Carlos Alberto Zambrano (born June 1, 1981 in Puerto
Cabello, Venezuela) is a right-handed starting
pitcher in Major League Baseball who has played for
the Chicago Cubs since 2001. He is signed with the
Cubs through the 2012 season. He is one of the few
switch-hitting pitchers and has won a silver slugger
award for his hitting.
Zambrano, a big, imposing figure at 6'5" and 255
pounds, was signed by the Cubs as an amateur free
agent in 1997 and made his debut in 2001. After
being used in both starting and relief duties, he
enjoyed his first full season as a starter in 2003,
finishing with a 13-11 record, 168 strikeouts and a
3.11 ERA. He was also in the Cubs starting rotation
during the Cubs' run to the National League
playoffs, in which they would come up five outs shy
of the World Series, losing to the eventual world
champion Florida Marlins.
He is a career .220 hitter with 12 home runs and 31
RBIs. He tied the club record for home runs by a
pitcher in a single season after clubbing six round
trippers in 2006. Ferguson Jenkins is the other Cub
great who compiled six home runs in one season as a
pitcher. Zambrano is one of only two ballplayers who
pitched in the NL in 2007 who won at least 13 games
in each year from 2003-07, the other being former
teammate Greg Maddux.
Zambrano is noted for his vibrant personality on the
mound. He allows his electric emotions to be readily
evident, always indicating whether he is happy with
his performance or not. Zambrano's pitches match
this eclectic nature, as every pitch in his
repertoire has significant movement. His pitches
come out of a slinging, three-quarters to low
three-quarters delivery. His main pitch is his hard,
moving two-seam & four-seam fastball that clocks
anywhere from 94-98 mph, but usually settles around
96 or 97 mph. Carlos has a devastating, heavy
cannonball of a sinker that he loves to throw with a
split grip, a pitch that usually winds up getting
beaten into the ground by hitters - something of an
advantage considering Wrigley Field and its tall,
thick grass. He always makes sure to mix in plenty
of sharp-breaking sliders & split-finger fastballs
to keep hitters from sitting on his fastball. He has
also developed a change-up that he throws mostly to
left-handed batters. His main weakness is a lack of
pinpoint control, leading to a tendency to surrender
walks. Nevertheless, Zambrano seems to be hurt less
by giving up walks than most pitchers, due to the
fact that batters hit many more ground balls than
fly balls against him. This can be attributed to the
sinking movement of his fastball.
