The Scores Report - The National Sports Blog » Carlos Zambrano

Carlos Zambrano to be a Yankee?

Anthony Stalter — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:00:07 +0000

If I’m a Yankee fan the first thing that pops into my head when I read the title of this post is: hey, at least it’s not Carl Pavano.

That said, Carlos Zambrano a Yankee? Better yet, Carlos Zambrano in New York? Yeeee.

Bill Madden of the New York Daily News expects the Yankees to target Zambrano via trade at some point this offseason. After losing out on Cliff Lee, the Bombers obviously need to do something and after his midseason meltdown last year in Chicago, Big Z did pitch well down the stretch.

He would also be reunited with former Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild, who just joined the Yankees. But would Zambrano’s fiery temperament work in the Big Apple? And was his late-season success a sign that he’s returning to form or will his struggles from the first half rear their ugly heads again?

The Yankees have to do something because their current rotation just won’t do. They’re expecting to hear from Andy Pettitte soon about whether or not he’ll come back for one more year and if I’m Brian Cashman, I’m doing everything in my power to ensure he does.

But Carlos Zambrano? Talk about a risk/reward situation. He’s coming off a year in which his ERA (3.33) was good, but his WHIP (1.45) was bad. He also won 11 games but we’re talking about a man that was banished from the Cubs for nearly holding all of Wrigley Field hostage during a game (okay, so I may be exaggerating a little).

Him + NY probably = disaster, although at this point what are the Yankees going to do? The Red Sox have completely retooled and the one player they put all of their efforts into signing this offseason just took less money to play for the Phillies. The Cubs would probably give Zambrano away for a bottle of hand sanitizer and a new latrine for the bathrooms at Wrigley Field, so maybe the Yankees should make a move. At this point, they may not have much of a choice.

MLB News: Braves to trade for Cubs’ Derrek Lee

Anthony Stalter — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:15:43 +0000

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Braves will finalize a deal for Cubs’ first baseman Derrek Lee sometime on Wednesday.

Apparently the only thing holding up the deal is Lee’s troubling back. He had an injection in the epidural of his lower back on Monday to help ease the discomfort created by a bulging disk and has missed the past two games.

Lee is in the final year of his contract and is still owed $3.4 million. He has struggled for much of the season while hitting just .251 with 16 dingers in Chicago. But his .939 OPS since the All-Star break is attractive to the Braves, especially with Troy Glaus struggling at the dish.

Lee (who has a no-trade clause in his contract) can reject the deal, just as he did in July when the Cubs were ready to send him to the Angels. But Atlanta has reportedly already been told that he would accept a deal, so the only issue that remains is his back.

It’s doubtful that the Cubs will get much in return for Lee at this point, but the key is that they’ll get a little financial relief heading into what will be a rebuilding year in 2011. The youth movement is already on in Chicago, who has traded Ted Lilly, Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot over the past month.

Now if only the Cubs could find someone to take Alfonso Soriano, Koskue Fukudome and Carlos Zambrano off their hands.

Zambrano to receive counseling, won’t return until after the All-Star break

Anthony Stalter — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:23:04 +0000

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Cubs’ starter Carlos Zambrano will undergo counseling to help him control his emotional outbursts, much like the one that occurred last Friday when he went bonkers in the dugout in a game against the White Sox. He’s not expected to return to the club until sometime after the All-Star break.

Whether treatment will fix everything in the future is a question Hendry couldn’t answer Monday.

”My sense is that after a few days [since Friday], he feels quite remorseful,” Hendry said after their first talk since Friday. ”We all make mistakes. He’s probably made a few more in the last few years than we’d like.

”I think we all agree it’s time he got help and then address the apologies later. It’s not time for words a few days after the fact, but some action. Hopefully he goes and gets the help he needs and can rectify some of his actions with his teammates and move forward after the break.”

Zambrano will go to New York on Wednesday to meet with two doctors approved by all parties. They will prescribe a course of treatment.

