June Preview: Hot Cubs will face low-risk challenges

By Steven Chaitman | Jun 02, 11:38 AM

It's June and after a sunny weekend it finally looks like the weather has turned. Rejoice Chicagoans, for winter has finally become summer and your Cubbies have the best record in baseball along with a seven-game win streak riding into the first month where things really start to shape out, as by month's end the first half of the season will be over. With that in mind, fans should be geared up and ready to see how this month will unfold, and truth be told, this month will tell us a lot about this baseball team.

First and most obviously, let's take a look at the June schedule. 17/27 games will be on the road and 15/27 games will be against the American League. 9/27 are against the NL West, who the Cubs have owned this season. 0/27 games-the only month this will happen all season-will have the Cubs facing NL Central rivals. In other words, the Cubs will be tested on the road, but with a giant safety net. Almost no one in Chicago is talking about how the Cubs, despite the best record in the Majors, are only 2.5 games ahead of the Cardinals, and they won't start the conversation unless the Cubs pull an unlikely dive-bomb. As long as the Cubs play around .500 baseball and the Cardinals and/or Astros don't have an incredible surge, the Cubs should stay in first or at the worst, still close to it. So should the Cubs find they can't pull above .500 on the road, over half those potential games already will not improve anyone else's record in the National League. That's highly fortunate. I'll save the Interleague analysis for later, but that schedule should provide a winnable challenge for the Cubs if they truly are going to remain competitive all season long.

To start the month, the Cubs will travel to the NL West and play only two games this week that will provide final scores in the next day's paper: 5 will be played at 9 pm cst or later. The good news is that the Cubs, based on how they've handled the Padres and Dodgers so far, should perform very well. However, success on the road has been hard to come by and those wins, particularly the Dodgers series, were far from blowouts. Don't be too disappointed if the Cubs finish 4-3 or 3-4 this week. In fact, be happy with it. The Cubs are usually ineffective at Petco Park in San Diego and not all that better in Los Angeles. Unless this home stand allowed the Cubs' bats time to warm up and be ready to start issuing blowouts like in April, it's unlikely the dominance will continue out West.

Here's what to look for in the San Diego series. From a pitching standpoint, the Cubs' best match-up is tonight. Since Shawn Estes of the Padres fractures his finger on his way to the clubhouse the other day, the Padres will start Cha Seung Baek, recently acquired from the Mariners. With Zambrano on the mound, the Cubs have no reason not to extend the win streak. Marquis has a good match-up on Tuesday, but if he struggles, the Cubs have it no easier on Wednesday when a struggling Ted Lilly faces Greg Maddux, who has been solid of late. If Lilly doesn't find the form he did last time out against San Diego, the Cubs will need more late-inning heroics.

On offense, it will be interesting to watch Jim Edmonds' return to San Diego. I'm sure Jim would like nothing more than to show the team that quickly gave up on him that his career is not flaming out and he'll likely get the chance with 2 RHPs schedule to start. In his last two starts in center, Edmonds went 5-7 with a walk and 5 RBI and got his average almost up to .200. If he can get it up to .250 in the next week or so, at the least, Felix Pie will have more time to develop his swing over in Iowa. Also, Geovany Soto has dropped below .300 going just 5-for-23 with 3 RBI during the home stand. Hopefully the rookie will be able to balance out. His team-leading 51 strikeouts is a worrying statistic, but for a rookie, if he can stay near .300 if not over it, Cubs' fans should be satisfied. He's at least hitting the ball hard, so he should improve, especially because he's one of few Cubs' hitters with a better road average than home average.

Expect June to be very interesting and particularly telling of what you can expect of the Cubs down the stretch. With a majority of games on the road, the Cubs will be challenged, but in all likelihood if they don't flop, they should still sit in first by the end of the month.

Tagged: north side, baseball, Cubs