N Stands For Nonsense At ChicagoNow

Matt Olsen of ChicagoNOW blog Top Ten Chicago Sports (how clever) lists his Top 10 "injury-prone players in Chicago." He runs through the usual suspects, including Milton Bradley at No. 8 (and declares him a "bust" even though he has a .400 OBP at this point). More interestingly, he has Carlos Zambrano at No. 5: What's even more disturbing about Big Z and his long list of odd maladies is that he doesn't seem to mind very much. Just before he was being scratched from the lineup last week, Z was seen taking the kind of hacks that would make Casey jealous during BP. Well, then. That is quite an indictment of Z's fragility and lack of caredness. If only it were true. The problem is that Carlos Zambrano has started the third most games in baseball since 2003. That's among all pitchers. In baseball. Since he became a full-time starter in 2003. As for the "long list of odd maladies," here are the injuries that have landed Z on the disabled list since he came into the league: lower back tightness (bizarre!), elbow strain (in a pitcher?!?) shoulder strain (que horror!) and a thigh strain (from running out a grounder on the basepaths). So there you have it. Matt Olsen believes that a sore back, elbow and shoulder strains, and a thigh strain are "odd maladies" for a baseball player - and he believes the pitcher who has started the third most games in baseball since 2003 is the the fifth most fragile player in Chicago. If that is true,Chicago athletes must be true iron men.