Zambrano Starts Opening Day

Zambrano will start Opening Day

If you remember last off-season, Carlos Zambrano was quoted as saying that he didn’t want to start opening day, was he joking? probably, but the stats don’t lie. Zambrano is set to make his 5th concecutive opening day start this year, after manager Lou Piniella chose him instead of Ryan Dempster to take the mound to kick the Cubs season off.

Zambrano is yet to win a opening day start, last season he took the 3-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field, although signs of maturity are coming through in Zambrano, some people have suggested that it is because of his pumped up nature that he has been unable to control him emotions and been wild on opening day, however there have been no World Series predictions, no CY Young predictions from the Ace, even if he does not see himself as the ace of the Cubs pitching staff. It is probably worth mentioning that just because he did not get the win last year, doesn’t mean that he was not effective. Zambrano did pitch 6.2 innings of 0 run ball, all three Cubs runs came on the Fukudome homer in the 9th.

When told of his start on opening day, Zambrano commented that the Cubs don’t have a ace, they have four in himself, Harden, Dempster and Ted Lilly. Zambrano seems happy to share the linelight and pressure amongst his team mates, which can surely only be a positive in the long run.

View CubsDave's Profile      Subscribe via RSS