Braves Continue To Be Flummoxed By Noted Greg Maddux Impersonator Barry Zito

Barry Zito plays baseball without a left arm and no baseball. Amazing.

At this point in time, you should probably know who Barry Zito is. I’m not referring to the existence of Barry Zito, who certainly is a live person that is probably somewhere spending up to 126 million dollars. I’m referring to Barry Zito, the pitcher, which is probably what you all thought I originally meant but you see I'm not really that smart. By now, Barry Zito is something of a known entity. That’s not to say Zito is some Vogelsong-like robot dumping in quality start after quality start. Zito doesn’t flop in the same start everytime. Which is, in so many words, exactly what we know about Barry Zito. To put it better, Barry Zito is a bad pitcher who pitches well sometimes, every time. Tonight was one of those times.

Here’s a quick look at his last 8 games:

Date		Opp	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Jul 6	@	PIT	5.0	7	4	4	3	3
Jul 17	@	ATL	7.0	3	0	0	1	4
Jul 22	@	PHI	7.0	5	3	3	1	7
Jul 28		LAD	5.1	7	4	4	1	4
Aug 2		NYM	4.1	6	7	7	3	1
Aug 7	@	STL	6.2	8	2	2	0	4
Aug 12		COL	5.1	7	4	4	2	3
Aug 18	@	SDP	4.0	6	4	4	2	1

In short, it's bad, great, okay, bad, very bad, good, bad, bad, and today, great. That's basically Barry Zito in a nutshell. I've been over all this before, but my readership right now is about 3 people including me so it's worth repeating. In fact as I'm writing this, I realize it's pretty much the same thing I wrote here, in Zito's last good start. Like, almost word for word. I was going to toss in some stats about him still being terrible, but I already wrote about that there! Oh dear! I have run out of things to say about Barry Zito and now find myself repeating things about him. Which kind of is exactly how you should feel about Barry Zito. There's your typical writing template for his bad starts:

Oh goodness Barry Zito is terrible at his job.  Today he pitched (insert game stats) and gave up a 3 run homer to (insert terrible hitter). After the 15th walk of the day, Bochy finally pulled him. The good news is that there's only 1 and half more seasons of this. The bad news is that the world is ending in late December, so Barry Zito will forever be a Giant. Gee, I sure do wish the Giants didn't sign Barry Zito.

That ones going to be used a lot. Then there's the template for his good starts:

Barry Zito is the Giants 5th starter, so you can live with his terrible starts when he pulls of a start like this out of his (insert body part depending on how good the start was). Tonight, Zito went (insert game stats) and even struck somebody out! What a rare but brilliant day in the life of Barry Zito! Look I know he's taken a lot of heat over the years, but perhaps the last 960+ innings he's thrown were a fluke! 

I don't want to come off as me not appreciating starts like these from Barry Zito. He battled through some first inning command issues tonight and pitched one excellent ballgame. I say for about the 50th time, he's just a dandy of a 5th starter. But the fact remains he has the worst xFIP amongst major league starting pitchers. Starts like this don't change that because at this point a few of these gems are expected. And for now the 51st time, that's completely fine for a 5th starter.

*****

Here is how the Giants scored in the 4 run 5th inning:

- Hunter Pence bunt RBI single

- Freddie Freeman error allowing a run

- Hector Sanchez seeing eye bouncing ball just passed Freddie Freeman, 2 runs score

Unstoppable!

******

I like to give credit where credit is due, and tonight, that man is Bruce Bochy. Yes, our very own lovable, fluffy, adorable manager himself. In the ninth inning, Javier Lopez struck out Brian McCann, and pretty made ole' Brian look like a buffoon. The next batter was a right handed pinch hitter, David Ross. Here were the scenarios for Bruce Bochy:

1) Leave Lopez in to face the righty Ross

2) Bring in Sergio Romo to face Jason Heyward, who would pinch hit for Ross

Given Romo's recent struggles, it's easy to see why Bochy would be hesitant. That and the fact that Javier Lopez just abused one of the best hitting catchers of the past 5 years. If the situation ain't broke, don't fix it. There is also the part about Jason Heyward being a behemoth, and David Ross not being one. 

However, Lopez is a loogy in every sense of the made up word. He's death to lefties, but a pushover to righties. Here are numbers:

left handed batters OPS against 2012: .554

right handed batters OPS against 2012: 1.035

1.035! It's a small sample, but throughout his entire career his splits have been very extreme. Righties aren't just hitting Lopez. They're swinging at him like a piñata and not using a blindfold. 

It would be oh so easy for Bochy to overreact to Romo's last few appearances. He hasn't been completely right since giving up the first Hanley Ramirez home run. But the man has quite possibly been a top 5 reliever in baseball the past 2 years. A few appearances shouldn't change that. His splits are exaggerated like Lopez and even though Jason Heyward is great, Sergio Romo makes the best look foolish.

Bochy chose Romo, who promptly recorded the final 2 outs of the game. Bochy trusted Romo, despite his struggles and knew Lopez gets obliterated by righties. It's small, but Bochy wasn't looking at just the small sample size of the last few appearances. He went to Romo because he's been a fantastic pitcher. That's something I did not expect. Bruce Bochy, what a mysterious man.