ZAMBRANO HURTING; BAKER STILL BELIEVING

From the "Who didn't see this one coming dept.": Carlos Zambrano's arm is starting to ache.

Z said: “I was kind of like feeling my arm ‘heavy'. That’s why I was throwing so many (off-speed) pitches today. I was using my split and my slider a lot. But I feel good. That happens in some part of the season. You have to keep working in between my starts.”

Z left the game after 7 innings and 107 pitches. The 'tired arm' is likely to occur with starters, I agree. But Zambrano has thrown 100 or more pitches in all of his 15 starts this year, including back to back 126 pitch outings in his last 2 starts. Part of that is his own doing. Only Livan Hernandez has faced more batters. Zambrano leads all of baseball in pitches thrown and walks. He's 2nd in K's. So efficiency is not his bag. And of course, as history would tell you, Baker is old school when handling pitchers. I still believe he thinks pitch counts are garbage.

Baker also believes the Cubs still have a shot at post-season play. Dusty said, “No, I always believe it. No, it ain’t going to be tough to sell.” If he truly believes it--and what is he really going to say--he better start handling the big dude with a little more care.

They are back to their losing ways--another 3 in a row--and at 26-39 are 13 back of the Cards. I'm guessing the Cards make it to 90 wins. So not only would they have to pass 10 teams to make the Wild Card, they would have to go 65-32 to win the division. And that does not account for the Reds. Stranger things have happened. But good luck with that. And good night.

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