Chicago Cubs

 To help preview the coming series against the Chicago Cubs, we sat down with Joe Aeillo from an outstanding Cubs blog, View From The Bleachers . Go check out their site, they do some really cool stuff over there. I also prepared a short preview for them which I will post here once it gets put up. Anyways, Joe and I talked about Riggleman, Strasburg, Zambrano, and getting the Cubs back to the World Series.

With such a rich and lengthy history, the Cubs have seen roughly 2,000 don the Cubbie blue over the years. Because of that, I thought it would be fun to name who I feel are the top five players for all 26 letters of the alphabet, going by last name.

To qualify, the player needs only to have played at least one game for the Cubs.

Despite their early-season struggles, the Chicago Cubs have plenty of reasons not to be afraid just yet. From the revamped minor league system, to a smarter Jim Hendry, to the twenty-fifth man on the roster (and the fortieth in September), the Cubs organization and their ever-loyal fans have no reason to worry about the 2010 season.

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Don’t expect the Cubs (6-10) to have an easy go of it facing the Milwaukee Brewers (8-7) this time around.

The Cubs opened up their home schedule by taking two of three from the Brewers back on April 12-15—their lone series win to date—but Milwaukee and Chicago are two teams heading in opposite directions.

The Brewers piled on 20 runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday and outscored the Buccos 36-1 in a three-game sweep.

The Cubs, meanwhile, haven’t scored 36 runs in their past eight games combined.

In the 2010 season, the Chicago Cubs rotation has been as dependable as a Toyota— especially since the recent move by Lou Piniella of Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen, and complete domination by recently acquired starter Carlos Silva.

To quote one of my favorite episodes from Seinfeld:

"He's reliable. He's considerate. He's like your exact opposite."
"So he's Bizarro Jerry."
"Bizarro Jerry?"
"Yeah, like Bizarro Superman, Superman's exact opposite, who lives in the backwards Bizarro world. Up is down, down is up, he says hello when he leaves, goodbye when he arrives."
"Shouldn't he say badbye? Isn't that the opposite of goodbye?"
"No, it's still goodbye."
"Does he live underwater?"
"No."
"Is he black?"

Please tell me this is April Fools Day.

Look, the Cubs have done a lot of dumb things in their history, but moving Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen may be the craziest thing they have done since the "College of Coaches."

For those of you not up to date on Cubs history, the College of Coaches was the brainchild (or brain-dead decision) of then-owner P.K. Wrigley back in 1961, and consisted of rotating eight coaches as managers.

Listed below are points and counterpoints debating whether the Cubs demoting Carlos Zambrano is a good idea.

Earlier in the day I wrote about former Yankee pitchers Edwar Ramirez and Chad Gaudin getting their rings yesterday and I wrote that the Yankees really haven’t let everyone know when they’ll be getting their rings.

I certainly wasn’t foreshadowing anything, but earlier today Xavier Nady got a nice surprise when the Yankees general manager Brian Cashman showed up at Citi Field before the Cubs, Nady’s current team, took on the Mets and gave him him his ring.

In a surprise twist in the never-ending saga of Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs management has decided to send the eight-year veteran starter to the bullpen to make way for the 12-year-old Henry Rowengartner, who just came off the disabled list with a broken arm.

Rowengartner, or Rosenbagger/Gardenhoser as he likes to be called, played some outfield for the Pirates of the Little League, but has confidence he can make the switch to pitcher as new teammate Randy Wells has.