Victor Zambrano

Mets fans have never forgiven Zambrano for coming over in exchange for Scott Kazmir. Even more so when he was finally moved to the bullpen in September. Blame his inability to throw strikes and the team being flush with starters. The only good news that came out of last season was that the flexor muscle strain in his pitching arm, which shut him down early in 2004, did not flare up at all. After the trade of Jae Seo to the Dodgers, Zambrano could win a spot in the rotation this spring.

Zambrano's acquisition was largely based on the recommendation of Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, who felt he could fix the mechanical flaw that caused Zambrano to be so wild. Peterson only got three starts to implement his findings because Zambrano was shut down due a flexor muscle strain in his forearm. The good news is that he is expected to be 100% by spring training and no surgery was deemed necessary. The bad news is that while Zambrano continued to be unhittable, he walked way too many in his move from the Devil Rays to the Mets. Bid at your own risk.

Can you imagine how tough it must be to lead the AL in walks, hit batters, and wild pitches … and still be considered an adequate-or-better major league pitcher? That's Zambrano, who indeed has that bold type in all the wrong places in his 2003 stats, but also held opponents to a .232 BA (.207 against righties, third-best in the league behind Pedro and Loaiza), and averaged better than 92 MPH with his fastball last year (eighth best in the league, according to the Bill James Handbook). Unlike his teammate, Jeremi Gonzalez, Zambrano was neither lucky nor unlucky in his run support, and according to Baseball Prospectus' stats, he earned every win in that 12-10 record. No more, no less. Given how anemic the Tampa Bay offense can be at times, that's pretty good. He may be Tampa Bay's Opening Day starter, and should be considered as one of the 25 best starters (or so) in the league.

After entering 2002 with great promise, Zambrano was brutally inconsistent and would up going from set-up man, to closer, to failed closer, to set-up again, to Triple-A, then back in the bigs in long relief and then starting in August and September. He had a great 2001 (perhaps the best set-up man in the league that year), and he had a few excellent outings as both a reliever and starter in 2002, so the Devil Rays should not give up on him yet. In fact, Zambrano was 4-4, 4.27 in his 11 starts (as opposed to 7.21 in relief), so it's no surprise that the Rays intend to have Zambrano in their starting rotation for 2003, at least to start the spring.