CHICAGO -- They were the first team to get in and will be last to start their postseason, but that only means the best team in baseball all year long can make a dramatic entrance to what a nervous fan base hopes is the beginning of a championship run. The Chicago Cubs have never been more ready for this moment.

"The main thing is not the rust -- you get anxious about playing," veteran catcher David Ross said Thursday. "This is Chapter 2. There's a clean slate for everyone."

A historically good starting staff combined with the best defense in baseball is seemingly a formula for playoff success, but until we see it in action there will always be doubts. It might start with a mythical curse on a woe-is-me franchise, but the very real concern is the lack of intensity in recent weeks. But the Cubs are finding the good in it all.

"Rest plus adrenaline means there's more in the tank," reliever Justin Grimm said. "Let's go."

With the Cubs and the San Francisco Giants, it's hard to find two teams coming in on more opposite tracks in terms of rest versus intensity. The Cubs have been doing everything they can this week to keep themselves busy, though their workout scheduled for Thursday was washed away. Meanwhile, the Giants have won their last five games, all essentially elimination contests. Who has the edge?

"It permits you to rest," manager Joe Maddon said of clinching early. "Whereas when you're in that scramble to get there, you have to really push some guys. You don't know how that's going to play out when it comes over the next week, or hopefully the next couple weeks, where teams that had been extended, players that had been extended, I always think about relief pitchers in those moments. Those guys, it's tough for them sometimes to be really pushed this hard to this point of the season."

For weeks, Maddon has been asked how his team would keep sharp as he put the handcuffs on his pitchers and kept rotating his starting position players in and out. This should be the time to realize the benefits of that strategy. A 103-win team is healthy and rested. The result should be a laser-like focus combined with boundless energy.

Maddon saw firsthand what fatigue can do to a team as his team's only real slump came just before the All-Star break when the schedule was taxing. If fatigue caused the Cubs to play sloppy ball, then rest should do the opposite. At least in theory.

"I feel great with the days off," Anthony Rizzo said. "It's been really nice."

Over and over again in the Cubs clubhouse, the sentiment was the same: Players weren't worried about rust, they were just eager to play. And whereas many didn't know what to expect entering the playoffs last year, that's not the case this time.

Going up against a three-time champion in the Giants would have been a monumental task a season ago, but the Cubs have felt the pressure since spring and eclipsed it with the pleasure of romping to the division title. And now they're deeper than the team that lost to the Mets in last season's NLCS.

"What this team has is special," outfielder Chris Coghlan said. "You don't win 100 by accident."

No, you don't, but as any fan will tell you, that means little come the postseason. What does have meaning is fresh arms. With nearly a month of taking it easy on his pitchers, Maddon can now unleash the best rotation in baseball. No pitch counts, no need to find innings for relievers and no fatigue. The Cubs have a staff that should show why it is the best.

"I think Joe's done a good job with us," Game 1 starter Jon Lester said. "I know there's been times this year where we haven't been happy about coming out of games, but it's not our decision. He wanted us to be in a good position health-wise and mental-wise coming into this postseason. I feel like we have done a good job of that."

And that's why you can say the Cubs are as prepared as any team in recent history to face the task ahead; to finally put to rest the longest championship drought in professional sports history. The only thing in their way is the game of baseball itself. At this time of year, baseball doesn't necessarily reward rest, doesn't recognize how good a team was for six months and certainly can't recognize the heartbreak one franchise has felt for so long. Preparation and routine is all you can count on, and that's what this team is stressing.

"Last year's playoff experience paid off during the regular season," Ross said. "We're better prepared than last year and we were pretty good last year."

Ross could not have said it any better, while Maddon says he believes there are only a couple of things that can throw his team for a loop: if his players treat the game any differently than they have for six months or if they let one bad moment spiral into several. That was his message earlier this week. After that, the task at hand was trying to find that sharpness.

"There's no other way to prepare. You can't just bring the Washington Generals in and all of a sudden have a game for a couple days," Maddon said. "You would love to be able to do that, but that's not available to you."

The Cubs have made the best of their time since clinching, and now their talent can take over. If this were a one-game elimination and the Cubs hadn't played in a week, you could see the problem, but remember the Cubs lost Game 1 last year in this round and still went on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals.

All that being said, anything can happen starting Friday night. At least this postseason, there are no questions to be answered. The Cubs have the best team, simple as that. Will the game allow them to show it or will it bite them the way it has bitten so many who seemingly had it all going for them come October? We're about to find out. As Grimm said, "Let's go."

Finally.

"I'm ready," Grimm said. "We're ready. It's time to find out what we're made of."

It's time indeed.