HellaFrank

Let me start by saying that this post is going to get very baseball and statistic focused, so if you don’t like that stuff, then… um… read it anyway. Second, despite the colors I chose for the chart below and my love of the Chicago Cubs, this is a (almost) completely objective argument:

CARLOS ZAMBRANO IS ONE OF THE BEST HITTERS IN BASEBALL

(YEAH, I SAID HITTER)

We all know Carlos Zambrano is an awesome pitcher. This year so far he has 12 wins, an ERA of 2.76 and almost 100 strikeouts. But it’s his batting that may even be more impressive. Below is a chart that has Carlos’ current statistics for this season so far (65 at-bats) and the projected stats if he were to get 600 at-bats like an everyday heart-of-the-lineup player that doesn’t get hurt (correct me if I’m wrong, but 600 seemed like a nice round average number, maybe a tiny bit on the high side, but not by much).

WARNING: These numbers will blow your mind…

So, let’s analyze…

Batting Average: .354??? Are you kidding me? Simply amazing, even if it’s just 65 at-bats. I’d imagine luck runs out after about 3 at-bats in the major leagues, so this .354 is legit. It might come down a bit if he were to bat more often, but .354 can handle coming down a little. He would have finished second in batting behind Magglio Ordonez last year. ‘Nuff said.

Slugging%: He’s currently .009% higher than Manny Ramirez. Moving on…

Runs: Ok, this is the weak point but still respectable and moving up in the batting order might help.

Hits: Last year Ichiro Suzuki lead the league with 238 hits. Behind him were Magglio Ordonez and Matt Holliday with 216. Carlos Zambrano would have been tied for 4th in all of Major League Baseball.

Home Runs: 18 home runs in the “post-steroid” era? I’ll take it. Speaking of steroids, last year he would have tied Miguel Tejada.

RBI: 92 runs batted in last year would have had him tied for 49th in the Majors. Not bad, but if you consider that all his at-bats are in the 9th spot, this number would definitely go up if he batted elsewhere.

Strikeouts: I put this in because he does strike out a lot, but no more than some other sluggers like Adam Dunn or Ryan Howard.

So there you have it folks, one of the best hitters in all of Major League Baseball.

World Series. Game 7. Two outs. 9th inning. Runner on 2nd. Tie game. Pull Big Z or let him hit? Put on a helmet Carlos and bring that World Series trophy back to Chicago…