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Monday, July 13, 2009

Kawakami: Doing the math: Nobody in baseball throws more duds than Barry Zito

Zeet Games? Could have sworn that made Cracked 12 Awesomest Games of 2010 list.

He’s not a good No. 3 starter, not a good No. 4, not deserving of any spot if he produces wipe-out games every third outing. Which he’s doing.

Yes, I went back and looked it up, just to see if Zito’s long and ugly run of quick-KOs as a Giants pitcher are any worse and any more horrifying than anybody else.

And I found: If you count up any outing of 5 innings or less, in which the starting pitcher gives up 4 earned runs or more–call it a Zeet Game-guess who leads the way this year and for the last two years?

* Zito has 6 six Zeet Games (in 18 starts), tied for most ZGs in baseball.

That’s fully one-third of his 2009 outings in which he gave the Giants almost no chance to win. (Even with a perked-up offense, the Giants are 1-5 in ZGs. They’re 8-10 in his starts overall. They’re 41-29 in everybody else’s starts.)

Repoz Posted: July 13, 2009 at 11:30 AM | 15 comment(s)
Related News: General, Sabermetrics, San Francisco

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1. flournoy Posted: July 13, 2009 at 10:55 AM (#3251819)

This has nothing to do with Kenshin, I see.

2. bfan Posted: July 13, 2009 at 10:59 AM (#3251827)

Is this guy a sports-writer in the Bay Area? I am impressed he did his own research, with numbers to back his assertions.

3. Tripon Posted: July 13, 2009 at 11:02 AM (#3251830)

Yep. Kawakami is a sports writer in the bay area.

4. Shooty Did Not Kill McGurk

Posted: July 13, 2009 at 11:04 AM (#3251833)

Is this guy a sports-writer in the Bay Area? I am impressed he did his own research, with numbers to back his assertions.

He tries. I think he reads the blogs and after getting hammered a few times for his articles he's made an attempt to research his work better. He also wrote a mea culpa for suggesting the Giants trade Timmeh for Alex Rios.

5. JPWF13

Posted: July 13, 2009 at 11:08 AM (#3251840)

I hadn't paid attention lately, I had thought Zito was making a come back thsi year, oh well...

his K rate is up significantly, but his overall performance is still sucktastic

6. Danny Posted: July 13, 2009 at 11:13 AM (#3251847)

The Giants, as a low scoring team, are better off with Zito as a high variance pitcher. It's his overall performance that's the problem--the lack of consistency is actually a small plus.

7. The Joe Mauer Power Hour (kj) Posted: July 13, 2009 at 12:26 PM (#3251919)

And I found: If you count up any outing of 5 innings or less, in which the starting pitcher gives up 4 earned runs or more–call it a Zeet Game-guess who leads the way this year and for the last two years?

I don't think I'd classify 5 IP, 4 ER as a "dud" game. It's not great, but with the expectations given to today's starting pitchers, it's definitely not terrible.

8. Tripon Posted: July 13, 2009 at 12:33 PM (#3251923)

How about when you signed your contact, it was the most money ever for a pitcher?

9. cardsfanboy

Posted: July 13, 2009 at 12:55 PM (#3251941)

heck looking at wellemeyer the writer originally said he only had 5 in 18 starts, but he is ignoring the fact that Wellemeyer had a couple of starts which qualified as a "ZG" but was kept in longer. in fact from what I can tell everysingle game that Wellemeyer allowed 4 or more runs, he allowed them before the 5th inning(which is a total of 10 ZGs) and had another game where he was pulled before completing the third inning while allowing three runs.

10. Alex_Lewis Posted: July 13, 2009 at 03:04 PM (#3252117)

it's not necessary to write an article justifying Zito hatred. All who have eyes can, in fact, see.

11. Tripon Posted: July 13, 2009 at 03:27 PM (#3252132)

He is Barry Zito. And he will be a Giant for the next 4 years.

12. jwb Posted: July 13, 2009 at 04:35 PM (#3252208)

And he will be a Giant for the next 4 years.

So you're guessing "No" on that 2014 option, right?

13. bumpis hound Posted: July 13, 2009 at 06:26 PM (#3252297)

Seems to me that Zito seems to throw *much* worse to Molina than other catchers. If you watch replays from yesterday's game, Molina sets his glove after Zito has thrown his pitch. I've noticed that Z gets hit much harder when he throws to M, and I gotta think it has to do with the way M sets his glove. But, as I said, this is only from watching; who knows, maybe he has an anti-Angel block or something. I was scaring my dog yesterday when I saw Bochy had Molina catching Z, as to me the outcome is inevitable (although Z threw well to M a few starts ago, but that was once out of a number of bad games). No matter how hard I yelled at the TV, they wouldn't put Whiteside in. Why the Giants would undermine their $127mm man by having him bang his head against the proverbial Molina wall is beside me. (To be said: I love Molina, he's been a great Giant. I just wish they'd leave him to the rest of the staff and not the headcase on the rebound who keeps getting killed when M catches.)

14. Jeff K. Posted: July 13, 2009 at 06:45 PM (#3252310)

All who have eyes can, in fact, see.

Blind people have eyes.

15. Alex_Lewis Posted: July 13, 2009 at 07:06 PM (#3252336)

Blind people have eyes.

It was a biblical reference, and one that seemed appropriate given the level of this Zito disaster.

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Kawakami: Doing the math: Nobody in baseball throws more duds than Barry Zito

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