Hello all, sorry for flaking out at the end of last season, I got caught up getting set up at college, then pledged a fraternity (Delta Sigma Phi all the way) but now that Spring Training is up and going (and I am deadly poor), I am back to give you the best Chicago Cubs content available.

The goal will be to give a lot of preview articles now, and once the season gets into full swing, give you guys an article a day.

Why am I being so nice?

Because you the reader deserve it.

It will take me a bit to get back into the swing of things, so postings for now will be somewhat sparce, but once I get going, we will be posting quality Cubs content (hopefully) daily. After all, shouldn’t I live up to the name, The DAILY Cub.

The Cubs are now 1-0 in Spring Training (although that matters just about as much as what I ate for dinner) so hopefully we will get things back in a positive direction this season.

For now, I’m Joe W.

A little over half way to the end of the season, the Cubs have finally jumped past the St. Louis Cardinals and stole the division lead.

Before the All-Star Break, the Cubs split a four-game series with the Cards. Since the break, however, the Cubs are 8-2. The Cardinals are 4-6 since the break, including losing two of three against the Phillies in their most recent series.

The Cards now go from facing the defending champions to facing this season’s best team, the L.A Dodgers, in a four-game series. The Cubs face the Astros, and have a chance to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the division. Read the rest of this entry »

According to Chicago Tribune writer Paul Sullivan, the Cubs’ lone All-Star is likely heading to the disabled list.

“Oh gosh, we were just talking about getting [ Ryan] Dempster back,” manager Lou Piniella said. “We were happy about that, and all of a sudden, the Lilly situation [comes up]. It seems like every time we get a player, we lose one. But let’s see what the MRI says on Theodore, and we can go from there.”

Lilly has been the most consistent Cubs starter this season, going 9-7 with a 3.59 ERA. Read the rest of this entry »

The Cubs were able to get out of their offensive woes against Seth McClung and the Brewers, as they took down the NL Central division leaders 9-5.

Derek Lee lead the Cubs with a career-high seven RBI’s on two home runs, going 2-4 on the day.

Ryan Dempster had a decent start, allowing just three earned runs in six and 2/3 innings, tying a season high with nine strikeouts. Read the rest of this entry »

Alfonso Soriano has been horrible as of late, bad enough for there to be rumblings of him being benched for a couple games.

His batting average over the past five games has been a measly .095, and he hasn’t gotten a hit in his last 15 at bats.

However, today, he went 2-5 with one gigantic RBI.

The Cubs started the day locked in an outstanding pitching duel between ace Carlos Zambrano going up against White Sox stud Gavin Floyd. Read the rest of this entry »

Randy Wells has pitched 44.1 career innings, posting an outstanding career ERA of just 1.64.

He has started 6 games this season, with an ERA of just 1.86.   He has never allowed more than three runs in any appearance of his career.

However, Wells has yet to find his first win, thanks to an unlucky combination of poor offense and poor bullpen pitching in the games he has started.

In fact, Wells’ record stands at 0-2, a record that you might expect for a pitcher who is just getting into the starting rotation.  However, the rest of his stats tell a completely different story.

Wells didn’t allow a run until his 14th inning on the year.  That’s almost two shut-outs to start a career. Read the rest of this entry »

The Chicago Cubs came into this season with the expectation of at least contending for a World Series title.

However, they have struggled mightily this season and they have been unable to live up to the high expectations that accompanied a seemingly unstoppable pitching rotation and batting order.

As of late, the Cubs have been even worse, as they have gone 3-5 in the month of May.  What the problem has been for the Cubs is an inability to be consistently strong.

When they have great offensive days, they have been accompanied with great pitching days, and bad offensive days have been accompied with dismal pitching.

In the Cubs three wins this month, they have scored 7, 10 and 11 runs in each game, but in their five losses, they scored 0, 1, 3, 2 and 2 runs.  Compare that to the 2, 3 and 3 runs allowed in the three wins and the 3, 7, 4, 8 and 7 runs in the losses.

The Cubs need to be able to put together more wins, and that starts with both sides of the ball being held responsible when both sides are dismal in the same game.

One of the main reasons for the Cubs woes so far this season is the awful offensive production by players who were looked at as people who needed to contribute for the Cubs to be strong.

Mark Bradley, who was brought in to give the Cubs a strong left handed bat, isn’t averaging a hit for every 10 at bats, and has hit just one home run in a Cubs uniform.

Derek Lee is hitting just .200 with only one home run so far this season, he also has just 10 RBI’s and hasn’t stolen a base this season.

