A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
In the inaugural edition of MSF’s baseball podcast “Call to the Bullpen” Corey D’Souza and I look at where remaining free agents Prince Fielder and Edwin Jackson may end up, and they analyze the Carlos Zambrano trade to the Miami Marlins from the Chicago Cubs and what that could mean for each team.
In what shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows anything about sports, Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano threw another one of his tantrums Friday night. After allowing five home runs to the Atlanta Braves and being ejected for throwing two inside pitches at Chipper Jones, Zambrano did what he does best: storm off the field in disgust.
Zambrano apparently told club staff that he was retiring after the ejection. Sadly, two hours later, Zambrano’s agent made it clear that his client was not going to retire; instead, the Cubs put Zambrano on the disqualified list for 30 days.
Cubs general manager, Jim Hendry, said that it was the harshest punishment without actually releasing Zambrano. My question is: Why didn’t Hendry release Zambrano?
In the 8th installment of the MSF QuickCast, I discuss last night’s classless exit and apparent retirement of Carlos Zambrano, which effectively ends a frustrating decade on the mound for Cubs fans that began so promisingly.
In Zambrano’s exit, and juxtaposed against the disappointment of the Wood-Prior-Zambrano trio, I find yet another way to appreciate their underappreciated contemporary: Mark Buehrle.
This week is one where you either have the solid two start pitchers or you don’t. The good options this week are for the most part not around in free agency or on waivers in your league.
I am not one who usually agrees with Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, but he spoke nothing but truth yesterday when he called the Cubs “embarrassing’ after being swept by the St. Louis Cardinals.
I don’t know if any of you have watched the Cubs lately, but if you have, it’s hard not to agree with Zambrano’s assessment.
Pitching changes are sponsored by….are words heard regularly on WGN radio as the Cubs try to work some magic from the mound.
But there just no magic to be found.
The Cubs have been in a slump, and their ongoing inconsistency is coming home to roost at Wrigley.
Before the beginning of the season, Cubs manager Lou Pinella was quoted saying that he was confident in his young bullpen.
Well, we’re 17 games in and the Cubs’ bullpen has a dismal 2-8 and a combined 7.51 ERA, if you include Carlos Zambrano.
How much confidence does Lou have now? I wouldn’t say he has much.
Baseball officially started Sunday night with Boston and New York, but most teams and their fans, baseball starts today. This is true for the Chicago “lovable losers” Cubs as they play the Atlanta Braves this afternoon in Atlanta.
It’s now been 102 years since a World Series victory for the Cubs, the longest drought in professional sports history, but will this finally be the year that changes? Maybe, maybe not. The key for the Cubs is to take one game at a time.
Sure, you can make the argument the Cubs have some overrated and overpaid players, but what you can’t deny is, with everyone on the team clicking, they can be a dominant force.
It’s finally baseball season.
Spring training has just begun, and it’s time for another chance for the “lovable losers” to make another run at ending their 100+ year World Series drought. But is this really the year for the Cubs to end that drought?
If you look at the Cubs’ players you see a lot of high class names: Derek Lee, Alfonsio Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, and Aramis Ramirez. The problem is all these guys, with the exception of Ramirez, have not fulfilled the expectations that the fans and general managers originally had for them.
In fact they have been big letdowns, failing to win a playoff game in the last six chances.
So how does it look for this year?
I sure hope that this is one of those cases of where there may be smoke, but no actual fire.
In Phil Rogers’ quick-hits column at the Tribune today (via FanNation T&R), he says that “some baseball people” believe that the White Sox and Cubs could be interested in swapping Jake Peavy and Carlos Zambrano.
Before I show you the excerpt, let me give you my unequivocal initial reaction to this White Sox-Cubs trade rumor, from my perspective as a White Sox fan: hell no!
Here is what Rogers has to say:
Let me preface this entire article by saying that I have always been a fan of Lou Piniella, and when the Chicago Cubs hired him as their manager in 2006, I was extremely excited.
That being said the most recent collapse and downfall of the goat franchise of Major League Baseball begs the question: is it time to let Lou go and move on?
Things are looking very dull for the Chicago Cubs and their playoff hopes. The lovable losers are 9 games behind the Cardinals in the NL Central Division, and that number doesn’t seem to want to decrease. The Cardinals are playing very strong, and they just seem to win whenever the Cubs do.
Lou Piniella told reporters to blame him for this dismal season, and while you usually do blame the manager for a bad season, you can hardly blame Lou for the Cubs’ problems this season.
The only problem I have with the job Lou has done this year is his inability to build up chemistry between the players. I don’t see any between the Cubs players. They look like a bunch of strangers out on the field. Without good chemistry between players, teams often lack that go-to spirit that is needed to win ballgames. The locker room just doesn’t seem to be a happy and laid-back locker room, which has hurt the Cubs all season long.
