Cubs' quality starts translate to victories

SAN FRANCISCO -- Let's revisit our old friend, the "quality start," this week.

You know the quality start. It might be the most maligned stat in baseball. To get credit for a quality start, a pitcher must work at least 6 innings and give up no more than 3 earned runs.

Critics like to jump on this stat and say, "Geez, if a pitcher did that every time out, he'd have a 4.50 ERA for all those quality starts."

True enough, but it's true only if the starting pitcher meets the minimum requirement for a quality start.

Anybody want to take a guess at how many quality starts the Cubs have this season, what the team record is in those starts and what the overall ERA is in those quality starts?

The Cubs have 64 quality starts. In those games, the team is 47-17 and the starters have an ERA of 1.69.

In games in which the Cubs don't get a quality start, the team is 18-44.

The stat tells a pretty accurate story for the Cubs in August. The North Siders got off to a rough start, going 4-10 from Aug. 1-15. During that time, they had only 4 quality starts. In the 10 non-quality starts, the Cubs had a record of 1-9.

The moral of the story is that the "quality start" stat isn't perfect, but the more of them you get, the better off you are.

Oh, and about that minimum requirement of 6 innings and no more than 3 earned runs? The Cubs have had only 2 such starts this year. All the rest have been better. And in most cases, they've been much better.

Worth a shot: Thursday's trade with the Tigers for outfielder Craig Monroe could pay off big for the Cubs, especially if they use him wisely.

Monroe has hit left-handed pitchers well this year while inexplicably struggling against righties.

Most teams in a pennant race will try to add a veteran bat or two. In 1998, the Cubs picked up pinch hitter extraordinaire Orlando Merced, and he came through with some big hits. Randall Simon was useful in 2003.

Earlier this week, manager Lou Piniella said September is a time for veteran players, and he's right. And that's taking nothing away from the young players the Cubs have called up this year and given a lot of playing time.

General manager Jim Hendry talked about his youngsters Thursday.

"Outstanding," Hendry said. "It's not a reflection on any of them. It's just that when you go into the final month of the race, you don't want to expect too much out of some people just called up. Some guys have made jumps from Double-A to the big leagues this year. Nobody's doing poorly."

The Cubs will face some tough lefties in September, and Hendry said getting Monroe gives his club a better shot against those lefties.

"I felt that I didn't want to get into the middle of September, and we face some left-handed pitching, and maybe we'd be a little inexperienced in that spot," he said. "Obviously, we've proven when you're young and you can come up and do it, you play.

"But at the same time, I didn't want, as a general manager, to have any regrets that we didn't try to get one more veteran to help us in that situation."

Quality is Job 1

The Cubs have 64 "quality starts" among their five starting pitchers this year. Here is how they stack up:

•Ted Lilly: 15

•Rich Hill: 14

•Carlos Zambrano: 14

•Jason Marquis: 12

•Sean Marshall: 9