Last year’s National League Rookie of the Year, Geovany Soto, is batting just .111 and hasn’t hit a home run.  This adds to the fact that he has missed five full games this season and has accounted for just five runs (2 RBI’s, 3 runs).

But their hitting isn’t the only problem for the Cubs this season, their pitching has been just as bad, if not worse, than the hitting.

More Cubs have an ERA over 6.00 than one under 3.00 (four to two).

And, the Cubs vaunted starting pitching, which was supposed to be one of the best starting fives in the MLB hasn’t lived up to the hype.

Every starter has an ERA over 3.00 and the Cubs top two pitchers are pitching the worst in the lineup.

Despite a quality start last night, Carlos Zambrano’s ERA is 4.64 and Ryan Dempster’s is 5.40.  This is the opposite of what you want from what was supposed to be one of the best starting lineups in all of baseball.

The two “quality pitchers” in the Cubs bullpen, who were in the heated closing competition all spring, are both having dismal seasons.

Carlos Mamol’s ERA is 6.75, and Kevin Gregg’s is 6.23.  Who knew that Neal Cotts would be having a better season than both of these two.

The only pitcher with over 10 innings pitched and an ERA under three is Aaron Heilman, who has a 0.82 ERA in 11 innings of work.  He also has as many wins as Zambrano, Rich Harden and Ted Lilly, and more wins than Ryan Dempster.

The Cubs need to finally get their stuff together, and they need to start playing up to their full potential.  The Cubs are a team that needs a lot of production out their power spots in the lineup, and they just haven’t gotten that this year.

Without the pitching to make up for it, the Cubs may be in line for a mediocre season without much winning.

Then again, there are 142 games left for the Cubs, and anything can happen.

-Joe Willett

It’s Easter, and the Cubs will be playing in about an hour in the rubber match against the Brew Crew.

Fresh off of a Blackhawks shutout over the Detroit Red Wings (I had to watch hockey today with my family) the Cubs will try to add another win for Chicago tonight.

I have been pretty dormant lately and I figured I could offer a few thoughts on the Cubs through the first five games of the season.

We are only 3-2 and the start has not been that impressive

Sure, we could easily be 4-1, but that will be talked about a little later. This Cubs team can look amazing (see the eight run first two innings against the Astros) but they haven’t been able to put together a full game yet.

I am a little scared that we haven’t been able to pull together a dominant performance even with the stout pitching and amazing hitting we have on paper.

Milton Bradley may only have one hit, but he has been impressive

If you look at Bradley’s raw hitting, it isn’t too impressive, but when you take into account each time he has walked to the plate, he still almost always finds a way to get get on base.

Despite being one for 16 at the plate, Bradley has an OBP of .318 thanks to five walks and a hit by pitch. He also has scored three runs thus far this season.

Oh, by the way, his one and only hit was a solo home run.

Besides Lilly, the starting pitching has been fantastic

Cubs starters continue to put up quality start after quality start thus far this season.

Carlos Zambrano has started two games this season, pitching 12 inning, allowing four runs, for a 3.00 ERA. Ryan Dempster’s last outing was strong, with six innings pitched and just two runs scored, he had a very successful showing in his season debut.

Rich Harden was lights out in his debut, allowing just one earned run on three hits in six innings.  Harden even struck out a ton, as usual, fanning 10 in an impressive start.

The only bad outing has been thrown by Ted Lilly, who was backed up by 11 Cubs runs, allowing him to avoid the L despite allowing five runs in five innings.

Kevin Gregg scares me as the closer

Listen, he had a great Spring Training, and I am trying to take nothing away from his ability, I just don’t trust him to hold down the fort in the ninth inning.

He has already blown one save this season as the Brewers were able to tear him apart in the ninth inning two nights ago, and the fact that he led the majors in blown saves last year is a big red flag.

I think that Sweet Lou should start throwing Carlos Marmol in the ninth and moving Gregg into the eight inning, everything would probably go a lot smoother and everybody would pitch better under those circumstances.

Kosuke Fukudome anybody?

The man was looked at as a possible major liability to this team, with a monster contract and seemingly not enough talent, the Asian Sensation was seemingly done in the MLB.

Then, something crazy happened, he had a great spring. Then, unlike Gregg above, he brought that momentum into the regular season.

Fukudome is batting over .400 with two home runs, three RBI’s, and one stolen base. More good news for Fukudome, Piniella just announced that he will no longer be lifting the surprise player for defensive purposes.

-Joe Willett

Sure, Rich Harden was acquired a year ago to help strengthen a starting rotation to World Series status, which didn’t happen, but I still have to love Rich Harden.

