This has truly been the "year of the rookie" in Major League Baseball, and the Cubs have one of the brightest in 20-year-old shortstop Starlin Castro. But is he the leading candidate to capture NL Rookie of the Year honors?Castro has hit over .300 since being called up by the Cubs, and while he has made more than his share of errors, he does have good range and a strong arm.His future with the team is one of the few bright spots of this downtrodden ballclub.But there are a lot of promising rookies, so let's see where Castro ranks among ...
In case you haven't heard the news, brace yourself, Cubs fans. Carlos Zambrano is a starter again. He is scheduled to start on Monday.
"Sometimes you don't know what you have until you lose it," Zambrano said of starting again. "I don't want to lose this opportunity. I just want to take advantage [of it] be prepared and be ready for the last two months."
Listen Carlos, we'd love for you to pitch well so we can ship you out of town after the season.
Now, if this news is not quite what you were hoping for, keep in mind that there isn't ...
The recent trade that sent Ted Lilly to the LA Dodgers is a win for LA and a loss for the Cubs, though the move of Lilly certainly wasn't unexpected.
In the trade, which also sent Ryan Theriot to the Dodgers, the Cubs received second baseman Blake DeWitt and two low-level minor leaguers.
They also paid approximately half of the remaining salary due Lilly in the process.
The deal is a win for the Dodgers because they acquired a pitcher who is improving as he continues to get stronger after offseason surgery.
Meanwhile, the Cubs traded Ryan Theriot, and I know what you're ...
Sometime prior to tonight's game against the Colorado Rockies, the formerly angry Carlos Zambrano, recently reinstated and recently healed, is expected to address his Cubs teammates to apologize for his June 25 outburst.
Of course, Big Z has already publicly apologized on ESPN. You can expect the next one to be as meaningless as this one.
Most fans and the entire organization, in fact, would rather see Zambrano just go away and not bother leaving a forwarding address.
But since they won't eat his contract, and the MLB Player's Union demands it, Carlos will return to pitch in the bullpen.
Look, the Cubs have nobody but themselves to blame for all this. ...
Sure, it's Lee's right to decline any trade, something the man has earned through his "10 & 5" rights, not to mention his no-trade clause.
However, if Lee was thinking about anyone other than himself, he would acquiesce and go to the Dodgers for another chance at the playoffs, while giving the Cubs an opportunity to land a prospect and secure some salary relief.
But no, it seems that D-Lee either doesn't want the pressure of being in a pennant race as the new face on a winning team, or he just wants to stick it to the Cubs.
Either way, it's a selfish move that greatly ...
Bobby Valentine is said to be a solid strategist in the dugout, which would be a refreshing change from asleep-at-the-wheel Lou Piniella. And he is a winning manager.
So what's not to like, right?
Wrong.
Simply put, Valentine reportedly has an ego-driven personality and is much more interested in himself than the team he's managing.
Instead of "Bobby-V," he should be known as "Bobby-Me!"
But how can a manager be successful on the field if he doesn't care about winning?
Oh, but I never said that the man doesn't want to win. He does, if for no other reason other than to highlight his "legend in ...
Sure, it's always nice to beat the Cardinals, and any win is a good win when you're a long-suffering Cubs fan as I am. That said, it may surprise you that I am not happy about the Cubs recent "surge", for lack of a better term.
By starting to win now, it may lead Jim Hendry and the Cubs brass into the false assumption that they actually are a contender.
That would also mean that they would hold off on trying to trade their movable pieces — a mistake that could prove costly for the Cubs in the long run.
Look, the ...
In a lot of ways, it has always been about the numbers in baseball. Fans, writers, and historians have long focused on the precious statistics in baseball, and there have been specific "standards" by which players are considered Hall of Fame material.
Well, all that's a thing of the past, for now the numbers have been deflated by steroid-cheating needle pushers like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and especially Barry Bonds, who has obliterated the most precious of all records with his insidious ways.
Meanwhile, people can debate the merits of one Andre Nolan Dawson until they're blue in the ...
Following Cubs skipper Lou Piniella's announcement that he will be retiring after the season (and here I figured he had retired a long time ago), much speculation has centered around who will be Sweet Lou's replacement.
While wondering why anyone would want to manage this mess of a team, I decided to play Vegas bookie and lay odds on each of the known candidates.
So here we go, presenting the next manager of the Cubs may be a crapshoot, but this will help to "even" the field, so to speak.Begin Slideshow
So...two or three weeks of anger management classes and suddenly Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano is a new man, huh?
You'll have to forgive me if I'm not buying what the Cubs are selling.
Apparently "cured" of the anger issues that have prevented Zambrano from reaching the full potential of his obvious talent, Big Z has been cleared to begin his baseball rehabilitation in Mesa.
From one "rehab" to another "rehab" and—Poof!—magically, all is well again.
Zambrano, who was suspended following a June 25 dugout tirade at U.S. Cellular Field, threw 25 pitches Thursday in Mesa, AZ. ESPN's Bruce Levine reports that "Hendry said the ...
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