Lilly, Lee, Marmol Redux

The Cubs have found a formula for consistent victory.  Start Ted Lilly.  Have Derrek Lee hit a couple of bombs.  Pitch Carlos Marmol in the 9th.  Repeat.

Alas, Ted Lilly can’ t start every game.  Either his arm would fall off or the union would file a grievance.  And Derrek Lee, as mind-bendingly awesome as he is, can’t hit two home runs every game.  Even one per-game would be asking a lot.

Thankfully, the Cubs have other starters who can get the job done.  Now if they could find some other guys who can hit, we’d have ourselves a baseball team.

Irritating fact of the day:  Derrek Lee leads the Cubs with 96 RBI.  The #2 man on the team is Alfonso Soriano who has 55.  That stat probably sums up what’s gone wrong with this team better than any other.  And yes, I realize Aramis Ramirez would be up in the 90 range by now too if he hadn’t gotten hurt.

By the way, Ramirez could still wind up being second on the team in RBI.  He has 49 right now in only 64 games.  You realize something when you look at the Cubs’ RBI stats – this team has too many top-of-the-order guys.  Milton Bradley, Kosuke Fukudome and Ryan Theriot are all guys you’d ideally like to use in the 1 or 2 hole.  That’s three guys for two spots.  And the odd man out should really be hitting 7th.  But Lou has been forced to put Fuku in the 5 hole a lot, which makes him swing too hard and spin himself into the ground like a wacky sort of drunk ninja.

That’s why we needed Adam Dunn.  No use still ragging on that, is there?