What Happened to the 2008 Cubs?

I am sure I am not the only Cub fan that is wandering how a team that had 97 wins in 2008, just three years ago, would be lucky to get 70 wins this year. In checking out statistics and rosters from 2008 I gained some insight on the the differences between these two teams.

Ryan Demster and Carlos Zambrano were both on the 2008 squad, but had 31 wins compared to the 19 wins so far this year. Ted Lilly who was traded to the Dodgers also had 17 wins which gave the 2008 team a total of 48 wins for that year, spread between just 3 pitchers. Matt Garza has 8 wins so far this year. Therefore in looking at the top 3 pitchers in 2008 and 2011, the 2008 team accounted for almost twice the amount of wins.

Pitching has not been the only problem with the 2011 Cubs. Two players the teams have in common were catcher Geovany Soto and left fielder Alfonzo Soriano. Geovany Soto hit at a .285 average in 2008 compared to .221 this year and Alfonzo Soriano hit .280 compared to .245. Aramis Ramirez is having a pretty good 2011 year hitting at .310 with 91 RBI's, especially these last few months, but he doesn't have anyone to surround him in the middle of the lineup like Derrek Lee who hit .291 with 90 RBI's or Mark DeRosa who ended 2008 batting .285 with 87 RBI's.

A third area one could examine is fielding. In simply comparing the infield position of shortstop and second base. Ryan Theriot(14), Mike Fontenot(1) and Ronny Cedino(5) had a total of 20 errors in 2008 compared to Darwin Barney(12) and Starlin Castro(27) which is a total of 39.

Statistics do not tell the entire story because I am sure the Cubs are missing the leadership of players as Derrek Lee also. The statistics do, however, display a shortfall in three critical areas of pitching, hitting, and fielding of the 2011 team compared to 2008.

Resources

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHC/2008.shtml

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/6014