Kuzul

Barry Zito’s tenure with the San Francisco Giants has been an invaluable lesson in the finer points of futility and incompetence.

His exorbitant contract only served to sharpen the focus of the spotlight he pitched under in his early years with the Giants, until his repeated failures crossed into the realm of banality. Fans eventually became numb to his weekly debacles, to the point where anything short of abysmal collapse was like playing with house money.

However, this season Zito has turned things around.

He’s been inconsistent at times and when he’s pitching poorly the results are usually more severe than anyone this side of Tim Lincecum. But he ended the season on a high note by winning eight games after the All-Star break while the Giants went 11-0 in his last 11 regular season starts.

But is Barry Zito really a “feel-good” story yet, or is his most recent success being blown out of proportion?

Zito earned his postseason starts, that much is clear. Yes, he benefited from Lincecum’s struggles, but had Lincecum earned the nod over Zito in the NLDS, Zito very well may have immediately stepped into Madison Bumgarner‘s role, given the young lefty’s issues this October. Either way, Zito pitched his own way into the two starts he has made. 

In the first start, facing elimination and a two-game deficit in the series against Cincinnati, Zito came out with awful stuff and his location was lacking. Without the luxury of being able to let Zito work things out, Bruce Bochy pulled him with two outs in the third inning and a tenuous one-run lead.

Had this been a start in the middle of August, Zito might have put in a gritty effort and escaped with something like five innings and three or four runs allowed. Regardless, he came up short and the Giants won the game in large part because of every pitcher used in the game but Zito.

Last night against the Cardinals was an entirely different story. The Cardinals came into the game with a record of 39-12 against left-handed starting pitchers and Zito, no matter how well he may be throwing at the time, is hardly the type of pitcher one would expect to reverse that trend, especially in St. Louis and facing elimination.

Had Zito struggled early he would have been on the same short lease that he was on against Cincinnati. With Lincecum having been used the previous night and Bumgarner apparently untrustworthy, a short outing from Zito could have been disastrous and would most likely have closed the book on the 2012 San Francisco Giants.

If that happened, forget about those last 11 regular season starts. Zito, along with Bumgarner, Lincecum and, to a lesser extent, Matt Cain, all bear the brunt of the blame for the series loss.

But instead Zito turned in a real yeoman’s effort. He came into the game with command of and movement on all of his pitches like he’s rarely had with the Giants. When Zito has good command he’s become much tougher to hit than in years past. Last night was a clinic in changing speeds and location. He had several swinging strikeouts on high fastballs, something a pitcher with an 84mph fastball only gets away with if he’s dominating the bottom half of the zone with every pitch and every speed he can feature.

Now the team comes home with a low-grade tsunami’s worth of momentum and a chance to clinch a postseason series in San Francisco for the first time since they knocked the Cardinals out of the NLCS in 2002.

So does one great start under the most dire of circumstances, earned largely on the back of an incredible second half of the season, undo the previous five years of ineptitude?

Not yet, but by giving his team another chance, he’s also given himself another shot at redemption. It’s a tall order, but if the Giants win the World Series and Zito turns in another effort good enough for a win, or maybe two, he’ll have erased all but the most horrific moments between 2007-2011.

And why wouldn’t he? Even if the Giants don’t go the whole way and ride on his shoulders for part of the journey, he has still come a long way. Truth be told, a lot of the ire directed at him boils down to his contract, something that Brian Sabean bears the responsibility for, not Zito. Who wouldn’t sign an outlandish contract if it was put in front of them? Should he give back about 75 percent of what he’s earned thus far? In a perfect world, yes. Does he accept certain responsibilities for signing for so much? Sure, but one of those responsibilities is to be an integral part of a World Series-winning team.

After last night, Zito has done a lot to hold up his end of the bargain this year.

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Heading into 2012, Barry Zito had not won more than 10 games since 2007, and his last winning season was in 2006. As age continued to creep in and on the heels of his worst season in the MLB, expectations for Zito were at an all-time low this season.

