Since we’ve been watching the Cubs–well at least this version of the Cubs–since April, we know what they are.  Flawed, expensive, frustrating and such.  We just saw them outclass the other team in Chicago.

Yikes.  How bad are the White Sox?

A pessimist could say that the only reason the Cubs looked good Friday through Sunday was because the Sox were so bad.  But since little has gone right in this death march of a season, let’s take a day to suspend our pessimism and enjoy the first three game sweep by the Cubs at US Comiskular.  As Nuke Laloosh famously said, “I like winning.  It’s like better than losin’.”

The Cubs got great starting pitching performances all three games.  Carlos flirted with a no-hitter again on Friday, and then Rich Hill and Sean Marshall both were good–albeit in short stints.  After yesterday’s game, Lou mentioned that in the middle of the season the Cubs are going to try to shorten their starter’s appearances to leave them stronger at the end of the season.

Huh?  That can’t be done.  Dusty told us that you have to ride your starting pitching until it collapses.  We learned from him that the teams that win are the ones whose pitchers die last.

Also, what does it say about the state of the bullpen that Lou is going to them earlier these days?  I guess it says that Carlos Marmol is the balls, that Bob Howry has put it back together, Mike Wuertz has been solid and that Will Ohman has pitched pretty well of late.  Granted, my dream is to open the paper on any given day to see that Scott Eyre has been killed trying to push Will Ohman clear of a bus, only to have failed in saving him.

Lou also went on to talk glowingly about all the kids he’s been playing.  I got to thinking about that.  Felix Pie is only 22, so he certainly counts.  Angel Pagan is 25, so that’s pretty young.

Would you consider Cesar Izturis to be a “kid”?  I don’t mean a baby goat, though now that you mention it…

Cesar was born February 10, 1980.  That’s three months AFTER Ryan Theriot and less than four months before Mike Fontenot.  Granted, Cesar’s from Venezuela so maybe he’s not really 27, but we know with relative certitude that Theriot and Fontenot are 27.  I just blew my own mind.  That just happened.  I have no point, just thought it was interesting.

Rumors are percolating (Do rumors do that?  Percolate?  What percolates other than coffee and diarrhea?) that today is the last day Jock Jones will spend as a Cub.  I’m giddy with anticipation (which means it probably won’t happen).  If the Cubs can’t find a trade partner to take Jock, they’d have to designate him for assignment and eat the final year and a half of that horrendous contract they signed him to.  If they refuse (yet again) to do that, they’ll have to demote either Pagan or Pie, both of whom are much more useful than Jock.  Well, at this point you could put his hat on a coatrack in right and that would be more useful than Jock.

Assuming Jock is jettisoned ASAP, a look back at the first three months of the Lou Piniella Era would show it to be pretty productive.

The Cubs are in second place (such that it is), they have a team in the field that can actually catch batted baseballs and throw them to each other.  Alfonso Soriano’s red hot after a lousy start, Derrek Lee is hitting close to .350, E-ramis didn’t spend April hitting .117 again.  Michael Barrett is gone.  Scott Eyre has been chained to the bullpen bench.  Cliff Floyd has hit whenever he’s played and is pretty much the everyday right fielder now.  Matt Murton has been sent to Iowa to regain his stroke (his .267 average indicated he may have had a stroke instead of found one).  Carlos Zambrano spent two months pitching like Victor Zambrano before finding his usual dominant form.  The rest of the starting rotation (except for the pitiful Wade Miller experiment) has been pretty damn good.  The bullpen went from a wreck to a mess.  So that’s progress.

Yet, for all of that, the Cubs are five games UNDER .500, 7.5 games behind Milwaukee in the Central and seven games behind Mike Barrett and the Fathers in the Wild Card.  There’s a long way to go and a short time to get there.  Chances are, this team won’t get anywhere near the playoffs.

But when you reflect on the fact that the Dusty Baker years ended with the franchise in complete chaos and that the Tribune Company left Jim Hendry in charge for no apparent reason, the team on the field has come a lot farther than should have been expected.  That we owe to Lou.

I’m a big Lou Piniella fan.  He’s a redass, his postgame press conferences are nearly incoherent and I don’t care.  He’s done the one thing that the Cubs have needed a manager to do since…I don’t even know, I guess Don Zimmer.  He’s held his players accountable.  Most of them don’t like it.  I don’t (and more importantly neither does Lou) give a shit.  Mike Fontenot is only playing second base for one reason.  He’s hitting.  He’s playing well, so Lou is using him.  Is that so hard?

Michael Barrett’s Cub track record suggested that he was a good hitter and that since those are rare in catchers that Lou should thank his lucky stars he had him.  Lou watched Barrett try to “run” a pitching staff and nearly killed himself with a fungo bat.  Barrett didn’t make it three months under Lou.  I love that Lou swings a big enough hammer that he could get Barrett launched.  The guy they got for him, Rob Bowen, is a stiff.  He looks like Liev Schrieber and apparently he hits like him, too.  But this wasn’t about upgrading the offense behind the plate.  This was about cutting down on the soul-crushing mistakes made by that position.

By the way, is it me, or does E-ramis Ramirez look like Deron Williams’ Dominican brother?  It’s probably just me.

