Carlos Zambrano

Carlos Alberto Zambrano is a professional baseball player from Venezuela who plays as a pitcher. At 6'5" and 250 pounds, "Big Z" or "El Toro" as he is known, is quite imposing whether standing on the pitcher's mound or on the batter's square. In 1997, Zambrano came to Chicago to join the Cubs as a free agent. He played through the minor leagues for 4 years before making his debut with the Major League side.

He was mainly used in relief roles for the first couple of years but also earned some starting chances. In 2003, he got the opportunity to become a regular starter and ended the season with a 13-11 record with 168 strikeouts and a 3.11 ERA. He helped the team get into the playoff series and lost out to the Florida Marlins, the eventual champions.

Zambrano's batting record is one of the best amongst all pitchers in the Major League. He has a career .240 batting average, with a slugging percentage of .386, with 46 RBIs and 16 home runs. His 16 homers are the most by any pitcher for the Chicago Cubs in the franchise's history.

Zambrano is one of the only two National League pitchers to have won at least 13 games every year for over 5 seasons between 2003 and 2007.

In 2003, out of the 32 games that Zambrano started, he got 13 wins at a 3.11 ERA. He helped the Cubs win the National League Central Division, losing out to the Marlins. In 2004, his ERA came down to 2.75 and had 188 strikeouts in all with a 16-8 record. He was at 8-2 when he was picked for the MLB All-Star game, pitching a single innings as a relief pitcher.

2005 saw a number of starters getting injured while Zambrano just kept improving on all accounts. Despite being diagnosed with Tennis Elbow, he had a wonderful season in both pitching and hitting. He batted at .300 with one home run while collecting 202 strikeouts with a 3.26 ERA and a 14-6 win-loss record.

He had a second showing at the 2006 All-Star game and was scheduled to pitch in two innings. However, an injury meant that he sat out of the game after being hit accidently by a bat during warm up. In July of 2006, he had a 6-0 record that made it the second best record since 1979. His season ended at 16-7 with a .341 ERA that was despite the Cubs suffering one of their worst seasons in the National League.

Zambrano has been known to be quite hot-headed on the mound and has been involved in a number of heated exchanges with fierce rivals. An extremely emotive player, Zambrano's expressive nature is considered as one of his biggest weaknesses.

Zambrano has received the Silver Slugger award in 2006 and 2008, testament to his batting abilities as well. In 2008, he also played in his third All-Star game. He ended the 2008 season with 14 wins.