Consider those expectations met and surpassed.

Zito has had a complete resurgence this season, cemented by his dominant performance against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday night.

With control pitchers like Zito, the numbers don’t tell the whole tale, but they do help to illustrate the strides he has made this year. His ERA of 4.15, while hardly stellar, is his second-best mark as a San Francisco Giant. More impressively, Zito has cut his walks down to the lowest mark in his career over a full season.

The stats are not dominant, but watching Zito reveals a vastly improved pitcher from just a year ago. He has come up big when needed, pitching brilliantly in September to cement the Giants‘ playoff status. Zito had a 3.03 ERA and 4-0 record in September, closing the season in spectacular fashion.

Zito put all that improvement and then some on display against the Cardinals. The control Zito displayed was divine. He nipped the corners of the strike zone and forced the Cardinals into weak contact all night.

The Giants needed nothing short of a miracle, and they got one from Zito. Pitching Zito was a big risk, as he did not even survive the third inning in his only other playoff start this year. The margin for error was nil: the Cardinals excel against left-handed pitching, with a .276 batting average in 2012. If Zito offered an easy pitch, the Cardinals would have been sure to capitalize.

Very rarely did Zito bend, though, surrendering six hits in just under eight innings. Zito did bend from time to time, but it was the Cardinals doing all the breaking. Zito forced the Cardinals into 10 ground balls and 12 fly balls, which the Giants’ excellent fielding easily converted into outs.

Zito finally seems to be regaining the form that made him a perennial Cy Young candidate early in his career. He has accepted his physical limitations and has improved his control to the point of one again being capable of dominance, if only for small stretches of time.

In the most telling statistic of all, the Giants have won each of Zito’s last 13 starts. He might not dominate, but he regularly puts his club in position to win the game.

Regardless of how the Giants finish this series, expect Zito to continue to assert himself as a solid pitcher in the future.

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With the Major League Baseball regular season winding down into its last week, there are frenetic finishes found in the divisions everywhere, ranging from the AL West with Texas and Oakland, to the AL Central with Detroit and Chicago and the NL East with Washington and Atlanta.

Combine that with the second wild-card this year and every team appears to be in the running for the last spot. But there is one team that is on cruise control and can afford the luxury of not pushing any of their starters: the San Francisco Giants. 

However, there is one glaring weakness shrouding the Giants’ playoff aspirations right now, and that is the playoff rotation. After Matt Cain, the ace pitcher that owns a perfect game this year and didn’t allow a single earned run in the Giants’ postseason run in 2010, there is chaos. 

Madison Bumgarner appears to be slowing down in the second half due to tiredness, posting a 4.84 ERA in September and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.11, much different from his season K/BB rate of 3.98. 

Tim Lincecum, while improving in the second half, lowering his ERA to under 5.00 (albeit briefly) and maintaining a high strikeout rate, just isn’t the pitcher he was in 2010 and certainly won’t magically re-appear, at least not this year.

One can toss out a good luck/bad luck, BABIP (batting average of balls in play) this, BABIP that argument, but he just isn’t as efficient and has trouble locating the fastball in all situations. 

Even with Bumgarner’s and Lincecum’s recent struggles, they have the postseason experience to warrant starting honors. It is the next two pitchers in the previously vaunted starting rotation that are providing the dilemma. 

One of those is Barry Zito, the pitcher ridiculed for his inability to live up to his enormous contract but that has been pitching spectacularly of late (although when looking into the stats, he is relatively the same pitcher).

The other feel-good story is Ryan Vogelsong, who had a phenomenal first half followed by a disastrous seven-start stretch where he couldn’t get anyone out due to lack of command and plain stubbornness with his fastball. 

So who starts Game 4? Give it to the man asked to sit out the entire 2010 playoffs searching for redemption, or keep the pitcher who wasn’t even pitching in the MLB just two years ago a chance to continue that storybook ending?

The answer is both. It doesn’t matter who starts; both will be able to pitch in the same game. Right now, even with Vogelsong’s strong last two starts, neither pitcher is good enough to get through six to seven innings unscathed against the high-octane offenses of the Cincinnati Reds or Washington Nationals.

