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The Cubs are not a young team. On the pitching staff we can expect continued improvement for Rich Hill and Sean Marshall, and perhaps Carlos Marmol will move up to closer after looking overworked as a middle reliever at the end of the season. One can expect more consistency from “ace” Carlos Zambrano, and perhaps, just maybe, a full season for Kerry Wood. But this season Ted Lilly was as good as he’s ever likely to be (up to his implosion in the playoffs), and Jason Marquis will never be reliable. On the offensive side, Geovany Soto looks ready to be the starting catcher after being named Most Valuable Player of the Pacific Coast League, but otherwise Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Alfonso Soriano are all at or near peak levels with little room for improvement, which can also be said of Mark DeRosa, Jacque Jones, and, should he return, Cliff Floyd. Felix Pie has a hole in his swing and may never be ready for the majors, and even Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot, the little players who could and did this year, might have maxed out. Most painfully, the Arizona Diamondbacks revealed in the playoffs how easy it was to attack overaggresssive hitters like Soriano and Ramirez, and even Piniella admitted before that third game he couldn’t change a leopard’s spots on that count.
The Cubs aren’t just going to have to get better next year, they’re going to have to get a lot better just to get to the playoffs, much less advance. Will whoever eventually buys the Cubs be ready to throw another $300 million to general manager Jim Hendry to improve the team again over the off-season?
