Uh Oh!

Although I would, of course, prefer to talk about WWF caricatures, we unfortunately will be talking about the Chicago Cubs.  Ah yes, the shitty Cubs; perennial chokemisers and incessant tinkerers of the NL Sad Bastard Society are at it once again.  Carlos Zambrano, aka the toughest man in Chicago, off to his worst start since his rookie season (and by far) has been moved to the bullpen after just 4 starts.  No word as to whether an addition needed to b added to the bullpen in order to accommodate Big Z's BLOATED salary, but this is such an odd situation.

Z has been the Cubs best starter for nearly a decade now, and has been known to start slow (see 2009), but has always kept his ERA below 4, gives 200 innings every season and is always in the hunt for the strike out title each and every year.  So what the shit is going on here?  Fine, Z isn't the stud he was expected to be, but are his number not at least serviceable and/or at least good enough to be considered a solid 2-3 starter?

The best part?  Let's look at Z's splits this season

Pitches 1-15: .476 AVG
Pitches 16-30: .378 AVG
Pitches 31-45: .214 AVG

In other words, he is getting stronger as the game goes along.  Yet, Cubs management has decided that it is wiser to put him in the pen where he will rarely get beyond the 30 pitches required before he starts to improve.  HA!  Classic!

And what about his bat?  Using him a pinch hitter almost becomes more problematic now, because if he was already used and is relieved, then he can't pinch hit.  Or, if they decided to use him as a pinch hitter, then he needs to be put into the game as a reliever, otherwise, he can't be brought in later.  What a mess!

Oh, Cubbies.  You've had your fair share of bad luck, but trends are trends and like my main man Thom says, "You do it to yourself."