CUBS | TED LILLY
CHICAGO | Effective left-handed starters come around to the Cubs on the cicada schedule -- every 17 years.
Since southpaw Ken Holtzman and Juan Pizarro finished up the second-half of the 1971 season in the rotation together, the Cubs could practically go half-decades with all-right-handed regular rotations. Left-handers would slip in to make series of starters here or there, but never stuck around long.
So you can imagine the embarrassment of riches the team brass has with not only Ted Lilly, at 10-4 one of the winningest pitchers in the National League, but also Rich Hill and Sean Marshall in the rotation.
A trio of starting southpaws is a rarity by any standard. Cubs manager Lou Piniella has to go back to 1986-87 to the start of his piloting days with the Yankees to scare up such a threesome -- Ron Guidry, Tommy John and Dennis Rasmussen.
The impact of the lefties -- the youthful Hill and Marshall have their ups and downs -- would be muted if Lilly hadn't come into his own this season.
The soft-spoken 31-year-old southern California native had a career that started in the Dodgers organization and continued through four other teams before signing a $40 million free-agent deal last winter. Lilly now has long-term financial security in Chicago -- and a chance to win more games than any other Cubs southpaw since Holtzman's second consecutive 17-win season in 1970.
"I'm having fun right now," Lilly said. "We're winning a lot of games, finding ways to compete. And even on the days I'm not pitching, I'm having fun."
Lilly simply has mastered control. He walked 89 in 197 1/3 innings in Toronto in 2004. He also passed 81 in 181 2/3 innings in 2006, while winning 15 as a Blue Jay. But this season, he won't get near those walk totals with just 29 in 124 2/3 innings so far.
"I think that I've just tightened up my delivery a bit," Lilly said. "It's just been a little more consistent."
He's become a big fan of pitching coach Larry Rothschild, the Homewood-Flossmoor alum who came under increasing fire in 2005-06 as Kerry Wood's and Mark Prior's injuries mounted.
"A lot of my opinions and visions seem to match with his," Lilly said. "If I'm looking for insight, he'll reiterate what I'm thinking without me saying it. Then there are times he might have a different point of view. He has a solid philosophy about the way he feels about things."
Obviously, Rothschild emphasizes to never be satisfied. Indeed, Lilly wants even more.
"I don't feel like I've had such great accomplishments in my career," he said. "I've never won 20 games. I've never pitched 200 innings. So I don't think I'm being modest, I'm being truthful. I feel I have a ways to go to establish myself the way I want to, to be one of the better starters in the game."
