Insanity Defense
Here’s my take on Lou Piniella’s decision to move Carlos Zambrano into the role of setup man, one which almost everyone seems to be characterizing as pure madness:
It’s triage. A short-term move designed to stop the Cubs’ hemorrhaging of late-inning leads, which has been a major contributing factor to the team’s slow start.
No rational person could believe that an eighth-inning guy is as valuable as a frontline starting pitcher, and I don’t think for a minute that Piniella and Hendry believe that. I think they’re looking for Zambrano to help stabilize the bullpen while Ted Lilly returns to the rotation and for as long as Silva and Gorzellany pitch competently. That is to say, in a few weeks (at most), Carlos will be back in the rotation and the Cubs will have to address the bullpen issue again.
By that time, one hopes, the Cubs will be much closer to the top of the division than the bottom, and additional options will be available, e.g., a trading partner or one of the youngsters who has managed to assert himself in the interim, either with the big club or down in the minors.
In the meantime, it will be interesting, if not relaxing, to see how our man Z performs in the 8th-inning slot.
