The Cubs released a rendering of what the new right field party patio and LED scoreboard, to be installed where the existing bleacher box seats are located, at the Cubs Convention last month.

Some of you didn't think the rendering looked very good, or gave an accurate perspective on what the new LED scoreboard will look like.

I agreed with that. So I enlisted Mike, who does all the cartoons here, and who is a commercial artist by trade, to use his Photoshop skills to create a more realistic look at what this change in Wrigley Field might look like.

The numbers on the scoreboard... well, they could happen, right?

Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes defected from his home country after putting up some eye-popping numbers in both a Cuban league and in the 2009 World Baseball Classic (where he hit .458/.480/1.000 with a double, 3 triples, 2 home runs, 5 runs and 5 RBI. Small sample size, of course: six games).

On Wednesday, Cespedes established residency in the Dominican Republic and became a free agent.

That started a frenzy for fans of various teams to say, "Sign him! ZOMG he's the best thing EVAR!" Various news outlets reported many teams were interested; the Detroit News said the Cubs, Marlins and Tigers were "most active", and Cespedes himself about a week ago said the Cubs had shown the "most" interest, although the Marlins were reported to be wanting to be "aggressive to the point of stupidity" on Cespedes.

I say, let 'em. Follow me past the jump to find out why.

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Dear Theo and Jed,

Hi! How are you doing? Enjoying Chicago so far? We haven't had much of a winter here yet, so it's probably been easy and comfortable for you to get to work at the corner of Clark & Addison. I hear you two have been pretty busy working late nights, examining the organization from top to bottom; so far I like all the deals and signings you have made in re-making the Cubs major league roster and acquiring additional depth for the minor league system.

I'm excited about the future. You guys had success together in Boston and I know you know what you're doing and believe me, I understand your method. You can't just go for the quick fix as the Cubs have for the last decade; if the two of you and Jason McLeod and the others you have brought in can build a strong top-to-bottom organization, then the Cubs can become a team that can contend for the postseason every year, and win a couple of times in a decade like your old team in Boston did.

I get it. And I like the way you've begun the process. It's the right way to go.

I have only one question this morning. Why haven't you signed Kerry Wood yet?

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NOTE: I posted this early Friday, and then... well, there was quite a bit of other news Friday so this post got quickly buried and not heavily commented. I thought, since it's quieter on Monday, I'd move this back to the top of the page, in case you missed it on Friday.

Carlos Zambrano played 11 seasons for the Cubs. Not many players in recent years have had that many years in blue pinstripes -- since 1980, apart from Big Z only Ryne Sandberg, Shawon Dunston, Kerry Wood, Sammy Sosa and Mark Grace have played for the Cubs for that long or longer -- and that long a tenure has to create at least some positive memorable moments. Since I detailed the reasons yesterday why new Cubs management felt they had to send him to the Marlins and move on, it seems only right that we recall the good things about Big Z, the things that made us feel good about him, the things that made him a popular player for a long time.

I first saw Carlos Zambrano pitch in spring training in 2001; it was a game against the Oakland Athletics, as I recall, though there aren't any spring box score links going back that far and I can't remember exactly what he did that day. I do remember thinking that this tall, skinny (yes, he was quite thin), not-yet-20-year-old kid wearing No. 67 might someday make a good closer.

You know, even in hindsight and knowing what Z did all these years, that might not have been a bad idea. Consider guys like Jose Valverde, who often show antics on the field that fans of opposing teams don't really care for. Z might have been a closer like that; throwing one inning at a time wouldn't have given him the long days on the mound that eventually led to his blowups. I have no doubt that if he'd been made a setup man, then closer, out of the minor leagues, that he'd have been a good one. On August 20, 2001 he became the first player born in the 1980s to make a major league appearance when he started the second game of a doubleheader against the Brewers at Wrigley Field. He got hit hard and gave up seven runs in four innings. I was at that game, but truth be told, I don't recall much about what he did that day other than noting how young he was. In the expansion era (since 1961), Z is the youngest Cubs pitcher to make his MLB debut as a starter.

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Despite what I've written here many times about Carlos Zambrano and my feeling that the Cubs should have gotten rid of him, I really do wish he could have been a Cub for his entire career, and that I could write, about eight years from now, that he'd be retiring as the greatest pitcher in Cubs history.

That's what Big Z's promise always was, tantalizingly so, as he'd be dominant for stretches (as he was after he returned from his 2010 exile to the bullpen and stay on the restricted list. Or the excitement he brought to a Miller Park full of Cubs fans (myself included) when he threw his no-hitter in Milwaukee against the Astros in 2008.

But too many times, I had to write about yet another Zambrano cataclysm, subsequent apology and promise never to do it again (even at one point citing his own kids as a reason he wouldn't). That would inevitably be followed by yet another incident that resulted in Cubs fans having to learn what the restricted list and the disqualified list are -- lists that are very rarely used for major league players. And so instead of remembering his pitching first and foremost, one of the primary images we are left with to remember him by is the one shown in the photo above -- Z yelling at an umpire in anger, veins bulging in his neck.

