Oh no he didn’t
This sort of thing just pisses me off.
I mean, I like that the Cubs won for a fucking change. And it always amuses me to read stories of Carlos Zambrano crushing the damn ball. But you know what isn’t great? Breathless "almost hit for the cycle!" stories when the dude in question did not have the goddamn triple. I am extremely done with stupid triple-less almost-cycle bullshit. You know what the hard hit to get is? I bet you can guess: the triple. If you have the single, the double, and the HR, and you have at least one probable at-bat left in the game, then, hey, congratulations! You’ve had a good day at the plate. But almost hitting for the cycle? Bullshit. You’re at maybe 40%. The grunt-work is done, and now for the hard part, hey?
To put this another way: Carlos Zambrano’s 162-game average has him hitting 13 doubles, 11 HR, and… two triples. Two. That means that, strictly according to the 162-game average, he has a 1/81 chance of hitting a triple in any given game. So, no, he was not particularly goddamn close to the cycle.
But, hey, grats to Carlos Zambrano for having more career homers than some dude who’s been playing for just about as long, and makes $8M/year as an outfielder. As opposed to, you know, a starting pitcher.