Keeping both starters in to face the lineup only twice will limit the damage. Pitching either Zito/Vogelsong for the first three or four innings and the other the latter three or four will work. 

It may seem a little outlandish but it isn’t out of the question of having a tag-along pitcher. The Colorado Rockies did it this year (with little success, but that’s mostly a testament to how bad their pitching is) and it would behoove the Giants not to at least try. 

In reality, all the Giants need is to have one pitcher get hot. Matt Cain is the ace and Bumgarner’s regular-season totals back him as a solid No. 2, but the most important aspect of their success will be whether Lincecum, Zito or Vogelsong can pitch well. 

It doesn’t matter who is starting or who isn’t. Both Zito and Vogelsong will have opportunities to shine. Fortunately and somewhat surprisingly, they won’t have to be perfect because the offense has shown its ability to carry the team, something that hasn’t been said since the 2002 playoffs. 

The Giants are hoping this one ends like 2010 instead.

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The San Francisco Giants have been known for their pitching for a long time. But this year, the staff has regressed a bit.

All five pitchers have gone through rough patches this year, some longer than others. Even Matt Cain, he of the perfect game, 15-5 record and 2.86 ERA, has had his struggles. Madison Bumgarner has too, and Tim Lincecum has had a rough year overall.

However, despite all of that, the Giants are still 10 games ahead of the second-place Dodgers in the NL West and 25 games over .500. And, their pitching rotation is still dangerous. But what would make it more dangerous?

Arranging the postseason rotation the right way.

Here is my blueprint for what the Giants’ playoff rotation should look like.

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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 fanbase 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’s 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 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 reappear 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 one 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.

Be sure to read more Giants writing at Bases and Baskets, including a comparison of the 2010 World Series champions to the 2012 Giants team!

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Some Giants fans, including me, were upset with Bruce Bochy’s decision to have Barry Zito pitch before Ryan Vogelsong to open up San Francisco’s series against the Braves.

Then, Barry Zito pitched a gem.

Zito went seven innings and allowed just three hits while shutting out the red-hot Atlanta Braves. San Francisco gave him nine runs of support, so the Giants probably would have won if Vogelsong pitched. However, Zito’s gem is a great sign for Giants fans.

After watching Zito lose three straight starts in June (he allowed 17 ER in 14.1 IP during that span), most Giants fans expected another lackluster season from Zito. But he bounced back very nicely, delivering three solid performances before the All-Star break.

And then, he delivered one great performance after the All-Star break.

Even though Zito got into some jams, he did a great job overall. He was hitting his spots and getting ahead of the count with his fastball to set up his curveball and other off-speed pitches. Zito only struck out four hitters, but he hit the corners and jammed a lot of hitters.

As a result, he picked up his eighth win of the season and lowered his ERA from 4.01 to 3.75.

Zito has been an on-and-off pitcher during his entire career. Usually, he dominates right out of the gate and starts the season off with great stats. Then, he goes on a slump and pitches terribly in the second half, hurting the Giants’ playoff chances.

Giants fans are hoping that Zito doesn’t do that in the second half. If he pitches like he did today, I doubt he will. 

Atlanta came into the game riding a seven-game winning streak. Against the Mets, they scored seven, eight and six runs. However, an offense consisting of Michael Bourn, Martin Prado, Brian McCann, Chipper Jones, Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman couldn’t manage a single run off Zito, George Kontos and Clay Hensley.

Like I said, Zito has been inconsistent. However, he has turned in some great performances this year, and I expect those to continue. I think Zito will be inconsistent in the second half, but I also think Zito will turn in some great performances and finish with solid stats.

Barry Zito will be an interesting guy to watch. He has been very inconsistent and inaccurate, but today, he was effectively hitting his spots and mixing up his pitches. As long as Zito can hit his spots, he will have success in the second half.

So, in conclusion, Zito’s performance shows you what he could do in the second half. What he will do is something I can’t answer until the season comes to an end. 

