Big Z, Other Notes

Cub officials say they are going to see what trade value Derrek Lee has at the trade deadline, that is according to Hot Stove Cubbies.

The Cubs are link to OF Ryan Spilborghs, the Cubs have been interested in him for about a couple years now. Ryan will either be traded or release in the near future. He is the 5th OF now because they just called up OF Carlos Gonzalez from Triple A. I would rather stick with the OF's the Cubs have now.

Here is a good article of what Zambrano said about his carrer:

According to MLB.com's Carrie Muskat, Cubs' righthander Carlos Zambrano says he will retire at the end of his current contract. Zambrano is currently in the second year of a five year, $91.5MM million dollar contract that he signed before the 2008 season.

"After this contract, I'm done," said Zambrano, who is signed through 2012 with a vesting option for 2013. "I'm serious. I don't want to play. I want to help this team, I want to do everything possible to win with this team, but after five years or four years, or whatever I have left on my contract, I just don't want to play.
"I want to stay home and see my daughters grow up and hang out with my family more," he said. "Do you know how many Mother's Days I spend with my mother? Do you know how many things I've lost in my life?

"It's good to be here, it's good to play baseball -- don't get me wrong," Zambrano said. "But five years, four years, whatever I have left in my contract, I will retire. That's it."

Zambrano turned 28 just this past week and just won his 100th career game last night. Like the quote says, his contract doesn't expire until after the 2013 season and has a vesting option for 2014 based on health and Cy Young voting, but it seems a bit odd that he would announce his intentions to retire so early. Perhaps he's just frustrated by some of the recent issues he's deal with. What do you guys think?

If I had to guess, I would say Big Z will not retire because he loves the game.

I will keep you posted.