A New Era

Consistantly very very above average. Yes. Consitantly excellent? No. Now I'm not gonna argue Z doesn't have the STUFF. Because he does. The problem is is control and walks. The ONLY year where I think he has had stellar stuff, and stellar results, is in 2004. ERA === 03 - 3.11 04 - 2.75 05 - 3.26 06 - 3.41 This year is going to be very important for Zambrano. Is he going to continue to trend downward? Or shape things back up? So far it's not looking so good. He's going to have to have a couple more shutout games than previous years to end up in the low 3's of ERA. ERA+ last 4 seasons: 136 165 131 136 i don't see a real downward trend, he just had a great season in 2004. and he's got 31 starts left this year, let's relax on saying what he has to have and how soon. However his BB's have been rising since 2004. 81 in '04 209 IP 86 in '05 but 223 IP 115 in 214 innings in '06 '06 is the scary part. In less innins than '05. In '06 he walked 29 more batters. He's walked 16 so far this season in 4 starts. Which divides to 4 BB's per start. If you extrapolate that over 32 starts, he's on pace to walk 128 batters (over just 32 starts). That's generally not gonna help your ERA and ERA+ very much. So basically, yes I can say what Zambrano needs to start doing. He's going to have to stop walking batters, that's for sure. Each game he walks atleast 4, he is adding more pressure to walk less than 4 in order to not increase his BB total significantly from previous years. . i never said that he didn't have problem with walks, that's not what i'm arguing. even with all the walks in 2006, he still posted a better era+ than 2005. So ERA+ does not consider walks?

Months? Are we talking just this year (in which case, this doesn't make sense, nobody uses pre-season in a comparison between players). Or are you including last season? I may be braindead, but I don't even remember Hill doing anything significant last year. All I can recollect is that he was one of many going up and down last year as players came on/off the DL. Am I missing something here? You sure have. Hill's ERA's was I think in the top ten list in all of Baseball post all star break last year. He had 8 or 9, REALLY good starts. That looked just as good as his starts this year. You aren't remembering correctly if you don't remember how awesome Rich was even late last year, through several starts in a row at the end of the season. .

Gonna beable to listen to pat 'n ron at all? Or will you have to struggle silence.

Consistantly very very above average. Yes. Consitantly excellent? No. Now I'm not gonna argue Z doesn't have the STUFF. Because he does. The problem is is control and walks. The ONLY year where I think he has had stellar stuff, and stellar results, is in 2004. ERA === 03 - 3.11 04 - 2.75 05 - 3.26 06 - 3.41 This year is going to be very important for Zambrano. Is he going to continue to trend downward? Or shape things back up? So far it's not looking so good. He's going to have to have a couple more shutout games than previous years to end up in the low 3's of ERA. ERA+ last 4 seasons: 136 165 131 136 i don't see a real downward trend, he just had a great season in 2004. and he's got 31 starts left this year, let's relax on saying what he has to have and how soon. However his BB's have been rising since 2004. 81 in '04 209 IP 86 in '05 but 223 IP 115 in 214 innings in '06 '06 is the scary part. In less innins than '05. In '06 he walked 29 more batters. He's walked 16 so far this season in 4 starts. Which divides to 4 BB's per start. If you extrapolate that over 32 starts, he's on pace to walk 128 batters (over just 32 starts). That's generally not gonna help your ERA and ERA+ very much. So basically, yes I can say what Zambrano needs to start doing. He's going to have to stop walking batters, that's for sure. Each game he walks atleast 4, he is adding more pressure to walk less than 4 in order to not increase his BB total significantly from previous years. .

Just look at Lilly's K/BB and then you'll see who will probably keep the lower ERA. But I noticed that too on cubs.com before. Crazy.

Consistantly very very above average. Yes. Consitantly excellent? No. Now I'm not gonna argue Z doesn't have the STUFF. Because he does. The problem is is control and walks. The ONLY year where I think he has had stellar stuff, and stellar results, is in 2004. ERA === 03 - 3.11 04 - 2.75 05 - 3.26 06 - 3.41 This year is going to be very important for Zambrano. Is he going to continue to trend downward? Or shape things back up? So far it's not looking so good. He's going to have to have a couple more shutout games than previous years to end up in the low 3's of ERA.

Man, I trusted Rich Hill would be a good pitcher but. Wa wa WOOie!! Iz NICE!

Stl loosing again to the giants. 2-5 in the 6th. Man we are doing bad, but if they loose they will have the same record as us as long as we win tonite.

Pie has been good. He's made a STELLAR play, and has been right in the middle of 2 rallies on 2 separate days. And that's in only 2 games!!

In a time when (april) we want to get out to a good start. April is the WORST month to have bad months. Any month is really. But when we need him to be the stopper, he is not there for us. That's not what you want to pay $90 million dollars for. I don't like hearing his nonchalant attitude in the post games. He should be honest. He is pitching terribly and he needs to do better. That's the end of story.

no, 14 games and I'm still very optimistic. 3 of the 5 pitchers have been solid and tonight proves that this team can score runs when the weather is conducive to offense. I wish Z would stop sucking and Guzman was the fifth starter though. Right now, I'm more confident about Angel getting into the rotation... I know it's early. But it's hard to be optimistic after games like this. We blowout win 10 runs up. We loose freaking ONE to ZERO. We lose FIVE to EIGHT. FOUR to FIVE. And so on. Dammit it just seems like. . I don't know. -------------------------------------------

Wanna bet Hill get's it done? Hill may be awesome, but the Cubs would still find a way to lose once he was out of the game. Or they wouldn't score enough runs for him. They'll win tommorow. But it's too late. They'll just be back up to 3 under. I keep saying to myself. Ok we won, now only 2 under. Win tommorow and we're back in. Then we loose. Then I think, well we need to win today to be back up to 2 under. Then we loose. Now we have to win to get back up to 3 under. I'm done with this. When the cubs are over .500. Let me know. Bye cubs.

I would think Schidmazaazaz(sp?) before Veal.... I don't know. He's gotta fight his way all the way from high A in one year. Not very likely. I'd like it though.

So rotation next year? Hill Lilly Marquis Guzman Veal?

So far we've been sabatoged by: Izturcrap Miller Ohman Eyre and please get Jacque out of here. You forgot Big Z.

I keep telling myself that all the time...It's a car accident, you can't look away... Well I mean it. I've got DVR. If they HAVE a good game. Then I can catch a few replays.

I think I'm gonna stop watching Cubs baseball for awhile. If they ever get above .500, then I might think about catching a few.

yeah, and then we'll be back to three games under. Would be nice to actually touch .500 and freakin stay there.

1 down. 2 down now.

would've been good if we could have atleast tied it up. As it stands now, it doesn't matter anymore.

Disagree - some of them have been very very creative. a bunt in the 9th with 2 outs was interesting.

after our last half inning. We have REVERSE momentum. If anything we'll just give up more runs. Not score any.

I wouldn't take you for the type to believe in curses.

sorry says theriot.

Nope. Bad baseball. curses will cause that. :wink: