Under Construction: One Pitching Staff

Let's take a look and see how the pitching staff stacks up thus far:

El Toro Loco-Carlos Zambrano may just get his Cy Young award this year. All of the contract talks are behind him and he’s pitching like a man possessed. I’m really impressed with the level of self control the Big Moose has exhibited this year. This year Carlos hasn’t beaten himself. There’s a new maturity on display here and it really could be a sign of big things to come from our number one.

Ryan Dempster-The clown prince of Cubdom is nothing to laugh at. Since his return to the rotation, Dempster has looked solid, posting a 2.72 ERA, notching 4 wins and 1 loss in 7 starts. Not too shabby for a guy who often struggled with his command in the closer role. If Dempster looks sharp all season, he put up some solid numbers.

Ted Lilly-TR struggled early in the season, but appears to have righted the ship. His last couple starts have seen the Iceman move closer to his 2007 form. He’ll need to regain his edge if the Cubs are going to make a serious run.

Rich Hill-After a solid 2007, Rich Hill’s head went back in the clouds and he returned to being an AAAA pitcher. Rich needs to stop worrying about pitching perfect and worry about actually pitching. Life’s not perfect, Rich. Baseball doesn’t need to be either. Perfect games are like a white buffalo: they only come around very rarely. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll pitch one someday. Chances are you won’t. Get out there, trust your stuff, trust your teammates, and throw the best pitch you can. Remember the immortal words of Crash Davis: ‘Don’t think, just throw’. Trust me.

Jason Marquis-Jason’s kind of an enigma to me. It’s an enigma to me how he remained in the rotation after the public pissing match between he and Lou Pinella. It’s an enigma to me how he manages to get anyone out. He pitches to contact and gets rocked. His velocity isn’t down, he just is getting hammered.

These were the guys we started out with. We may see some more guys here as Lou works through these issues. Lieber may get another chance, despite getting blasted by the Reds. Gallagher may get a shot, as might Sean Marshall.