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Last Sunday, the unthinkable happened. 

Seated at AT&T Park, I watched as Tim Lincecum turned-in his latest disaster on the mound. More worrisome than the hits were how erratically he allowed them.

In the first inning it was three walks, the second three strikeouts.

By the time a booming Josh Hamilton double made the score 5-0 in favor of not the Giants, I turned to my friend and said the impossible:

“At least we still have Barry Zito.”

At earlier junctures in Zito’s tenure (read: all junctures prior to 2012), this statement would serve as a respite, a bit of levity to lighten a dour mood while simultaneously commenting on the futility of the Giants perennial fifth starter.

Of course we still had Zito. That, in fact, was the problem.

But something is happening this season, and it’s the kind of subtle magic that doesn’t lend itself to acronym statistics—although we will employ some for good measure.

Barry Zito hasn’t made the type of miraculous reemergence that his teammate Ryan Vogelsong enjoyed last year. No, Zito’s transformation has been hard to pinpoint, aside from the entirely mindboggling complete game shutout he embarrassed the Rockies with to start the season.

Partly the change is mechanical.

Pitching coach Dave Rightetti has noted that Zito’s changeup doesn’t float as much, and that his curveball is a little tighter. Zito spent the off-season working with Tom House, who tinkered with his motion, the intention being to increase arm speed.

All in all, Zito spent time on many facets of his game, perhaps accepting that his failures weren’t based on any one specific overriding flaw.

Included in his off-season campaign to improve was a change his mindset during games.

Speaking with MLB.com, Zito described his new approach to game days, explaining “in that first inning, it’s your job to make this pitch and then the next pitch. If you stay there, you look up after nine innings and you’ve thrown a shutout.”

Certainly Zito has fallen a bit short of shutting down teams every time he takes the mound, but his numbers midway through June are nonetheless reflective of a big improvement.

In 12 starts, he’s 5-3. His 3.24 ERA is substantially lower than any ERA he’s had at season’s end as a Giant.

Now, certainly folks will point to Zito’s impressive beginning to 2010, which ended in a slump so bad he was excluded from San Francisco’s post-season rosters.

There’s no way to ensure a similar backslide won’t happen again in 2012, but Zito’s outlook on his role with team and position in baseball seems to have turned a corner.

In a season that’s seen a glut of serious injuries sideline the likes of Roy Halladay, Jered Weaver, Chris Carpenter, Neftali Perez and Michael Pineda (not to mention half of the San Diego Padres), it stands to reason there may be a club with interest in Zito.

Trying to gauge what Zito is worth is near impossible, given the likelihood any trade would hinge on the Giants eating a large percentage of his infamously mammoth contract.

Putting aside logistical complexities for a moment, another, more tantalizing quandary presents itself: should the Giants trade Zito if they can?

Three years ago I would’ve blurted “YES” faster than a Brandon Crawford overthrow to first.

But now? I’m not so sure.

With demigods Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner mowing down the competition and Ryan Vogelsong anchoring the five spot in the rotation, Zito lingers as one of two uncertainties among Giants starters.

If it was just Zito, fans and management could be complacent to count on the likes of Eric Surkamp and Brad Penny if things went sour. But, you can’t boot Lincecum from the rotation and stick a temporary starter at the end of the order.

Not only does it blow Lincecum’s confidence—and potentially any desire he may have to stay long-term—but it also immediately cripples a rotation that is everything for this San Francisco Giants team.

Listening to KNBR on my drive home from the Giants disheartening loss Sunday, I heard a caller refer to one of the team’s starters as “a guaranteed loss every five games.”

For once, they weren’t talking about Barry Zito.

The 2010 World Championship was built on improbable play from discarded players. We’ll need Zito if we hope to repeat the feat.

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The 2012 Major League Baseball season has gotten off to an odd start for the San Francisco Giants—the offense has come streaking out of the gates while the pitching has stumbled.

