“I’ll be back, bitches.”I’m not going to lie. I had confidence Saturday. Even when Rich Hill served up a bomb on the very first pitch of the game, I had confidence. I was in Florida for a wedding in (I shit you not) Pinella (yes, without the “i”) County. I thought it was a good omen. You know how it turned out. I’ve had a couple of days to recover, and I’m going to need a couple more before I can really get my thoughts together on the season. As weakly as it ended, there were good things to take away from 2007:

  1. This team finally learned how to orchestrate a comeback win (be it thanks to Lou or thanks to the new batch of players). In the last several seasons, if these guys were down 2-1 in the 4th, you knew they weren’t coming back. This year, you were a fool to turn off your television until the last at-bat was done.
  2. Lou. Is there any doubt this team is in better hands under the guidance of that cranky old bastard? What might have been if Hendry would have fired Baker at the All-Star Break last year and allowed Lou to put the pieces together at the end of a meaningless 2006 season. It took Lou a couple of months to figure out the team, but once he did, he had the pieces in the right place, and he certainly wasn’t afraid to shake things up. Hell, he even got some decent production out of Jock.
  3. The bullpen. All kidding about Dempster aside, the bullpen was the best it’s been in years. The emergence of Carlos Marmol, the glorious comeback of Kerry Wood, and the solid pitching from Howry was a thing of beauty. If Howry comes back next year as the closer, with Wood and Marmol getting the tough outs to get to him, I look forward to turning a lot of games next year into 6 inning affairs. From what little we saw of Kevin Hart, the kid looks good.
  4. Aramis Ramirez. No matter what happened in the playoffs, the Cubs finally have that guy who you absolutely want at the plate with the game on the line. Len’s “Ohhh, BABY!” will be one of my favorite calls for years.
  5. The starting pitching. Carlos will be back, Lilly was far better than advertised (and, honestly, so was Marquis). Hill finally started spotting his fastball, making his curve that much more effective. It will be interesting to see who the 4 and 5 starters are next year out of a pool of Marquis, Marshall, Prior(?), and possibly Hart, if they try to stretch him out.
  6. Mark DeRosa. Was there a more likable new Cub than DeRosa? I doubt it. The guy came in and got the job done every day. He played everywhere they needed him to play, and played well. I was one of the people who raised his eyebrows at the DeRosa signing, and I’m happy to have been wrong about this guy.
  7. Daryle Ward. Is the shit.
  8. Geovany Soto. Looks like we have a starting catcher next year who doesn’t bring coloring books on the team flights.

Don’t let those shit-talking Cardinals and White Sox fans get you down. You saw 165 games of meaningful baseball this season. They were lucky to see 100.