The Cubs have been playing better.
There's no denying it. They've won or tied each of their last 4 series.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves here.
This team, as constructed, is still not that good.
The truth is that we knew that Ian Stewart wasn't going to continue to hit in that bad of luck and Geovany Soto wasn't going to be that bad at every aspect of the game.
When you look at it, not to much has changed with this team since their horrendous start, with the exception of the arrival of Tony Campana and the removal of Carlos Marmol from the closer role.
This team has been led by their starting pitching, Starlin Castro and Byran LaHair.
The starting pitching has been quite amazing, but it is unlikely that we are going to continue to see both Ryan Dempster and Jeff Samardzija putting up the numbers they have so far this season. And I hate to break it to you, but Bryan LaHair isn't going to continue to have an OPS of 1.279.
So far this season, the Cubs have actually played much better than I expected...even before this current "good' stretch. Unfortunately, the Cubs are still in last place in their division and have the second worst record in the National League.
This still isn't a very good team.
Oh...don't let me get you down...the good thing is that the Cubs have become watchable. They are playing smarter baseball (at times). They are being aggressive. So with that good starting pitching, they are pretty much competitive in every single game they play. This makes them entertaining.
We continue to wait in anticipation for Anthony Rizzo (who has cooled off quite a bit in AAA) and Brett Jackson (who is striking out at an alarming rate in AAA). Again, these two kids will not improve the Cubs greatly this season. The likelihood that both of these kids will come up and be immediately successful is pretty small as well.
Enjoy the games, my friends. It's baseball...and it is entertaining baseball...but don't get your hopes up here. The Cubs have a long ways to go before being truly competitive.