Even more bizarre, Tim Lincecum, the ace in a rotation of guys who could put up a good tussle for that mantle, has been the most prone to flame. Meanwhile, Barry Zito, the much-maligned $126 million man and the only pure spectator in the aforementioned tussle, has been damn near unhittable.

Sure, not even 10 percent of the season is in the books, but the more superstitious Bay Area baseball fans are beginning to eye that Mayan calendar with serious concern. And really, can you blame them?

The bats have been averaging 4.5 runs a game in the early going as the club’s perennial Achilles’ heel has been a strength. On the other hand, the pitchers—the orange and black backbone—have surrendered almost as many earned runs per contest (4.1). The starters have been particularly ragged. Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner and Matt Cain all got knocked around in their first trips to the mound, while Ryan Vogelsong began the year on the shelf.

Only Zito has remained above the fray.

Toss in some shoddy defense—a major-league worst 15 errors have produced seven unearned runs on the season—and the Gents’ 4-6 record makes sense. But try selling it as logical to San Francisco fans, whose baseball world is on tilt at the moment.

MadBum and Cain righted their ships in their subsequent starts, and Vogelsong turned in a fine performance once he came off the disabled list, but Lincecum’s scuffles and Barry’s brilliance have continued.

The Freak has been such only in the circus-sideshow sense of the word—if you exclude the Giants who’ve yet to pitch four innings, Timmy’s 10.54 ERA in three starts is almost twice as high as anyone else’s. He’s allowed 26 base-runners in 13.2 innings, he’s already suffered more first-inning runs in ’12 than he did in all of 2011, his command has been off and his velocity was a muted 91-92 MPH in his latest start (Monday versus Roy Halladay and the Philadelphia Phillies).

Yes, two of those three starts came in the hitter havens of Chase and Coors Fields. But the Colorado Rockies are not the offensive juggernaut they’ve been in recent years, even at home, and there’s no sugar-coating a loss to the Phillies since they were down Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and a useful Placido Polanco.

So, it’s a mild understatement to say times are not so good for the Franchise.

Just as it’s a mild understatement to say times are rosy for Mr. Zito.

The Giants’ other former Cy Young has more innings pitched (16) in two starts than Timmy has in three. He’s got the best earned run average (1.13) of any San Francisco hurler with at least four innings pitched, his WHIP (0.69) is second only to Matt Cain’s sparkling 0.60 and he’s posted eight strikeouts against only a single walk. His shutout of the Rockies on only four hits and no walks in Denver’s ERA-bloating air is already the stuff of San Francisco legend.

Ah, times are good in the Zito household.

Of course, we’ve been here before, in both cases.

Big-Time Timmy Jim labored through an ugly, four-game stretch to kick off June in ’11. In 2010, a season that carries a touch of significance in The City, Lincecum endured unsightly jags in both May and August. Even his second Cy Young campaign in 2009 got off to a slow start, as the right-hander slogged through his first two starts.

As for Baked Zito, the lefty has threatened to shake off the doldrums as recently as the championship season of ’10. That year, he boasted a sub-3.00 ERA as late as June 1 and put together another fine string of starts to finish up the month of July. In ’09, Barry pitched to a 1.93 ERA for the entire month of August. Even his inaugural season with los Gigantes, a mostly terrible 2007, saw him cobble together a sub-3.00 ERA in (you guessed it) August.

Against that backdrop, you know the question before it’s asked: Is the early-season performance of each pitcher an aberration or a sign of things to come?

Should Giants fans panic about Lincecum? Should they reserve a seat on the Zito bandwagon?

In the Franchise’s case, the answer is simple: Not yet.

To some degree, Lincecum’s a victim of his own success. When you give the faithful two Cy Young Awards and a World Series ring in your first three full seasons, expectations become unrealistic. The 27-year-old is not going to be suffocating in every start, and he was never going to throw in the mid-90s for his entire career. Consequently, the diminished velocity was never as troubling as his lack of command.

After all, command without velocity can get you to the Hall of Fame (see: Maddux, Greg), whereas velocity without command gets you a seat on the couch and a remote control.

