First Series Review
Well, the first series for the Cubbies is all over and the team is 1-2 right now. The much vaunted pitching staff is clearly in a lackadaisical condition due to the overwork and bad moves made by both Manager Baker and GM Hendry.
Consider the case of Carlos Zambrano who threw 106 pitches in 4 2/3rds Innings and left the game with a 5.79 ERA. Folks, that is murderous especially considering the fact that Big Z is supposedly the team's best starting pitcher.
Hendry refused to try to keep Matt Clement on board and on top of that failed to try to find a quality replacement for the Bearded One. Obviously, Hendry believed his own lies about the alleged plethora of quality pitchers in the Cubs farm system.
Starting Friday, the Cub Killers From Milwaukee aka the Brewers will be in town and if last year was any indication, the Baker/Hendry Cubs will be lucky to avoid a sweep. Truly, folks in Pittsburgh must be saying to themselves, "Thank God for the Cubs" since the little bears figure to replace the Pirates as the basement dwellers in the NL Central pretty soon.
- Charles Rector's blog
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I'm not worried about Zambran
I'm not worried about Zambrano. He'll be fine.
I also don't blame Hendry for not trying to re-sign Clement. He was expensive and faltered badly down the stretch last year.
I do blame Baker and Hendry for using Ryan Dempster in the starting rotation.
Worry About Zambrano
Agreed, Clement was not the greatest pitcher, but if you're going to get rid of him, at least make sure that you've got a quality replacement.
As for Zambrano, I can remember back in 2003 that whenever any fans called up what passes for sports talk radio in Chicagoland, complaining about how many pitches/innings that Baker was having one of his pitchers throwing, the hosts would invariably say that the pitcher in question had "perfect mechanics" so much so that he could withstand Baker's pitcher treatment. The name of that pitcher? Mark Prior whose mechanics seem downright awful lately. Just because Big Z has thick legs, that does not mean that he's anymore immune to the Dusty Baker Treatment than Prior was.