you’re basically conceding defeat before Spring Training has even begun.

Sure, it hurts. No one wants to see their favorite team go all San Diego Padres on them. 2012 will be an ugly year. All indications are Matt Garza will be the next out the door. Prince Fielder won’t be racing to the North Side on a white horse any time soon. It’s tough to swallow, but it’s our reality. And we can only have faith that Jed and the gang will get the job done … some day.

The Cubs entered their game against the Philadelphia Phillies with four straight wins and hoping to sweep a second straight two-game series after taking the first game last night in convincing fashion.

This game was much closer, and was included multi-hit games by both historically-underwhelming Mike Fontenot and rookie Starlin Castro.

In the ninth inning, the Cubs were down just one run and going up against former crosstown rival Jose Contreras and started off the inning with a bang.

Alfonso Soriano took somewhere near 500 pitches and broke two bats before getting hit by a pitch. With some good timing, Soriano was able to make it to third thanks to a hit-and-run, the hit coming via blooper to center from Fontenot.

So the Cubs have had back-to-back solid at bats, Contreras has already thrown more pitches than he was expecting to throw and he has yet to record an out with the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on first.

After Starlin Castro strikes out, Aramis Ramirez comes up, only needing to put the ball in the outfield for the at-bat to be considered a success, and he strikes out while swinging at a ball that he couldn’t have connected with if he were standing on home plate.

Ramirez is just two nights removed from a game winning home run in the 11th against the Colorado Rockies, an event that had some Chicagoans proclaiming that his slump was over and he was ready to start performing again.

Little did those Chicagoans know that he would go 0-8 over the next three games, striking out three times and drawing one walk.

Ramirez has the second-worst batting average among hitters with at least 120 plate appearances, something that no player just a two seasons removed from an All Star game appearance should have.

Having one player who is having a season this bad is something that a team can overcome, but when you throw in the fact that Derek Lee, star first baseman, is 28th on that list with a batting average of .226.

The combo of Lee and Ramirez, usually the meat of the Cubs lineup, have 61 hits this season with 70 strikeouts.

Meanwhile, six Chicago Cubs have batting averages over .300. They have also struggled to knock in runs, Lee and Ramirez are fourth and fifth on the Cubs in RBI, a statistic where they generally fight it out for first place.

They wouldn’t even be that high if it weren’t for their position in the lineup for most of the season.

Lee and Ramirez have always been player with great power and production who only needed consistent production before them. This season, they are getting just that with Kosuke Fukudome and Ryan Theriot batting 1-2 and each having batting averages of .310.

Theriot has even done a good job of becoming a decent base-running threat, stealing seven bases thus far, putting him at a tie for 22nd in the majors.

With the starting rotation, bullpen, and everybody around them getting their act together, Lee and Ramirez are the only two keeping the Cubs from taking charge of the mediocre NL Central.

At only five games out of the lead, a break out by these two players would catapult the Cubs into the drivers seat for a playoff spot.

I’m Joe W.

On a night when we learned that Carlos Zambrano will be returning to the starting rotation shortly, a different Carlos was able to steal the show by pitching six scoreless innings before allowing a two-run home run without recording an out in the seventh and being taken out.

After going 2-9 in an 11 game stretch, the Cubs have been able to pull off three strait wins after taking the finale against the division rival Pittsburgh Pirates and sweeping a two game series against the Colorado Rockies.

The Cubs were helped offensively by young shortstop Starlin Castro who put the Cubs up 2-0 on a fielders choice in the fourth to help give the Cubs some early insurance on the Rockies.

Then, in the eighth, he knocked in Tyler Colvin, who scored twice and stole his first career base, on an infield single to put the Cubs up 4-2. Later in the inning, the Castro scored on a Ryan Theriot single along with Geovany Soto to give the Cubs the final score of 6-2.

The bullpen, which has been an issue for the Cubs this season, pitched very well last night, allowing just one hit and one walk over the last three innings.

After Silva was pulled, Esmailin Caridad came in and walked Miguel Olivo. Caridad was immediately replaced by James Russell, who struck out two and finished the inning.

