So the Cubs finally did it, they traded away my favorite player. Normally that would make me mad, and it still does just a little. But, I understand. Barrett was in his walk year, was struggling mightily behind the plate, and wasn’t playing nicely with others. Barrett was once looked at as a scrappy leader of this club. His recent penchant for yelling at, or getting yelled at by the top 2 starters on your team is probably what did him in. When you’ve publicly pissed off 40% of your pitching staff, who knows who else you’ve rubbed the wrong way. So far it seems that Koyie Hill has spoken with Johnny Gill, he seems to be rubbing Cubs pitchers the right way (sans Rich Hill’s rough outing on Sunday).

There are a couple angles I think are worth mentioning.

If the Cubs traded Barrett to make Zambrano happy, they better damn well re-sign him. I understand that Hendry and Lou need to make their top guns feel confident in their battery mate. What I wouldn’t understand is if the Cubs sacrifice one of the better offensive catchers in the game for a guy they’re going to let leave at the end of the season. Granted Barrett is in his walk year too, so they conceivably could be without both next season. This should surprise no one, but I want the Cubs to re-sign Zambrano. He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball. He’s has top shelf stuff, and if he’s able to get his head straight consistently he could blossom into a Nolan Ryan-like starter. I also think that Larry Rothschild has a lot to do with his success. It would be interesting to see how Big Z would do without him.

Jim Hendry said all the right things (of course) about going a different direction, and that Barrett is poised to become an All Star, all the stuff you say when you’re glad you were able to deal someone. Time will tell how these prospects (Rob Bowen and Kyler Burke) will shake out. Bowen was a backup this year for the Padres (.268-2-11) and Burke apparently has a lot of power potential. He’s only 19, and has struggled in the low minors. Seems like Bowen will be a solid addition to the club, especially if he can throw a guy out, and catch the ball.

Last but not least, who is my favorite Cub now? I’m not really sure. I’ll think about it and get back to you. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave me a comment.

***UPDATE***
Now that I think about it, I think that they could have or should have tried to get some bullpen help instead of a backup catcher and a class A corner outfielder. I feel like this might be the beginnings of a white flag trade. White flag trades in Chicago actually have turned out pretty well. Of course that was on the south side of town, but it did lay the groundwork for their World Series run.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Baseball, Chicago Cubs, MLB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.