Although the Chicago Cubs own baseball’s best record, lead the NL in both runs scored and runs allowed and sit atop the NL Central by 3.5 games, injuries to Alfonso Soriano and now Carlos Zambrano have the Wrigley faithful crying curse once again. The good news is that even without Soriano, Lou Piniella’s offense remains formidable and could be even more productive with the more patient Kosuke Fukudome leading off.

The more urgent area of concern for the Cubs will be the depleted pitching staff, a group that has performed well for Lou Piniella and posted solid but deceiving numbers thus far. Chicago ranks 4th in MLB with a 3.62 team ERA, 5th with 538 strikeouts and 4th in runs allowed .  Read more »