”He certainly understands the situation, and he and his representative signed off on it,” Hendry said.

Zambrano hadn’t spoken to his teammates since the incident. Several tried unsuccessfully to contact him over the weekend.

Hopefully Big Z does get some help and the situation will get resolved. It doesn’t do him, his teammates or the Cubs organization any good if he comes back from treatment and throws another tantrum sometime down the line.

Of course, whether or not he fixes his on-field issues is another question.

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Ozzie Guillen, Carlos Zambrano and the pursuit of happiness

Anthony Stalter — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:00:29 +0000

Following his dugout tirade on Friday that led to a suspension, Cubs’ starter Carlos Zambrano went to dinner with White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who apparently gave the pitcher some sage advice on how to handle the situation.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

”I asked what happened,” Guillen said. ”He told me exactly what happened. … He was upset with a lot of the team. That was it. I told him what to do, to wait a couple of days. He will do what I tell him to do. Face it like a man. Don’t turn [his] back on this problem. … Go out, put your face on it and move on.

”What are they going to do to him? Trade, release or suspend him? At least when you face it like a man and admit you were wrong, everyone moves on. He didn’t kill anyone. He just made one mistake. We can’t criticize the kid for that. That’s the way he is. … We’ve got to respect people’s ways, and that’s the intensity this kid brings.”

”What are they going to do to him? Trade, release or suspend him?”

Well, yeah. This isn’t the first time Zambrano has flown off the reservation and chances are, it wasn’t the last either. He could be a great person off the field, but he still has to take responsibility for his actions on it. And he doesn’t get a free pass just because he’s an intense guy.

The other problem, of course, is that he has been awful on the mound this year. Whether he has pitched every fifth day or come out of the pen, Zambrano hasn’t gotten the job done. So when you throw a situation like the other night into the mix, where he’s berating teammates and not acting professional, it compounds the situation.

It’s great that Guillen is standing up for a player (albeit, a player on an opposing team), but the Cubs had every right to take action by suspending Zambrano and whatever they do with him from here on out will likely be justified. Considering how much they’re paying him, they should be getting better on-field production or at the very least, someone that can control is temper.

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The self-implosion of Carlos Zambrano continues

Anthony Stalter — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:40:06 +0000

Carlos Zambrano, who may or may not be certifiably nuts, was suspended indefinitely by the Cubs following his outburst in a game against the White Sox on Friday night.

Here’s what happened (via the Chicago Sun-Times):

Zambrano stormed up and down the dugout, turning on several of his teammates, including first baseman Derrek Lee. Zambrano accused his teammates of failing to dive for ground balls that went for hits.

Piniella, pitching coach Larry Rothschild and other coaches interceded as Zambrano appeared ready for a physical confrontation. He was held back and sent to the clubhouse before the Cubs took the field in the bottom of the second.

Big Crazy also apparently went into a tirade with some cameramen on his way out of the stadium last night, which should be really, really fun to watch whenever it reaches the light of day.

Roughly $45 million is still owed to Zambrano, but it might be time for the Cubs to cut him like a dead limb and move on. He’s been nothing short of an absolute disaster both on and off the field the last two seasons and this latest outburst may have bought him a one-way ticket out of town – Milton Bradley style. I’m not sure if the Cubs could get anything in a trade for him (at least not without paying most of his salary), but if I’m Jim Hendry I’m on the phone right now figuring out which GMs didn’t see the outburst last night.

“Hey Jon, it’s Jim. I was just wondering if you caught SportsCenter last night or early this morning? No? Great…I’d like to talk about Carlos Zambrano and what he’d look like in a Rangers uniform…”

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Top 10 active pitchers who keep it in the yard

Mike Farley — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:00:04 +0000

Some pitchers give up 1-2 home runs or more per game, while some of them are masters at keeping the ball in the park. We did a gopher ball list last year, so here is the opposite…the pitchers who give up the fewest home runs per nine innings, and therefore the guys you want in the game when the game is on the line:

1. Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees (0.4953)—Amazingly, Rivera gave up 11 home runs his rookie year (1995) and since then, only 50. That’s 50 home runs in like 15 years, or about 3 per season. That’s just sick. No wonder the guy has so many career saves (538).

2. Tim Hudson, Atlanta Braves (0.7141)—If only Hudson was able to stay healthy for any length of time, he’d be a lock for the Hall of Fame.

3. Derek Lowe, Atlanta Braves (0.7221)—When you have a ball that drops like six feet before it reaches home plate, you’re not going to have a lot of hitters get under your pitches. What you’ll get are lots of ground balls.

4. Aaron Cook, Colorado Rockies (0.7384)—If you’re a pitcher in Colorado, it’s sort of like being a meatball sandwich in a pizza joint. You’ll get noticed, but only when they run out of pizza…or in this case, when the Rockies aren’t hitting. Still, when you think about Cook and how he’s spent his entire career in Denver, being fourth on this list is quite an accomplishment.

5. Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies (0.7385)—A perfect game only added to Halladay’s Hall of Fame resume.

6. Carlos Zambrano, Chicago Cubs (0.7445)—He’s always angry but always has nasty stuff, and, like Cook, he pitches in a hitter-friendly park.

7. Andy Pettitte, New York Yankees (0.7671)—Lucky for the Yankees, Pettitte’s career high of 27 home runs allowed was when he was with the Astros in 2006.

8. Roy Oswalt, Houston Astros (0.7729)—He has an impeccable nose for the strike zone, but puts enough on his pitches to keep hitters guessing and in the park.

9. Jake Westbrook, Cleveland Indians (0.7999)—He hasn’t pitched much in the last three years, but when he does, Jake Westbrook is very good at keeping the ball in the yard.

10. AJ Burnett, New York Yankees (0.8213)—As if the Yankees needed another guy like this in their rotation.

Source: Baseball Reference

Piniella on his way out? Not according to GM Hendry.

Anthony Stalter — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:20:36 +0000

For those Cubs fans that have been clamoring for Ryne Sandberg to replace Lou Piniella as the club’s skipper, you’re going to have to wait much longer, I’m afraid.

General manager Jim Hendry told the media on Monday that Piniella isn’t to blame for the team’s lackluster start (17-22 heading into Tuesday’s action, good for third place in the NL Central) and that the manager’s job is safe for the 2010 season.

“We’re certainly not here to play the blame game,” Hendry said Monday. “We’re not here to put all the blame on the players that haven’t done as well as we’d like either. It’s been a good, collective rough start, but there has not been one thought in my mind of Lou Piniella not managing the team this year.”

While many of the adjustments he has made with personnel certainly haven’t panned out this season, it’s hardly fair to blame all of the Cubs’ failures this season on Piniella. Two of his best hitters (Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez) have crapped the bed all season in RBI situations (and all situations for that matter) and he can’t find a reliable setup man to get to Carlos Marmol in the ninth. (He tried Carlos Zambrano there but much like his effort in 2010, Big Z was brutal in the role.) The bottom line is that the Cubs haven’t produced and a change in manager won’t magically remedy the situation.

The good news is that Lee has started showing signs that he’s ready to break out of his funk, Alfonso Soriano has actually thrived batting sixth in the lineup and young phenom Starlin Castro (who struggled defensively when he was first called up last week but appears to be settling down) is spanking the ball. If A-Ram (who hit a walk off homer to beat the Rockies Monday night) can shake out of his slump and start producing, then the Cubs can easily turn things around.

Things haven’t been pretty for the Cubs so far, but it’s early yet and the club’s issues aren’t un-fixable. Making a switch in managers would be premature and Hendry knows that. He just has to trust that Piniella can right the ship, just as Lou has to trust his players will snap out of it and start producing.

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