Can the Cubs end the 100 year curse?

With a new season fast approaching, fans will dig in their heals and hope it's their team that will be celebrating a World Series Championship come October.

For Cubs' fans, that hope is stronger than probably any fan of any team in baseball. When you go 100 years without a World Series Championship, you hear words like "cursed," as we did before Boston broke their long winless streak in 2004. There's an article from Mark Newman of MLB.com yesterday that talks about that long winless streak, but are the Cubs really good enough? I have serious doubts of that.

The one concern that I have, and it's not a small concern, is their starting rotation. As of right now, you're looking at a rotation of Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly, Rich Hill, Ryan Dempster and Jason Marquis. We all know what Zambrano is capable of, but we also know that he's capable of a complete melt down as well. The one player I'm concerned about in this rotation is Ryan Dempster, especially since he hasn't been a full time starter since 2003 with the Cincinnati Reds. Since then, he's started only 6 games combined between 2004 and 2007. Can he come out of the bullpen from the closers roll to a starter and be effective?

The other place that I have a concern is their bullpen, especially with Kerry Wood closing for them. I'm not saying that he can't do the job, there's no question he can, but the one question that comes up every single year is, "can he stay health?" He's yet to show that he can stay healthy for an entire season, something the Cubs desperately need from him this year.

They do have a very potent offense, especially with guys like Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez, not to mention the addition of Kosuke Fukudome, but how will these guys do against some of the best pitching in baseball? How will Felix Pie do as the every day center fielder?

This team has a lot of question marks, and although we won't have answers to these questions right away, I think you'll start to see the answers within 2 or 3 months. If the starting rotation can stay healthy, and I'm talking about all 5 guys, then I think the Cubs will be just fine. There's no question they are the best team in the NL Central, the race shouldn't be close in my opinion, but the big question of this article is, can they finally win the World Series?

My answer....no. This team just isn't good enough, key word, yet. There's just too much that can go wrong with this team, and usually does.

Cubs' Dempster predicts end to World Series drought

As pitchers and catchers get set to report to their respective camps tomorrow, it brings new found confidence to a lot of players.

One of those players is Cubs' right-hander Ryan Dempster. As he showed up to their facility this morning, Dempster made a bold prediction, "I think we are going to win the World Series, I really do." A bold prediction coming from a team who was swept in 3 games by the NL West Champion Arizona Diamondbacks.

If you fans remember correctly, it was Carlos Zambrano who guaranteed a World Series for the Cubs in 2007 and, although Dempster isn't making any guarantees, he says confidence isn't a bad thing, "I wouldn't show up here and work as hard as I did and everybody work as hard as they did to not believe that."