Week 9 thoughts

3-2 on the road, with 4 of the 5 going to extra innings and a split of those 4.  I’d say that’s a good week, but not great.  All 5 games were 1 run affairs, which means they were winnable (and on the flip side, also loseable).  For the most part, the pitching, especially the starters, have been outstanding.  The offense still is struggling to be consistent and the defense has started to suffer.  The bullpen, outside of Guzman, has been shaky as well.  On to the breakdown (stats are for the past week only unless otherwise noted).

The Good
Randy Wells.  I don’t think we can say enough good stuff about how Wells has performed so far this year.  It’s borderline criminal that he still doesn’t have a big league win.  He pitched 2 outstanding games this week, taking a no hitter into the 7th of his first start.  Both games saw the bullpen blow his shot at a win.  For the week, he pitched 13.2 innings, only giving up 9 hits and 4 runs (only 3 earned), while striking out 8.  He looks like he’s going to stick in the rotation for quite a while right now. 
Angel Guzman.  He pitched 5.1 scoreless innings this week, picking up a win and a save.  He is the only guy in the bullpen that gives me any confidence right now.  I wouldn’t be shocked to see him take over the closer role sometime soon. 
Ted Lilly.  Only had 1 start, but pitched a great game. 
Ryan Dempster.  He wasn’t great on Saturday, and even though all 3 runs were unearned he had chances to get out of that inning.  After a slow start to the season, he’s really starting to round into form.  And now that this story has come out, his early season struggles make sense and I’m actually starting to revise my expectations for him upwards closer to last season’s numbers.
Carlos Zambrano.  Effectively wild.  That is a pretty good description for most of his career, but especially for his starts after injuries or suspensions.  And the home run he hit was pretty impressive too (hitting righty against a righty).
Derrek Lee.  .348/.444/.522.  Since April ended, he’s been the Cubs best hitter.

The Bad
Just about everyone else.  Only 5 games this week, so lots of guys’ lines look pretty meek.  I’m not going to read too much into Soto’s 2nd home run of the season, but I’m glad he hit it.  Neither Fukudome or Johnson did anything of note this week.  Fontenot was down again.  Blanco can field, but that’s about it.  Scales hit another late home run, but that’s about it.  Bradley got hurt again.  Marmol is still out of control.  Gregg is awful, even though he got a couple of saves and worked 2 flawless innings (I guess that qualifies as good for him, but I’m not going to put him in that group).  Fox and Hoffpauir were still on the team.  Heilman lost 1 extra innings game, and unsurprisingly allowed some more inherited runners to score.  Ascanio pitched great yesterday, but outside of that hasn’t capitalized on his chances to pitch and doesn’t pitch regularly.  Patton saw some action and got the win yesterday.  Harden was supposed to make a rehab start this past weekend, but didn’t because of the flu; he’s pitching today and will start Saturday against the Twins (I’d assume Jason Waddell will be sent down then).  Aaron Miles is expected to come off the DL Wednesday, so the Cubs will have to make another roster move (Scales back down?).  Oh, and Zambrano said he’s going to retire in a couple of years when his deal is up. 

This week has the Cubs making their 3rd trip to Houston and hosting the Twins.  Cubs are still 3.5 back, meaning they’re still treading water.