Sean Marshall pitched a scoreless eighth and Carlos Zambrano pitched a perfect ninth while striking out two and finally having a good outing in the bullpen.

Zambrano received more good news when he found out later that night that he would be returning to the rotation after a few long relief appearances.

With diminished velocity and poor performances, the bullpen experiment has been a complete failure. The only problem is, who will Zambrano replace?

The starting rotation has been the only positive for the Cubs and the only reasonable suggestion for the Cubs may be to move to a six man rotation. Although there is no definitive ace on the staff, there is also no weak spot in the rotation either.

Adding Zambrano, will likely give the Cubs one of those two things.

Zambrano’s velocity has been his mark in the past, but over the past two seasons his fastball has dropped from the mid 90’s to the high 80’s, reaching the around 90-91 on occasion. Without his fastball, he has lost his edge and hitters are taking advantage.

This season, Zambrano came in laid an egg in the season opener against the Atlanta Braves, getting pulled after just 1.1 innings and allowing eight runs.

That one start, however, was seemingly his only bad start. Over his next three starts before getting put in the bullpen he pitched 18 innings and allowed eight runs. That isn’t ace material, but it’s an ERA of 4.00 through three starts, which isn’t worthy of being put into the bullpen.

Since going to the bullpen, Zambrano has allowed six runs in 9.2 innings, but five of those runs came in two appearances while he has six scoreless appearances.

Zambrano was moved to the bullpen in hopes that he could find his velocity and give the Cubs a legitimate set-up man for Carlos Marmol. It appears that Marshall will be moving into that spot for the remainder of the season.

Although Zambrano is no ace, he will get a chance to prove that he should be a starter when he gets back into the rotation.

It was a great night for Cubs named Carlos, now it’s time to see if guys named Carlos can make a great season for the Cubs.

I’m Joe W.

All was well in Wrigleyville.

Fast-forward to present day and the Cubs are 14-20 and coming off of being swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates (14-19) and about to suffer the same fate against the Florida Marlins (16-17) pending tomorrow’s matinee as the Cubs try to stop their four game slide.

So one big question continues to pop up in my mind, as I always love to play the blame game. That question is…

Who is at fault for this horrible excuse for a team that takes the field in Chicago Cub uniforms?

It certainly isn’t Marlon Byrd, who I didn’t expect to repeat his numbers last season, but who is surprising me by playing well game in and game out. He is batting .339 with six home runs and 23 RBI.

It surprisingly isn’t Carlos Silva, who could have destroyed the Cubs every five games. He is 3-0 with a 3.50 ERA and a WHIP of just 1.17.

It isn’t Kosuke Fukudome, who is batting .330 with five home runs and 18 RBI.

Alfonso Soriano? Batting .311 with seven home runs and 18 RBI.

It’s not Tom Gorzelanny. Despite being 1-3 his ERA is just 2.83 and he is striking out 9.86 batters every nine innings.

You can’t blame Carlos Marmol, the up and down pitcher has yet to allow a home run, saved four games in five attempts, and has an ERA of just 0.61 in 14 appearances. He would just love to close out more games for the Cubs but he doesn’t get the chance.

So who are the people that are most deserving of the blame if it isn’t all of these guys who could have easily laid a goose egg this season instead of being the only people playing well?

It’s Ted Lilly. He’s 1-3 with a 4.88 ERA, his second highest since his third season in the pros.

It’s Carlos Zambrano, the “ace” who has pitched so bad this season that he has earned himself a spot in the bullpen. He would be known as the other Carlos if it weren’t for his nearly $19 million salary. If you aren’t happy about your new bullpen spot, try getting your ERA below six.

It’s Aramis Ramirez who is batting just .156 with three home runs and said today that he was his own hitting coach. He may want to fire his hitting coach.

It’s Derek Lee, who must have hired Ramirez as his hitting coach. He’s batting just .220 this season with four home runs.

Although Lee and Ramirez have decent RBI numbers this season, it’s hard not to when you have Byrd, Fukudome and Ryan Theriot in front of them. Those three have no problem getting on base, and would have less trouble scoring if it weren’t for the production behind them.

