First Reactions to Zambrano Trade

My first reaction here is that I don't much like it at all.  Everyone who reads this blog knows that I think Carlos Zambrano is a good pitcher who is still young enough to regain his best form.  Moreover, whatever you may think of Zambrano personally, you have to agree that he is an exciting player and also that the Cubs have just completely mismanaged his career.

I suppose it was inevitable given the whole mess that ended last season that the Cubs would be looking for a face-saving way out of the situation.  Here's the thing, however, the Cubs deal off Zambrano in his contract year and agree to pay another team something like $15M of his $18M contract.  Moreover, he is going to a team that is making a big play to contend in the NL East and for a manager who is a close friend.  He's likely to do well there, maybe better than he might have done here with all the baggage and tension surrounding his return.

In return, the Cubs get what?  Chris Volstad, a young and inconsistent former #1 draft pick who just seems to manufacture base runners and home runs.  He has been in the majors for four seasons and has got worse in each of them.  When I first heard of the deal, although I didn't like it, I thought, well, at least they got a young ML starter in return.  Then I did some research.  Boy, does this guy stink!  Take a look at this article in which pitchers stuff is rated statistically.  Turns out Volstad works out over the past three seasons as having the eighth worst stuff in all of baseball.  Some catch.

I might be wrong here, and maybe someone can turn him around, but this move smacks of desperation.  Even at his worst and most distracting, Zambrano was good for 9 or 10 wins in partial seasons interrupted by all sorts of trips to the DL and suspensions.  Even in the last three seasons when Zambrano was not as effective and seemingly more troubled than earlier in his career, and even though his team was just awful, the Cubs had a won/lost record well over .500 when he started.  With Volstad on the hill, the opposite was the case.