What we have learned after Opening Weekend
Opening Day and Weekend have come and gone and the season is underway. The new look Cubs have started out 2011 looking much like the 2010 version. Here are some things we can take away from the first series:
- The Cubs still can’t figure out the Pirates. They really could have won all 3 but always found a way to make the one mistake they couldn’t afford to make.
- Starlin Castro is a superstar right now. He’s still going to throw some balls away and make some throws he shouldn’t make (like the one that allowed the go-ahead run to score today), but the kid can hit and field. He has eight hits already and tripled in consecutive at bats today. The 21 year old led off today, but someday soon he’ll be in the 3 spot.
- Carlos Marmol is unhittable. He struck out all three hitters he faced on Saturday and they never really had a chance. Sunday was a different story- Marmol blew the save by giving up 2 hits, but the hit that scored two runs was an infield single that Castro should have put in his pocket. You just have the feeling that if he can keep his walks down, Marmol is going to save a lot of games this year.
- The starting pitching is going to be adequate. Dempster, Zambrano, and Garza probably aren’t going to be dominate too often- but they should be reliable enough to eat up a lot of innings and keep the Cubs in almost every game they pitch. Dempster made one really bad pitch on Opening Day, but he’ll be solid. Zambrano dealt with more cramping, but it was good to see him start strong this season after the Opening Day debacle last season. Garza’s start today was odd- he went seven innings and struck out a career-high tying 12 men, but also gave up 11 hits against a McCutchen-less Pirate lineup. We’ll see how he looks next time out, but he was constantly walking the line today.
- The bullpen can be really good. Unlike last year where a handful of games were lost in April/May due to the bullpen blowing up, the Cubs shouldn’t have that issue this year. With Kerry Wood and Sean Marshall setting up for Carlos Mamol, the Cubs should be able to hold onto their leads this year.
- We don’t have a second baseman. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the Barney/Baker/DeWitt trio isn’t a good long term solution to the 2B void, but it looks like what we’re going to get for a while. It looks like Quade has come to terms with the fact that he doesn’t have a great option at 2B, so he’s going to let Barney play his solid defense and bloop some singles into right field every four at bats or so.
- The team seems to have a much better chemistry this year. Regardless of whether or not it’s fair to blame a lot of the problems last year on Piniella, you can’t deny that the team seems to be more cohesive and happy. They really like Quade and they seem to really like each other. Now that Silva is gone, the Cubs look like they are rid of all the team cancers. As much as we heard over the years that Derrek Lee was a great “lead by example” guy, he wasn’t a guy that could pump the team up. Now the Cubs have Carlos Pena, Kerry Wood, Ryan Dempster, etc. that can be good, vocal leaders in the clubhouse.
- The lineup is going to be streaky. They can score runs in bunches, but they will also go through some stretches where they are held down for a while.
- The NL Central looks like it could be a four team race for a while. With the Wainwright injury, I don’t see St. Louis running away with the division. The Brewers still have pitching issues that may still linger after Greinke returns. The Reds looked really good this weekend, but I’m still not sold on their pitching either. Dusty will make sure the young arms deal with more injuries soon. If the Cubs stay healthy, they have just as good of a shot at staying in the race as the other three teams. The Pirates are improved, but only enough to finish ahead of a horrible Astros team.
- None of the Central teams should make any noise in the playoffs, but the season should be exciting enough to see which team gets to play a few extra meaningful games in October.
