Carlos Alberto Zambrano (born June 1, 1981, in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela), popularly known as “Big Z” or “El Toro,” is a right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who has played for the Chicago Cubs since 2001. He is one of the few switch-hitting pitchers in the MLB and has won a Silver Slugger Award twice for his hitting.
Zambrano, an imposing figure at 6′ 5″ and 255 pounds, was signed by the Cubs as a free agent in 1997 and made his debut in 2001. After being used in both starting and relief duties, he enjoyed his first full season as a starter in 2003, finishing with a 13-11 record, 168 strikeouts and a 3.11 ERA.
Widely regarded as one of the best hitting pitchers in the game, he has a career .240 batting average with 17 home runs, 48 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .386. The 17 home runs is the most ever by a Cubs pitcher in history. He also tied the club record for home runs by a pitcher in a single season after clubbing six round trippers in 2006. Due to his impressive stats at the plate he has been called on to pinch hit 17 times in his career.
Zambrano is one of only two National League pitchers to have won at least 13 games in each year from 2003–07, the other being former teammate Greg Maddux.
His pitches come out of a slinging, three-quarter to low-three-quarter delivery. His main pitch is a hard, moving two-seam fastball that clocks at around 90–94 mph and a four-seam fastball that can reach 99 mph, but can often times reach around 96 or 97 mph. He also has a heavy sinker that he throws with a split grip, a pitch that hitters often beat into the ground. He also mixes in plenty of sharp-breaking sliders and split-finger fastballs to keep hitters from sitting on his fastball. In addition, Carlos has also developed a changeup that he throws mostly to left-handed batters.
Zambrano made his major league debut with Cubs in 2001 but started the 2002 season with the AAA Iowa Cubs. He was quickly called up to the big leagues where he was dispatched to the bullpen and pitched in sixteen games during the first three months of the season. Finally on July 1, 2002, Zambrano started against the Florida Marlins Zambrano and ended up logging sixteen starts for the Cubs, recording four wins and eight losses.
Zambrano maintained his position in the Cubs starting rotation in 2003 and started 32 games with a 3.11 ERA and 13 wins in the fourth spot in the rotation playing an instrumental role in helping Chicago win the National League Central division.
In 2004, Zambrano improved his statistics by lowering his ERA to 2.75 and increasing his strikeout total to 188. His record was the best on the Cubs staff that year, compiling a 16-8 record. His first fourteen starts of the season, Zambrano had posted an 8-2 record, earning him his first trip to the All-Star game where he pitched one inning in relief.
In 2005, Zambrano began the new season as the opening day starter for the Cubs. Zambrano had an excellent year hitting, that year with a .300 batting average and one home run. Zambrano finished the season sixth in the National League in strikeouts (202), tenth in earned run average (3.26), and third in winning percentage (70%, with a record of 14-6), seventh in WHIP (1.15), tenth in strikeouts per nine innings (8.14), and ninth in innings pitched (223 1/3).
In 2006, Zambrano went to his second All-Star Game and posted a perfect 6-0 record for the month of July. He finished the 2006 season 16-7 with a 3.41 ERA and 8.83 strikeouts per 9 innings.
Zambrano started the 2008 season by compiling a 12-4 record with a 2.76 ERA through July 27. At the plate, he has a batting average of .354 thru September 14. In his first start back after missing two starts due to rotator cuff tendinitis, Zambrano pitched a no-hitter on September 14 against the Houston Astros.
