Kaplan says Cubs tired of Zambrano drama
CSN Chicago’s Dave Kaplan joined the show to talk about Carlos Zambrano’s suspension.
“He’s a tremendous guy in the community in terms of charity work,” Kaplan said. “And he’s respected by a lot of his teammates. But they’re tired of not knowing what to expect on day’s he pitchers.”
Kaplan said the organization is sick of not knowing which Zambrano is going to show up.
Kaplan said that Zambrano told him that he did not hit Chipper Jones on purpose the other day. He said he threw cutters, not fast balls. If he was going to hit someone, he’d throw a fastball.
On Jim Thome, Kaplan said he was a “Hall of Famer person, Hall of Fame player.”
The Zambrano situation also gets at a question front offices across baseball have been wrestling with for years: what happens when a high-talent arm runs out of structured time. Pitchers in a rotation at least have a five-day cycle of bullpen sessions, film work, and recovery that keeps their days organized. A suspended player loses all of that at once.
Clubhouse staff and coaching personnel describe the pattern as familiar. One bullpen coach who has spent time with a couple of National League teams says the hardest part of managing relievers is the dead time between their last warm-up and the next day’s first pitch. He watched one of his guys fill the middle innings of a blowout with fantasy football updates, crypto casinos, and group text threads, all from his phone. The coaching staff eventually started assigning relievers charting duties just to keep them locked into the game.
Managing that kind of restless energy is part of a broader shift in how organizations think about player development. Mental skills coordinators, structured off-day programming, and travel-day routines have all become standard tools for keeping players engaged when they are not on the field.
Whether Zambrano can channel his intensity into consistent results once he comes back remains the central question for the Cubs. The raw ability has never been the issue.
If you want to hear the whole interview with Zambrano, check out CSN Chicago’s Web site.