Carlos Zambrano Needs To Take It Easy

Let it be written: We love Carlos Zambrano. Seriously. Love the guy. Love his work ethic. Love that he'll take the ball for more innings than he should, and pitch well through nearly all of them. Love that his development curve has taken him from very good third pitcher under Kerry Wood and Mark Prior to major league ace. Love that even in a down year like last year, you know what you're going to get from Big Z: everything. And maybe then some.

But here's what we don't love about Big Z: all that effort comes with a price. Usually, it's his temper. Sunday, it was his desire to lay down a bunt and beat it out to first for a single, which he did ... just before pulling up lame and leaving the game with a pulled hamstring. Now Zambrano's status is listed as "day-to-day."

Which, you know, whatever. Injuries happen. It's impossible to truly prevent them. And the best way to get injured to play soft, to stop running hard, to change what you usually do, to try not to get injured. Much easier to pull something that way.

But still, come on. It's beyond silly for Zambrano to miss a start -- or maybe two, or maybe more, who knows -- because he was trying to beat out a bunt single in the fifth inning of a game on the first weekend of May. That's just ... stupid. We love Big Z. We love that effort. But we hate these dumb preventable injuries. If only one didn't seem to so frequently come with the other.

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.

Copyright NBC Owned Television Stations

Leave Comments