For those over-the-hill columnists and Cubs fans (and White Sox trolls) who believe the Cubs are better off trading Carlos Zambrano for a "bag of balls," let's take a look at what they are advocating giving up.

Over the last seven seasons, there are nine pitchers who have won 90 or more games (wins being a statistic the angry hordes can understand and usually cling to): Johan Santana (107), Roy Halladay (104), Roy Oswalt (100), Carlos Zambrano (95), Andy Pettitte (94), CC Sabathia (94), Derek Lowe (92), Josh Beckett (90) and Mark Buehrle (90).

Of those, only Sabathia is younger than the just turned 28-year-old Zambrano - by 50 days.

Of those, only Lowe (218) and Buehrle (214) have started more games than Zambrano (206).

Of those, only Santana (2.88), Halladay (3.18) and Oswalt (3.26) have a lower ERA than Zambrano (3.41).

Of those, only Santana (1,462) and Sabathia (1,151) have more strikeouts than Zambrano (1,141).

Of those, only Santana (.217) has a lower batting average against than Zambrano (.228).

Of those, none have a lower slugging percentage against than Zambrano (.351).

In short, Carlos Zambrano has easily been one of the best pitchers in baseball since he entered the league. And Phil Rogers and his pitchfork-wielding followers are looking to run him out of town because he finally has gone too far by plunking two White Sox batters.

(Previous "In Defense Of" posts can be found here.)