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| Melky Cabrera is jealous |
Barry Zito. Sometimes he does things.
We know who Barry Zito is. Nothing he’s done
this year changes what we think of him. He’s had his typical "3 craptastic
starts to every 1 pretty good start" ratio revved up and better than ever.
Anybody that tells you the contrary is lying. I have stats! His quality start
percentage this season is 52%, which is just the 3rd highest
in his tenure with the Giants behind 2007 (55%) and 2010 (58%). Bill James
derived a metric called Game Score, which judges a pitchers overall
effectiveness in a single game. You can read all about it here. Barry Zito’s average game score
this season (49.5) has actually been his fourth lowest in a Giants uniform.
He's been the same. Nothing has changed from his Giants career this season.
Zito has been same old Zito, if not worse Zito this season.
So you have Barry Zito. Toss all his ups and downs in a bowl, mixed in
with a little whacky baseball silliness, and voila! You have Barry Zito’s last
2 starts. Last start, Barry Zito was dominated by the New York Mets, led by the
unstoppable forces that are Ronny Cedeno and Jason Bay. He gave up 7 runs in
4.1 innings. In his next start, tonight, he pitched on the road against one of the best offenses in Major League history.
Of course he shuts them down and holds them to 2 runs in 6.2 innings. Huh.
This is Barry Zito. I would be lying if I said I was
surprised by tonight’s start, but I would also be lying if I said I expected
it. What a silly sentence, but Barry Zito is unpredictable. You can’t go into a
Barry Zito start with any expectations. He’s going to have starts like this and
starts where you’re like “oh yeah, Barry Zito!” He’ll have more starts
like the latter, but he’ll mix in just enough of the former to make you start
thinking “Maybe Zito is good again! Maybe if I stick a plastic horn on my pony and close my eyes, it will turn into a unicorn!” He makes you go all
crazy. During his awful starts you’re about ready to create a one act play,
where the only scene is Larry Baer jumping off a cliff holding 126 million dollars,
and it would be called “The Barry Zito Effect” Yet during starts like tonight,
where the curveball is dropping 12-6 right on the knees, you just keep thinking
“LOOK GUYS I’M JUST SAYING HE’S WON A CY YOUNG.” So it goes for Barry Zito.
Barry Zito is still not a good pitcher. He is quite bad. But
he’s the 5th starter. Even if
Zito throws a perfect game every single start, the 126 million dollars is never
going to look good. But as a 5th starter? I’ll take it, with these
gems he’s mixing in every 3 or 4 games. That's just who he is now. Look, he’s won a Cy Young, so just listen to me.
*****
Buster Posey. The best part about having a 25 year old hit
like this is he’s 25 years old. He’s young. Nobody knows, how good he can be.
He’s having a historically good season for a catcher. It’s absolutely
ridiculous. Carlos Ruiz and Yadier Molina are having equally amazing offensive
season, in what has become a remarkable season for catchers around the league.
But Carlos Ruiz is 33, which in catcher years is 89. This is almost certainly a
peak year for him, and it could very well be just a one year wonder. Yadier
Molina is 30, and this too is probably his ceiling and he might never come
close to this production if he continues to catch. Buster Posey is only 25.
This is his first full year in the bigs.
Is this his ceiling? Maybe. But what if he’s something more?
What if this is just the beginning? How good is Buster Posey? How great can he
be? That’s the beauty of a 25 year old, with all that upside. You just don’t
know. He can be anything. Tomorrow, Buster Posey could hit a 6 run home run. It could happen. Give me evidence why not. That's right, now you're sitting there looking stupid. I have won. Which is to say, Buster Posey may be the greatest thing ever and might not be. But right now, the sky's the limit.
Brandon Belt is hitting .324/.361/.444 since I wrote this.
*****
Angel Pagan is hitting again, coincidentally coinciding with his return to the leadoff spot. Still a microscopic teeny weeny winky pinky whitey tidy sample size of 18 at bats. I don't wanna make any conclusions, but there's no denying he's looked much more comfortable recently. Whether or not he can still produce at a level higher than his career average, which is about where he is right now, still remains to be seen. Here's to hoping we see it.
*****
Romo, Affeldt, Kontos, Casilla, Lopez, Mijares, Hensley, Penny. That should be your bullpen hierarchy, with Clay Hensley in a mop up duty/long man role. There is no way he should be pitching in the 7th inning of a 2 run game with Allen Craig and Matt Holliday at the plate.
By the way: Romo, Affeldt, Kontos, Casilla? That has a dominant potential. One more good reliever Sabean, that's all I ask for. The pen' may have had its problems, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities that this group can be top tier.
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