Carlos Zambrano Needs To Grow Up

Volatile Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano found out he was getting six days off courtesy of Major League Baseball on Thursday afternoon thanks to his latest outburst on Wednesday afternoon.  If you haven't seen Zambrano's explosion on home plate umpire Mark Carlson, please, by all means, go here and watch it.  If nothing else it's highly entertaining.

Back yet?  Good.

Now while watching Big Z throw Carlson out of the game after he got ejected, fire the baseball into left field, and beat the Gatorade cooler like it owed him money is somewhat funny, what's not funny is the fact that this keeps happening with Zambrano.  Sure, Z's six-game suspension will only cost him one start but that one start could end up looming large as the Cubs have a formidable hill to climb in the NL Central with both St. Louis and Milwaukee ahead of them in the standings.

We're all very well aware by now that Zambrano is an emotional human being.  There's nothing wrong with that, but there is such a thing as being too passionate about something, especially when it comes at the expense of your team or your family, or your job.

At some point Carlos Zambrano is going to have to grow up.  If an incident happens like this once, you can forgive it, but when it's a recurring problem as it is with Zambrano, something needs to be done.  Zambrano is a pitcher with an immense amount of talent.  He's got the ability to win 20 games and numerous Cy Young Awards, but too often he let's his emotions get in the way.

We're not just talking about his ejections, either.  We mean those pitches in the third inning in which the umpire calls a ball on a pitch Carlos thought was a strike and he gets angry and the mound and instead of focusing on the next pitch, he's more worried about the umpire's call.

This is not a good thing for the Cubs, and it's something the team should really seek a solution to.  Send Zambrano to anger management classes or a sports therapist.  Do something.

If they don't all Zambrano will ever end up being is just another in a long line of players who had an immense amount of talent and failed to take full advantage of it.

Along with writing for NBCCHICAGO.com, Tom Fornelli can also be found contributing at FanHouse, SPORTSbyBROOKS, and his own Chicago sports blog Foul Balls.