But there is hope.
It looks as if we will have our first minor thaw of the winter this week.
And that's good.
But hope for the Cubs? Well, they might need a little more than just hope.
Gordon Wittenmyer of the Sun-Times wrote a nice little story today about the starting rotation and pitching staff in general.
First, the time table for Ted Lilly's return?
"I've talked to him, and he seems to be doing well," pitching coach Larry Rothschild said. "It's shoulder surgery, which is a concern always, but they didn't do a whole lot other than clean it up. He should be OK. We'll see. We're not going to know until he starts his throwing program."
Um...ick. So the likely case, or best case, is that Lilly is out for the first month of the season.
So what are the Cubs planning to do about it? Well, they appear to only be looking within right now. Rothschild is at least realistic about what the outlook is like.
"Obviously, Teddy's an important part of [the staff], and we need Z to pitch like he can," Rothschild said. "We're not going in thinking we're going to dominate right away, and hopefully we can. There's going to have to be some good things that happen. That's not to say they won't. The possibilities are there. It's just a matter of making them happen."
The biggest concern for me is the fact that the starting pitching was all this team had last year. The Cubs have done little to improve the rest of the team. So if the starting pitching is worse, that can only amount to 'bad', right?
We had better hope that subtraction of Milton Bradley adds more than it appears.
Anyway, Wittenmyer's story focuses on Zambrano and basically says Zambrano must step up while. Well, honestly, I think we know what we are going to get out of Z. We've got the stats. He will be good. He won't be great.
Ok...back to who will replace Lilly?
Sounds like they expect that to be Jeff Samasdfasdrgja or Carlos Silva. But, the Cubs have had a lot of turnover this year on their pitching staff, so maybe someone else will show up this season:
With Lilly sidelined, only five pitchers who opened last season with the Cubs are projected to be on the active Opening Day roster this year (...snip...)
"It's a lot [of turnover]," Rothschild said. "There are changes, but if Teddy comes back, which I think he will, it's not that much different than a lot of teams. We're going to need to get a couple guys to come out of nowhere and pitch well. Or a guy like [Carlos] Silva to come back and pitch well. I think every team has guys they need to do that. We're no different."
One thing that is obvious, Larry Rothschild isn't expecting anyone else to come in via trade or free agency to help out the rotation right now, but Wittenmyer did continue to push the Heath Bell trade...BLAH! (Has anyone asked the Padres if they actually want to trade Bell?)
In the end, I'll continue to say this, I still think this team is better than it was at this point last year.
