The Dodgers Series

Sad to report, there were few signs of life in the weekend series with the Dodgers. The Cubs starting pitching was not very good. Coleman and Dempster were awful. Zambrano had a really rough first inning and never seemed to settle down even though he held the Dodgers in check after the rough beginning.

Even though their starting pitching has been indifferent on the home stand, what is really hurting the team is that they do not match up very well against right-handed pitching. On this score, it is no accident that they were able to get ahead of the left-hander Lilly and so keep themselves in the game even after Dempster blew a four run lead.

There is no better illustration of this issue than the first inning of the Sunday game against LA. After giving up five runs in the top of the inning, the Cubs got the first three batters on base and managed to score a run. Kuroda got Ramirez out, but Pena came through for a change to drive in the second run.

All of these were good quality at-bats with the possible exception of Ramirez, who got himself out on a bad pitch. After that it was all downhill. Byrd and Soriano just do not match up well against quality right-handers and, of course, they are too aggressive in the process. End result, two runners left on base and game essentially over.

I'm not sure what the answer for Quade is to this problem. Playing Fukudome, Barney, and Castro at the top is a start. Batting Byrd and Soriano in tandem near the bottom is not productive. One of these guys has to sit for Colvin even though Colvin is not producing.

That being said, and given their injury issues, and the atrocious weather conditions, the Cubs are doing surprisingly well to be hanging around the .500 mark. They need to shake things up, however, and it is hard to see how they can do so with the present personnel.

Look for them to bring up Brett Jackson more or less in the same way they tabbed Starlin Castro last year. If they do so and he is ready - and I really hope he is - they are going to have to trade Byrd or Soriano, most likely Byrd just to make room. That's not a bad strategy anyway.