8/15/2003 10:52:00 AM by Rob

Compare and contrast

A big discussion on the radio today between two guys, one resembling most "cub fans", and the other more resembling "Cub fans" like me. The first guy was telling the second to "live in the present", that it isn't often that the team is this close to postseason play, and that once we get in the playoffs, "anything can happen".

The second guy wasn't buying any of that happy shit, though. He sees that the team has little offense, is brutal against right-handed pitching, has no bench and has several below-average players starting for us.

The first guy comes back again with "this doesn't happen this often...." and I kind of dozed off from there, since I have been laid up the last few days with some flu kinda thing. But I thought back, way back, to the last time we were close to the playoffs.

Way back to....2001.

Then I thought about how this team compares to two years ago, the 88 win team that was in first place most of the season, faded down the stretch yet finished strong to inflate the victory total.

We currently have the advantage in starting staff. The 2001 team had Lieber, yes, and Wood in his first full-type year after his surgery. We had the last gasps of Jason Bere and Kevin Tapani, along with the mercurial wackiness that was Julian Tavarez. So we had one stud, one healing kid, two broken-down nags, and a whacko. This year, we have three big studs, one Clement who negates the Jason Bere contribute, and a hole in the five spot, for sure. Advantage new guys.

Certainly the 2001 team had a better pen, from April to September. But the wheels fell off of the F-Troop in August and September, when Fassero completely jumped the shark and Gordon lost it. I heard an interview with that wretched prick the other day, where he gushed that it was good to be pitching well again with the Sux, since "he has been out since 1999." Uh, cockbreath? You spent two years on our roster, and when I said you were stealing, people rushed to your defense, saying that you were trying hard. Guess I was right, numbnuts.

The current team enjoys more pen depth, with more situational guys. What is curious is that Reglar Joe was the closer in April, and since mid-May, and he hasn't blown many chances, and the team is contending, and he still has only 23 saves? And nobody else has any to speak of. Wouldncha think that a contending team should have more saves than that? Is that a negative reflection of the pen? It doesn't appear to be so, considering the season in whole.

What the 2001 team has all over this team is chemistry and offense. Sosa WAS a beast back then, there was production from guys like Matt Stairs and Ricky Guiterrez, and even though McStiff seemed to deflate everything with his "holdout", and didn't get a single clutch hit that I can remember, he did play a quarter of a season with us (49 gms, 12 dongs, 43 ribbs) that compared to Sosa's year in terms of offensive rate.

We do have Dusty, and we don't have the Turd. These are intangibles that cannot be denied. It still doesn't seem to me like we have what it takes to get to the finish line first, although IF we did, and went down to a rotation of Prior, Wood and Big Z, this club could win its first playoff series since 1908.

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