When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

04.29.2008
Put Your Junk in the Box

Barry Zito is in the bullpen. Picture this: Jonathan Sanchez strikes out 8 in four innings but throws too many pitches and quickly tires in the 5th. Get the long man up! Bring in Zito before this game gets out of hand!

Obviously there’s no upside to this. It’s a desperate, desperate move made by desperate, desperate men. A couple weeks hanging out with Brad Hennessey, at least metaphorically, and occasionally pitching when the Giants are hopelessly behind: How this will help straighten out Zito is beyond my powers of comprehension.

What he needs is time off to clear his head, a thorough physical examination, and a nice quiet spot where he can try to rebuild his game. It’s like the opening sequence to the Six Million Dollar Man — Barry Zito, a man barely alive — except for the ‘1’ and ‘2’ in front of the ‘6.’

Step 1: Forget the junk. Forget the curve and the change-up. Throw strikes with the fastball.
Step 2: Throw good strikes with the fastball.
Step 3: Gain a couple miles per hour on the fastball, then repeat steps 1 and 2.
Step 4: If there’s no going back to the high-80s fastball, figure out which off-speed pitches best complement the 84–MPH fastball.
Step 5: Take time to master those off-speed pitches. 

Zito points to his success in the second half last year as a sign he’s not so far gone. But he’s so far removed from that guy, and that guy was already far removed from the Zito of mid-decade, that this isn’t just a matter of turning back the clock to September.

Whatever the problem — and remember, Zito insists that he’s perfectly healthy — I don’t see how the bullpen assignment will fix what ails him.

Runners on the corners, Ryan Howard at the plate, Giants already down 5–0 in the fourth, and here comes Zito. The Philly fans are going nuts and chanting “1–2–6! 1–2–6!”… What was Step 1 again?



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[April 29, 2008 4:17 PM]  |  link  |  reply
bigO said

try these 5 steps:
1-Denial
2-Anger
3-Bargaining
4-Depression
5-Acceptance

[April 30, 2008 9:51 AM]  |  link  |  reply
reeky replied to bigO

And he's still at step 1!

You know, baseball is always interesting. It's painful to watch Zito do the 6-step program (or 1-2-6 step?), but the journey will be packed with lessons about people and performance. It's Greek tragedy, the mighty (and overpaid) brought low. At least we're not a contending team, where Zito would be the difference between the playoffs and third place.

[April 29, 2008 5:01 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Jefferson said

Here's what I'd do.

I'd only bring him in for low-pressure situations: mop-up work in blowouts, or maybe the ceremonial first pitch. The rest of the time, I'm having him throw bullpens with Righetti, breaking down his entire delivery and letting him unwind (no pun intended). Preferably, he'd be doing all of this in Fresno, but that's not gonna happen. They need to take as much pressure off him as possible, and let him rebuild his psyche and his mechanics slowly. I don't care if he only pitches 20 innings the rest of the year. We can't count on him right now, so let's not even try. It probably won't work, but at least it minimizes the number of damaging innings he throws.

[April 30, 2008 1:41 AM]  |  link  |  reply
natteringnabob replied to Jefferson

I'm sort of shocked that they've really concluded this quickly that running him out every 5 days (and giving him the ball on opening day... ahem) is not the answer.

There probably isn't an answer, I agree.

But, at the very least, they've accepted that having Yabuuuuuu or Chulk or Misch pitch the first 5 innings and letting Zito mop up the rest makes more sense than having him put the team down by 6 or 8 runs. So, I'm actually encouraged by the acceptance on the part of Magowan that 0-5 wouldn't become 20-5 if Zito kept starting every 5th day all season.

Maybe he'll get motivated, who knows? What we all know is- he was terrible and not improving, so if nothing else pitching him from the pen is a step up.

[April 29, 2008 5:39 PM]  |  link  |  reply
trilljester said

On a brighter side, Matt Cain's first win of the season was a dandy last night. Granted, the Rockies starting pitching is in more of a funk than ours right now.

[April 29, 2008 5:58 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to trilljester

Cain didn't look so good. Half the time he didn't know where the ball was going. Even called strikes missed the target. But he deserves it--payback for the times he's pitched brilliantly with nothing to show for it.

[April 29, 2008 6:09 PM]  |  link  |  reply
trilljester replied to ELM

Yes, very true. I should've distinguished that the entire effort from the team was a dandy, not Cain in particular. I mentioned him because he finally got some offensive help to get the win.

[April 29, 2008 6:55 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to trilljester

Agreed. Great work by the bullpen in particular.

[April 29, 2008 8:29 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

You are missing a step 6, right? (1-2-6)

[April 30, 2008 3:03 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Rick D said

Just out of curiosity, why can't Zito rebuild or recuperate or whatever in AAA Fresno? They could even put him on the DL and then call it a "rehab" assignment -- anything has got to be easier on BZ than the torture of every single appearance so far. (Case in point: Chad Cordero has cycled through Columbus from Washington, and is likely headed there again.)

[May 1, 2008 2:09 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to Rick D

I'm 99% sure he can't be sent to Fresno without his consent. Would he consent to it? who knows. Could be a matter of pride.