Hello Ballers,
Theo Epstein’s first Big player move was signing Prince Fielder? Nope, he’s still unsigned. Mark Buerhle away from the Southsiders? Nah, he went way south to Miami. Theo’s first Big move was getting rid of Big Z (Carlos Zambrano) and the BIG sore thumb that he became to the Northsiders. Big Z will join Buerhle in Miami as a member of the Marlins. Chicago will still pay something like 15 out of his $18 million owed to him in ’12. Money well spent I say. He could barely maintain his position in the Bigs last year due to behaivor problems and coming off a flat out terrible stretch and ended up 9-7 with a 4.82 ERA. Sorry, but you can’t have the anchor of your rotation and heart of the team acting and pitching like that for 18 mill a year. The Barber says, “NEXT!”. Paying to get rid of him sped up the process of building a stable clubhouse while getting something in return (the trade brought 6′ 8″ righty Chris Volstad who is also 5 years younger to Chicago) . Nice move Cubbies, it was a longtime coming.
I’m not saying Zambrano is done, but he was OVER done for Chicago. Stick a fork in him–heee’s DO-ONE! Big Z turns 31 in June and he may very well have plenty of solid 12 to 15 year wins in him. And unlike many experts, I don’t think a turn around will be because of manager and fellow Venezuelan Ozzie Guillen “reaching” him. If it happens, it will be because Zambrano will have finally quit his antics that make him a bad employee at times (after all, it is a business, just ask J.D. Drew or Albert Pujols) and re-focused all of his energy into pitching. Personally, I’d like to see the turnaround. He is a great talent and fun to watch. Plus, I can continue to bring up the story of watching Big Z take on D-Train Willis and the defending World Series Champ Marlins at Wrigley on 9/11/04. Oh, and I watched from the 3rd base side sky boxes too!
You may not have noticed but long-time 90s slugger Juan “Gone” Gonzalez is now GONE from the Hall of Fame balloting list after receiving just 23 votes or 4% of the ballots. That makes him 1% shy of staying on the ballot. He had over 400 HRs and 1,404 RBI in a nice career that was included in The Mitchell Report. OOPS! No surprise he is GONE, but let’s focus on those RBI. His 1,404 ribbies currently put him at 70th all-time. That’s pretty damn good for sure. But the big boys are the BIG BOYS for a reason. A-rod is currently at 11th all-time with 1,893. That’s almost 500 more to get by 59 sluggers, most of whom are in the Hall. But here’s my angle. People are worried about the HR records and they should be. But what about the RBI record?
A-rod needs 11 more RBI to pass Mays, 321 more to out do the Babe, and 405 more to outlast Aaron. He’s definitely slowing down and probably won’t make it, but does anybody, including Yanks fans, want to see the potential “disaster” of A-rod taking the HR and RBI crowns down whatever golden road his next actress girlfriend lives on? No?! I didn’t think so, me neither. Remember, he’s not perfectly “clean” either. However, if he gets one of those records, he’ll probably get both as he sits at 629 bombs, just 134 from the record. Aside from the small experiment gone wrong with whatever juice he tried, I could probably still enjoy taking in the runs at those marks if he could have been half (or even a quarter) the ambassador to the game that the likes of Ripken, Jr., Gwynn Sr., and Jeter have been and are today. Sometimes, the numbers off the field matter the most.
Later Fans.