Zambrano to blame for the loss yesterday?

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

Saw a thread on the MOFO that pretty much laid the blame of yesterday's game directly on Victor Zambrano's feet!

Not sure if I'd go as far as the poster went in saying Zambrano's early ineffectivness Tuesday night was the root cause of tight baseball yesterday afternoon, but it does speak to a bigger issue and the issue that does tend to raise the Storm Front flags.

There are two weak links in this rotation, and we do not know if Bannister will be come a pumpkin just yet, and Pedro always seems to be a pitch away from injury.

Heading into the offseason the Mets were pretty well armed in the rotation, well not Gooden-Viola-Cone-Darling-Ojeda-Fernandez well armed, but the rotation did seem deep enough to carry an ineffective Zambrano and/or Traschel. So what do the Mets do? They trade two starters for relievers!

Granted we can't just throw Zambrano and/or Traschel in the pen and put Heilman back in the rotation. I mean we could, but it could mean we'd lose Zambrano and Traschel is such a creature of habit that he couldn't function out there.

Basically, now is the time to make a deal. Not wait till July 31st, its too far down the road to say "Well, let see what happens" because we could very well be in the middle of the division pack by Memorial Day weekend and "fading fast"

Course who should we get...too early to jump on the Zito front, or any other "ace of a team hopelessly out of it" (though Oakland could be very much in the AL West race all year) so lets look at options of strong 2 or 3 starters to sure up this staff.

Yeah, think we can trade Juilo back to Balt-mer for Benson? SC=12.71 (Juilo's current ERA)

Steve

[Centerfield]

Actually it was Armando's fault.

[seawolf17]

Looper.

[nymr83]

no wonder i don't read the MOFO.

Zambrano is to blame for several things but this sure ain't one of them.

[Centerfield]

Anyway, to address your larger point, I agree we need better starting pitching.

And I don't know why we traded the good ones that we had.

[Guest ABG]

"Well, those three errors were mostly a direct result from thinking about the fact that had Duquette been smarter, we could've had Hudson, Mulder or Zito for Kazmir instead of Zambrano--who, I might add, never talks to me. It's actually what I was thinking about when I grounded out to end the game, so yeah, I blame Victor."

-David Wright

[metirish]

Wow, Wright is showing true leadership, just watched a report on CNN where people were blaming Zambrano for the increased oil prices.....suks to be him.

[Guest Hillbilly]

Centerfield wrote: And I don't know why we traded the good ones that we had.

Because Bannister is the fat groom plus a couple of pitches and Zambrano is a 3 million dollar version of the 8 million dollar man, Benson (compare their lifetime stats, maybe then you can be fair to Victor).

Oh and saying that Zambrano had any effect on yesterdays loss is just stupid.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I blame Oprah Winfrey.

[Guest rpackrat]

]There are two weak links in this rotation, and we do not know if Bannister will be come a pumpkin just yet, and Pedro always seems to be a pitch away from injury.

This statement is wrong on so many levels. Of our 5 starting pitchers, the weakest is Zambrano and he has been a league-average pitcher for his career. While I would love to see an upgrade, having a league-average pitcher as your worst starter is not a sign of a bad rotation. Trachsel has been a very good pitcher for 4 straight years now, and there is nothing in Bannister's record (nor in my limited observation of him in the minors) that suggests he will turn into a pumpkin. Finally, despite the long-standing perception of Pedro as injury prone, he has, in fact, spent very little time on the DL during his career. Every year, the CW is that Pedro is fragile, and every year he pitches around 200 innings and is near the top of the league in ERA.

[Elster88]

Be careful bringing stuff over here from the MOFO. Some of our members don't like that.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

Elster88 wrote: Be careful bringing stuff over here from the MOFO. Some of our members don't like that.

Heh. The topic itself is pure bull, the big picture that made me think about it though is the issue.

Zambrano has been ineffective in both his start, and both he and Traschel have combined for 2 of our 3 losses in our 1-3 stretch.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Blame Canada.

[Guest heep]

Prediction:

Zambrano will be replaced by Pelfrey, Julio will be replaced by Owens, at some point, I just don't know when.


Pelfrey: gave up 2 earned runs in 5 innings last night, 5 k's. 1st professional loss. Good for him - humbling.

Owens has been un-hittable. Literally. 17 k's in 8 innings. 1 hit.

This season may be rushing bith of them, and 2007 sounds like a better ETA, but the two of them are bright spots right now, and, if Zambrano and Julio are still lagging, and Owens and Pelfrey continue to perform, why not?

[Guest Hillbilly]

I became intrigued by Owens after seeing the sick numbers he was putting up in winter ball. I think we�re more likely to see him get a call up this year than Pelfrey. I have a feeling that we stole a stud setup man when we got Owens.

Thanks for the update heep.

[Centerfield]

Please forgive my ignorance...who is Owens? And when did we get him?

Please direct me to the thread where I can read about him. Thanks.

[metirish]

http://cybermessageboard.ehost.com/getalife/viewtopic.php?t=2548

[Frayed Knot]

Also, a recent piece on him from Baseball America is in the Binghamton Mets thread

[Guest Hillbilly]

Thanks guys.

Too many for(a)(ums)(ies)(etc) to keep up with.