After Brandon Webb showed Brian Sabean what a real Cy Young Award-winning pitcher looks like, Carney Lansford put it thusly:
“He’s a good pitcher, but if you make him get his sinker up you can hit him,” Lansford said. “You have to execute your game plan and not chase so many pitches out of the zone. You just can’t do that. You’ve got to be disciplined against a pitcher like that.”
Asked if it was frustrating to watch, Lansford replied, “It’s depressing, actually, watching some of our at-bats. Hopefully, it gets better.”
Ummmm…. yeah, me too.
And here’s Bonehead, talking about Zito:
“I see progress, I really do. It’s going to get better.”
Bonehead is wrong. It’s not getting better. It is what it is.
Zito, in the 37 starts since he arrived, has learned that the move to the NL hasn’t helped him at all, as some of us (me, included) thought it would. Facing a pitcher instead of a DH hasn’t made a bit of difference, or at least, it hasn’t offset the fact that Zito’s style of pitching seems to work better in the AL, for reasons too obscure for me to observe.
Additionally, as a fastball/curveball pitcher, the loss of velocity on his fastball has him pitching scared all game long, as hitters can lay off the curve, in fact, hitters have no incentive to go after the curve at all, because he can’t get his fastball by anybody. He is, in effect, a batting practice pitcher, with razor-thin margin for error. He is, in fact, a slightly better version of Woody, without the luck. A .500 pitcher, who’ll win when he is absolutely on, and lose if he’s off by justthismuch. Which makes his contract the worst in baseball history.
Oh I agree he’s a huge bust. He makes the Kevin Brown deal seem forthright. I never hoped they would sign him in the first place. I was hoping that the day Sabean announced his signing was some fever dream I was having.
But since they did sign him I’m trying to make the best of it and that is to leave him as cannon fodder for as long as he wears the orange and black.
At a certain point they’ll just have to release him. And that will be a great day because it’ll mean the team will be on the rise again.
The fact an outright release of the second highest paid pitcher in baseball makes sense should basically mean Sabeans fired right?…..right? NO!?!?! Stupid owners blow
I’m now fine with the Zito situation. Quite simply he’s overpaid and not going anywhere so it becomes all about what the Giants to with him that matters. And I for one think it was brilliant to make him the Opening Day starter.
Let’s face it with our line up the Giants cannot beat the number one starter on any team in the league. So Zito should take that start. We couldn’t beat Penny on opening day and I’m glad Zito was the starter. We couldn’t beat Brandon Webb if the Diamondbacks only played their infielders so again the perfect starter is Zito. I don’t care if he loses 28 games this year if it protects the younger players from having to deal with matching up against aces. He’s got plenty of cash for therapy. I’d like to see him coming in on short rest to face a number one if needed, that should be his job. He’s being paid to be cannon fodder.
I’m also not sure about this idea about the Zito deal being against everything that Sabean says he stands for. If Sabean has proven one thing its that he’s lying everytime he opens his mouth. Never ever make the mistake of listening to Sabean. He should only be judged by his actions because that is the truth of what he stands for. He’ll say anything but its what he does that matters. And Zito fits in perfectly with what he stands for.
Greg, I see your point about how with our awful lineup we can’t beat most #1 starters so we might as well waste it on Zito. HOWEVA, what about say…4 years from now when Zito’s makin 20 mill and is possibly (probably?) worse than he is now. Unless you’re hoping we signed a guy to be a punching bag for a 7 year rebuilding process Zito is a huge bust
This site is depressing now. Rarely updated and the posts usually contain a lot of anger. A real disappointment…
C’mon John, why not start posting about the young pitchers and how well they are doing.
The Braves just announced that Hampton is listed as year to year.
After tonight’s game the Giants have scored the fewest runs and allowed the most runs in the National League.
Thank goodness we have so many gamers, or we might be stuck with a bad team.
