I made a decision this morning to start ramping up my “training” for the half marathon I signed up to run this summer. Instead of taking my dog on a lazy 2-block walk, I decided to go with the focused 1.5-2 MILE walk. Don’t think I’m ready for that half marathon just yet. I made it through a 10K with my wife, although I think we were the last ones to finish. I did pretty well on a 5K; actually almost ran the whole thing with minimal “training”. I don’t think I can just wing this run. My wife ran the half last year, and I told her I would run it with her this year. Why did I do that again? Anyways, I better get going if I expect to finish it; heck, I better get going if I don’t expect to get carted away by some ambulance.
The Cubs got their 9th win of the season yesterday, and every time they win, I feel like they’re going to start ramping things up. I do expect them to finish with around 70 wins this year, but man has it been a brutal start. Yesterday, they got a decent pitching performance from Edwin Jackson. Here’s a guy that I thought would be better when we signed him. He’s been so bad we can’t even trade him. Rizzo and Castro had good games as well. We need those guys to be THE guys if we want to win anytime in the next couple years. Another guy that has been great this year is Jeff Samardzija. He holds a 1.98 ERA through 6 games, yet has a 0-3 record. What!?!? Yeah, I had to look that up, and it’s worse than I thought.
Is Jeff a number 1 pitcher? Pitching for the Cubs, he is. That’s the beauty of pitching for the Cubs right now; almost anyone can be a #1 pitcher. The harsh reality of pitching for the Cubs right now is those numbers I just mentioned. The guy has been great this year, and has nothing in the W column. (He started and pitched in the anniversary meltdown game). Let me rephrase the question. Is he a true number 1 pitcher? I’m not sure, but I think he’s proving he can be at least a number 2; a number 3 on a really good staff. This is the debate that he and the Cubs are having at the moment as they decide how to pay him.
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I feel like they should come to a compromise. Although the Cubs minor league system is stacked, and we have some pieces in place on the offense side of the ball, we still have some work to do with the pitching (although from the early results this year, it has been the complete opposite… scary). Currently, besides Samardzija, we have the previously mentioned Edwin Jackson, who will be gone. We have Travis Wood, who has surprised me with how well he has pitched; will he continue? Let’s say yes for the purpose of this conversation and pencil him in. Jason Hammel is a guy who has pitched great this year. He’ll most likely be moved in the summer if he keeps this up. This is part of the problem I have with the “plan”. You need to start somewhere, and I haven’t even mentioned the bullpen. With Villanueva, Arrieta, & McDonald rounding up the other potential starters currently, we need to start building this staff up… seriously. Sign Samardzija. Keep Hammel. Hope Wood keeps it up. Bring up CJ Edwards (his arm soreness wasn’t anything serious… yet). I still think we’ll need to sign a big FA this summer to serve as our #1. I think David Price is going to be available. I’ll take him as our #1. We missed out on Tanaka this offseason, and he’s been awesome so far. We need to get a top pitcher in here. Let’s spend some of that money we got and seriously try to win NEXT year. Ahhh, the beauty of being a Cubs fan, there is always next year.
As I watched the Wild beat the Avalanche yesterday in overtime of Game 7, we get amped up for the next playoff round with the Blackhawks. A rematch with the Wild??? I’m OK with that. Hopefully, they’ll keep us going for the next couple months, and bring home that 3rd Cup in 5 years. Once that’s over, we have baseball for a few months, as we wait for the Bears to start. Will the Cubs ramp it up? I hope so, especially if the Sox continue to play decent.
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