Off news that he pitched yesterday while under the influence of food poisoning (yea, I know the wording scared you for a second) he is quickly working his way ahead of Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster.

I have decided to throw together five reasons that Rich Harden is a great player who I just love.

Duh…Playing with food poisoning

I don’t know if any of you have had food poisoning, but if you get hit right, it can be just terrible. For Harden to play through that is outstanding.

Also, he pitched for four innings, throwing 63 pitches, striking out four, including former Cub prospect Eric Patterson, and allowing no runs on just three hits.

Harden lost about seven pounds after eating bad chicken salad.

He was almost as good as the supernatural CC Sabathia

Sure, Harden didn’t get nearly the press that Sabathia got for his stint, but Sabathia only got that press because he did what he did on a bad team, not one that was already good.

Although Harden didn’t turn the Cubs around any, he went 5-1 with a 1.78 with 89 strikeouts in 71 innings.

That is an outstanding stat line and one that would make any pitcher ecstatic with their play, and he’s being looked at as the possible fourth in the Cubs rotation.

His health didn’t disturb him as much last year

Although he has had frequent health problems (he has just been Mark Prior with more bounce-back ability), when he has played, he is one of, if not the, best pitch in the majors.

What should scare people is the fact that he pitched 148 innings last season, nothing amazing, but surely that would be enough to satisfy most of Chicago if he would pitch that and be ready for the post-season.

If Harden throws together a full season, other teams should be worried.

He comes cheap (relatively)

With all of his outstanding ability, Harden made three million less than Ryan Dempster, four million less than Ted Lilly and 12 million less than Carlos Zambrano last season.

This season, Harden is slated to earn seven million dollars, which is still cheaper than what Dempster, Lilly and Zambrano are slated to make.  For somebody who may be the best in the majors, thats pretty cheap.
Hey, he fits in with the rest of the team

Although fellow oft-injured pitchers Mark Prior and Kerry Wood are now long gone, he still has some other injury prone players to work with.

The most notable of these is Milton Bradley, who has missed at least 12 games in each season since 2002, however, he still thinks that he will be there to play.

Who knows, if Harden and Bradley both stay healthy, the Cubs may be in a position to make some noise.

But all that really matters right now, with 11 days til Opening Day, is that Harden is getting healthy, and that he is working his way into a position to be one of my favorite players.

-Joe Willett

Through 27 Spring Training games, the Chicago Cubs have been motoring as they try to get themselves ready for the season.

When the Cubs are on, they are one of the better teams in the majors, and that has been shown throughout the spring, even though the players aren’t playing full games.

They have won two of their last three games by over 10 runs (13-2 over the White Sox and 20-5 over the Athletics) which is quite a staggering number, and with players playing longer and longer each game, each of these games become more and more of a prediction of how the season will go.

Carlos Zambrano pitched just two games ago for six innings, striking out six and not allowing a walk in a 5-3 win over the Mariners.

The Cubs are, at the time of this article, 13 days and 20 hours away from their first game in Houston against the Astros, and they are starting to get their players accustomed to playing full games, which is exactly what they are doing.

Cubs players, however, are ready to get to Houston and start playing games that count.  Derek Lee has said that he wants to shorten the current Spring Training schedule, which consists of 39 games.

“I don’t think anybody needs that long to get ready. So it’s nice that soon there’s some games that are going to count,” said Lee of the current Spring Training system.

Sweet Lou Piniella has said that he is getting ready to start shortening his roster, as he plans to have the team down to 30 players by Tuesday, which is when he will start playing his starters with much more frequency.

Piniella has also said that he wants Ted Lilly back to the team as soon as the World Baseball Classic is over, and has him slated to pitch a simulated game the day after the WBC finale.

The Cubs fear that he is falling behind on his workouts and would be better off with the team, Lilly hasn’t pitched since March 17th.

The closer position, which seemed to be suited better for Carlos Marmol, is now looking more wide open, as former Marlin Kevin Gregg hasn’t allowed a run this spring, but the fact that he led the majors in blown saves last year leaves the Cubs weary of handing him the reigns.

A much more slept-upon position battle is for the second catcher spot on the team.  Paul Bako, a former Cub, is back with the team and has plenty of experience, but Koyie Hill is batting over .400 this spring and has looked fantastic.

Piniella has said that he doesn’t feel that the decision on that spot needs to be made anytime soon, however, and he might wait a while before choosing who gets to stay in the majors.

The Cubs are playing well, and they look like they could have a great season.  Are they World Series ready?  We’ll just have to wait and see.

-Joe Willett