I loved the suicide squeeze ending to Saturday’s game.  (One of my happiest moments as a Cubs’ fan.  The Cubs are the team who gets squeezed, not the team who does it, that was sweet.  See, it’s the little things.  With this franchise, that’s all you get.)  I loved listening to Hawk Harrelson have an aneurysm about the obstruction call (since he had no idea what was happening).

74 games into the season and the Cubs have a lot of ground to make up.  Let’s take a quick tour around the rest of the NL and see if they’re up to it.

NL Central

Milwaukee — 43-32 7.5 games up on Chicago
Telling stat: Expected record – 40-35 (Cubs’ expected record – 40-34)

The Brewers struggled through the early part of June and the Cubs did little to capitalize on it.  The Cubs got to within five games a couple of times and every time they had a chance to cut it to four, they’d blow it.  Milwakee is a bullpen arm or two away from putting the division away.  The Cubs need to cozy up to them quick, or wave goodbye.

St. Louis — 33-39 1 game behind Chicago
Telling stat: Runs scored – 310 Runs allowed – 384 (Cubs RS 330/RA 305)
The Genius has his team basically as much in the race as the Cubs, but the Cardinals blow even harder than our Cubs.  Their starting staff is a mess (they just signed Tomo Ohka and traded for Mike Maroth and both are upgrades), their bullpen is falling part, but to their credit, only Josh Hancock has taken the easy way out.  So far.

Houston — 32-43 3.5 behind Chicago
Telling stat: 15-25 road record (Cubs road record is 20-19)
Like their most famous fan, the Astros like to come from behind (lucky Barbara), but they’re a godawful mess.  The Beege is holding them hostage as he crawls towards 3,000 hits.  They miss the sight of Clettitte canoodling on the bench during home games.  But they do have Hunter Pence.  At least until he breaks all four limbs running into the pole in the center field.  It’s over for their manager Yosemite Phil and the ‘Stros.  Nice run.  Too bad the 2005 World Series never happened, it might have been fun for you.

Cincinnati and Pissburgh — Never mind

NL West

Arizona — 44-32 1 game up on San Diego, 8 ahead of Chicago
Telling stat: Scored fewer and given up more runs than the Cubs

They’re a mirage.  A cute, cuddly, young mirage, but as much as our Cubs have underachieved this year, the Diamondbacks have overachieved.  They’ve got no shot at holding off the Padres or Dodgers.

San Diego — 42-32 1 game behind Arizona, 7 ahead of Chicago
Telling stat: 1-4 since Michael Barrett trade (Cubs: 3-2)

They have the best pitching in the NL, though they just raised their degree of difficulty by tying Michael Barrett to it like an anchor.  They’re going to need to add a bat to do any damage in the playoffs, but not to hold off our Cubs.  They could do that even if they brought Kurt Bevacqua back and used him in left.

Los Angeles — 42-33 1.5 games behind Arizona, 6.5 ahead of Chicago
Telling stat: 16-8 in one run games (Cubs 8-15)

They had quite an offseason taking piles of cash and burning them for Juan Pierre and Jason Schmidt.  Nomar has one homer and an OPS of .659 and their regular starting outfield has combined to hit 16 homers (Luis Gonzalez 10, Andre Ethier 6, Juan 0).  And they’re still 6.5 ahead of the Cubs.  Must be that Grady Little.

Or perhaps not.

Colorado — 38-37 5.5 games behind Arizona, 2.5 ahead of Chicago
Telling stat: 7-12 v. lefty starting pitchers (Cubs have three lefties in rotation)
See that nifty stat about the Cubs having three lefties in the rotation and Colorado struggling against southpaws?  In this series that starts tonight, the Cubs will start both of their righties.  Damnit all.  The Rockies have fared better with their home/road splits since they added the humidor at Coors.  I don’t really care either.

San Francisco — why bother?

NL East

New York Mets — 41-32 3 games ahead of Philadelphia, 6.5 ahead of Chicago
Telling stat: June record 7-14, Cubs’ June record 13-10
The Mets outfield is crumbling in the corners due to old age, and Carlos Delgado looks like the wheels have fallen off.  But they’ve still got Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, David Wright and Billy Wagner, plus the Braves have gone in the toilet, too and the Phillies are the Phillies.  They’ll walk to an NL East title.

Philadelphia – 39-36 3 games behind New York, 3.5 ahead of Chicago
Telling stat: 4-10 one run games, Cubs 8-15
Finally, a team with fewer one run games than our Cubs.  Despite all the goodness of having Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, the Phillies are an injured mess, and if they’re in the race for the wild card all fall, I suddenly like the Cubs’ chances.  I just don’t think they will be.

Atlanta — 38-38 4.5 games behind New York, 2 ahead of Chicago
Telling stat: 19-21 home record (Cubs’ home record 15-20)
Can you really be a contender if you have a losing record at home?  In both the Braves’ and Cubs’ cases, the answer is no.

Florida — 36-40 6.5 games behind New York, .001 ahead of Chicago
Telling stat — Expected W-L record 36-40 (Cubs’ 40-34)
For a second straight year they’re getting the most out of what they have.  The Cubs have yet to be able to say that for more than a week at a time.  If they ever get it together…oh, why even bother worrying about it?

Washington’s a non-factor.  So that’s it.  The Cubs will need to outlast at least nine of these teams to get into the playoffs.  Well, hey, at least we’ll have the Lance Briggs thing to keep us busy in August.