Week In Review

Overview: Productive week for the Fish as they swept the Nationals and took two of three in Philadelphia
Positives: Giancarlo Stanton won the NL Player of the Month award for May. The pitching has been pretty stellar as of late too. With today's win and a Nats loss, the club is back in a tie for first place. /looks at calendar /reads June Well, it's something.
Negatives: A loss to the Phillies on Friday night kept the Fish from a perfect week. Really, all not that much to complain about. Time for Ozzie to say something stupid again.
Line of the Week: Hanley Ramirez has been red hot at the plate, his totals for the week

12-24, 4 HR, 6 RBI

Highlight of the Week: Carloz Zambrano doing his best #MONSTERDONG impersonation
Looking Ahead: The Marlins head home for three each with the Braves and Rays.

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Week in Review

Overview: The Marlins took two of three in Houston, then won two of three against the Mets at home.
Positives: Giancarlo Stanton's walkoff grand slam was the best Mother's Day Gift of all. I hope you all did what I did, and tell your mom Giancarlo did that as a favor to you for the holiday. Carlos Zambrano has turned out to be a steal for the Fish. In two starts this week, he gave up just one earned run (and one unearned) in 16 innings. Michael Jong has an interesting piece about Big Z's turnaround at Fish Stripes.
Negatives: Heath Bell's struggles continue; he gave up two runs in the top of the ninth inning Sunday, allowing the Mets to take a late lead. Remember that Emilio Bonifacio regression we've been warning you about for months? It's happening. As his BABIP is back at career norms this season (.320), he is now slashing .240/.333/.248. Ozzie Guillen has moved him down in the batting order, but the Marlins may need to start looking around for a new centerfielder if this persists.
Line of the Week: Carlos Zambrano threw a complete game on Monday, and it was a gem:

9 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 109 pitches, 0.452 WPA

Highlight of the Week: I think we all know who the rightful winner of this award is...

Looking Ahead: The Fish host Pittsburgh for two games, then hit the road. A two-game set in Atlanta is followed by a weekend series in Cleveland, Miami's first interleague set of the season.

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The Apotheosis of Big Z

Carlos Zambrano finally picked up his first win as a Miami Marlin, after figuring out that Heath Bell could not give up a lead if he never got a chance to pitch. Even though Big Z knew that Bell is no longer the Marlins closer, he managed to fit in a subtle message upon finishing up a 4-0 victory against the Astros.


Zambrano's line:

9 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 0.452 WPA

For the season, he's given up just 9 runs in 41 innings, though he is being helped by a .234 BABIP (career average is .276). Still, his BB/9 is down to 3.07 (compared to 4.05 for his career) and by all accounts he has been a model citizen thus far in his Marlins tenure. By the law of averages, that means he is bound to issue 12 walks and attack Billy the Marlin in his next start.

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Miami Marlins Upping the Crazy

According to just about every baseball beat writer, the Marlins are close to a deal with the Cubs for Carlos Zambrano¹. As of this moment, it appears that the Marlins would be giving up Chris Volstad. Also of note, the Cubs would be responsible for all of Zambrano's contract, save for around $3 million.

This is awesome². We'll get to the baseball aspect in a moment, but from a pure blogging and entertainment perspective this move is great. Big Z is well known for his rabid emotional outbursts, both good and bad. You can bet Ozzie Guillen will try to reign him in and focus on the good energy, but there should certainly be some explosions that will provide real entertainment value.

From a baseball sense, meh? I like the move. It was hard to expect anything out of Chris Volstad anymore, so that's not a loss. In fact, some are suggesting a parade just for being able to unload him. What does Carlos bring to the table? Well, he still has stuff. He does walk a lot of guys and give up the long ball (gee that does sound like Volstad, ugh), but he possesses a live fastball and movement on all of his pitches. He should be able to eat innings (pun intended) and maybe rack up 10 wins. Actually if you are a fan of Bill James projections, he has Zambrano going 10-10 with a 3.89 ERA in 181 IP in 2012. I'd do cartwheels if he can match that. Carlos probably would as well, except I doubt he can perform a proper cartwheel. Maybe he'll celebrate with a beer chug³.

¹I was away from Twitter for most of the day, so I don't know who had it first. Was it Ken Rosenthal? Fuck it, my money is on Ken's bowtie breaking the news.
²Unless you are a water/Gatorade cooler. If you are, then you may want to find a safe house and lay low.
³Beer chug is much better idea.

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This Week in Schadenfreude

Carlos Zambrano is the gift that keeps on giving...



Image via Deadspin.

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