It's sad that a man with this much talent and clear passion for baseball and winning could not harness that into his on-field performance instead of the sideshows. I have no doubt that when Z told Theo Epstein in their lunch meeting last fall that he wanted to retire as a Cub, that he meant it.

But the reason Big Z was traded to the Marlins (pending, of course, physicals) for Chris Volstad, a young pitcher with a mediocre record but (we hope) upside, with the Cubs eating most of the $18 million owed, is summed up perfectly by David Kaplan at CSNChicago.com:

Several players have confirmed to me that Zambrano would have to change dramatically to be welcomed back on the team because of the number of incidents that he has had during his Cubs career, many of which alienated his teammates. As one Cubs veteran told me recently, "if this was a one time thing we would welcome him back and do all we could to make it work. However, this is the fifth or sixth time he has had an incident and at some point you have to cut ties and move on."

That's really it in the proverbial nutshell. Zambrano had multiple last chances and blew all of them. And with new management, Z no longer had the backing of Jim Hendry, who was responsible for signing him out of Venezuela when he was farm director in 1997, and who was the only big league GM he ever knew; Hendry was fired a week after Z's meltdown in Atlanta. New management has clearly wanted to make a break from the past in many ways, and this trade seemed inevitable even with Theo's statement that Z could work his way back to the team.

"Fifth or sixth time"? Let us count the ways.

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While we wait for the Sean Marshall deal to become official -- and find out who the two prospects coming over are, in addition to Travis Wood -- let me tell you a story.

The Cubs haven't been good for a couple of years and recent years of contention are starting to become a distant memory. A recent ownership change has brought in a new general manager, who has significantly different ideas about how to build a team than his predecessor.

The new GM has begun to make moves; quite a few of the people he's brought in are from his former team, which has led to complaints from some circles that the Cubs are simply becoming a western version of his old club.

And yet, the Cubs have fallen into a situation of such disarray that such a rebuild is almost necessary. The system is bereft of prospects, except perhaps for one recent first-round pick who might turn into a good major league outfielder someday.

That sums up the Cubs' current situation pretty well, doesn't it?

Except I'm not talking about now. Those facts precisely fit what Dallas Green did when he took over the Cubs in the winter of 1981. That team was in much worse shape than the current bunch; the Cubs were the worst team in the National League for the previous two years, had essentially one good player (Bill Buckner) and the one decent first-round draft prospect (Joe Carter).

We all know what Green did; despite complaints from some that he was turning the Cubs into "Phillies West", it worked; three years later the Cubs had a NL East title and I am convinced to this day that if Green and Tribco hadn't had the falling out that led to Green's departure, he would have built an organization that would have produced multiple pennant and World Series winners.

That is now what Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer are charged with doing.

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So the Texas Rangers are the lucky club (depending on your definition of "lucky") who will get to spend probably $75 million on top of their $51.7 million posting fee for Yu Darvish.

Personally, I think that would have been worth doing. The Rangers, clearly, can afford it with the money they have from their deal with FSN Southwest. For Darvish, pitching with Rangers Ballpark -- a known launching pad -- could be problematic, but Darvish gives up very few home runs, just 19 in his last three seasons, covering 616 innings.

Congratulations to the Rangers, although maybe "congratulations" on having to shell out $125 million or so for one player isn't the right word. When will the Cubs see Darvish? They last played the Rangers at Rangers Ballpark in May 2010; Texas last played in Wrigley Field (the only appearance by a Rangers team there) in 2002. Depending on how they arrange the interleague schedule after the Astros move to the AL after 2012, perhaps we'll see Darvish pitching against the Cubs in Wrigley in 2013.

Meanwhile, what should the Cubs do next?

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Aramis Ramirez won't be a stranger to the Cubs for the next three years, as he's reportedly signed a three-year deal with the Brewers for an amount somewhere between $34 and $37 million.

So we'll see him from 15-18 times a year, depending on how schedules work out; it will be odd to see someone who has been such a big part of Cubs history for the last nine seasons, wearing a uniform with a different shade of blue. Remember, when he was acquired from the Pirates on July 23, 2003, along with Kenny Lofton, it was Lofton the Cubs were after. They needed an immediate replacement for the injured Corey Patterson. At the time, Ramirez, who had just turned 25, was considered to be somewhat of a washout, having had a disappointing, injury-filled 2002, and not off to a great start in 2003.

He made that one of the best deals of Jim Hendry's tenure. He leaves ranking fifth on the all-time Cubs list in OPS (.887), and sixth in home runs (239). He had several spectacular seasons, and from 2004-2007 averaged .305/.362/.564 with 33 HR and 104 RBI; beyond new Hall of Famer Ron Santo, the only 3B in Cubs history who put up numbers as good as Aramis was Stan Hack.

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