UMFan83

San Diego has won the first three games of its series with Arizona with the final game being played tonight. Those two teams are now tied for the NL West lead. The Angels also swept the Mariners in a 3 game set this week. And of course our series is the only one that won't end in a sweep (likely if the scores hold up and Chris Young on the mound for the Padres)

If these scores hold up the Yankees will sweep the Red Sox and the Phillies will sweep the Mets (4 games). Some serious chunks being taken off division leads.

And Berkman grounds out to the pitcher....grrr

I'd like a higher than .342 OBP out of my leadoff hitter. I'd like more than an .836 OPS coming out of a guy we gave $136 million to

Honestly, you can't really compare them. Most of the time when someone else batted leadoff Soriano was not in the lineup and you lose his production. Personal rule of thumb, which every team shoudl use. Never give out contracts for more than 5 years. It can only end bad. Usually. But I would've given Pujols an 8-9 year deal coming out of his rookie contract without hesitation. Same goes for ARod. His contract didn't turn bad because of the length, but more because the Rangers spent too much money on him to be able to afford to put a team around him. That's on them for allocating more payroll than they could afford to one player. And I'd do the same for Miguel Cabrera when he hits free agency, assuming he doesn't keep getting fatter and fatter. Yeah there is a difference between that and a player who has a career .830 OPS coming into this season, coming off a career year in his 7th season.

Cubs lose 9-2

Yeah he's pretty useless offensively these days with a .729 season OPS and a .654 OPS in August. Defensively, he's a huge loss.

Except for this year, the result of this inconsistency is a 4.06 ERA when in previous years it was 3.41, 3.26, 2.75, 3.11.

If Zambrano goes 9 innings and gives up 2 runs, I won't complain about him Thats the point we still would have lost. Theriot was at fault for that big inning tonight, and our offense is to blame for getting punked by a pitcher who hadnt started in over 7 weeks. We have alot bigger things to worry about than Z, who pitches 1 game out of every 5, yet our offense goes out there every game. Thats not the point. This thread is to complain about Z. He pitched really bad tonight (particularly the later half of his game). If you want to complain about the offense, go ahead and start another thread. But in this thread we are complaining about our $91 million pitcher who has a 7.38 ERA in August.

If they put Soriano on irrevokable waivers, he'd get even less interest than Manny

If Zambrano goes 9 innings and gives up 2 runs, I won't complain about him

I'm not touching this becuase I was against it from the start.

you're going to judge him on one night? every pitcher has a bad night. does webb suck because the padres scored 5 off of him last night? he must not be the diamondback's best pitcher by your logic. Zambrano hasn't been the best pitcher on the Cubs this season. Hill and Lilly have been better. who do you start game 1 in the playoffs (assuming they're all equally rested)? don't know about you...but i start big Z. Honestly, I wouldn't. I think he would be too jacked up for game 1 and be all over the place. Although, he might be jacked up any game of a playoff series that he starts. Kinda like 2003 when we gave him a 3-0 lead in game 1 of the NLCS and he preceded to give up 3 HRs in a span of 4 batters when he only gave up 9 HR all year. i was at that game in atlanta. he was what...21 yrs old then? not sure its still relevant to today. First of all I'm talking about the game in Chicago. Game 1 NLCS. And also, I wasn't using that to make a point. I probably shouldn't have added that because it sounds like I'm using that to support my argument. I am however having a hard time remembering any big game where Zambrano has pitched well. Here are instances of him not pitching well in big games: -2003 playoffs (save a pretty good Game 5 NLCS performance) -2004 last ditch effort to catch up to the Cards in the last meeting of the year, he pitches poorly and goes headcase and beans Edmonds intentionally. -2005 gets ejected on Opening day after 4 2/3 with a huge lead -2006 goes 4 2/3 on Opening day after getting a 5 run cushion to work with in the bottom of the first; starts April and May terribly as the Cubs fall behind and win 66 games -2007 Pitches poorly and loses on Opening day; pitches terribly in April and May again as the Cubs start out slowly; 8.59 ERA in 4 straight August starts as the Cubs are in a pennant race

you're going to judge him on one night? every pitcher has a bad night. does webb suck because the padres scored 5 off of him last night? he must not be the diamondback's best pitcher by your logic. Zambrano hasn't been the best pitcher on the Cubs this season. Hill and Lilly have been better. who do you start game 1 in the playoffs (assuming they're all equally rested)? don't know about you...but i start big Z. I'd start Hill. I'd start Lilly. I'd go Lilly, Zambrano, Hill, Marquis (I'm 99% positive that Lou would start Marquis over Marshall)

you're going to judge him on one night? every pitcher has a bad night. does webb suck because the padres scored 5 off of him last night? he must not be the diamondback's best pitcher by your logic. Zambrano hasn't been the best pitcher on the Cubs this season. Hill and Lilly have been better. who do you start game 1 in the playoffs (assuming they're all equally rested)? don't know about you...but i start big Z. Honestly, I wouldn't. I think he would be too jacked up for game 1 and be all over the place. Although, he might be jacked up any game of a playoff series that he starts. Kinda like 2003 when we gave him a 3-0 lead in game 1 of the NLCS and he preceded to give up 3 HRs in a span of 4 batters when he only gave up 9 HR all year.

Zambrano will be 14-11 with a 4+ ERA after this game. Maybe next year he will not proclaim Cy Young awards and just shut up and pitch.

3 innings through. Today through 3 he was looking pretty good too.

This year has just been awful save his 6 amazing weeks. The other 14 weeks of thte season he has been unbelievably bad.

8.59 if you take out his decent start against the Mets. What is it if you take out his worst start? 6.46 I think the point he was trying to make is he has a 8.59 in his last 4 starts. A couple more like this and the Cubs should consider Mike Musinna'ing him

He's 0-2 since the signing, 0-4 in August

We all know how that turns out. Do we have the pitching advantage? Lilly has struggled in August, and hes a lefty which the Brewers murder. On the other hand, we are facing a rookie lefty, who we can't hit. Brewers will win the game and the series tomorrow.

Z's ERA in August is officially 7.36 in 29.1 IP (5 starts)

Our Ace's ERA is 6.75 in August in 29.1 IP. His ERA actually went down today depending on the number of inherited runners that score.

YAY CARLOS ZAMBRANO! OUR BIG $91 MILLION ACE!!!!!

Great performance today ACE!