From the "Imagine That" department...the Cubs announced today that the Carlos Zambrano 8th inning guy experiment is over. It didn't make sense then, and Lou Piniella and Jim Hendry finally realized what all of us knew right away.The one thing that does raise an eyebrow though is Lou's comment of "...We thought his velocity would increase, and it hasn't..." So does that mean this was done because they realized Zambrano doesn't have his fastball anymore, and they thought this might help him recapture it? If that's the case, why would they think that would work? I understand that as a specialist reliever you only need to come in for the eighth inning and primarily throw fastballs, but just because you put Zambrano in a situation where he throws more of them, does that mean the ball will be thrown faster by Zambrano just because? His fastball will be faster simply because he will be pitching in the 8th inning, instead of him pitching in the 1st inning? Is that all it takes to throw a pitch 96 MPH, versus 89 MPH? Never mind silly traditional concepts like Pitching Mechanics and Arm Strength right? The Cubs say they have no official reason for why Zambrano's velocity has dipped the past season and a half. So it then begs the question, was this the best idea they could come up with? I really hope not for Cubs fans sake...
My dad for years has been saying Zambrano was on roids. I believe his fastball dipped more over the years. Also, Rex (former college/minor league player) claims its not how fast you throw its the movement of the ball.
ReplyDeletePitching is all about location. No question about that. That's why soft-tossers like Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Jamie Moyer get to survive 100 years in the Big Leagues. Zambrano historically has missed with location, but his velocity was such that hitters usually missed his mistakes. Now that he doesn't have the same velocity, he's not the same pitcher.
ReplyDeleteIf he's on the juice, it's a quick fix then. Just go see Doctor PeePee again. Barry Zito sure has.