You’re gonna hate this, AJ. Don’t say you haven’t been warned, but the grapevine has it that the Yanks and the Cubs are talking about a Carlos Zambrano swap.
I’ll tell you flat out, this instant, I want Hungry Jim Hendry to do it.
Nothing would signify a break with the dumb-assed past more than to ship Big Z somewhere — anywhere — else. Don’t get me wrong, Z’s a fine pitcher. Wins 12 to 16 games a year. Always better than average ERAs and peripherals. A fierce competitor.
But he’s pushing 30, baby, and his body is starting to remind him of it. He’s had some back issues recently that could have been alleviated or even avoided altogether had he been doing some serious exercise. Leave it to the goddamned Cubs to let their big-ticket ace pitcher go through life not taking care of his body. Someone should have gotten in his face and said Hey, we’re paying you $15M a year — do some ab crunches!. Of course, knowing the Cubs, they probably send him a dozen fresh creampuffs every morning for breakfast.
Anyway, Z’s make-up is symbolic of much of what’s wrong with the Cubs. He’s uncontrolled, impulsive, reactionary, prone to panic, refuses to think strategically…, I’d better stop before I start crying. Here’s Carlos Zambrano in a nutshell: last year, after striking out in a game, he broke the bat over his knee. This is a freakin’ pitcher we’re talking about!
Trading Z to the Yanks would bring back some prospects and free up the $70M-plus the Cubs owe him over the next four years. Let the big, rich New Yorkers fork over that kind of dough.
In fact, I don’t care of trading him means the Cubs will have no shot in 2010 or even ’11! Right now, Hungry Jim’s ugly, back-loaded NTCs most likely will prevent the team from winning anything in the next couple of years anyway. Big Z’s deal isn’t as bad as Fonzie‘s, but no one going to take Soriano off our hands. Z’s one of the very few assets the Cubs have that would be attractive to any other sane GM in the game.
