The post season has only been going on for two days, but one thing has become very obvious…the bloated, steroids enhanced, offensive baseball era is over.
Tim Lincecum, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee …all aces and all won in their first game of the playoffs.
The Cubs going 0-6 in the last 2 playoff series that they’ve played is not coincidence. While Carlos Zambrano during those years was pretty good, he was no Lincecum, Halladay or Lee.
The Cubs have a good rotation…even after the trade of Ted Lilly. Assuming Zambrano reverts back to more of what we normally have seen out of him the last 3 years, there is not a single, dominating pitcher in that rotation. Dempster, Z, Wells, Gorzelanny, Diamond, Coleman, Silva, Marshall and anyone else the Cubs can through out there all have the ability to be good, solid pitchers. These are all guys would could fill in spots to make a really good rotation, but for that rotation to be great, they would have to have one shut down guy at the top. We have 2 starters (Dempster and Z) that would make very good #2 guys in a rotation. Wells and Silva will probably only ever top out as #3 starters. Gorzellany, Diamond, Coleman, and Marshall…very good 4-5 starters.
There is also this realization…the Cubs don’t have the money to spend on an ace right now. Why? Because that money is being spent on Carlos Zambrano, who is being paid at the level one of those aces.
Cliff Lee would be wonderful to go after this offseason, but the Yankees appear poised to make a run at him meaning the price for him will be astronomical (probably at or above the $23 million a season that C.C. Sabathia is getting).
So we look to the future, and I suppose the potential exists to get back to the playoffs at some point in the next few years, but I’m not sure the Cubs can make a serious run in the playoffs again until they can find an ace. That’s what it appears it will take to win a pennant in this current baseball environment.
