Entering play Friday, the Cubs are on pace to win 84 games this season, which would be an 18 game improvement over 2006. A big reason for that improvement has been the stability and effectiveness of the starting rotation. The Cubs are currently 2nd in the National League in runs allowed per game, at 4.17. Last year, they were 15th, at 5.15. That is a remarkable one year jump. There are a number of reasons for that jump; the starting rotation is a big one.

Gone are the experiments of Juan Mateo (10 starts, 5.32 ERA), Les Walrond (2, 6.23), and Jae-kuk Ryu (1, 8.40), along with the defective Mark Prior (9, 7.21) and Glendon Rusch (9, 7.46). Carlos Marmol (13, 6.08) has returned as a flame-throwing reliever. Sean Marshall (24, 5.59) has demonstrated excellent improvement.

Whereas last year was marked by injuries and prospect tryouts, this year has been notable for its rotation consistency. The only starter who threw more than 140 innings last year was Carlos Zambrano. This year, two pitchers have already reached that mark and two others are 1 or 2 starts away from reaching it.

A good amount of credit goes to Ted Lilly. I thought Lilly would help the Cubs, even if he would be overpriced, but he's having the best year of his career. He is on pace to break 200 innings for the first time, with an ERA 27% above league average. He is walking just 6.6% of batters faced when he has never been below 7.5% in a season.

Jason Marquis, despite having a 6.03 ERA since the beginning of June, has still provided league-average pitching during the course of the season, something the Cubs had a hard time obtaining last year.

In fact, all five starters currently have ballpark-adjusted ERAs above the league average. The last time the Cubs' starting rotation did that was not all that long ago: 2004. Of course, that year ended badly, and that seemingly great rotation ended up not being so great. After 2006, though, it's fun to again not have days when you know the starting pitcher just can't compete at the big league level.

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On another pitching staff note, the Cubs' six year streak of leading the National League in strikeouts is in jeopardy. They still lead the league this year, but going into play Friday, they lead the Los Angeles Dodgers by just 9 strikeouts. The Cubs' 1404 strikeouts in 2003 remains a major league record.