Dodgers: Week ahead

Tuesday through Thursday: Cubs at Chicago

Friday through Sunday: Rockies at Denver

The Dodgers don’t have a proven ace, but the Chicago Cubs do, and that’s a problem for both teams. As the Dodgers push Clayton Kershaw to the front of a thin rotation — in a year in which he might have been a college senior — the Cubs are about to put Carlos Zambrano back in their rotation. In 2007, with Zambrano on his way to finishing fifth in the Cy Young Award voting for the third time in four years, the Cubs signed him to a $92-million extension. That worked pretty well until this year, when he was hit so hard in four starts that the Cubs tried him in the bullpen, but without much success. He’s on his way back to the rotation with a contract that guarantees him $18 million this year — and in 2011, and in 2012.