I think there have been 2 themes people have kept going back to when discussing how this team might not be that bad. One, is that the pitching should be pretty solid even if they don't get Cy Young caliber performances, due primarily to the depth of starting pitching. Two, is that even if the offense isn't impressive, all offense is down in general and it won't take much to at least flirt with average production. But that second point also means that while the threshold for being a good offense is lower, the threshold for being a really good pitching staff is higher. As solid as they have been in general, and as often as they've had "quality starts" at the outset of the season, the Cubs are still pretty low on the list of total ERA in the NL while the starting rotation is just 8th, .3 runs behind 7th and 2 full runs behind 1st. Obviously all this stuff is quite early and subject to massive fluctuation going forward, but the point remains that if you are counting on quality pitching depth to keep the Cubs respectable this season, quality pitching depth isn't necessarily a unique thing in the NL these days. It all still relates back to how you compare with the competition. If all you are is average at pitching and below average at hitting, you are going to rack up the losses at a substantial rate.