It’s the defense, which has 28 errors already this season, tying for second with the Detroit Tigers in the entire MLB. This also puts them alone in second in fielding percentage this season thus far.

With every person who needed to play at their best doing just that, you would expect the Cubs to be above .500 and surprising every analyst who expected the Cubs to be a flop this season, instead, every player who was actually expected to play well decided to take the season off.

Sorry Silva, Soriano, Fukudome, Marmol, Gorzelanny and Byrd. You did everything you could to prove your haters wrong. If you keep doing this, maybe those who were expected to play well will use you as an example instead of the other way around.

I’m Joe W.

Here are a few stories that have happened over the past few days.

Aramis Ramirez returns to the diamond

Ramirez has missed some time this spring because of a sore right tricep, but he returned on Tuesday against the Royals as a DH and went 2-3 with an RBI. He hasn’t played since March 13th, but he looked like he hadn’t missed any time in his three at bats.

Lou Piniella wanted to get Ramirez 30 at bats before the season started, but Ramirez doesn’t think that’s necessary.

“I don’t need 30 at-bats,” Ramirez said. “Five more and I’ll be ready to go. I haven’t played in 11 days, 10 days, and I felt pretty good today. I don’t need that many at-bats.”

Although Ramirez missed significant time last season, this injury doesn’t appear to be linked to that one, and there shouldn’t be any cause to worry about Ramirez having injury trouble this season too.

Ted Lilly far ahead of schedule

Piniella expected Lilly to be back by May 1st when he originally hurt himself, but with the way that he has been progressing, he is expected to be back well before then. This would be big for the Cubs starting rotation, as Lilly has had some of the best years of his career with the Cubs.

Although he isn’t going to be making a Cactus League start like originally planned, he will be pitching in the minors this weekend. He is expected to return about halfway through April now.

Tim Kurkjian gives the Cubs a legit chance for the playoffs

Although all of the talk in the NL Central has gone to the St. Louis Cardinals and Albert Pujols, the Cubs aren’t looking to just roll over and concede the division, and Kurkjian says that they do have a shot.

He cites Carlos Zambrano’s new health, stability at closer with Carlos Marmol, Ted Lilly returning early, Rudy Jaramillo’s impact on the offense and Kosuke Fukudome making the switch to right field as reasons whey the Cubs should be optimistic for the season.

These are all great reasons why the Cubs, despite making very few changes to to their lineup, should be feeling a lot better this season than they did last season.

Greg Maddux gets rave reviews from Jim Hendry

Although Jaramillo will be helping the offense, Maddux will be working with the pitchers in some capacity, as he works with different people throughout the Cubs organization working on finding a job that he would be able to do in the future.

According to ESPN, Maddux has worked with Carlos Zambrano, Carlos Silva, Tom Gorzelanny and Sean Marshall this spring, which could have a big impact this season, as these are four of the pitchers that the Cubs need to step up this season, along with Carlos Marmol.

If Maddux’s impact on the team is as big as Hendry thinks it is, then the Cubs could see big improvements from their pitching staff.

I’m Joe W.

Although Castro turns 20 in just a few days, he has been playing like a veteran, batting near .500 and striking out just once in 26 at bats before being sent down. He caused Lou Piniella to re-evaluate whether or not he should give the youngster a shot.

“Castro had a phenomenal spring for a young player,” Piniella said. “Nineteen years old, to come in here and look like a veteran and swing the bat … he showed his athleticism. He came in here highly touted and left here even more touted.”

However, Ryan Theriot showed that he wasn’t ready to concede his position just yet, as he has been outstanding this spring as well. Having Castro working with the team and pushing him may have contributed, and it may stay that way throughout the season, as Castro is available to be called up at any time if Piniella thinks it’s necessary.

Theriot has hit .560 this spring so far, and he has been playing well defensively too. If he plays like he has all season, the Cubs may be able to turn shortstop into a strength this season. Piniella said that Castro has helped Theriot this spring.

“Maybe having Castro around has something to do with it,” Piniella said. “You’ve got a nice young player like that pushing you.”

