Secret to the Cubs' early season success

In 2007, the Chicago Cubs pitching staff was arguably the best in baseball.  Cubs pitchers lead MLB in batting average against at .246, strikeouts (for an amazing 7 years in a row) at 1,211, and gave up the fourth fewest number of runs.

Why did they only win 85 games?  The simple reason is the Cubs hitters were terrible at getting on base.  The top 5 teams in OBP last year were the Yankees, Red Sox, Rockies, Phillies and Angels -- five teams which all made the playoffs and include the World Series champion and both pennant winners.

Enter Kosuke Fukudome.  Enter Reed Johnson.  Enter Geovany Soto.  Including those three guys, as well as holdovers Mark DeRosa, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Ryan Theriot (and even Ronny Cedeno in limited duty), the Cubs have EIGHT guys getting on base more than 40 percent of the time.  That's fantastic!

In fact, the Cubs are tops in the NL in OBP and are only second to the Red Sox overall.  (Think the DH factors into that just a tad?)  What a difference a year makes and the Cubs are making that .364 team OBP count because they are slugging .454, good enough for fifth overall.

The pitching hasn't been quite as good as last year, but they have much more room for error this season than last.  The bullpen is ahead of the starting rotation at this point and Carlos Marmol has simply been outstanding, but I have faith that guys like Ted Lilly and Rich Hill will turn it around -- especially Hill, whose curveball is among the best in the league.

That being said, it should be a fun year to watch the North siders.  Old Style anyone?