By the time this season is over, the term “gamer” will have officially become an insult around the league.
btw john…how about some props for lansford
for umpteen years, we had hitting coaches who stayed mute, no matter what slop our hitters were hacking at
its a nice change of pace
That was my first thought as well… it’s nice to hear SOMEONE in the Giants’ organization isn’t completely full of shit. They must have some amazing kool-aid in the fridge.
the zito deal is the worst, because it goes against everything that sabean has said he stands for
it was done because the giants needed to make a splash on the fa market, and zito was the only one willing to sign
sabean again (like in the el fatso deal, and apparently in the rowand signing) bid against himself
now, this team is stuck with zito for at least another 5 years….during which time, cain and lincecum will become eligible for fa….whoever is the gm, is gonna have a hard, if not impossible task at resigning both…the zito deal may be the ruination of the franchise
As I’ve posted, Zito is Washburn.
I vote for the Zito deal as dumber than the Hampton signing, for the simple reason that when the Giants signed Zito they had the example of what happened with Hampton staring them in the face, and they went ahead and signed Zito anyway.
It’s like, if one guy goes swimming and gets eaten by an alligator, and his friend sees this happen but jumps into the lake anyway and gets eaten by the same alligator, then which guy is dumber?
In any competition between dumb and dumber, I always put my money on the Giants.
That’s an excellent point, one I hadn’t considered. Perhaps even we are soon to be outdone by the next GMoron to sign a crappy lefty. Mark Buehrle anyone?
The worst. Zito cannot throw a ball. He throws like a girl. He is a the classic example of a kid who has no natural throwing ability, being schooled from an extremely young age to “pitch”. with expensive lessons paid for by indulgent Southern California parents with more dollars than sense. Now he is 28, throws a baseball like my daughter, except not as hard, with no skills except some retarded guitar playing and some “I used to be a ballplayer, stories”. His curveball is a joke. He can’t throw it for strikes anymore. He can’t throw 2, much less three consecutive strikes with it, hence, opposing hitters can sit on his 83 mph bp fastball or 72 mph change up. The difference yesterday was thus: Brandon Webb equal Big League Pitcher. Barry Zito equal Beer League Pitcher.
Zito can’t get beyond the 5th inning with his ridiculous pitch counts, 38 in the second inning alone yesterday. So everytime he gets trotted out there, you can bet that at least one inning will feature 8 position players picking their asses in the field for 20 minutes, watching him walk the yard, while they get to spend all of 3 minutes in the dugout with 8 pitch innings by their own pathetic selves. Simply unwatchable
Funny how The Giants championed Barry Zito for 8 years worth of horrid contract, and could not find room in the most pathetic offensive lineup in San Francisco Giants history for the other Barry. There is still some novelty to Lincecum, but until he and the rest of the stiffs on this staff learn how to pitch beyond the 6th or 7th inning, there really is little hope of watching good baseball except by opponents. By the end of May, nobody will care, except tourists who miss the Blue And Gold Fleet tours of Alcatraz. Tuesday’s game announced attendance at 30,000. The stadium was half empty. Literally. Nice job Magowan. Nice job Sabean. Nice job Baer. Real Nice.
This is hilarious! I’d have to agree with it all. Worst contract in history! (I hope I eat my words)
Darren Dreifort, Dodgers | Five years, $55 million
L.A. rewarded its young (29 at the time) righty with this deal in the winter of 2000 — despite a 39-45 career
record with a 4.28 ERA. Dreifort responded with one full season — as a reliever, in ’04 — nine wins, 15 losses,
one save, a 4.64 ERA, several trips to the DL and an early retirement.
Carl Pavano, Yankees | Four years, $39.95 million
The “American Idle” has been often injured (shoulder, back, butt), angered many (notably when he broke two ribs
in a car accident and declined to tell anyone) and had his desire to play questioned by teammates. Pavano has
made 19 starts with the Yanks — only two since July of ’05. They still owe him $11 million for ’08.
Mike Hampton, Rockies | Eight years, $121 million
This deal, signed in the wild winter before the ’01 season, was doomed from the start. The lefty Hampton was
so bad — 21-28, 5.75 ERA — that the Rocks paid Florida (and then the Braves) to take him. The Braves still
owe Hampton — who missed all of ’06 and ’07 — $15 million for ’08.
The Hampton deal HAS to be the worst.
This stuff copied from SI. (Don’t wanna get sued.)
Big difference is, two of those guys got injured and the other had to pitch in Coors Field. Zito has NO excuses…
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