Carlos Zambrano

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SP	John Maine	SP	Carlos Zambrano
	1-1, 3.78, 10 K, 12 BB		2-1, 3.04, 23 K, 3 BB
SS	#Jose Reyes	CF	Reed Johnson
2B	#Luis Castillo	2B	*Mike Fontenot
3B	David Wright	1B	Derrek Lee
CF	#Carlos Beltran	3B	Aramis Ramirez
1B	*Carlos Delgado	RF	*Kosuke Fukudome
RF	*Ryan Church	LF	Mark DeRosa
C	#Raul Casanova	C	Geovany Soto
LF	*Endy Chavez	SS	Ronny Cedeno
P	John Maine	P	#Carlos Zambrano

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first-place Chicago Cubs--has a nice ring to it, don't you think?--are coming off a weekend drubbing of the Pirates, two games in which they scored 26 runs, amassed 30 hits, and still required seven innings of duty from their busy bullpen.

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SP	Josh Fogg	SP	Carlos Zambrano
	1-1, 7.00, 6 K, 3 BB		1-1, 3.20, 18 K, 2 BB
CF	*Corey Patterson	2B	*Mike Fontenot
SS	Jeff Keppinger	SS	Ryan Theriot
RF	*Ken Griffey	1B	Derrek Lee
2B	Brandon Phillips	3B	Aramis Ramirez
LF	*Adam Dunn	RF	*Kosuke Fukudome
3B	Edwin Encarnacion	LF	Mark DeRosa
1B	*Joey Votto	C	Geovany Soto
C	#Javier Valentin	CF	Reed Johnson
P	Josh Fogg	P	#Carlos Zambrano

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As reported by the Trib's Paul Sullivan, the Soriano-less Cubs will have Mike Fontenot leading off, Mark DeRosa will be manning left field, and Eric Patterson will be in the wings. (This will be the first time in Fontenot's Major League career he has been penciled into the leadoff spot.)

As for E-Pat, he was hitting just .222 at Triple-A, with 1 HR, 3 RBI and 12 K/3 BB in 36 at-bats for the I-Cubs. He stole one base.

Tonight's head-scratchers and eye-openers:

The five hits that did the most to enhance the Cubs' chance of winning during the past, exhausting, extra-inning-filled week, as measured by FanGraphs' Win Probability Added (WPA):

#5 Big Hit: Sunday v. Philadelphia, 3rd inning--Derrek Lee socked a two-run double off 67-year-old Jamie Moyer to give the Cubs a 3-1 lead they would eventually surrender. WPA .182

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SP	Carlos Zambrano	SP	Brett Myers
	1-0, 1.32, 12 K, 1 BB		0-1, 6.30, 6 K, 5 BB
LF	Alfonso Soriano	CF	#Shane Victorino
CF	*Kosuke Fukudome	3B	*Greg Dobbs
1B	Derrek Lee	2B	*Chase Utley
3B	Aramis Ramirez	1B	*Ryan Howard
RF	*Daryle Ward	LF	Pat Burrell
C	Geovany Soto	RF	*Geoff Jenkins
2B	Mark DeRosa	C	Carlos Ruiz
SS	Ryan Theriot	SS	Eric Bruntlett
P	#Carlos Zambrano	P	Brett Myers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll go out on a limb here and say that if Zambrano can keep up a twelve to one K:BB ratio, he'll win the Cy Young. You heard it here first. Z's start did get pushed up a day, although Mother Nature is threatening to push him right back with 50-60% chance of showers for tonight in Philly. Brett Myers vowed to be more aggressive tonight...on the mound; Mrs. Myers need not worry. The reigning, undeserved MVP, Jimmy Rollins sits another night with a sprained ankle but is available to pinch-hit. If they do get the game in, the Cubs will try to extend their winning streak to six.

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One of the latest and most exciting developments in baseball research is the measurement and analysis of individual
pitches. For instance, the Pitch f/x system created by the
company Sportvision
tracks the in-flight movement of pitches from two different cameras,
thereby assessing a pitch's velocity, horizontal and vertical
movement. A bit less than 1/4th of all pitches from last year were so
assessed, and MLB has made the raw contents of that data available at this location. Better yet, there are several bloggers who, unlike me, have the
talent and dedication to transform that heaping mess of data into
meaningful findings. Most notable, Josh Kalk
has been developing player cards,
a la what's available at baseball-reference or fan graphs or baseball
cube, except with graphs incorporating this incredible new source of
information on pitch selection and pitch behavior. He also has
developed a remarkable application where you can select any
player and any pitch with just about any limiting parameter you could
want - say, Bob Howry fastballs to right-handed hitters on 0-2 counts with a velocity above 93 MPH that resulted in swinging strikes - and then view the results on a handy X/Y graph.

As if that's not enough, there's the more user friendly if less revolutionary pitch data commercially available at Baseball Info Solutions which is being applied by the talented folks at Fan Graphs.
Fan Graphs now offers data on individual players' pitch selections and
velocity, all thoroughly sortable. For instance, Tim Wakefield
and Chad Bradford feature the two slowest average fastballs in the
major at 74.2 and 78.6 MPH, respectively, while no one threw a changeup
with greater frequency last year than Matt Wise, at 54%

There's a gold mine of potential information available at our
fingertips, with The Baseball Analysts and The Hardball Times leading
the way in this sort of analysis. With far less sophistication than
what those guys can offer, let's see what it can tell us about the
Cubs' staff.

The Angels (10-6) visit HoHoKam this afternoon at 3:05 to play the Cubs (6-12). The game will be carried on WGN Radio, WGN-TV, mlb.tv and Gameday Audio, but no one will be tuning in, as the world's attention will be focused instead on the University of Illinois' attempt to secure an NCAA Tournament berth.

Carlos Zambrano starts for the fourth time this spring. He's yielded just one earned run and one walk in nine innings--with eight strikeouts.

Among the hitters, Micah Hoffpauir remains the hittingest one we've had--18-for-37 (.486!) with a slugging percentage of .811(!!).

On the other hand, Kosuke Fukudome is getting cranky.

Carlos Zambrano turns 24 today. So here's a birthday wish to our favorite web-surfing, muttering, gesticulating, switch-hitting, complete game-throwing, goateed behemoth of a perpetual-Cy Young Award contender. We Love Ya, Z. For some birthday reminiscences, how about these.... Remember when we wondered who would be better, Zambrano or Cruz? Remember the first time we discovered Z was a switch-hitter? Remember Z retiring Barry Bonds in an especially tense series in 2003, Z getting all excited, and Barry sulking about it? Here's a question: what should we get Z for his birthday? (photo from http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/mlb/photo/photogallery/2003_2nd_half_moments)