After telling reporters that he thought fans were racist, Milton Bradley has be on a tear. While there might be some racist fans, most of the fans are angry at him because he has failed to meet expectations, not because he is black. And fans should be angry with him. He has failed to meet any expectations. And I mean FAILED. He is batting a dismal .167 with runners in scoring position. That is unacceptable in baseball. If you wan to make fans and managers happy, you need to produce with runners on 2nd and 3rd.
Another problem player is Carlos Zambrano. When he said he wasn’t trying his hardest, I was infuriated. The Cubs pay this guy loads of money and he isn’t even trying? That is the worst possible stunt a baseball player can pull. I would axe him in a minute. No wonder his numbers are bad this year. He wasn’t even trying! I am sorry if I sound harsh, but that is unacceptable for any pro athlete to just give it half-assed effort. You can’t do that to a team that is paying you to be their #1 starter. Just a really dumb thing to do.
Despite these issues, while you can say the Cubs are out of the division race, they still have an outside chance at the Wild Card. The Cubs are a manageable 5.5 games behind Colorado, with three other teams (S.F., Atlanta, Florida) ahead of the Cubs as well. This is their only light at the end of the tunnel. The Cubs have one month to get it in gear and win games.
Though it is perhaps unlikely, 5.5 games is still a manageable number to overcome. We’ve seen it done before during the last month of a baseball season. It’s just a question of how much to do they want it?
Before I begin this post, let’s get a few things out of the way:
1) Yes, I have an agenda. I hate the Chicago Cubs with every fiber of my being.
2) I’m well aware that the Cubs are actually 1/2 game better than the White Sox as I write this. (I’m also aware that the White Sox are 1/2 game closer to first place in their division, so suck it.)
3) I am fully cognizant of the fact that reveling in someone else’s misery is a really lame and pointless exercise that no doubt makes me seem like a jealous twerp with a massive chip on my shoulder.
So be it.
Now that we have that out of the way, it’s time to revel in the continued misery of the underachieving Chicago Cubs and their annoying fans.
Last night when I got home and made my now consistent first move — turning the TV on and immediately changing the channel to the MLB Network — I was met with Matt Dillon look- and sound-alike Greg Amsinger informing us that Cubs pitcher Randy Wells had a no-hitter going through the 6 innings. The Cubs led 3-0 at the time and it looked like they would cruise to a much needed victory over the Braves.
However, Chipper Jones broke up the no-no with two outs in the 7th, and then an inning later – after the Cubs had tacked on two more runs to take a seemingly commanding 5-0 lead — the Braves op
ened up the floodgates and scored five runs over the next two innings. A few extra innings later Chipper Jones singled home Yunel Escobar for a 6-5 victory.
“With a five-run lead in the eighth inning, it shouldn’t get away,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. “We gave that one to them, with a nice little ribbon.”
Indeed they did. And on a night when my own team was shut out at home against a rookie pitcher, the Cubs’ collapse at least provided me with something to smile about last night.
But when I woke up this morning I found out that there was more!
Not only did the Cubs give up a 5-0 lead to the Braves, but they continue to have problems with their big, raging, doofus of an ace Carlos Zambrano. Big Z, as everyone knows, is currently serving a six-game suspension for acting like a spoiled, demonstrative brat last week.
To make matters worse, reports surfaced late last night from the Chicago Tribune that Zambrano also missed the team flight to Atlanta. This morning in the Trib, it was reported that Piniella and Zambrano met to discuss the issue but that no reason was given for Zambrano missing the team flight. As explained by Paul Sullivan, add this to the litany of Zambrano missteps and the Cubs are beginning to grow weary of Zambrano’s petulance and apparent selfishness:
This isn’t the first time Zambrano has ignored team rules, but the Cubs appear to be wearying of his act. He’s expected to be fined for this latest incident and may be asked to apologize to his teammates.
Last Sept. 2, Zambrano left Wrigley Field during the middle of a game after a poor start and didn’t see his teammates fight back in a 9-7, 11-inning loss to Houston. Management reprimanded him afterward and he seemed contrite. Twelve days later he threw a no-hitter against the Astros at Miller Park in Milwaukee, and all was forgiven.
And that last line, of course, is the reason why the Cubs continue to put up with this nonsense from Zambrano.
Say what you will about him, but no one will dispute that he can be among the top handful of pitchers in baseball when he is focused and throwing the ball at his peak level. However, Carlos Zambrano has a 4.22 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP this season and has won only three games. And since his great four-year stretch from 2003-2006, during which he went 59-32 while never pitching less than 209.2 innings or having an ERA higher than 3.41, Zam
brano has not posted an ERA better than 3.91.
