It all starts with this: Cubs can't do this without Big Z in rotation

If nothing else, give them credit for trying.

There have been too many Cubs teams, and especially Cubs managers, who would have sat back and watched it unravel without trying anything different.

So give GM Jim Hendry and manager Lou Piniella credit for trying something different with Carlos Zambrano, and now for admitting it didn't work.

Granted, it was a bad idea from the start and destined to fail, and now that it has, Zambrano is slowly working his way back through middle relief and toward the rotation.

If there's anything worse than an $18 million setup man, it's an $18 million mop-up man, so you can be certain he's headed to the rotation as soon as they can stretch him out and determine who leaves the starting staff.

They probably can't be more specific yet because it will mean more questions for Piniella about who's out, and more questions for those starters who may pitch themselves out of a spot.

In the meantime, give Zambrano credit, too, for accepting the demotion without histrionics and at least trying in his late-inning relief role.

Given his volatile nature, enormous salary and many years as a starter, if Zambrano had balked, the Cubs wouldn't have done it.

But he gave it a shot.

Of course, had he gotten out of the blocks well and done his job as a starter, he never would have been considered for the role, but he was unreliable in the Cubs' minds, so they figured there wasn't much to lose.

Let's hope now that this career interruption serves as some type of shock therapy and Zambrano can find the form with which he dominated the National League from 2003-2007.

For those five years, Zambrano went 77-45 (.631), averaging a 15-9 record with a 3.30 ERA, 33 starts, 215 innings pitched, and a 2-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio.

The last couple of years he slipped to an average of 12-6 in 29 starts with 179 innings pitched, and an ERA a half-point higher at 3.85, not bad numbers for most starters but not up to Zambrano's elite standards.

In 2007, Zambrano was 11th in all of baseball in innings. In 2008, he was 52nd, and last year 72nd.

They're paying him to throw a lot of innings and be their ace, and if this thing's going to work, they need Zambrano to be their ace again.

There's talk that Zambrano isn't physically what he used to be, and it's possible he has lost some velocity, not at all unusual for someone his age (29 in a few days) with the amount of innings he has thrown (nearly 1,600).

If that's true and assuming he's not hurt, Zambrano must learn to pitch without those extra feet on his fastball, and if he needs to be taught, the Cubs must teach him.

It's not a pitching death sentence by any means if you look at the list of 29 active pitchers with more innings thrown than Zambrano.

Some still have as much heat as ever, some have been surgically repaired, some have learned to pitch with slightly less, and some get by quite well with diminished velocity well into their 30s.

It's called pitching, not throwing, and Zambrano certainly has the ability and the wicked stuff to win games for years with what he has left.

His head, which has at times been the only enemy that could defeat him, must now become his ally.

And as mediocre as is the NL Central, Zambrano could conceivably pitch the Cubs back into the race once he's back in his old job.

In fact, if the Cubs were 5-1 against the Pirates instead of 1-5 - beating up on a terrible team the way everyone else does - they'd be right in the thick of their division and wild-card races.

As it is, one decent winning streak and they'll be right there again.

So as we reach mightily for a reason to remain optimistic about the Cubs hanging around in 2010, we hang our hat on the rebirth of Carlos Zambrano.

May he find himself again and lead the Cubs out of the doldrums.

One has every right to hope.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.