Well, there isn't much to say. The Cubs continue to dominate teams, at least teams that have relatively weak offenses. Through the Wednesday game, the Cubs are 18-8 under Mike Quade. Since the start of the road trip on which they went 8-1, Cubs starting pitching has been completely dominant. Wells, Zambrano, and Dempster have been lights out, and they have even gotten respectable performances from Coleman and Samardzija.
The pitching really has been the story. With starters going long, Quade has been able to spot some of the youngsters in the bullpen into positions where they can get outs without a lot of pressure. Scott Maine, in particular, has looked good, and Cashner seems much more consistent. This has taken some pressure off Marshall and Marmol and they have responded in kind.
Lots of folks keep saying that Quade has been successful by playing the youngsters, but I don't know what games they are watching because, with the exception of the Sunday game against the Marlins, they have not used young players unless they had to do so and they have not brought up their best prospects anyway. These guys are at AA. Barney is the only real exception to this statement, and he got most of his ABs when Ramirez was hurt. Nor has Quade been especially experimental with the youth. The much heralded experiment of playing Colvin at 1B never materialized, and his batting orders are pretty conventional as well. Not that he has a lot of choices, but it should be obvious the Marlon Byrd is not a #3 hitter, nor is Blake DeWitt a leadoff man.
The only area where Quade has been relatively imaginative has been in his management of the bullpen and his employment of the young players there. I give him full credit for this turnaround and for the patience he has shown.
As for the hitting, well, during the 9 out of 11 streak, the team is hitting something like .230 though they have a better average with runner on base. I've been watching baseball for a long time, and I don't remember a team turning around like this with a change of manager based on just one aspect of the game. Seems a mystery and I'd be happy to see someone come up with a theory to explain it. It must have something to do with Piniella, though, either the way he managed his pitchers or his relationship with Rothschild. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I recollect reading that Piniella hated pitchers. Possibly they sensed this disaffection. Who knows?
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