There’s no crying in baseball. So enough already with the gloom-and-doom predictions for this year’s Cubs season.
Local blowhard and national pessimist Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times mailed in the season about two months ago. Even die-hard Michael Wilbon, Medill ’80, said the team was good for no more than 80 wins.
Read just about anything on the Cubs and you’ll likely encounter similar obituaries. Mind you, Opening Day is not until Monday. And we’ve been hearing this garbage since late February. March Madness is great but it doesn’t beat March Paranoia.
Why the fuss? Kerry Wood and Mark Prior are having trouble with their pitching arms for the second-straight year. Management did very little to replace the power hitting lost with the departures of malcontents Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou. The team also chose not to beef up the closer position, losing free agent Troy Percival to Detroit and 2003 closer Joe Borowski to yet another injury.
But take a closer look. Prior has been throwing simulated games during Spring Training (a simulated game just means that coaches give him game-like scenarios and he adjusts his pitches accordingly). He is scheduled to pitch in a minor league game Saturday and probably will be ready for the Cubs by mid-April. The throwing power he generates from his legs transfers to his elbow after he releases the ball, and the torque can cause irritation. Still, no one doubts the soundness of his mechanics, and if he is able to make an April return, any kinks ought to be ironed out before crunch time.
Wood, whose complaints of shoulder problems are not as much of a concern, threw 92 pitches in an exhibition game Wednesday against Colorado. He was able to throw all of his pitches and his fastball topped a solid 95 mph. Wood expects to be ready for the home opener against Milwaukee on April 8.
This brings us to our second chance for a deep breath: the schedule.
The Cubs open the season against a bevy of teams that finished below .500 last year and made minimal off-season strides. Arizona shipped Randy Johnson and overpaid for pitcher Russ Ortiz and injury-prone third baseman Troy Glaus. Milwaukee traded away All-Star closer Danny Kolb and speedster Scott Podsednik, and could start as many as five rookies. The Cubs play 11 games against Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, which are, well, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. The two tough spots are San Diego and St. Louis. However, the Cubs get the Padres (my pick to win the NL West) at home and have only a two-game spat at St. Louis. Even if Prior cannot pitch until May, the rest of the staff ought to handle a relatively light load.
And did people just decide to forget about the team’s hitting?
Yes, Sosa and Alou are gone. Good riddance.
The top five hitters in this year’s lineup — Corey Patterson, Todd Walker, Nomar Garciaparra, MVP candidate Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee — are as formidable as any in the National League. None of the top five is a strikeout machine like Sosa or a habitual whiner like Alou. In their Wold Series runs, the Angels and Marlins both put a premium on manufacturing runs rather than relying on a shower of homers. Why not the Cubs?
So relax. All you Chicken Littles need not fear the sky is falling. Crack open an Old Style and hold off on the doomsday talk — at least until the ivy has grown in at Wrigley Field.
Assistant Forum Editor Christopher Kenny, Weinberg ’05, can be reached at [email protected].
