Don’t look now, but the Chicago Cubs are crushing their competition

Chicago Cubs: Experienced rotation holding its own this season

On paper, at least, the Cubs’ rotation looked like a strength heading into 2019. And, so far, that’s been the case, with Chicago getting some outstanding efforts from their hurlers in the first six weeks of the season.

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Despite missing over two weeks with a hamstring injury, veteran ace Jon Lester looks like he’s in his mid-20s rather than his mid-30s, leading the staff with a sterling 1.73 ERA in his five starts. His 0.67 WHIP and .111 opponent batting average tell you just how effective he’s been, despite declining velocity.

Then you pivot to soft-tossing Kyle Hendricks, who’s coming off one of the most efficient outings the game has seen in two decades, an 81-pitch complete game shutout of the Cardinals on Friday. He hasn’t settled in to the degree you’d like, but if that start is any indication, he’s honing in and could prove to be the most potent arm of the bunch in the month of May.

The Cubs’ two other left-handers, Cole Hamels and Jose Quintana, have also held their own when they take the ball. Hamels has done what we’ve come to expect – keep the team in the game every time out. He carries a 3.19 ERA and 6.87 H/9 mark – the latter of which only trails Lester amongst Cubs starters.

Quintana, meanwhile, has been arguably the biggest surprise for Chicago, finally looking like the guy Theo Epstein hoped for when he sent Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease to the South Side two years ago. He’s 4-1 on the year and put together a trio of absolutely stellar starts in April that helped propel the team to its current place atop the National League Central.

With the pitching staff rounding into form and the offense starting to show signs of the same powerful depth the team road into October the last four years, the Chicago Cubs are on the brink of becoming the team in the National League once again. This week could go a long way in cementing their place atop the league.