It’s been a bad season for the Stros, so fans of the local ballclub have to look for solace anywhere they can get it.
A couple of weeks ago, the Cubs inked ace starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano to a 5 year $91.5 million deal ($18.3/year) to keep him off the free agent market this coming off-season. The deal makes Zambrano the highest-paid pitcher in Major League Baseball.
As if on cue, over his last six starts, Zambrano’s record is 0-5 with an 8.29 ERA. On Monday night, he was the starter for the Cubs in an 11-3 loss to the Dodgers, prompting desperate Cubs fans to boo Zambrano as he left the field for the day. For the season, he has saved only seven more runs than an average National League pitcher would have saved in pitching the same number of innings (RSAA, defined here). Zambrano’s ERA is a rather pedestrian — at least for a $91 million pitcher — 4.35.
Zambrano is only 26 years old and has already thrown almost 1200 big league innings. The Cubs have a legacy of overworking young pitchers (think Kerry Wood and Mark Prior), so Zambrano’s downturn this season is a definite warning sign that something may not be right physically with him. Even if he is not battling an injury, Zambrano is a high injury risk given his workload over the past five seasons. If he is sidelined for any significant period during the term of his contract, then the Cubs investment in him will make the Stros’ recent bad deals seem tepid in comparison.
See, feel better? ;^)