Hello

Hi and welcome to the Cubs Pack blog here in the Fanball network.  I am you host, Mark and as my profile indicates, I am a Cardinals fan.  What, you might ask, is a Cardinals fan doing writing about the Cubs?  Well, its a long story, but let’s just say I was given the opportunity to write about a sport that I’m passionate about and, since the Cardinals blog was already taken, I took the Cubs blog as it is one team I know a lot about.

I think that I will bring a unique perspective to reporting on the Cubs.  I am not a long suffering Cubs fan, jaded by past failures and skeptical of everything that the Cubs do nor am I a fair weather fan, jumping on the bandwagon when the Cubs are going strong, but jumping off at the first sight of trouble. Thus, I can analyze the Cubs with an open mind (but maybe a not-so-open heart).

With that said, we’re almost a third of the way through the Cubs season and this is where things stand.  The team that many experts predicted to win the NL has been scuffling so far, only 2 games over .500 and unable to put it all together.  The main culprit so far has been the offense.  Four of the Cubs regulars are hitting below .250 (Soriano, Soto, Bradley and Fontenot). In addition to the struggles of these 4 players, the offense is obviously suffering from the loss of Ramirez. Prior to Ramirez’s injury, the Cubs were 16-13 and scoring 4.79 runs per game.  Subsequent to his injury, the Cubs are 11-12 and scoring only 3.86 runs per game.

The pitching has been pretty strong of late, but overall is in the middle of the pack, 7th in the NL with an ERA of 4.11.  Injuries have affected the pitching staff as well, with Zambrano and Harden both missing time.  Zambrano is back and pitching well and Harden should be back soon.  Those two should provide a boost to the pitching staff.

So, overall, this team is certainly not living up to expectations and is a far cry from last year’s team that led the NL in runs scored and was second in fewest runs given up. Can they right the ship?  Certainly, there’s plenty of time left in the season and with a healthy Ramirez, Zambrano and Harden, this team is still a contender.  But they need to find a way to spark the offense and fast (did I hear someone say bring back DeRosa?).