Lincecum’s command hasn’t been terrible. He’s made too many mistakes inside the strike zone, producing too much loud contact, but he’s only walked four batters all year. Furthermore, he’s whiffing more than a batter an inning and seemed to find his rhythm against Philly after a brutal first inning.

When you consider the Freak’s body of work, that the answer to his command issues always seemed to be a tweak rather than an overhaul and the way he settled in against the Phils, I expect the filthy ace we all know and love to be back on the hill in his next start.

The question is, is Zito’s case more complicated?

There are reasons to believe his mini-resurgence is genuine and here to stay. The 33-year-old spent time with pitching guru Tom House this summer and overhauled his delivery. While the complete reconstruction didn’t hold, Zito stayed with some of the tinkering, and the early results are encouraging. Most compelling, he’s already demonstrated more resiliency than we’ve seen at any point during his Giant tenure—the Zito to which San Francisco has become accustomed would’ve melted down after spotting the Pirates two runs in the first inning of his last outing.

Or after a two-out triple in the fourth. Or after the three errors the Gents committed in the fifth and sixth.

This time, however, the lanky lefty settled in after the first, stranded that two-out triple and pitched through the errors to keep San Francisco in the game. That speaks to confidence, which is as important as anything in Barry’s arsenal.

Put another way, there are real and significant reasons for optimism.

Alas, there is a flip side to this particular coin.

Such as the tales we heard about how the theory that a quieter, more focused offseason explained his hot start in ’10 and held the promise of an equally strong finish. Another popular chestnut offered to explain his torrid April and May in ’10 was the increased use of his slider.

The point being that, as long as Barry Zito has struggled in a Giants uniform, the faithful have heard and/or read stories promising that some basic change would banish those struggles and deliver us all—Zito included—from a now-five-year nightmare.

And just as consistently, the theories have proven false, the promises empty.

Is this the year the pattern crumbles or just its latest iteration? Who knows?

The Giant faithful have been burned too many times to be hopping on the wagon with both feet, but this “new” Zito looks different and better than the previous “new” Zitos, so mark me down as cautiously optimistic.

Which is a welcome change.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The following slideshow touts the top 15 waiver-wire pickups right now, a countdown of the best free agents from the majority of 12-team roto leagues. For the most part, this list rewards players who have already fostered productive starts to the 2012 season.

Savvy readers will notice the rankings are different from last week’s offering; and that can be attributed to the waiver-wire graduations of Zack Cozart, Jordan Schafer, Henry Rodriguez, Danny Duffy and Lance Lynn—forgotten assets on draft day but now invaluable pieces with their current teams. And that’s how it should be with this list: Here today, gone tomorrow.

Enjoy the show!

Begin Slideshow

Breaking news: San Francisco Giants Barry Zito struggled in his most recent spring outing, causing concern from the fan base about whether the veteran lefty deserves a spot in the team’s starting rotation as Opening Day approaches.

What is this, 2008? Wait, 2010? No, it’s 2012! Talk about déjà vu all over again.

Talk about déjà vu all over again.

Since signing one of the most infamous contracts in the history of pro sports in 2006, Zito has been under tremendous scrutiny and immense pressure to live up to the bazillion dollar billing. Each year, it’s the same old story—for both Zito and for the organization. Well, actually, somehow every season it seemingly gets worse for the 33-year-old veteran.

In 2007, his first season in San Francisco, Zito toughed out an 11-13 record with a 4.53 ERA. The next year, he posted career-worst marks in losses (17), losing percentage (.370), bases on balls (102) and WHIP (1.60), earning himself a demotion to the bullpen as the most expensive reliever in baseball history. Since then, it has amazingly not gotten better.

In 2010, during San Francisco’s magical World Series run, Zito found himself off the playoff roster, earning himself a job as the most expensive dugout cheerleader in baseball history. Last year, he started only nine games, finding himself on the disabled list for the first time in his 12-year career. Certainly, his five-year stint with the Giants has created a tenuous strife among fans.

