I like Meatpants and generally find his Baseball talk top notch. But yesterday while discussing the Zambrano move to the bullpen, he opined that the move would only be a good one, if Silva and Gorzellany gave the team more than Zambrano would in a "normal" Zambrano (14-15 wins) year. Thats like saying that Tyler Colvin should only start in LF, if he can produce better than Soriano would in one of his "normal" years....both are trending downward and if you look at the year Zambrano had in 2009 and so far in 2010, it doesn't suggest that HE was going to produce a "normal" Zambrano year either. I'll bet Silva produces as many wins as Zambrano did last year...Credit to mac for pointing out that there was no guarantee that Zambrano was going to win 1-15 games either. I hate when guys like Matt and Bernstein use past seasons to determine what a guy would likely produce in a season. Many players are not consistent and will go up and down with their numbers and when a player gets older and the numbers are in decline, using career averages almost always is a bad idea. Their more recent seasons tell you that their numbers are likely to be LOWER than those averages.

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Go Cubs!!!!

Scratching my head on this one.
You bet Silva will have at least nine wins this season.
You say using career averages as a basis for predictions is flawed since the numbers decline as a player ages.
According to baseball reference.com, an average season for Silva is 9-9.
Carlos Silva is Benjamin Buttons?

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President of Blake Shetlon fan club

Has anyone thought to say that maybe, just maybe, Pinella did this as a throwing my hands up gesture because he was given zero veterans for this bullpen? Maybe he was told this is the team you get, deal with it. So this is his way of saying, you guys are making me do this.

Ryan, I got to agree with you here. That's what I thought too.

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Chicago White Sox Tickets

Hendry SAID he was trying to get guys (J.J.Putz among them) during the free agent period and did not. He SAID he was exploring trades during spring training and got nothing. So Lou had to look at his staff and try to determine who he could use as a set-up man amongst the starters. Zambrano was the logical choice. He has the stuff and he was not that valuable as a starter, as he was not going deep into games and not consistently giving his team a chance to win games he started. It makes sense really.



Yeah-I bet Silva wins 9 games. He's playing in a league where a lot of hitters have not faced him and I think he's just a happier guy now. His Mom got her Visa and he's on a team he likes better...yeah-i bet he wins 9 or MORE.

I think career averages are something to consider and those numbers may well give you an accurate idea of what you can reasonably expect from a player...until they begin to decline steadily. Once a pitchers fastball loses a few MPH and you see his ERA rise, it's reasionable to expect his win totals and ERA to continue to get worse and NOT stay at the level they had been at. Thats started already with Zambrano. If you look at last years numbers and this years as well, it would be foolishlu optomistic to expect him to have reached his career averages. But as a relief pitcher, needing to pitch just an inning or two at a time, he might be valuable and do a very good job.

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Go Cubs!!!!

I never said it didn't make sense. Let's all keep in mind that Jim Hendry's hands may be just as tied. Unfortunately for Jim its part of your job to take the blame for things not happening. You never throw your owner under the bus.