Chicago Cubs fans got a belated Christmas gift with the trade of Carlos Zambrano to the Miami Marlins for Chris Volstad. As far as the Cubs’ on-field fortunes are concerned, the deal means little. Both pitchers are back-end-of-the-rotation guys. After a promising rookie season in 2008 (2.88 ERA), Volstad has regressed. He had a 4.89 ERA last year in a pitcher-friendly park, although he finished strong with a 2.32 ERA in September.

Zambrano, meanwhile, when he wasn’t quitting on his team and breaking stuff was equally mediocre, albeit at a much higher salary. The Cubs’ new regime didn’t want to add cancer treatment to their other difficult tasks, so it smartly got rid of Big Z, even agreeing to pay $15 million of his $18 million salary.

I, for one, am willing to contribute to the Big Z Exile Fund to help defray that 15 mil hit. Seriously, Theo, hit me up with your PayPal address and I’ll send 5 bucks your way.

I’ll admit, I liked Carlos for a while, like, when he was good and reasonably sane. But his true colors were in full bloom last year and there was no going back. He made it clear he didn’t want to be on the North Side anymore, so he had to go.

I continue to be encouraged by the Cubs’ moves. The early maneuvers — DeJesus, Stewart, Marshall trade — were sensible and low risk. And the Z trade simply had to be done. Sometimes you have to destroy a village in order to save it, so tearing down a roster that wasn’t working and setting the stage for a realistic and sustainable rebuilding program is something that all Cubs fans should applaud, even if it will come with at least a couple more years of ugly baseball.

After taking two out of three games in their first series against the Cubs, the White Sox were able to rattle Carlos Zambrano’s cage enough to give him a mental breakdown and get him taken out after one inning and an altercation with Derek Lee in the dugout.

In the first inning, the White Sox were able to put four runs on the board, mostly thanks to Carlos Quentin’s three run homer that brought in Alex Rios and Paul Konerko.

Zambrano was noticably livid heading into the dugout, the episode ending in being taken into the clubhouse by Lou Piniella and Alan Trammel and being taken out of the game. Read the rest of this entry »

The Chicago Cubs have a history of reaching for draft picks in the first round. They did so again this season when they took Hayden Simpson, expected to be a second to fifth round pick, with the 16th pick of the first round.

Hayden went 13-1 in 15 starts for the South Arkansas Muleriders during his junior season. He also had a 1.81 ERA and struck out 131 batters compared to just 35 walks in 99 and a third innings.

Cubs scouting director Tim Wilken compared Simpson to major league stars Tim Lincecum and Roy Oswalt, which is big praise for D-ll pitcher. Read the rest of this entry »

For the next month or so, posts are going to be rare, as I have classes until May 6th. After that, I will be able to write more often and will probably have a post a day, which means I will be doing a lot of work with my sports work.

I am also thinking about starting up a YouTube channel which will consist of me making a few videos a week about sports in a vlog format. I will be following a similar format to Ray William Johnson, only instead of talking about YouTube videos and making jokes, I will be talking about sports and making bad jokes.

As for my thoughts on the first few days of Cubbie baseball, we need a bullpen, badly. Really badly. Really really badly.

I have some stuff tomorrow but hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday I will have something substantial up for you.

I’m Joe W.

Let’s take a look at an alternate universe, one where nobody ever has to take accountability, then gets to do an interview on a major network without being asked about your play.

It’s a world where, if you screw up, the world is just against you. It’s not your fault. Why should you take the blame when people are trying to hold you down?

This is the world that former-Cub Milton Bradley lives in, and he has been showing it to the world the past week, with an interview with ESPN’s Colleen Dominguez.

Let’s take a look at this interview comment by comment from Milton Bradley. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello all, sorry for flaking out at the end of last season, I got caught up getting set up at college, then pledged a fraternity (Delta Sigma Phi all the way) but now that Spring Training is up and going (and I am deadly poor), I am back to give you the best Chicago Cubs content available.

The goal will be to give a lot of preview articles now, and once the season gets into full swing, give you guys an article a day.

Why am I being so nice?

Because you the reader deserve it.

It will take me a bit to get back into the swing of things, so postings for now will be somewhat sparce, but once I get going, we will be posting quality Cubs content (hopefully) daily. After all, shouldn’t I live up to the name, The DAILY Cub.

The Cubs are now 1-0 in Spring Training (although that matters just about as much as what I ate for dinner) so hopefully we will get things back in a positive direction this season.

For now, I’m Joe W.

A new year, a new scapegoat. Last year’s playoff failure was blamed on the Cubs being too right-handed. Now, at least based on what Cubs manager Lou Piniella recently had to say, the thinking is that the Cubs are too slow.

Lou’s need for speed aside, it is true that the Cubs are a slow, plodding bunch. They rank last in the NL in stolen bases. And while the stolen base has not been as popular since ‘roided up players starting popping muscles out of their shirt sleeves, it seems to be on a bit of a comeback. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the many differences between White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams and Cubs GM Jim Hendry is that Kenny harbors no illusions of the playoffs this season. Could it still happen? Sure, mathematically at least. But is it likely? Hell no.

And it’s even less likely for the Cubs, of course. The division is out of reach and the wild card requires climbing over too many teams. Plus, the Cubs aren’t playing like they want it anyway.

So the White Sox supposedly send a memo to the other clubs that Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome and Scott Linebrink are available. Read the rest of this entry »

Again, I am extremely sorry for the lack of posting these past few weeks. I have had a lot of problems with my internet in my dorm room but those are starting to be fixed now.

However, I will be going through my first full week of school before I start posting regularly again. I am very sorry but I need to make sure that I do everything I can to get the most out of my college experience.

I apologize for the lack of posts, it has been three days and I try not to let more than two go by before getting something up on the site, however, the last few days have been very hectic for me.

I would like to say that the slow down will stop soon and there will be plenty of Cubs updates coming your way soon, but the truth is that I don’t know when I will be able to get back to my usual amount of posts.

The reason, Wednesday is my move-in day for college, and I have been very busy seeing people for possibly the last time and getting all of my stuff ready to move.

It may take a few days to get used to living at Illinois State University, where I will be living for the next four years, but once I get acclimated to the area and get my schedule down, I will be able to get right back to posting.

Luckily for all of you, this will likely mean an increase in quality work from me, as I will be studying journalism at ISU. So be ready for a short hiatus, followed by a return to your Cubs coverage.

-Joe Willett