THE GOOD, THE (NOT SO) BAD, AND THE UGLY

Like a good Cubs fan, our friend Various Styles over on Teenage Cub is preparing himself to be disappointed once the Cubs are finished being a competitive ball club. I've been thinking about this peculiar and unique form of fandom (it also applies to Red Sox fans and Orioles fans) as I look at where we are in the season and how I feel about my teams.

• Nationals: Moments ago, D.C. won its tenth straight game and its third series sweep in a row. They are second statistically only to the White Sox and St. Louis. If you remember (you probably don't, why in the world would you?), the Expos last season lost 95 games, but nobody cared because it was, well, the homeless, practically orphaned Expos...bottom of the heap stuff. Now that they belong to and are adored by Washington, they are tearing it up. I recognize that the definition of a streak includes the fact that it will end. But so what? That just makes the next win streak something to look forward to, eh? So much will hinge on how well the Nationals do against well-entrenched power teams like the White Sox or Angels. And in the NL East, they have to watch the dogs at their heels...Phillies, Braves, and Marlins. I think that because the NL East is so infuriatingly competitive, it's just making all its constituents sharper. That bodes well for Washington if they can endure the challenges of July and August.


• Cubs: Various Styles suggests that Neifi Perez will somehow magically become not-hot, and that Derek Lee is somehow magically going to stop being Derek Lee. I can't speculate at that level. All I know is what I see. Three of five star starting pitchers are out of the game, which is going to work against the Cubs, both immediately and cumulatively. You don't stay competitive with a dramatically compromised rotation. I don't know what the Cubs have in store, but they recovered (improbably) from a relatively unimpressive start to sit atop the NL wildcard list with Philadelphia. How well they work around their injuries will determine whether they can continue to contend.


• Giants: Nobody in San Francisco can quite put our finger on why the Giants reek this year, but I have some theories.
  
  1) Felipe Alou, as venerable a figure as he is, just isn't a very creative, cunning manager. The team has fallen in standings, prestige, and effectiveness every year since he took over from Dusty Baker. Sorry, the numbers don't lie.
  
  2) Our new catcher, Mike Matheny, doesn't seem to have the stellar control of his pitchers that we were promised he would.
  
  3) It is statistically inconceivable that our Cy Young pitcher, Jason Schmidt, simply can't win a game. Something is wrong there and it's not something that faces the public.
  
  4) I've always thought starter Kirk Rueter sucked, although he's a beloved son, with the Giants forever, blah, blah, blah. Get rid of him. He sucks.
  
  5) Giants pitching is atrocious. There's no optimistic spin. It is what it is.
  
  6) We don't have Barry Bonds, who utterly changes the complexion of a game since Giants' opponents are terrified to pitch to him. The result when Barry plays is that we see more walks, which often translate into more runs.
  
  7) There's a huge imbalance among the players. Newbies like Ellison are talented but insanely prone to rookie errors, while elders like Grissom end up on the DL because they're old men. This sort of spotty integration of rookies and veterans infects the team.

So, I continue to get stoked about the Nationals, love what the Cubs do, even when they're not doing what they could do, and for the moment have given up on the Giants, pending the moment when the front office shakes things up and makes it worth a fan's time and energy to get involved.