Cubs Hitting: Despite having some impressive names like Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez the Cubs are in the middle of the National League in most offensive categories, except for doubles where the Cubs lead the league.
Soriano leads the club with 32 home runs, followed by Ramirez with 26 and Lee with 22 after that the next biggest Cubs long ball hitter is Mark DeRosa with 10.
While the Cubs have some speed, if the big three struggle, the Cubs might have problems generating enough runs.
Diamondbacks Hitting:
Arizona is a statistical anomaly, but here there are back in the post season. They are 18 games over .500 but have had ten more runs scored against them then they have scored all year.
Chris Young leads the team with 32 home runs, but the young centerfielder has struck out 139 times. Eric Byrnes has hit 21 home runs with 50 steals but after that the offence is inconsistent at best. Orlando Hudson is out for the season, and no other D-back has hit 20 round trippers.
The team has hit a paltry .250 this season which is the worst average in the National League and have the third worst On base percentage. Without a legitimate slugger the D-backs need timely hitting or they could be trouble.
Cubs Pitching:
The real strength of the Cubs is the starting pitching. Carlos Zambrano has had an up and down season, but he still finished with 18 wins a sub 4.00 ERA. Left-handers Rich Hill and Ted Lilly also each posted a sub 4.00 ERA with at least 170 strikeouts.
The Bullpen was also very effective and helped the Cubs to the second best total ERA in the National League. Closer Ryan Dempster always tends to make his save situations interesting but he's converted 28 of 31 chances.
Fireball Carlos Marmol gets very little attention, but he's managed to rack up a very impressive 5-1 record with a 1.45 ERA and 95 strikeouts in only 68.1 innings. Add Bob Howry and Kerry Wood, the Cubs have the ability to shut teams down late in the game.
If the Cubs can muster enough offence, their pitching staff should be good enough to win games in the post-season.
Diamondbacks Pitching:
With Randy Johnson being a non-factor for most of the season, the team has been paced by Brandon Webb, who pitched 42 consecutive scoreless innings at one point in the second half.
After Webb and his 3.01 ERA, the D-backs trot out innings eaters like Doug Davis and Livan Hernandez, both of whom have a 4.25+ ERA. What the club lacks in starting pitching, it makes up for in the bullpen.
Jose Valverde notched 47 saves, and along with Brandon Lyon, Juan Cruz and Tony Pena make up one of the better bullpens in the National League.
If the D-backs can keep games close in the post-season they could make some noise, but if they give up 4+ runs in a game it's hard to imagine they will be able to consistently make up the runs.