Chicago Cubs Ticket Blog

Cubs fans finally have something to get excited about. Matt Garza will be plying his trade at Wrigley Field next season after general manager Jim Hendry traded Sam Fuld and four prospects for the right hander and two minor leaguers. The 27-year-old is coming off a 15-win season for the Tampa Bay Rays, giving the Cubs rotation another top-class arm. Garza had put in three consecutive years of pitching around 200 innings and has a career ERA of 3.97. The best part of the deal is the $$. Garza stands to only make $3 million in 2011. That’s heck of a bargain considering the Cubs just agreed to pay .191 hitting Carlos Pena $10 million for one year. Garza does have a reputation for sometimes letting his emotions get the best of him on the mound (ala Carlos Zambrano). If Big Z can get his stuff together the Cubs will have nice little rotation heading into the spring. Ryan Dempster is coming off a 15-win season, Zambrano went 11-3 in his limited starting role last year, Carlos Silva started a perfect 8-0 before experience a slight late season swoon, and Randy Wells could be a strong fifth starter for the Cubbies. We certainly won’t have the best starting pitchers in baseball in 2011, but this trade could be a key piece to puzzle.