Sure we all knew (or at least hoping) we were getting an OBP/BB machine in Dome, but I don’t think anyone would have imagined that the rest of the team would catch on so quick. Can’t say it’s all because of Dome, but I’m sure he’s been a great influence, directly or indirectly.

As for the other categories – sure, why not? I mean, look at our lineup – three bona fide sluggers (Soriano, DLee, ARam), another (Dome) with an excellent pedigree, albeit from a different league. Then you have a professional hitter with a good eye (DeRosa). Add in a slugging rookie with an impressive September last year. Plus, I think it’s fair to say our pitchers are better hitters than most in the league. Add it all up and it’s very much under the bell curve of possibilities that 7 out of the 9 spots in the lineup would be very productive offensively speaking. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Milwaukee and Philadelphia that might have comparable offensive lineups top to bottom. It’d be interesting to see where they rank right now. And of course, this is all just based on my perceptions as a fan – I don’t have any stats to back me up. So as Luis indicated, it’d also be interesting to see how the Cubs were projected to be.

As for can we keep it up? Probably not at a #1 or #2 pace in all those categories, But it wouldn’t surprise me if the Cubs were near the top in all of these at the end of the season. Sure, some of those guys are going to come down to earth a bit (ok, Theriot probably a lot). But look at Soriano’s crappy numbers to date – regardless of how you feel about him (attitude, spot in lineup, defense, guess hacking abilities extraordinaire), I think everyone will agree that his numbers will get a lot better the rest of the year .

Over the course of the season, this offense will be very productive. Of course, as we saw last year, that’s not always good enough – timing is critical as well. October is not a very good time to not be offensive…

Fukudome. Enough said. Thanks for the post!

whether that was real or perceived. Living here in PHX, I was expecting the D Backs to falter some this year, thought that last year was a fluke. My gawd, these guys are even better than last year. They simply keep coming after you. I saw the first inning of the game on Weds. when Randy Johnson gave up 4 in the first. I figure, eh, this one is probably a loss. I watch the news at night and they came back and won 8-7 or something. Will they continue the torrid pace they are on? Probably not, but, boy, if it happens we meet them again this post season, it will be a war, for sure. We will have to be on the very top of our game, and I mean Lou, too.

D-Lee has got his stroke back, Theriot is playing over his head, Fontenot is playing over his head, DeRo is killing it, Soto is proving to be a stud, and they all werent expected to play like this except MAYBE Lee

the three key players in the lineup are DLee, Dome and Geo. DLee is really returning back to his ‘05 form which naturally makes this lineup better. Dome is an on-base machine that forces pitchers into the stretch which tends to have a snowball effect. The other batters are benefitting from that and are seeing better pitches to hit. Soto is just a good solid bat at the end of the order. He is fueling the secondary rally that comes after DLee and Ram cleanup the bases and Dome and DeRo get on base.

But we will remain in the top ten, this is where we were SUPPOSED to be last year. We are too close to this team to really realize what a talented group of players we have. GO CUBS!

- if the Cubs are top of the league in all these categories but don’t have the patience to develop a prospect who struggled with the bat the first few weeks up (but hasn’t the past two weeks), when will we ever be able to develop our youth?