Playoff Previews

Chicago Cubs vs. Atlanta Braves

By David Marasco

A few years back I saw the Cubs eliminated by the Braves on a cold night in Wrigley. Kerry Wood pitched like a warrior, but there was just too much Maddux. In the time since, the Braves have rolled on like a big scary baseball machine, but the Cubs have been ripped up over and over. But yet both of these squads are very different from the last time they dueled in the postseason.

The Braves went through the 90s as a pitching-rich franchise. That's not their strength now. Sure, Maddux is Maddux, but Glavine and Millwood are gone and Smoltz is in the pen. Russ Ortiz led the league in wins, but barely finished in the top twenty for ERA. Shane Reynolds and Mike Hampton will start a game or two, but they are a big drop off.

What drove the Braves to home field advantage was their bats. Gary Sheffield put up another season that would be a contender for MVP had Barry Bonds not paid a visit from whatever planet he comes from. Chipper and Andruw Jones put up their normal excellent seasons. Javy Lopez has exploded onto the scene, hitting more homers than any catcher in any given season. How good is this offense? Only three teams in the National League finished with over 800 runs. The thin-air Rockies put 843 runs on the board. St. Louis, fuelled by Pujols and his amazing supporting cast, scored 867. The Braves pumped out an incredible 902 runs. They out-homered the second-best team by 40 dingers. As a team they lead or finished second in just about every offensive category.

The Cubs feature one of the best young rotations in baseball. They tied for the third best ERA in the league, behind SF and LA, who play in pitcher's parks rather than Wrigley Field. Back in the old days Kerry Wood was the bright star of the future. Today he is a mentor for the amazing Mark Prior. Carlos Zambrano as good as Wood, and Matt Clement is a step down, but would be a very welcome addition to any staff in baseball. Unlike the Braves, the Cubs have not had time to set their rotation; they will send out Wood, Zambrano and then Prior. The starters threw a lot of innings down the stretch, which might be a problem against a high-OBP team like Atlanta. This will be one of those series where we probe the theory that good pitching beats good hitting.

That leaves us with the Cubs lineup. Sammy is Sammy, cork or not. Some might point to his poor 1998 playoff appearance, but three-game sample sizes are flat out silly. This team was in transition in Spring Training, building for the future with Corey Patterson, Hee-Seop Choi and Bobby Hill. But the Cubs covered their behinds with veteran players like Eric Karros and Mark Grudzielanek. When Patterson went down with a blown-out ACL, management got Kenny Lofton. Choi went down, Karros stepped up and produced. Bobby Hill was sacrificed to the Pittsburgh Pirates, but the Cubs got Lofton and Amamis Ramirez in return. The other Pirate refugee, sausage-hating Randall Simon, added his bat and the trio of ex-Bucs were a big part of the Cubs stretch drive. This is a lineup that can blow hot and cold. Even though the Braves staff isn't what it was in the '90s, Cubs fans should hope that the bats are in synch.

No homefield and the lack of recovery time for the Cubs pitching staff might be the factors that turn the tide in this series. Last time around Cubs fans got Maddux/Woods in their only game at Wrigley. This time around they'll get to see Maddux/Prior. Hopefully we will get more than three games this time around.