Zambrano and Barrett brawl

cubfanindy · Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:21 pm Post subject:

Well, I'm sure you all saw this on Sportscenter, Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett brawled in the Cubs dugout, and then later in the locker room, and Barrett was sent to the hospital with a split lip.

Some thoughts on this -
1. The game was already 4-1 Braves at that point. That isn't on Barrett, that's on Zambrano. For a guy who's supposed to be the Cubs' ace, he's been terrible all season. Zambrano is a very emotional guy. I'm sure he was already feeling some rage, but at that point, it would have been directed at himself.
2. ESPN says Barrett "mishandled" a fastball. The highlights to this sure looked like it was a curveball to me. Barrett set up low and outside, and it looked like a curveball that broke low and inside, crossing Barrett up. He clearly wasn't expecting that. I see that as a miscommunication, probably on Zambrano, since the catcher should know his own signs and what he called (but I wasn't there. That isn't necessarily the case).
3. Barrett's throw to third sure didn't help things, but his certainly wasn't the only error, and he wasn't the one pitching poorly.
4. Zambrano was clearly the instigator in the dugout, both verbally and physically.

I see Barrett as Zambrano's scapegoat here. There was plenty of blame to go around, including a large helping for Zambrano himself, yet he choose to focus it all on Barrett. I'd like to see a team imposed suspension to Zambrano over this, maybe 10 days.

We all know the Cubs' season isn't going according to plan. The question is does this destroy the team, and cause the season to spin further out of control, or does this force everyone to step back, take a look at themselves, and re-evaluate, motivating them to get their heads out of their a#@es and play like they're capable of.

I certainly hope it's the latter.