OT - Zambrano moved to bullpen
Carlos Zambrano, the cubs opening day starter, is getting moved to the bullpen to make room for Ted Lilly. Zambrano has a career ERA of under 4.00 and is a former all star. I guess Piniella thinks Carlos Silva and Tom Gorzelanny starting with big Z in the bullpen is the best use of his pitching staff. Either that or Piniella is insane.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:32 PM ^
Zambrano throws a lot of pitches per outing, 119 last night. Maybe he is worried his arm will fall off!?
He's been on the higher end of the pitcher abuse points spectrum since he was 22. If he was going to have serious, long term arm trouble, it probably would have happened already.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:33 PM ^
the Cubs can RS him? would hate to waste his eligibility.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:50 PM ^
Im a huge cubs fan, northsider right here. the cubs starting 5 is top 5 in quality starts, the bullpen is the worst in the league. i think were using him in the bullpen because hes been there before, i dont no about silva or gorzalany, however you spell his name. send some crap releiver down to AAA now we have 6 good arms plus marmol every once in a while
April 21st, 2010 at 11:04 PM ^
Zambrano actually came up as a closer when he was a prospect. The Cubs have blown a lead in every game except 2. The starters have been solid but the offense and bullpen have been a joke. Monday I was just talking about moving Z to closer, Marmol to setup, and around mid season trade Vitters for Kerry Wood. Moving Gorzelany would make 3 lefties in the bullpen so that won't work. I like it as long as Silva continues to look good, he did tonight.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:08 PM ^
If you want/need bullpen help, the cubs best move would be to trade big Z for 3 to 4 other arms. Taking an opening day quality pitcher and moving him into the bullpen is an awful idea since he is only going to pitch one inning a game.
Silva is an awful pitcher. He will implode any day now.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:16 PM ^
Z is a headcase. And frankly, this season, he has looked less than great. Silva on the other hand?
Stranger things have happened, especially in baseball.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:23 PM ^
Z was awful on opening day, I'll give you that. But since then he has had three starts ranging from decent to good. He always struggles his first few games of the season and he always ends up with a ERA under 4.00. I would bet any amount of money Silva ends up with an ERA well above 4.00 by the end of the season.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:53 AM ^
I fully expect him to normalize as well, but it'll be in spite of his head, not because of it. Maybe Lou thinks this will straighten him out for a bit.
You can't have a guy making $17.8mil as your set up man. I think this is Lou's way to wake not only Z up, but the whole team and let them now he's not f'ing around any more.
Silva will implode, Randy Wells is smoke and mirrors, Gorzelanny sucks.....they are pretty much going to have to rely on Lilly/Dempster unless they plan on moving Zambrano back into the rotation, which makes the idea of moving him to the pen in the first place beyond stupid.
I fully expect Silva to implode too, I was really surprise he even made the rotation. I disagree on Gorzelanny, he is decent and has been his whole career. He played for the Pirates, not a lot of run support. Of course he's not getting a whole lot now either.
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:56 AM ^
His career ERA is almost 5 and is fully supported by his peripherals. He's a below average major league pitcher.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:46 PM ^
Isn't that the ice making machine at Yost?
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:27 AM ^
Yes, the Cubs now have a $18 million setup man. Great move Lou.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:32 AM ^
Regardless of whether Zambrano is his former all-star quality self or slightly lower, he is still one of the 5 best starters on the Cubs and putting him in the bullpen is a misuse of resources.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:44 AM ^
So this makes Zambrano available to pinch hit, right?
Moving Z was to sure up the bullpen, not because of poor performance (Since opening day Z has pitched well). The Cubs' bullpen in something like 1-6 with and era of like 7.00 and 4 blown saves already. Lou thought this would be the best move. Silva and Gorzelanney are pitching well so far, so he can afford to do this. I think it shows maturity from Z to move to the bullpen. No starter wants to be relegated there.
It has to be a ploy on Lou's part to give both Gorzelanny and Silva another turn in the rotation. Lou can't sent Silva to the bullpen with a sub-one ERA. He can't send Gorzelanny there because it makes them too left-handed (Grabow and Marshall). He's just buying time to make a decision.
The Cubs have done some stupid, stupid things in over a century of futility (college of coaches, anyone?), but even they are too smart to trade 100 innings of Carlos Zambrano for 100 innings of Tom Gorzelanny. No one is going to put an 18 million dollar pitcher who has a tendency to overthrow is sinker in short relief for more than a couple weeks.
The Cubs are giving the Mets a run for their money as far as being the most boneheaded organization in baseball. This move is moronic at best and IMO is absolute stupidity.
FWIW, if you guys play fantasy, now actually might be a prime time to buy in on him*. Outside of his first start he hasn't really pitched that badly....his K rate is solid, he's just allowed an abnormal amount of homers. Once that normalizes his numbers should be OK at the back end of your rotation.
*- I am assuming this is a temporary move to the BP. If not, I don't know what to say.
You're telling me that mgmt and coaching thought:
"hey, our bullpen is pretty good, no trades needed here...."
WTF.......3 weeks into the season and they're already scrambling to right the ship with drastic changes. None of this was apparent before the start of the year? We're talking bullpen pitchers....make a few trades in Feb/March.
I live in Lincoln Park and love the Cubs and Lou, but I just don't get it.
Can he play LF? God knows the offense needs help too.
actually has the highest avg. on the team right now. He has looked solid this week, he is even drawing walks. Maybe they should put Z at 3rd base.
Fellow North Sider here, and I think Lou did this for a few reasons:
1. Z Sucked on opening day, did decent in start 2, and looked ok in start 3. This gives Z a chance to work himself back into form in the bullpen over inning-long stretches rather than cost the cubs games
2. As mentioned above, who was Lou going to move down? If you look at production, not Salary, Z had to be moved
3. Light a fire under Z's ass. Z may be a head case, but he's a freak of an athlete*, and my guess is he's going to work himself out of this funk and come back better for it. How competitive is Z? Two years ago he was batting during the 8th inning of his no hitter and he struck out swinging at a bad pitch. He went to break his bat over his leg, then stopped himself because again, he was in the 8th inning of a no hitter! Z's a competitor, he'll bounce back.
*Z's freakish athletic accomplishments include: Hitting over .300 multiple times, for the season, as a switch hitter. Pitching batting practice the day after a start LEFT HANDED (He can throw about 80-85 consistently over the plate with his off hand. Not good enough to pitch lefty in the majors, but still, my left hand is good for nothing but catching). Dominating gatorade machines, and regularly pinch hitting. He's my favorite example of why the DH sucks. Baseball teams should have 9 players, not 8 and 2 halves. Commence AL fans negbang...
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:50 AM ^
Highest paid setup man in baseball. Awesome. Yet another reason the Cubs haven't won a World Series in over a century.