Saturday, March 8, 2008

A Preview A Day Keeps the Winter Away, #8

Between yesterday and today, this is the first chance I've had to update, so I'll do one now, and one tomorrow morning.

For the month of March I will be doing a season preview, with a new team each day, going in alphabetical order by team so I can save the Yankees for last, because I am, in fact, that devious.

As this is a Yankees' blog, the previews for AL East teams will be more detailed than those of AL Central and AL West teams, and any AL team previews will be more detailed than NL team previews, save maybe for the Mets. Each preview will involve consideration of how much 'threat' a team is to the Yankees, for fairly obvious reasons.

Up Today: The Chicago Cubs

If you don't feel for the Cubs, a team that hasn't won a World Series in exactly 100 years or been to the big show in over fifty, well, you're not much of a baseball fan.

Thus, when there finally is a competitive Cubs team out there, like there is now, you can't help but pay attention.

The last time the Cubs flirted with a National League Pennant was 2003, which many agree should have happened if not for one "fan" who thought more about a foul ball than the fortunes of his club. Before that, it was a team built around the youth of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, which...well, let's just say there's a reason Phil, Joba and Ian are under an innings cap.

Anyway, this year's Cubs team has a good chance, given the overall weak NL Central to do some playoff damage.

The rotation will be built around Carlos Zambrano (of the mammoth $90 million contract extension) and Ted Lilly, while in terms of the line-up the most intriguing development is the addition of the most sought-after Japanese player this off-season, Kosuke Fukudome (Foo-Koo-Doh-May. Not...yeah, you get it.) Also, keep an eye on Geovany Soto, who was the Pacific Coast League MVP

Threat Level to the Yankees: Yellow, Proceed with Caution

The Yankees won't play the Cubs unless in the World Series, but the Cubs, if they remain healthy, have a great shot at the Postseason, and, well, if the Red Sox could win in 2004, who knows what might happen in 2008?

So the Cubs aren't likely to threaten the Yankees, but imagine, a Cubs-Yankees WS the final season of Yankee Stadium?

Yeah, I just felt a shiver up my spine.




1 comment:

  1. You go away for one say and all hell breaks lose in a Spring Training game!

    ReplyDelete