The Chicago Cubs seem to have woken up a little bit here as we start May baseball. Alfonso Soriano, although still not a great defender, has homered in four straight games, giving him seven for the young season and has also raised his average to .321. Newcomer Marlon Byrd has picked up where he left off in 2009. He is hitting .343 with five longballs and nineteen driven in. He also provided one of the more entertaining catches of this young baseball season with a no-look behind the back circus grab against Arizona.
The starting pitching has been solid now that Big Z has been moved to a set-up role in the bullpen. Ryan Dempster threw another seven solid innings in last night's loss against the Pirates and Randy Wells is 3-0 with a 3.45 ERA. The bullpen seems to be a little shaky with the exception of closer Carlos Marmol. He has been near unhittable with a 1-0 record and an ERA of 0.71. Marmol has thrown 25 strikeouts in just 12.1 innings. That number jumps out at you like a fan in Philly jumps out on the field. Their record shows they are one game below .500 but that should change shortly with Derrek Lee seeming to wake up and Soto coming back to life after his disappointing sophomore year. Once Aramis Ramirez gets out of his funk, the NL Central might be in for a surprise as there could be a closer battle than expected for the top of the division. We will see if the pitching holds up and if Soriano, Byrd, and the rest of the boys can keep up this pace as the season grows older.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment