DELUSIONAL CUBS FAN

Meet the Cubs new $18 million dollar set up man (photo)

Carlos Zambrano Moving to the Bullpen

In a move that stunned baseball fans who weren’t too out of it from celebrating 4/20 with Geovany Soto, Chicago Cubs manager Lou Pinella announced that starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano would be moved to the Cubs bullpen to be Carlos Marmol’s setup man.

Wait… wha–what?!

That’s right, the Chicago Cubs winningest starting pitcher since Greg Maddux is headed to the bullpen. Carlos Zambrano, the fifth highest paid pitcher in baseball is going to be a setup man.

”This makes all the sense in the world,” said manager Piniella

”The guy that we focused on was Zambrano because of his stuff, because of his experience, because of his durability,” Piniella said. ”But this is something that he is willing to do. If he wasn’t willing to do it, then we’d have had to keep exploring. It’s a real nice move now and into the immediate future, and then we’ll see what happens.”

Well… count me among the stunned.  This is going to be one of those moves that will be considered genius if it works or will cost someone their job (Pinella, Hendry or both) if it doesn’t.

Why it’s a good move

The Cubs need help in the bullpen. BAD. Really bad. The bullpen has already cost the Cubs four victories in fourteen games and has the second highest ERA of any relievers in baseball. Cubs relievers have posted a 10.80 ERA in the eight inning. Jeff Samardzija has been terrible. Esmailin Caridad was terrible before they sent him packing with a mysterious “injury” to rehab. Jeff Gray, no good. John Grabow has been a huge disappointment. Justin Berg has laid a turd so far. Only Sean Marshall and James Russell have managed to be somewhat effective.

The Cubbies need help in the bullpen and Jim Hendry has not been able to find any relievers on the trade market. Enter experienced power pitcher Carlos Zambrano.

The move also makes a statement: The Cubs will do whatever it takes to win.  Every player will be expected to do what it takes to help the team, no matter his current role, status or contract. Even Soriano has seen his playing time cut and been removed in the late innings for defense.

That’s an attitude this team needs. It’s refreshing to see roster changes made where salary is not even a consideration. If you want the best team on the field, you ignore the contracts and simply put the best team on the field.

Carlos Zambrano has a great pitch set. He can strike out guys or induce ground balls. As a reliever he won’t have to save anything for the later innings, he can just full out ATTACK batters with his best pitches. That could be awesome to see. That could maybe work out really, really well for the Cubs.

Is Zambrano in the bullpen permanent?  Depends on who you ask. Time will tell.

Big Z can hardly conceal his contempt for these other chumps in the pen

Why it could be a bad move

Well, this is much easier. Carlos Zambrano has been one of the winningest pitchers in all of baseball over the course of the past eight seasons. He was the opening day starter and the de facto Ace of the starting staff. That is not the type of guy you typically move to the bullpen.

You always want your best pitchers in the starting rotation.  Will Carlos Silva and Tom Gorzelanny really be better starters than Zambrano?  Seems like wishful thinking.  If Gorzelanny gets nailed in his next start the critics are going to be jumping all over this decision immediately.

Can Zambrano adjust to the bullpen move?  We don’t know.  It’s a different role and requires a different mindset. Big Z certainly has the skills and “the stuff” to be a great reliever but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be good at it. In fact, he could end up to be just as terrible as all the other relievers, we don’t know.  Maybe his arm won’t be able to handle making 3-4 appearances in a week.

And what about the mindset anyway? Unfortunately we’ve seen Zambrano completely lose it mentally on the mound before. Could he end up flustered and ineffective? Maybe. Will he be able to stop inherited runners from scoring. We’ll see.

What if Carlos Zambrano hates being a reliever and pitches like it?  Almost no starter wants to be in the bullpen.  Even Zambrano has said that he doesn’t want the job, he just wants to help the team.  He said when the cubs acquire another reliever that he wants back into the rotation. Do we want to risk an angry Zambrano on the edge of exploding?

In short, there’s a lot of ways this could go wrong. It could get ugly even.  We could be looking back on this as a huge disaster.

Time will tell.

But hey, it was really starting to get depressing to watch the Cubs over the last week. Now I’ve got a reason to stay tuned. I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Go Big Z! Go Cubs!

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Related Posts:

Carlos Zambrano Bobblehead
Carlos Zambrano No Hitter Statue
Carlos Zambrano posts at Delusional Cubs Fan
Zambrano going to bullpen in stunning move – Chicago Tribune
Cubs moving Zambrano to bullpen – ESPN
Relieve it or not: Z to pen – Chicago Sun Times
Piniella appreciates Z’s mature reaction – Chicago Sun Times
Bauman: Cubs to be commended - MLB.com
Moving Zambrano wrong move for Cubs on so many fronts – Chicago Tribune, Phil Rogers