When will he get better? Can he get better? What can San Francisco exactly do with him?

The answers to these questions are pretty obvious: no, no and nothing. Which is terrible for the Giants. And worse news for Giants fans.

It’s amazing how a short six seasons ago, Zito was brought to San Francisco to be the headliner of the pitching staff. Now, in 2012, Zito is slated as the fifth man in the rotation—behind Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong—fighting to remain a starter…again.

Unfortunately, his spring performances have not demonstrated that he deserves a second (or 10th) chance to be a starter. Last weekend, Zito was roughed up by the Chicago White Sox—a lot. His spring ERA rose to an obese 6.61 in five appearances (four starts), with 25 hits allowed in 16.1 innings.

How he won two games this March is a mystery.

And yet through it all, San Francisco has affirmed that Zito will indeed hold onto a spot in the starting rotation, this according to CSNBayArea.com. What the Giants are exactly thinking is anyone’s guess. Other than the simple fact that they have to—keeping him in the rotation is the right move.

Obviously, the lissome spirit of a man who has slowly morphed into an underhand softball park league pitcher is extremely high. And with Zito’s egregious contract, there’s little else the team can do but send him out there every fifth day and have the offense—the worst offense in the National League—somehow score a touchdown every game that he starts.

Heck, Alex Smith can barely engineer touchdown-scoring drives—what makes fans believe the Giants can do the same?

Amazingly, San Francisco nearly did score seven runs in each of Zito’s starts last season, providing him run support of 6.54 per game. Can they be asked to do that with seriousness this season? How can a lineup be pressured to score that many runs, especially in barren AT&T Park?

Hopefully, a rebooted lineup with the return of Buster Posey will do wonders for the offense—especially whenever Zito is pitching. Can’t San Francisco simply start Zito during home games, where he posted a 3.14 ERA in 2011 and a 3.35 ERA in 2010?

Though not the team’s desire, having Zito as the caboose in the pitching rotation is a necessity. The Giants are trudging into the 2012 season opener with penciled question marks about the team’s overall health.

Last season’s hidden gem, Vogelsong, is expected to miss the first half of April while recovering from a back injury. Meanwhile, earlier this week, prospect Eric Surkamp, was also shut down indefinitely with elbow soreness in his pitching arm. The young lefty had produced a generally impressive spring, despite a 4.41 ERA in three starts.

Though Surkamp had an outside shot at making the big league roster, he had been demonstrating tremendous progress and poise in spring training, enough to warrant consideration as a long reliever or spot starter, especially with Vogelsong temporarily sidelined.

With all of the minor dings to the starting staff, Zito is left, alone, as the de facto safety net to fill any vacancy in the rotation. Cringe. This is a clear example of how shallow the talent pool of starting pitchers is in the Giants’ farm system.

Despite the downward trend, Zito is the optimal choice as the No. 5 starter. He comes into 2012 healthy and focused, but the truth is, it’s hard to anticipate exactly how he’ll perform this season. Could he be tolerantly bad, part-time bad, worrisome bad or strangle-Dave-Righetti-with-the-bullpen-phone-cord bad?

Whatever the prognostication may be, if San Francisco wants to return to the playoffs this year, they have to figure out long-term plans B and C through Z for Zito. After all, Lincecum and Cain cannot carry the load by themselves—not as two-fifths of the starting rotation.

But for right now, banishing Zito to the bullpen is a pricey move; and it doesn’t make any sense given his recent history. Lefties batted .294 against him last season, and he was extremely terrible early in the count. In his first 15 pitches of any appearance, batters posted a robust .965 OPS. Yikes.

Crazily, Zito’s statistics actually prove that he’s more capable as a starting pitcher. How did that happen?

Given the dearth of pitching depth and numbers that support his inadequacy as a reliever, Zito has to be a starter. Plain and simple.

At present, it’s wise to keep Zito in the fifth spot on the starting staff. The Giants just need to make sure the bullpen is deep, loose and ready to go somewhere by the third inning.

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