The Cubs have been getting great performances from young players throughout the spring, as Castro isn’t the only one who has stepped up. Carlos Silva has turned around a horrible first start and has been pitching well.

Esmailin Caridad hasn’t allowed a single run this spring, and has allowed just seven base runners in 7.1 innings, and has been doing a good job auditioning for a set-up spot. Justin Berg has already earned his spot on the team, with an ERA of just 1.80 in five innings, Berg is also doing a good job of trying to be the set-up man while Angel Guzman is out.

Brad Snyder has also had a good good spring, and although he was sent down with Castro, he has hit .313 this spring and has shown Piniella that he can play any of the three outfield positions.

The Cubs are going to look towards their younger players to make a big impact this season, and this spring those players have worked to give Piniella and Cubs fans faith.

I’m Joe W.

In his first start of the spring, Silva pitched horribly, giving up six runs on seven hits against the rival Chicago White Sox all in just two innings of work. The bad start was expected by those who looked into Silva’s history with the Mariners and Twins.

However, in his two starts since he has pitched seven scoreless innings, got the win on both occasions, and has done a great job with his pitches as he makes up for his bad first start. He’s allowed six hits and one walk over the two appearances, giving him a very low WHIP of 1.00 in those two performances, and he lowered his ERA from 27.00 to 6.00.

Silva said that his newly found confidence may be stemming from the fact that his mother, whom he is very close with, will finally get to see him pitch live this season. For years she has been attempting to come to the U.S to watch him pitch but was never able to come.

“That was a big headache the last couple years,” Silva said. “She had been getting denied, denied, denied. I think that’s why I was fired up today.”

Silva also said that he is getting a different feeling this season than in previous ones, and that he feels a lot better about his command. If this keeps up, he could be on the fast track to becoming the fifth starter in the Cubs rotation.

“I have to talk to my mother before the game and after the game,” Silva said. “If I showed you the message I sent to her, I said, ‘The way I feel today I haven’t felt for a long, long time.’ The last game was good. I still have to work more. Today, I felt like it was me. I threw the sinker the way I wanted to throw it. I used my breaking ball, and my changeup was good today. I had good command.”

Although Silva has had issues in the past, he has shown flashes of how good he can be, and it seems as though he is working hard to recapture that magic this season with the Cubs. With the loss of Rich Harden, having a new pitcher come in who has a better history of being healthy than Harden could actually make the Cubs rotation better than last season.

Don’t get your hopes up too high, as Silva hasn’t shown a consistent ability to dominate as a pitcher, but having guarded confidence about this season for Silva might be the right way to go.

I’m Joe W.

Although getting rid of Milton Bradley was a great move and took money off the payroll, the Cubs still have a lot of money tied up in two out of the three outfield spots, and they need to start seeing some production from those corner outfielders.

They did make a move to bring in a centerfielder coming off of a career year, and they will need him to produce if they want to be competitive. But he isn’t the only guy that they have their hopes high on, with another free agent outfielder who will back up two out of the three outfield spots and battle for playing time.

Here is a look at the outfield:

LF: Alfonso Soriano
CF: Marlon Byrd
RF: Kosuke Fukudome

Alfonso Soriano comes at the highest price tag, and he has had his moments. He’s hit at least 20 home runs every year he has been with the Cubs, but his total has decreased every year as has his batting average. This season, however, he should be batting sixth all season, which is where he thrived last season.

However, he will need to turn it around a lot this season, after having career lows in average, runs, and RBI in seasons where he played at least 50 games. However, the lows in hitting come slightly surprising as he has done a better job of making contact when he swings this season—the ball just made it’s way to a defensive player’s glove more often than not.

At the other corner outfield position, Kosuke Fukudome has been a big disappointment, especially after he started off so well in his rookie season with the Cubs. Fukudome did a good job of being a more patient hitter while making this hits he did get count.

Although his batting average was nearly identical both seasons, Fukudome took more walks, increased his BB/K ratio, and decreased the amount of times that he swung at pitches outside the zone.

Fukudome also played well in the field when he played right field, and playing there all season should give him stability defensively. The confidence from improved defensive play could give him more confidence at the plate as well.

