(05-05-2016 05:46 AM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  Cubs are the first team to win 20 games this year. Off to a blistering start, and swept the Pirates (2nd in NL Central) in dominating fashion. None of those games were close.

You're right. The games weren't close, and Chicago got contributions from everyone. Hopefully Heyward's wrist isn't anything serious, but their depth was on display in Pitt. Despite his slow start, Jorge Soler can play, and Maddon is having a hard time getting him ABs even with Schwarber, Heyward and Matt Szczur all out. Baez had a great serious.

Murph is off to torrid start. I haven't seen the Nats play, but looking at his stats, he's off to a slightly better start than Dexter Fowler.

I'm looking forward to this series against Washington, but the pitching matchups don't favor Chicago on Thursday or Friday. Maybe a wash on Saturday (Gonzalez vs Hammel), and Arrieta on Sunday gives Chicago an advantage. Heyward has missed the last three games with a sore wrist, but it's looking more and more like the class of the NL is smaller than I expected with Chicago, NY and Washington at the top. It's early, but Chicago looked dominant against Pittsburgh this week, but StL, LA, SF and Pitt are all still very good. Not on par with the top tier teams at this point, but very talented. I believe I read that Olney has Chicago, Washington and NYM at the top of his power rankings, and I assume the White Sox top the AL side, followed by KC maybe? One month into the season, those teams appear to be the top contenders.