Zambrano to DL

[JohnBriggs12]

Brewers won't be seeing Carlos Zambrano this weekend. He was placed on the 15 day DL, with the hamstring strain he suffered trying to beat out a bunt yesterday.

[Dragonbait]

Best joke of the whole day yesterday

 

'thats why you dont let power hitters bunt.'

 

But awesome news for us.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

Probably a blessing in disguise for them given how he wore out at the end of last year.

 

Pitching matchups should favor us Friday & Saturday night before we see Harden on Sunday.

[PrinceEatMeat]

Actually we don't face Harden at all, because he pitches Wednesday. Dempster pitches Saturday, and Marshall on Sunday. Friday we will face some no-name, I'm guessing Guzman. So all the matchups favor us. Piniella won't push back Lilly to Friday either, because he usually does anything to avoid starting a lefty against us.

[Ennder]

Pretty sure the no name is going to be Randy Wells.

 

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=290971

[PrinceEatMeat]

Works for me. I'll take Bush in that matchup. Gallardo over Dempster and Soup over Marshall.

[Ennder]

Soup vs Marshall is a close one, Marshall is a better pitcher but he is LH and even if Braun is out we still kill lefties.

[patrickgpe]

they called up an IF Scales, so my guess is that its going to be guzman.

 

link

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I stand corrected Prince. They had it mislabeled on the site I was looking at.

 

That really makes the pitching matchups favorable for the weekend.

[Thurston Fluff]

I wonder if Harden's injuries are starting to catch up with him. 14 walks in 20 some innings and a 5.11 ERA. Still lots of k's but I don't know if this is the same guy that pitched in Oakland. Really that staff as a whole is not as good as it should be so far. I always liked Marshal and Lilly is worth what he's being paid but Zambrano has been pretty middle of the road so far.

As far as the Brewers not facing Zambrano given their history against him and their history with no name spot starters I'd almost rather they faced Zambrano.

[TooLiveBrew]

Looks like Wells has had success so far at AAA. I hadn't heard of this guy before now.

 

I didn't want to start a whole new thread, & it's sort of on-topic. Check out the banner link from the top of the page to which Ennder linked. A story on pitcher durability, by Daily Herald columnist Mike Imrem. It's days like this that we have to honor the memory of FJM.com. Just don't make 'em the way they used to.

[TheCrew07]

haha TLB.. most excellent find.. my favorite part quoted below.

My theory is that just like basketball players, baseball players have too much muscle and not enough body fat.

 

My theory is that a credible journalist would do more research on hamstring problems, which would have led him core strength and muscle balance issues, I doubt flexibility would have been problem with Z.

[endaround]

Of all the players to worry about too little body fat, Zambrano is not one of them

[Ennder]

Hardens velocity was down 2 MPH in his last start so there is some conjecture that he might not be 100%.

[lcbj68c]

The injury bug continues for the NL Central. Rick Ankiel was carted off after slamming his neck/head akwardly into the center field wall. The Crew needs to take advantage and make a little run towards the top.

[J Brew Crew]

I gotta say I was happy to see his effort. I am no fan of Z's in general but the guy was trying to get on and help his cause. The hustle was nice to see.

[Invader3K]

Stuff like this is eventually going to lead to the DH in the NL, I have a feeling.

[Ennder]

Stuff like this is eventually going to lead to the DH in the NL, I have a feeling.

I sure hope so, I will never understand why people think watching a pitcher other than a Gallardo type hit is entertaining and while it 'adds more strategy', it really doesn't add very much. Maybe once a week is there a tough choice with when to PH for the pitcher and I'm being generous there.

[Teatoe993]

Sometimes people prefer brains over braun (No offense Ryan). I'd rather see a well rounded player instead of a fat guy that can only hit it out of the park. But that is just me.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

I agree 100% with Ender. Pitchers are paid to pitch and not hit so why risk injury to them by putting them in harms way of 90 mph fastballs and make them run 90 feet to first base? Especially when pitching is such a premium commodity in today's game.

[TheCrew07]

Have we seriously reached a point where our expectations have been lowered to such a degree that we don't expect people paid to play a SPORT to be conditioned properly so that they can run 90 feet without getting hurt? This is like when people were complaining that the Brewers tested 60y dash times and players got hurt. The are professional athletes, not fat men playing bar league softball, how about they simply do what is required to play their position.

 

The DH would only make it harder for the Brewers to compete because instead of having cheap bench players they'd have to drop additional money on a player who's only value is that of a hitter, costing the team millions extra every season.

[Invader3K]

Crew07: I understand all of that and agree with you to a point. But, I think given how much of a premium is paid on pitching these days, putting teams in the NL at more of a risk to lose out on that investment is somewhat unfair.

 

I'm not necessarily in favor of bringing the DH to the NL, either. I just think it's somewhat inevitable that it will happen due to the economics of the game.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

I don't think it would make it harder for the Brewers to compete. They could be putting Gamel or Nelson in the DH spot and be perfectly competitive at a cheap price. It would be a great opportunity to get Prince off of 1B as well because his defense is horrid.

[Ennder]

Have we seriously reached a point where our expectations have been lowered to such a degree that we don't expect people paid to play a SPORT to be conditioned properly so that they can run 90 feet without getting hurt?

 

No, but we have reached the point where pitchers don't get enough ABs to be effective at it at a major league level. Every year a few Parras gets hurt bunting and a couple Carpenters gets hurt swinging the bat or a couple Zambranos gets hurt running the bases. These are injuries that shouldn't be happening, especially in just one of the leagues. The DH will eventually come to the NL and I'll rejoice when it happens.

[Invader3K]

One thing I don't like is the characterization that all DHs are "fat beer league softball players." One of the greatest DHs of all time was our own Paul Molitor, and I don't think he would be placed in that category by anyone.