Progress report

We're now just about a third of the way through the season, and the Cubs aren't looking as bad as their position in the standings indicates. I wouldn't exactly go camping out for playoff tickets, but there's a very good chance the Cubs could finish well ahead of expectations even if the three tough teams ahead of them in the NL Central remain there.

What's going well?

They're starting to score runs. They have by far the worst record in MLB among teams that have outscored their opponents over the course of the season, and that's bound to even out in the long run.

Three starting pitchers are doing outstanding work, and Travis Wood in particular has been a very pleasant surprise as a young lefthander putting up quality start after quality start. He's performing like he should be next in line for a long-term extension, not to mention the grand slam he hit today against the White Sox. Despite Sean Marshall pitching as advertised for Cincinnati, the trade is looking like a good one, especially with James Russell (26 appearances, 19.2 IP, 0.92 ERA, 0.86 WHIP) more than capably picking up the lefthanded setup innings he left behind. Scott Feldman is looking like a great free-agent signing now that he's not pitching half his games in one of the game's best hitters' parks. The only major disappointment has been Edwin Jackson, and with Matt Garza's return maybe the Cubs should reconsider using Carlos Villanueva as the swing man and swapping his role with Jackson's until Jackson's numbers settle back down to where he'd been in six years as a starter.

And while the bullpen has been much maligned based on a few publicized train wrecks early on, the overall performance hasn't been as bad as it seems. The harmless run that recent reacquisition Kevin Gregg gave up today was his first in 15 appearances (0.63 ERA). Carlos Marmol has an ERA under 2 since being taken out of the closer's role. With Russell (see above), despite losing Kyuji Fujikawa for the year to Tommy John surgery, that's a pretty solid bullpen. If you have three guys like those to go to when you have a lead, you're going to win a lot of games if you have leads to protect.

The pitchers are hitting. It was cute at first, but their run production out of the nine-slot this month would make a lot of teams happy anywhere in their lineups. Nineteen RBIs by Cub pitchers in May so far, and despite losing plate appearances to the DH in interleague play.

Doubles, doubles, doubles. The Cubs are on record pace, averaging more than two per game. They're also climbing the ranks in home runs, but other than Anthony Rizzo's 10 it's been a balanced attack with six guys at five or six plus now four from the pitching staff.

What's going wrong?

Getting on base. All those doubles and homers don't do a whole lot of good unless there are guys on base ahead of them. They're dead last in the majors in drawing walks, a perpetual problem for the Cubs, and they've already taken 45 fewer than their pitchers have dished out. Until recently, Darwin Barney was the only Cub with more walks than strikeouts, and he recently dipped back down on the other side of that equation. Other than Luis Valbuena, with 21 and 27 respectively, nobody else is even close. Sabermetricians may downplay strikeouts, but if you're racking up the strikeouts, you're not advancing runners, not making productive outs, and not forcing the opposition to make plays that might turn into errors.

Speaking of errors, the Cubs are making a lot of them. The pitching staff alone has nine errors, and their team fielding percentage is near the bottom of the league. You can't go giving away outs like that.

But on the whole...

With the way the pitching staff has been performing since those early bumps in the road, the reconstruction project suddenly looks to be more on track than it did two months ago. Jed and Theo have found real value picking the scrap heap with Gregg, Ryan Sweeney and Julio Borbon making contributions. I expect the Cubs to still be sellers at deadline time, but not as drastically as in the past couple of seasons beyond the usual suspects - Alfonso Soriano and Garza - and possibly some role-players and/or minor-league washouts.

And a rainout notwithstanding, they just swept the White Sox and are riding a season-high four-game winning streak.

So now that the weather has warmed up, the ivy is a nice solid shade of green and everyone's settled into place, show us what you've got, Cubbies.