A 'new' Zambrano hopes to put sideshows behind

With Carlos Zambrano, it's too often been about the sideshows:

How is the Cubs' ace pitcher behaving?

Is the next blowup just a matter of time?

What about his weight?

While Zambrano has created all of those sideshows, the main event takes place on the pitcher's mound, and Round 1 for 2010 is set for Monday at Turner Field in Atlanta.

Zambrano says he's ready.

Another guy with his eyes focused on the circle 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate is Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild.

As far as the pitching goes, Rothschild says he likes what he saw this spring from Z.

"The arm is freer," Rothschild said. "I think some life came back to his arm, which is good.

"The weight and all that, that's good, but I've seen him pitch heavy and pitch really well, not heavy but at weights more than now and pitch well. Does it play into it? Probably injury wise it might, a little bit. The thing I liked, about halfway through spring, you could see more agility in his arm, more flexibility, and that's important.

"He was in the strike zone a lot more consistently. And the ball was moving all over."

Zambrano will be making his sixth straight opening-day start, 1 shy of Fergie Jenkins' team record. (Jenkins' 7 starts were not consecutive.)

The heavyweight of the Cubs pitching staff came to camp this year not as heavy after a winter of workouts, which he apparently stuck to diligently.

He seems happy with the changes.

"Yes, I am," he said. "I'm very proud of this team and with myself, and everything is going good for us. Everybody's going about their business. Everybody on this team is taking care of everybody and themselves. That's good when you see a team that wants to win. We want to win every year, but this year, I think this is special."

Zambrano shed about 15 pounds over the winter, as he stayed in Chicago most of the time. As spring training ended, he said he didn't lose the additional 5 pounds he wanted to lose in Mesa, but overall he looked trimmer.

"I have to get myself in better shape during the season," he said. "That's another challenge that I have, and I think so far I've been mentally prepared to be ready to enter the season (at) this much better weight. Like Larry told me the other day, 'You just have to keep yourself in shape and you will be good.'"

The physical conditioning became an issue last year when Zambrano spent two stints on the DL, one with a hamstring strain and one with lower back spasms. Late in the season, he admitted to not doing enough work on his abs.

As a result, Zambrano pitched only 1691/3 innings in 2009, going 9-7 with a 3.77 ERA. In his previous five seasons, respectively, he won 14, 18, 16, 14 and 16 games.

No doubt with a little luck, Zambrano's win total easily could have jumped into the double figures. From May 22 through July 7, Zambrano went 1-3 with 5 no-decisions as the Cubs scored only 21 runs in those nine games.

But that's baseball. Zambrano hasn't set a goal for victories this season, but he has set one for innings pitched, drawing on inspiration from Greg Maddux, the former Hall of Fame-caliber pitcher who was Zambrano's teammate from 2004-06 and is now a special assistant to Cubs general manager Jim Hendry.

The number Zambrano has in mind is around 220 innings.

"That's the goal," he said. "Greg Maddux came to me, and he told me to put in my mind to throw 215 innings, 220 innings. That's what I want to do. I want throw more than 220 innings and build my body and my arm strength to do that this year."

Then there's that little matter of comportment. Always a competitive sort, Zambrano has let his emotions get the best of him. He earned a six-game suspension (effectively, 1 start) for a tirade last May 27 after a confrontation with umpire Mark Carlson.

Zambrano pretended to "eject" Carlson from the game before he heaved the ball into left field and slammed his glove into the dugout fence.

Will he ever change?

"He tells me he's changed," said manager Lou Piniella. "To me, that means there might be a little slippage at times. Let's not expect perfection. I basically see a guy that's really focused and has really worked hard. He's been under good control. Again, under game, regular-season game competitiveness or whatever word you want to use, nobody's going to be perfect."

Zambrano claimed to not understand what "slippage" means.

"I don't know what that is; my English doesn't get that far," he said. "That was in the past. Next question. That was in '09."

For the final word on this subject, let's return to Rothschild, who spends more time with Zambrano than just about anybody with the Cubs.

"You want all your pitchers to act accordingly and all that," the coach said. "It was talked about a lot less when he was winning 17, 15 games. When you win 9, it's talked about a lot more. And I think it happens more often because he's more frustrated when he's not performing at the level he's used to.

"It's kind of a double-edged sword. If he's winning 15-20 games, you'd probably have people imitating him, which wouldn't be a good. But that's what the world is all about when you're an athlete.

"Yeah, the responsibility lies with handling yourself like you're suppose to handle yourself on the field. Handle the adversity that comes with the business a little bit. He's shown times where he's done it very well- It's not just a part-time thing. It's an everyday thing."