Washed Out Either Way

Did you invest in tickets for the Cub game today? Looks like rain, so you may want to stay home. Of course, you may want to stay home anyway.

Whether or not the Cub game gets played today is not important. The Cubs will probably get rained out today, but if they do play it's time to battle the Brewers. But as the new season begins, what force structure do the Chicago Cubs bring to the table? They go into the season today with 12 pitchers and 13 position players. The power of Sean Marshall and Matt Murton await should any of these 25 get hurt, stink, or otherwise drop out of the race for the championship.

Let's review some of the highlights.....

Kerry Wood, no longer the kid, is proven to be very good at times, and terrible at others. The reality is that Kerry can help this team win, but nothing lights-out here anymore these days.

Fukudome, an unknown quantity in MLB with high expectations. This was the Cubs major acquisition since last playing. We shall see what the Kingdom of the Cub does to this high regard.

Soto and Blanco will take turns trying to determine who is the less fruitless when it comes to catching.for this squad.

Ted Lilly I will say is a good player and I expect him to provide another quality season. He may get some run support and he may not, but either way I pencil him in for at least 15 wins.

Rich Hill is a good pitcher, too. How his 2008 season will go is still in question. He should be okay, good or above average.

Lieber is a war machine and I doubt he will have that good of a season. At his age, and with the low run totals that the offense will produce, he will probably have a losing record this year.

Howry is a castoff from the White Sox, no major impact here except to help the squad lose more games.

Marmol is very good, but let's see if he can capture that same magic from last year.

Ryan Dempster, Kevin Hart, Mike Wuertz, Pignatiello (huh?) and Jason Marquis are all wild cards. The bullpen is basically doomed, as in Cub Doom. Once the games get out of the starting rotation watch this team lose the game. Scott Eyre is out on the 15 day, once he's back he can contribute to the losing.

What about the Big Z man? Yeah, I didn't forget. Scratch him in for 17 wins, and still isn't the difference maker. A bunch of the wins will come against the Pirates, Reds and other assorted duds. Not a difference maker, not last year, not this year.

Soriano will get a lot of hits, but not enough that are clutch.

Reed Johnson = another unknown, time-to-sleep-at-the-wheel acquisitions.

Felix Pie is not that good. He can help out here or there, but that's about it.

Lee and Ramirez will both put up some good numbers. Again, largely against the weaker pitching. This is not Manny and Ortiz.

I like The Riot, he is one of the better players on the team. He should provide some sparks, and some clutch hitting.

DeRosa and Cedeno are non-factors.

Mike Fontenot is good, but not a factor.

Ward is going to hit at least .280 this year with some pop.

I think that's about it. There is your 2008 squad, at least for now.

More than the talent, I don't see this as a true team. Has this squad been together for any length of time? There are about 15 players that could be considered the core, others are castoffs, rebills, and journeymen. The Cubs just need to focus on building up from the bottom, using The Riot and Jon Garland as examples.

Go Cubs Go.