Chicago Tribune & WGN reporting Greg Maddux is a Cub.

It's possible, but I think they'd probably trade Juan Cruz before Zambrano. I'm not yet convinced Zambrano can replicate his success from last year, but if he can then holding on to him--even if it's just to trade him at the end of the season--means he'll appreciate on the market that much more. Cruz is a very similar pitcher to Zambrano (his off-speed stuff isn't quite there yet) and has been languishing in the Cubs pen for the last few years. The longer the Cubs hold on to him, the quicker his transition from prospect to bust will occur, at least in the minds of MLB GMs. That seemingly-credible Juan Cruz + PTBNL for Mike Lowell trade rumors were buzzing around last year gives you some idea of his value.

But I think you're definitely on to something. The Cubs have an insane amount of pitching in the minors right now, I would expect some blockbuster trade involving Cubs pitching in the next two or three years.

Where I think they might unload a pitcher is mid-season before the trade deadline, if the pitching is healthy and they have an obvious need in the lineup. The Cubs did pretty well last year with their trades in season and have made a couple of other interesting moves in the offseason.

Possible Cubs starters:

1b - Derek Lee
2b - Mark Gruzielanek/Todd Walker
ss - Alex Gonzalez
3b - Aramis Ramierez
lf - Moises Alou
cf - Corey Patterson
rf- Sammy Sosa
c - Damian Miller/Paul Bako/Michael Barrett

Questions:

Is Patterson recovered from his injury?
Is this the year age takes it's toll on Alou and Sosa?
Can any of these catcher hit their weight?
Have Lee and Ramierez peaked or can they improve into bonafide stars?
Does Gruzielanek and Walker have another season in them like last year, when both did well at the plate?
Can Gonzalez harness that power, lay off crappy pitches and not strike out like Rob Deer?

With Patterson and Lee in the field, the defense should be improved.

The catcher position looks pretty weak.

No one really knows anything about Barrett that I've talked to, but Jim Hendry seems to think he's the bee's knees. He couldn't do much worse than .233/.310/.369, I guess.

Maybe putting Bako and Maddux back in each other's arms will spur each to greater heights?!

(Oh wait, I just looked up Barrett's 2003 numbers: .208/.280/.398. Ow.)

Henry Blanco = HITTING MACHINE!!!

I always wondered how that worked with Javy Lopez in Atlanta. Was it Bobby Cox just plotting a regular day off or did Maddux/Lopez just not work well together?

In the late 90's, it seemed as though Maddux was the greatest pitcher any of us would ever see. Since then, his performance has slowly declined as one would expect for a pitcher in his late 30's. However, Clemens and Johnson, his contemporaries in the "Great Pitchers of the 90's" club, have remained ageless and dominant.

Will any of this affect Maddux's legacy? His profile has fallen off the table since the 90's. The success of Clemens, Unit, and even Pedro have seemingly relegated Maddux to a distant fourth in terms of popularity and prestige among many fans. Every time one of those three guys start, it's a major event. When Maddux starts, he's just another #3 starter on a club fighting for the wild card.

In 30 years, the greatness of Clemens, Pedro and Unit will be obvious to those who never saw him pitch: fireballers who blew batters away, with personalities as potent as their fastballs. What about Maddux? Will he be a "you had to see him to appreciate him" pitchers?

I think that, superficially, Maddux's legacy might tarnish a bit, but folks that actually look past his career marks & his decline will see how ridiculously good he actually was. Also, Johnson & especially Clemens are freaks & outliers, and any pitcher is gonna look like spew compared to them.

You could rank Clemens and Maddux about equally 4 years ago; obv not the case anymore.

Also working against Maddux: his best two seasons were in 1994-5, and therefore their significance was diminished by the work stoppage. The guy was 19-2, 1.60 in a shortened season! Those numbers are unreal, but who even remembers that now?

The one thing that might "hurt" Maddux, in terms of his place in the game: no charisma. Pedro and Clemens are hotheaded (and headhunters), and Randy Johnson, he's tall and has a mullet. Also, throwing hard helps. Chicks dig the fastball, not the black-catching change-up low and away.

Maddux best HoF contemporary might be Lefty Grove ... not a flashy personality, not nearly as famous/larger-than-life as many of his contemporaries, with extremely impressive numbers that aren't fully appreciated for their Pantheon-ness (?) until you look at the offense-dominated era they played in.

Anytime Maddux's name is mentioned in 30 years, peeps need to bust out the "chix dig the long ball" commercial because that was some SERIOUS pantheon-type shit. I think I'd be happy if he was remembered for that above all else. You can't tell me that Clemens ever did anything that cool.

Came close a few weeks ago to starting a thread devoted to amazing Tony Gwynn-related stuff that is forever turning up on my FB wall. Didn't, but I can post this here: in 330 career AB against Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz, they struck him out three times.

(I can't check that, so trusting its accuracy.)