The truth of the matter is that if Zambrano is taking the ball and dominating every fifth day, the Cubs have no choice but to put up with his shenanigans. If he is just an average pitcher, then he becomes increasingly detrimental to their chances with every new outburst of controversy he creates.
So, obviously, if I have my druthers, Zambrano will continue to act like a clown, keep pitching like Dave Bush, and the Cubs will stay mired in the middle of the NL Central pack.
Sadly, every story about the Cubs makes national headlines because, for some reason, our nation believes that consistent losing and a tradition of failure somehow warrants love, adoration, and attention. So, for dumbfounded and admittedly jealous White Sox fans like myself, its always nice when that national spotlight shines on the negative.
And come to think of it, with the Cubs, the national spotlight usually shines on something negative. Because, well, they are the Cubs.
Earlier this week in my fantasy baseball league we began debating what makes a pitcher an ace. Naturally, this came in response to me taking it personally that I did not think one of my leaguemates was giving Mark Buehrle the credit he deserved for being an ace. I don’t want to rehash the whole argument here, because any consistent MSF reader knows that I espouse the underrated greatness of Mark Buehrle at every opportunity already. However, I do want to correct one claim that I made in my message post that was attempting to define an ace.
I listed out all of the current MLB pitchers that I consider to be aces. Here is the list:
Of all the guys listed on there, the one that gave me the most trouble was Carlos Zambrano. Certainly he is a talented pitcher and has put up very good statistics over his career. But what made me pause when listing his name was Zambrano’s famous propensity to completely lose his cool, especially in big moments.
Well, the day after I posted the above list, Carlos Zambrano blew another gasket and not only embarrassed himself and his team, he was ejected in a big spot and will probably be suspended. The Cubs were leading 2-1 in the 7th inning at the time, and luckily for Zambrano his teammates bailed him out and held on for the 5-2 win. Still, with the Cubs struggling and their purported ace on the hill, you would like to think he could be counted on to keep his emotions in check and not be removed from the game for such a silly outburst.
Here is the video of the Carlos Zambrano ejection if you have not seen it yet:
While driving in to work today, Tim Kirkjian was on the radio and he was specifically asked if Carlos Zambrano was an ace, if his teammates trusted him. Kirkjian said that he talked to a former Cubs player who said he loved Carlos Zambrano, and obviously thought he was a great pitcher; but, that he would not trust him to control his emotions and put his team in a position to win in Game 7 of a playoff series or any other big game.
I defined an ace very much that way: a guy that the manager, teammates, and fans expects to put his team in a position to win every time he takes the hill, regardless of opponent or circumstance. It looks like I was wrong to include Carlos Zambrano on that list.
In other sports news…
The Memphis basketball program is facing some major trouble regarding possible impropriety in regards to the SAT test of a prominent member of the 2008 National Finalist team. Though his name is not officially included in the NCAA report, all of the speculation is surrounding former Tiger and current Bull Derrick Rose. Looks like John Calipari may have gotten out just in time. I wonder if he knew this was coming down and if that was any motivation to leave?
In other feel-good John Calipari news, his latest phenom recruit John Wall plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of breaking and entering. The charges don’t sound egregious by any means, but made all the more interesting as the stench of Calipari continues to envelop college basketball.
Zoner Sports has decided to make a list of the five coaches most likely to be “Sprewell’d”. Coaches from two of my favorite teams made the list: Lane Kiffin and Ozzie Guillen. And if Bob Knight were still coaching, he might have made the list too. What is it with me being a fan of teams with loose cannon coaches?
I wish I could shoot pool like this kid.
You can feel the court of public opinion starting to trend in Michael Vick’s favor. The latest and greatest to jump on the “give Vick a second chance” bandwagon is JM Van Horn at MoonDog Sports.
While they are waiting, the guys over at WFNY wonder if tonight’s game impacts LeBron’s future in Cleveland. If it does, all I can say is I hope the Cavs win. I do not want to see him playing anywhere else…but this series has definitely proven that he still needs more help. Robert Littal BSO likens the current version of LeBron James to MJ circa 1989. It is an apt comparison.
It’s Thursday and she’s hot, so why not?
The player ratings for the new Madden video game have been released. I wonder what LaDainian Tomlinson will think seeing himself at 94…but former backup Michael Turner at a 95. And does anyone else have a problem with Calvin Johnson being below Anquan Boldin and Roddy White? Those are both great receivers, but I think I’d rather have Johnson.
And that’s a wrap for this morning. Have a great day everyone.