Marlon Byrd had a career year last season, and he was rewarded with a sizeable contract. But that could work against him in the eyes of the Cubbie faithful. Although he hit 20 home runs and 89 RBI last season, he has never come close to those numbers in any other season of his career.

To expect stats like that would be foolish, and he needs to hope that fans aren’t expecting him to repeat those numbers. Byrd is a good centerfielder and he should give the Cubs some stability at that position.

The Cubs also signed utility outfielder Xavier Nady over the winter, and he should see playing time at both right and left field. Expect him to even battle for a starting spot at right field against Fukudome, as Nady has been better throughout his career than Fukudome has been in his time in the MLB.

Expect Tyler Colvin to also see some time at centerfield. Colvin has had a great spring so far; he robbed Ryan Braun of a home run, he has been batting over .500, and he also has six RBI.

The Cubs have a lot of money tied up in the outfield, and they haven’t had too much production. If they don’t get any improvements this season, it could be another season where tens of millions of dollars were spent for below average play, offensively and defensively.

But maybe Soriano, Fukudome, and Byrd can put together a great season, and we can see some bang for our bucks.

I’m Joe W.

Here are the stories that are important so far in Spring Training:

Ted Lilly’s Road to Recover

Lilly was expected to miss the beginning of the season, but according to skipper Lou Piniella, Lilly’s progress is ahead of schedule and could even see some time in the Cactus League.

“We want to keep him under the radar gun and not talk much about it. He’s coming along really well. He’s had no setbacks whatsoever. He’s actually ahead of schedule. We feel pretty good about the possibility of him pitching some Spring Training [games].”

This could be big for the Cubs, who are having a tough time finding a fifth starter for when Lilly is healthy, let alone adding a hunt for another starter. I don’t want to jinx anything, but if Lilly comes back strong without missing too many starts the Cubs could be looking at a strong start with a pretty weak schedule the first month or so.

Carlos Silva Eyes a Roster Spot

Silva came to the Cubs solely to get rid of Milton Bradley, but Jim Hendry would really like to show that he got some value for the departed clubhouse cancer, and Silva has been doing the best to prove Hendry right.

After a horrible first performance this spring, letting up six runs in just two innings of work, Silva showcased his new delivery with a much better second outing. He threw three scoreless innings and only walking one batter.

Silva has had bloated ERA’s in almost every season that he has pitched, his ERA has been over 4.00 in all but two of his eight seasons, but he is still making a little over $12 million this season, and getting a little value for all that cash wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Kevin Millar’s Leaving It All on the Field

The Cubs are stacked at first base, with Derek Lee and Micah Hoffpauir likely to be the two first basemen on the roster and Chad Tracy also trying for a spot, but Millar is doing his best to change Piniella’s mind and get himself on the Cubs roster for the season.

At 38-years-old, Millar isn’t exactly a spring chicken, but he has had a pretty effective spring thus far. He’s batting .385 and on Tuesday against the Angels, he went 2-2 with a home run, a double and three RBI as he makes his push for a roster spot.

Millar helped the Red Sox break their curse back in 2004 (possibly the only clean one), and if he can be a significant part of the Cubs breaking their drought (although the Red Sox drought was nothing compared to the Cubs’) he will have his place in baseball folklore cemented.

Starlin Castro Impressing

This 19-year-old prospected has been highly touted around the Cubs, and he has been showing why this spring. He’s hitting near .500 and has four RBI so far this spring, and he has been showing Cubs players like Mike Fontenot that they shouldn’t rest on their starting spot.

He’s made believer a believer out of Aramis Ramirez who spoke about the young player and whether or not he thought he could make it in the majors this season.

“Because he’s 19, that doesn’t mean he can’t perform. But at the same time, he’s still a young kid and can get better at the Minors and come up and be a great player. I don’t think [age] is an issue,” said Ramirez of Castro.

Although Castro has been crushing the ball, he does need to work on his plate discipline, he has only walked once so far this spring.

These are just a few of the stories that have peppered the Cubs’ Spring Training so far, and with 21 games to go, there will is plenty of time for these stories to play out.

I’m Joe W.