NEW YORK -- After his dad ripped a fastball into the left-field stands at Citi Field on Friday, 6-year-old Jaden Sheffield got a piece of paper and a blue magic marker and wrote:
What a terrible time to be a relief pitcher. We're only a month and a half into the season and already people are being pulled out of position for poor performance, scolded for showing emotion, and blamed for managerial jobs being put on the line. The worst examples of this have been St. Louis's Jason Isringhausen and Milwaukee's Eric Gagné.
Carlos Zambrano has never exactly refrained from holding in his emotions on the mound or in the clubhouse. The Brewers learned this yet again this weekend after reading his comments following Saturday's game. From the Chicago Sun-Times: While explaining the difference between his poor outing last Monday in Cincinnati and his good one Saturday, Zambrano said the key was the quality of the lineups he was facing.Honestly, I don't think he really crossed any lines. I mean, he simply expressed an opinion I'm sure a lot of people would agree with, although I will say that one of the most intimidating aspects of facing the Reds is having to pitch in the bandbox known as the Great American Ball Park. Within the confines of "sportsmanship," though, the Brewers felt Big Z crossed the line:
''In Cincinnati, they're better hitters than in Milwaukee,'' he said. ''I don't say that the Milwaukee Brewers are nothing, but the offense of the Cincinnati Reds is better.''
''You've seen his act out there. Why listen to anything that guy says?'' Brewers catcher Johnny Estrada told Milwaukee reporters before the game. ''Seriously, that guy doesn't have much etiquette as far as I'm concerned. Zero mound presence. We'll face him a lot, and maybe we'll get him next time.''For the most part, Estrada's sentiments echoed that of most of his teammates -- a combination of off writing Zambrano as a blowhard and feeling slighted all at the same time. Big Z did pitch better against the Brewers than the Reds, but considering he gave up two home runs to each team, he can't exactly say he dominated either lineup.
Beyond the Cards drubbing of the 'Stros, there were actually two other games of note involving the other four NL Central teams today, making it a pretty good day for the division. 
In the most anticipated pitching matchup of Saturday afternoon, Carlos Zambrano managed to redeem himself for his awful opening day start while opening day hero Ben Sheets did not find the same luck he had in start #2 against the Cubbies. 
One of the great things about baseball is that the game affords teams a chance to bounce back from bad starts. No matter how bad the first inning is, you still get eight or nine chances to bounce back. That was not the case in Milwaukee last night as Rich Hill and Dave Bush had pretty much opposite starts and the Cubs and Brewers played the rest of the game out accordingly. Bush allowed three doubles, a homer and two singles as he was tagged for six first-inning runs in a 9-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs Friday night before a bipartisan crowd of 41,758 at Miller Park.
"That was as bad as it could be in the first inning," Bush said. "Mostly I just didn't make pitches. I left a lot of fastballs up in the zone. There's not a whole lot more to it than that. I just didn't make very good pitches that first inning."
And the Chicago Sun-Times on Rich Hill's start:
Hill started great, Bush started awful. Cubs won, Brewers lost. if only it were that simple every night. The Mark DeRosa homer that is mentioned was DeRosa's second in two games, which when coupled with Jason Marquis and Ted Lily's good starts officially makes Alfonso Soriano the worst offseason acquisition of the Cubs. Through four games.Rich Hill retired his first 15 batters and allowed one hit in seven innings, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 9-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night.
Hill, who was shaky in his final exhibition stint of the spring, got all the run support he needed before he stepped on the mound. The Cubs scored six times in the first inning, capped by Mark DeRosa's two-run homer.
Earlier in the week, Kevin Mench told anyone that wanted to listen that he wasn't incredibly happy to be platooning with Geoff Jenkins this year. There is only one way to remedy that situation, and that's for Mench to hit lefties. He did just that last night, hitting a two run homer in the sixth that turned out to be the game winner in the Brewers 4-3 win over the Brewers. I scanned all over looking for taunting quotes from Mench, but apparently Mench is too good of a guy to do stuff like that. What a shame. What I don't know is why managers are so averse to using the word "platoon." Mench hits lefties. Jenkins hits righties. Between them, they're actually a very good right fielder. It's Yost's job to win games. If the players don't like it, it's their problem."It is not that big a deal," Yost said. "I don't know why everybody wants to make it a big deal but it seems to be a big deal. But it's not a big deal.
"Our guys understand it. They know what's going on."
Yost hinted that he was more concerned about spreading out the playing time in all three outfield positions mostly between his top four players, not just a two-man situation in left field.
"I'm talking about, in my mind, Mench, Jenkins, Billy Hall and Corey Hart," Yost said. "And then (Gabe) Gross and Tony Gwynn will get their at-bats when they can and get their playing time. But the majority of the time is going to revolve around those four guys."
The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
Chicago White Sox (0-1) vs. Cleveland Indians (1-0)-2:05PM Est.
I'm going to go ahead and say that the Indians will not continue their torrid pace offensively this afternoon. Not because they don't have the ability to, just because I don't think they'll want to. The game time temperature at U.S. Cellular Field will be more suitable for a Bears/Browns game than the Sox and Indians. It's expected to be 38 degrees with 25MPH winds, and a 30% chance of snow. You ever try and hit a baseball in that kind of weather? Doesn't exactly feel good making contact. Of course the wind doesn't exactly help the pitchers either. A gust at the right time could add enough break to their curves to make Mark Mallory blush.
Milwaukee Brewers (2-0) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (0-2)-8:05PM Est.
It's the battle of free agent acquisition pitchers! Jeff Suppan will make his Milwaukee debut against Jason Schmidt and the Dodgers. The Brewers are off to a 2-0 start so far this season, making that Brewers in the NL Central bandwagon a little more crowded. Just remember kids, it doesn't matter if you win or lose, just that you hit the 12-man beer bong beforehand.
Kansas City Royals (1-0) vs. Boston Red Sox (0-1)-8:10PM Est.
What would happen in Boston if the Sawx were to experience the embarrassment of losing two in a row against the mighty Royals to start the season? Something tells me that if they do, Dan Shaughnessy won't act as civilized on his flight back to Boston. The Sawx will be sending Josh "Blisters" Beckett to the mound against Odalis Perez in hopes of stopping the bleeding.
I don't know how closely you've been paying attention, but I really like Ben Sheets. I've already mentioned a couple times that a healthy Ben Sheets could be the difference for the Brewers in 2007. If you checked out the Fanhouse predictions earlier today, you've probably realized that I think Sheets will be healthy this year because I picked the Brewers to win the Central and I think he'll be the key to that.
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