Weekend Cuppage Roundup

• Tough loss for the US Soccer team as they once again found themselves being eliminated by Ghana for the second World Cup in a row despite the presence of Team Mascot Bill Clinton hanging out with Mick Jagger during the game. Ghana scored early in the contest which set the tone for the rest of the game. Watching the match, it was very apparent that Ghana was faster and way more athletic than the US, but what the US lacked in athleticism, they made up for in determination. The US had two BIG chances to score which would have given them the victory. Unfortunately the dreaded label of "woulda, coulda, shoulda," will be attached to their efforts in the 2010 World Cup. We will see if Bob Bradley will come back to coach the US for the next World Cup in 2014. Personally speaking I think Diego Maradona is proving that it really doesn't matter who the coach is in soccer, as long as you have great players like Argentina does.
• Baseball was very good this weekend to The Beard as the surging White Sox took another series against the Cubs and won that stupid and pointless BP Crosstown Cup that I'm really hopeful mysteriously goes missing before 2011. It seemed only fitting that the third longest winning streak ended against the Cubs, since the last time the Sox lost was against the Cubs two weeks ago. The Sox are driving in runs in clutch situations while the rotation has finally started pitching like it was supposed to (Thank you Jake Peavy for finally getting checked out and figuring out what the problem was). Who knows how far this will go, but I give the White Sox a ton of credit for doing what they had to do to climb back in the division race, and I'm now actually back to a state of looking forward to watching the next White Sox game.
• As for the Cubs, the story of the weekend was obviously Carlos Zambrano being Carlos Zambrano once again. Now Big Z finds himself suspended indefinitely awaiting the MLB Players Union to weigh in on it. On top of which, Zambrano is also in hot water with his team for dining with Ozzie Guillen after Friday's game/meltdown, and even when he does come back he'll be in the bullpen again. Paul Sullivan did a nice job here of putting together a list of incidents and apologies Zambrano has made over his mercurial career. I'd like to ask my Cub fans out there, isn't this story kind of dull? Obviously this is hardly the first time something like this has happened, and obviously the same thing will happen again down the line because Zambrano simply can't help himself. I honestly don't think he's like Milton Bradley though. Bradley thinks the world is out to get him. Zambrano doesn't give off a vibe of paranoia, but rather has very little self control and little regard for formality, politeness, or rational behavior when he's on the mound. In terms of trading him? I can never say never. I never would have thought someone would trade for Milton Bradley but that shockingly happened. What I know for sure is that Zambrano has a full no-trade clause, and four (including this one) more seasons at roughly $18 million per. I don't really know who would be interested in that - especially for an 8th inning specialist, nor do I know what teams would be willing to give up for that? It seems to me like the Cubs are in bed with Big Z for the duration of their short sighted yet way too lengthy contract they gave him in 2008. Maybe it's time the Cubs ask Zambrano, "What can Paxil, do for YOU"?

You Don't Say...

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...

"IS MURPH RUNNING THE TEAM?!"

The title of this post sums up the best reaction to the news of Carlos Zambrano going to the bullpen I've heard so far. Terms like "head-scratcher" and "shocking" don't do this move justice. This is baseball LUNACY. To take a guy who not only is being paid $91 million dollars, who has been your "ace" starting pitcher going on 5 years now, that usually gives you 200 innings per season, and put him in the bullpen in the first two weeks of a season where he won't even be the Closer is the equivalent of driving a car blindfolded. Not only does it not make any sense, it's also very dangerous.

Before we go overboard on how idiotic this is, let me get the preliminaries out of the way. Yes, the Cubs bullpen has problems. Yes they need a set up man who preferably has a "power-arm". Yes they are getting Ted Lilly back, and someone has to be the odd man out in the rotation. That's all fine and good. Under NO circumstances should the odd man out be Zambrano however. None. There are much better candidates that have pitched out of the bullpen before, Ryan Dempster, Carlos Silva, and Randy Wells in particular. None of those guys though are nearly the Ace, and Innings Eater that Zambrano is. Even the baseball nerds at Fangraphs.com can't make any sense of this, because here's the thing : even if Zambrano excels in his new role, he's still not as valuable as a bullpen specialist versus being the #1 Ace of the staff. There's NO WAY around that.

Another amazing aspect of this, that I never in a million years would think could be possible...even the people who can't stand Zambrano for his antics, feel some level of compassion for him now. He didn't ask for this, and this is not a knee jerk reaction to some injury that Zambrano has. This is just a bizarre decision that's out of his hands, and he's handled it like a professional. As far as I know, this has never been done before by any team, and if it has been done, it certainly wasn't done two weeks into a new season!

I honestly don't know why Lou and Jim Hendry would do this? Not only does it make zero sense, but it really doesn't seem like it will work either considering Zambrano's history is that of a guy who struggles in the first inning of games he pitches?