The Mets Series

All in all, another good series. Any series is good if you take two of three or three of four. At the All-Star break, I and maybe a hundred other commentators noted the Cubs would have to win two out of three of their remaining games to get back into contention. So far Quade has done just that, 8-4, so you have to wonder what might have happened had the Cubs dumped Piniella then.

As for the Mets series, a nice win on Friday. Soriano finally hit a home run, although in all fairness, this simply made up for his botching up a catchable flyball by Wright that cost two runs. I wonder if the Cubs noticed something in DeWitt's swing that they thought they could work with. He has shown a lot more power since joining the team, four HRs in about 100 ABs since joining the team, as opposed to one in around 250 ABs with the Dodgers.

Zambrano was again dominant on Saturday. It is good to see that more people are coming around to the view that if he continues to pitch well he should be retained. Getting a comparable pitcher in exchange would certainly be difficult and pricey. I also liked the fact that he managed to keep his emotions under control when Castro made a really rookie play that allowed a Mets run to score early in the game.

Sunday's game was a reversion to early season form. Lets hope it is not a sign of the return of Cubs' complacency. Dempster was bad again. He has logged a lot of innings and might benefit from an extra day's rest at this stage of the year. Colvin made a costly and unnecessary error and Castro made a mental mistake by forgetting how many outs there were on a groundout. These are rookie mistakes, I suppose, but you really wonder what sort of preparation any of the Cubs players are getting at the minor league level. Judging by Castro's performance as a hitter, he has not been rushed by any means, nor, it would appear, has Colvin.

The same cannot be said for the young pitchers. These guys, like Russell and Diamond and Berg, are maybe just not very good. I'd say the jury is still out on Coleman and Cashner.

It will be interesting to evaluate Quade's performance in maybe a couple of weeks. How much of his success is do to a post-Piniella bump and how much to his skill? It is apparent that Quade is not playing young players or doing much experimentation to see where all the pieces might fit. He is playing veterans and established youngsters in the main with the exception of some bullpen assignments where he has very little choice. I think there are two reasons for this, one being Quade's desire to win and to impress management with his skills, the other being some desire on the Cubs part to determine whether they actually have something in the basic lineup that will be under their control next year upon which to build. Neither one of these goals is wrong in and of itself, but you have to wonder if it has not become time to be a little more innovative and whether testing some other alternatives might not be best for the team in the long run.