Schuster: The Season For The Cubs, Sox
By David Schuster--
As I get set to board a plane home from sunny Arizona to the cooler clime of Chicago I have some final thoughts on what I have witnessed with both the Sox and Cubs over the last couple of weeks. Obviously it's still plenty early and no one has even played a game but it's never too early to look into a crystal ball as to what might happen during the regular season.
Let's start with the Cubs who, in my opinion will be a lot better then most people think. In Ryan Dempster, Carlos Zambrano and Matt Garza you have a pretty good trio of starters. Of course the other two spots are big question marks with Carlos Silva and Randy Wells having a leg up on those jobs. But don't be surprised if Andrew Cashner wins one of those spots. Cashner has that 100 MPH fastball and if he can get his other pitches over the plate this is a guy who has electric stuff and could be a big time winner. The Bullpen looks to be a strong part of the team with John Grabow and Kerry Wood setting up Carlos Marmol. And say what you want about Marmol but his strikeouts and save percentage have been outstanding even though he'll drive you crazy by loading the bases before getting out of jams.
Offensively the Cubs should be better this year. Aramis Ramirez is in a contract year and that combined with better health almost insure much bigger numbers. Carlos Pena will supply power form the left side and Starlin Castro, already good, will only get better. The question marks are at 2nd, in right and who will be the leadoff hitter.
There's no doubt that the Cubs are in a transition year and are looking forward to getting some of those terrible contracts off their books. A lot of fans are already looking toward the possibility of signing Albert Pujols in the next off season but first things first. I see the Cubs hovering around the 500 mark most of the season which should be good for 3rd in the National league Central.
Eight miles south the White Sox will definitely contend in the American League Central. Alex Rios said earlier this week that the Sox are the team to beat in the Central but Paul Konerko rightly said that the Twins are still the team to beat. Minnesota won last year and though they have their own question marks they still have a fantastic nucleus.
The Sox biggest question mark remains Jake Peavy. No pitcher has ever had the radical surgery he did so no one is sure how, or if, he'll make it all the way back but so far so good. If Peavy is healthy he makes a pretty deep 5 man staff with Mark Buehrle, John Danks, Gavin Floyd and Edwin Jackson the other four. The bullpen has been rebuilt with Kenny Williams and Ozzie Guillen having 3 left handers and either Matt Thornton or Chris Sale being the closer. My guess is that Thornton will close but Sale will be extremely valuable as the guy who gets big outs from anywhere from the 6th to 8th innings.
Offensively, the Sox might have as potent a lineup as anybody in baseball. Juan Pierre will get on base and if Gordon Beckham can rebound from last season the heart of the order will have a field day. Alex Rios, Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko all might drive in a 100 and Dunn will be hitting some long home runs in U.S. Cellular. He doesn't even have his timing down yet out here and the ball is traveling a country mile.
The one positional battle is at 3rd between Brent Morrell and Mark Teahan and the guess here is that Dayan Viciedo will start the season in the minors.
The Sox, like everyone else, have question marks but if they stay healthy and their starting pitchers have good years the Sox can win the division. But who knows? That's why they play the marathon 162 games and we're still over a month away from that even starting.
