Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune has several Cubs issues packed into his latest article. Here are the highlights:
- After meeting with new president Theo Epstein, Carlos Zambrano has told friends he thinks he will remain a Cub in 2012. Sullivan writes that Zambrano will still have to convince both new and pre-existing front office members that he's serious about making amends with his teammates.
- Epstein praised Carlos Pena and said that the club's arbitration offer by no means shuts the door on Pena's time with the team. Epstein expects Pena to decline arbitration but will continue discussions to bring him back. "He'd be an asset to the Cubs or any team," said Epstein of Pena.
- The Cubs have interest in bringing back Rodrigo Lopez as rotation depth.
- Starlin Castro won't be moved from shortstop in the near future for defensive reasons. Epstein feels defense is one area players can "absolutely, 100 percent get better with hard work."
- New manager Dale Sveum may bring in Dave McKay, a longtime coaching associate of Tony La Russa, as a coach.
- The Cubs made former big league pitcher John Koronka a regional scout in charge of Florida. Koronka , 31, last pitched for the Marlins in 2009.
Cubs should be rebuilding big time.
Get rid of Zambrano, Soriano and Garza.
Get as many prospects/young major leaguers in return as possible. Stay away from Fielder & Pujols because they need to strenghten their core.
and “getting rid” of garza would help out how?
apparently with an offer that blows Theo Epstein away…:) It probably will not happen.
Zambrano has anger issues, but he isnt a bad teamate. He blows up and says and does things he shouldnt yes, however he is one of if not the most competitive players the Cubs have. The guy gives more effort in his 2-5 AB’s a week than Soriano does in a week full of games on defense and at the plate combined.Yeah he got into it with Lee but we dont know the full story. And dont bring up the 15 minutes of fame with Barrett. He is only remembered because he was beat up by Z and lame AJ!
Agreed, and when it REALLY comes down to it, Zambrano really isn’t that bad of a pitcher. This is the first season in his entire career that he registered an ERA over 4. He also has an ERA+ of 122, which is good enough to be in the Top 100 of all time for pitchers.
So basically, DeJesus was our big signing and now we’re going to sit on our hands and not get better. Oh…..
Another year of Pena, Lopez, and Zambrano … and no Ramirez? Wow, is it too late to bring Hendry back?
Dumbest post of the year.
Thank you very little!
There is still a lot of offseason, but if this is what we end up doing and don’t get a lot more turn over, what was the point? They harp on scouting and developing more and act like you can’t improve your club in FA while improving scouting. Now that there are such limits on the draft, we had better really look into FA.
That’s a mistake not swapping Castro and Barney. We all know Castro is the better hitter but Barney is no slautch himself. Barney is far better at his natural position Shortstop.