Southsider
05-25-2007, 02:31 PM
By Barry Rozner
Daily Herald Sports Columnist
Posted Friday, May 25, 2007
Look, not even Carlos Zambrano knows exactly why he’s having so much trouble this season.
If he did, he’d fix it.
Almost certainly, though, it’s mechanical, and mechanical problems are either caused by an alteration designed to reduce the pain from an injury, or because a pitcher loses it mentally and can’t find an arm slot or release point.
In the case of Zambrano, most people would vote for the latter, simply because Zambrano acts like a head case so often on the field. And if that’s the case, let’s hope it doesn’t have anything to do with his contract situation.
Zambrano won’t lose a penny this year, because even if the Cubs don’t come back and present him with an offer in the $80 million range, he’s still going to get that monster contract offer in free agency.
Over the last four years, Zambrano’s averaging a 15-8 mark with a 3.14 ERA and 215 innings pitched for the Cubs.
For a pitcher turning 26 in a week, he only needs to show he’s healthy in the second half and there’ll be more than $100 million waiting for him on the open market.
If it’s leaving Chicago that has him worried, then he and his people should have taken care of the deal long before the end of spring training, when they quickly closed on a number and then saw the process halted when the Cubs were put up for auction.
There should have been motivation to get it done when the two sides exchanged arbitration figures a month before spring training began, and for a full two months after that. Everyone knew the deadline was Opening Day.
Yet, they waited until near the end of spring training, only hours before the team was to be sold, to get to the endgame.
Well, he can blame whomever he wants, but all Zambrano had to do during his free time in Arizona was place the phone call and take the guaranteed money.
Now he’s reportedly upset that he doesn’t have a contract, and everyone’s concerned that he’s taking it out to the mound with him.
It’s bad for the Cubs, but in the meantime Zambrano has lost nothing.
Except for, perhaps, a bit of sanity.
Daily Herald Sports Columnist
Posted Friday, May 25, 2007
Look, not even Carlos Zambrano knows exactly why he’s having so much trouble this season.
If he did, he’d fix it.
Almost certainly, though, it’s mechanical, and mechanical problems are either caused by an alteration designed to reduce the pain from an injury, or because a pitcher loses it mentally and can’t find an arm slot or release point.
In the case of Zambrano, most people would vote for the latter, simply because Zambrano acts like a head case so often on the field. And if that’s the case, let’s hope it doesn’t have anything to do with his contract situation.
Zambrano won’t lose a penny this year, because even if the Cubs don’t come back and present him with an offer in the $80 million range, he’s still going to get that monster contract offer in free agency.
Over the last four years, Zambrano’s averaging a 15-8 mark with a 3.14 ERA and 215 innings pitched for the Cubs.
For a pitcher turning 26 in a week, he only needs to show he’s healthy in the second half and there’ll be more than $100 million waiting for him on the open market.
If it’s leaving Chicago that has him worried, then he and his people should have taken care of the deal long before the end of spring training, when they quickly closed on a number and then saw the process halted when the Cubs were put up for auction.
There should have been motivation to get it done when the two sides exchanged arbitration figures a month before spring training began, and for a full two months after that. Everyone knew the deadline was Opening Day.
Yet, they waited until near the end of spring training, only hours before the team was to be sold, to get to the endgame.
Well, he can blame whomever he wants, but all Zambrano had to do during his free time in Arizona was place the phone call and take the guaranteed money.
Now he’s reportedly upset that he doesn’t have a contract, and everyone’s concerned that he’s taking it out to the mound with him.
It’s bad for the Cubs, but in the meantime Zambrano has lost nothing.
Except for, perhaps, a bit of sanity.