APBA Card of the Week: 08 Carlos Zambrano

zambrano08

For any NL-rule APBA leagues out there, yum!  If you can avoid those five 24s on this card, he’s got quite a tasty card. 

It’s not a fluke either.  Zambrano won the NL Silver Slugger award for a reason.  He led all ML pitchers in pretty much every offensive stat in ’08. 

And for leagues that allow it, Zambrano can pinch hit, too.  He had a few actual pinch hit at-bats in 2008. 

The owner of Zambrano in our league also has Livian Hernandez and Jason Marquis so for the past few years it’s pretty much like having a 9th hitter in the lineup.  Not a small matter, when you consider that pinch hitting is not an issue for him. 

Thomas Nelshoppen

I am an IT consultant by day and an APBA media mogul by night. My passions are baseball (specifically Illini baseball), photography and of course, APBA. I have been fortunate to be part of the basic game Illowa APBA League since 1980 as well as a frequent participant of the Chicagoland APBA Tournament. I am slogging through a 1966 NL replay and hope to finish before I die.

4 Comments:

  1. Now, the question is, Will MikeB of the Illowa APBA League be able to leave Big Z in long enough to take advantage of his hitting card?

  2. MIke may decide not to propose the DH in the league meeting this year.

  3. haha yeah,

    but Big Z is different. He’s got a monster card but it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it. All other things equal, I wouldn’t hesitate leaving him to hit in lieu of a weak hitting ph.

    i’m sure Lou Piniella did the same a few times.

    /just be careful stretching those doubles into triples, Carlos

  4. My team in TBL has Carlos, and I have used him in the batting order to fulfill David Ortiz’s slack, especially against lefties (he’s got a +5 lefty shift). Alas, he has way underperformed, going only 6-34 with 1 double and no HRs in the first half. What’s worse, he’s 2-8 with a 5.46 ERA.

    I have been batting him in the position his card deserves, usually 4th or 5th.

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