Those who bleed Cubbie blue have been rewarded with the best team in the majors this year. Here are the top five stories for us fantasy owners.

1. The emergence of Geovany Soto. It was said last Wednesday on the Melnick and Greco show Talking Baseball Live that a true expert admits when he is wrong. Well, I don’t know if I count as an expert but boy was I wrong about Soto. He has simply surprised me more than any other player in baseball this year. I admit defeat and surrender unconditionally. Not only has he been excellent but he has seen skills growth across the board and he appears to be fully legit. Next year will be an interesting year to see if Soto can take a step up into the upper echelon of catchers, but right now it looks like the Cubs have their best catcher since Jody Davis.

2. The performance of Ryan Theriot This is getting ugly for me now, as I thought that Ronny Cedeno had a good chance of unseating Theriot. 0 for 2. Theriot is hitting line drives at a Michael Youngian pace, with a 23% line drive rate, and with his speed that batting average is completely legit. He has been remarkably consistent also; his second half so far is a dead ringer for his first half and his monthly splits are very consistent as well. He has been a boon for his owners. Theriot and Soto (and our number three story as well) appear to be two examples of the fantasy version of the chicken/egg question, which is the maxim that “as the team goes so goes the player.”

3. Ryan F’Ing Dempster At least I cannot beat myself up on this one; no one thought Dempster would be any good this year. Not only is he excellent, he is a legitimate Cy Young contender. His strikeout rates from May to August are 9.6, 7.0, 8.9 and 11.7(!). His 2.92 ERA and 1.16 match up well with any other NL pitcher in contention, including C.C. Sabathia and Brandon Webb. He is even getting grounders on 50% of his batted balls. If you saw this coming please come write for us here as we could use a psychic.

4. The Failure of Rich Hill Not all has been rosy in Cubdom, as the failure of Rich Hill has been simply astounding. His 2007 performance made him a top sleeper and even a sly Cy Young selection by a few experts. Perhaps the innings increase from 2006 to 2007 is to blame, or perhaps he is turning into Rick Ankiel, with an 8.03 ERA in the Florida State League and a 5.33 ERA in Iowa with 44 BB in 47 IP.

5. Kerry Wood’s Conversion to Closer No discussion of the Cubs would be complete without mention of Kerry Wood. It is about time that they moved him into that role as many in the fantasy community, myself included, have been saying he should be their closer for a few years now. With a 30% hit rate and a 71% strand rate there is not even the slightest tinge of luck here; he has simply been exactly what the Cubs could have hoped for.

There are so many interesting stories on this team, which is not surprising when a team is the best in baseball with so many question marks working out in their favor. They are easily the best team in the majors by a wide margin. Their Pythagorean record is TEN games better than everyone else.  It will be a hot October in Chicago this year and nothing would make me happier than a Cubs-Rays World Series. Well, not nothing. Certainly if Scarlett Johannsen came over wearing nothing but a fur coat and stilettos that would make me happier, but in baseball terms I can’t wait to see how things play out.

A common occurrence this year in Chicago