Barry Zito has given the San Francisco Giants fans nothing
short of 126 million reasons to hate him. As excited as the Giants organization
and fan base had been to get the former Cy Young Award winner (can you believe
he used to be that good?), San
Francisco quickly came to despise the pitcher who all but robbed the bank of
one of baseball’s most storied franchises.
In the five seasons that Zito has pitched for the Giants
(2007-11), he posted a horrendous 4.55 ERA to go with a 43-61 record in over
800 IP. That fell far short of the Giants expectations of him. San Francisco
had reason to believe that there was still something left of the pitcher who
had won 23 games in 2002. That said, the argument that he was overrated
certainly has merit: Zito had hovered around a .500 winning percentage from
2003-06 and never had an ERA below 3.30. The Giants were expecting a miracle to
re-appear from the shadows of a one-hit wonder.
Fast forward to 2012 and actually, Barry Zito has been
impressive by his (albeit low) standards. As of 9/22, Zito has 13 wins and an
ERA just above 4.00. But the Giants have finally become accustomed to the
results they will be getting when they put Zito on the mound. It is not Matt
Cain or Madison Bumgarner out there, but a mediocre pitcher who can
occasionally put together good starts.
If the ultimate judge of a pitcher is whether or not his
team gets a “W” when the lights go off after the game, Zito has been
outstanding. Yes, Barry Zito with his 4.18 ERA and his 84 MPH
fastball has actually been outstanding
in something.
The Giants have won every single of Zito’s past nine starts.
A perfect 9-0.
Granted, the Giants have managed to amass over six runs per game for Zito during that
stretch but the end result is what matters, and the end result has been quite
pleasing of late. Believe it or not, Zito has actually put together an
impressive month of September even by a traditional pitcher’s standards, having
a 3-0 record to complement an impressive 2.66 ERA and only five walks in 23.2
IP. (He still has one more start in September to blow it though so the jury is
still waiting to see if the real Barry Zito will please stand up.)
Is this enough to satisfy Giants fans? Certainly not. The
stress he has caused and games he has lost are still all too fresh in the city
by the bay. But is there a way out for Barry Zito? Now that is a much more
complicated question. If he manages to continue to put together starts that may
not be stellar but get the job done, it is a realistic possibility. Especially
if the Giants make a deep playoff run supported by Zito in the back end of the
rotation, who knows? Baseball is a funny game that is based on one fundamental
idea: what have you done for me lately.
Look no further than the demise that has
been Tim Lincecum. The Freak has two Cy Young awards to his name but the
Giants no longer trust the former ace who led the Giants to lose 12 out of his
first 14 starts of the 2012 season.
As Lincecum has shown, the “what have you done for me
lately” philosophy will get you nowhere if the results are not consistent.
Recently it has been looking better for Zito, no doubt. When it comes down to
crunch time will be the true test of Zito’s grit (or whatever is left of it).
Barry Zito has the power to change Giants’ fans opinion of
him in the next month. If he does not do it now, he may have cemented his
unfortunate legacy as the most overpaid Giant of all time.
No pressure, Barry.
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