Replacing Carlos with Carlos to get to Carlos.

Posted by John Mark in CUBS, FEATURED | 0 comments

The Cubs defeated the Rockies last night in 11 innings on a walk-off home run by Aramis Ramirez.  That was the good news.  The interesting development, though, was who started the 8^th inning with the Cubs ahead 2-1.  It was John Grabow.  Grabow had looked pretty good in his last two appearances.  Not so much last night.  He faced 4 batters.  2 of them walked, one singled, and the only out he got was courtesy of a diving catch in centerfield by Marlon Byrd.  Grabow did not have it, and it was then Marmol who was up in the 8^th getting ready for the mess Grabow was working on.  Where was Zambrano the whole time?  He was sitting in the dugout.  He wasn’t even in the bullpen and it looked like he wasn’t available to pitch at all.  After the game, we learned that Zambrano has a new role.  He is now being stretched out in order to be the Cubs new long relief man.  That’s what Pinella said, anyway.  Zambrano is just sure that this means he is getting ready to return the rotation. 

This all hints at a return to the rotation in the near future.  I predicted that Zambrano would be back in the rotation by June 1^st, and that’s still a very possible scenario.  I just wonder if the Cubs are being secretive on their real intentions because they don’t necessarily know who they will be removing from the rotation (Silva).  Either that or they don’t want to come out and say it because how great is that for Silva, I mean- whoever is headed to the bullpen who is now going out the next few starts knowing his fate? 

It’s obvious that this experiment didn’t work out.  Zambrano was not the effective 8^th inning stopper they had hoped he would be, and the bullpen actually has been ok lately.  I guess it’s hard to judge the bullpen and their ability to hold leads when they really haven’t had any leads to hold lately.  Grabow took care of that one last night real quick.  The rightful place for Zambrano on this team is as a starter.  The Cubs need him to be successful in that role.  Perhaps moving him to the bullpen was a way to rest him and save his arm for later in the year as he’s kind of had some issues the past couple of years.  Who knows? 

The point is, Zambrano will be back as a starter sooner or later and he’s going to have to play an important role on this team for the Cubs to have any shot at getting back in the division race.