Cubs Should Be Afraid........Very Afraid
For those you who haven't been closely monitoring the WBC Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano is pitching for the Venezuela National Team. He relieved Johan Santana in Tuesday's loss to the Dominican Republic. Upon entering the game Zambrano's first pitch was clocked at 99 mph. Using the excellent Bill James Handbook I tried to find out how many pitches Zambrano threw last season that were for faster then his first pitch Tuesday. The answer: One. In 223.1 innings pitched last season Zambrano threw just one pitch harder then his first pitch in a game that means nothing to the Cubs. Last season Zambrano's fastball averaged 92.8 mph so it's clear that he's overthrowing. It's March and Zambrano shouldn't be throwing that hard yet. His chances of injury are just too great. Save the 100 mph pitch for when the Cubs need it down the stretch. Everyone believes that the Cubs hopes lie in the right shoulders of Mark Prior and Kerry Wood but if Zambrano can't repeat his performance of last season when he went 14-6 with an ERA of 3.26 with 202 K's the Cubs won't have a chance. For those of you in fantasy leagues you may want to remember this on draft day.
posted by Jonathan O'Konis at 8:22 PM
2 Comments:
so, now your down on CZambrano...that's a shock! forget about wood and prior being productive together ever again. wood is so yesterday and prior should be locked in a room, only to be let out on day's he pitches. Zambrano is the ace of the team and maybe he went all out for his country. he is the best pitcher on the team. give him some props
In no way am I bashing Zambrano. I absolutely agree with you on both Wood and Prior. However it's for that reason that I bring this up. Pitchers aren't close to being at full strength yet. If Zambrano is throwing that hard so early he stands a great chance of hurting himself. If he gets hurt the Cubs can't compete so they should pull him out of this tournament. So far Venezuela hasn't been monitoring their pitchers well after allowing Johan Santana to throw 61 pitchs in the opener.
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