Estes's Ghost: The Return

I was willing to give Zito a chance to improve, but it's just gotten worse. Rotoworld says he's given up 6 or more runs in 6 of 18 starts this season... so a third of the time, he's gone out there and just got bombed. Seriously, what the hell? I don't get how he was able to be so successful for such a long time in Oakland... his stuff is nothing special and he has no command of it.

-He's old (27?!) and past his prime
-He misses the crazy shenanigans of those partying A's
-He misses his boyfriend Billy Beane
-He doesn't think he gets enough run support
-He fucked with his delivery over the winter and it's set him back

What do you guys think?

Its all mental, I think. It breaks his concentration incessantly on the mound, he loses focus right in the middle of his delivery, his mechanics are breaking down and he's routinely falling out of his arm slot while his arm drags and a whole bunch of crap we would expect to see from somebody who can't find a clue with a rake. Thats why his fastball is flat and wild, and his curve roly poly like in a pie throwing contest.

He could get everything back after the all-star break and it wouldn't surprise me. On the other hand it could take until next season. Or until the next polar shift.

I mean, why kill yourself for the 2007 SF Giants?

If he's a headcase, nothing will fix him as long as the contract is in effect...

Of course, if it were that simple, I'd be straight by now.

As a longtime fan of his, and as someone who is attracted to this type (else clearly I would be a fan of people who I find uninteresting and are statistically successful) Zito was seriously spooked out of his mind by the contract and the concomitant pressure. Particularly difficult is how bad the team has been outside of him, which has made the frustrations of the fanbase boil over, a fanbase whose anger has already successfully pushed one looks-good-but-not-working pitcher from merely problematic through to unpopular to hated to out the door. (Hi Mando.)

The size of the contract automatically engendered a very natural resentment among everyone who makes less. That undercut Zito's likeability quotient immensely, without actually having to do with his being likeable. He was a lot more likeable, record aside, when he was making less than a million dollars a year. If Tim Lincecum were not making major league minimum, but, say, was making $10 million a year, he'd be far less liked.

Zito is the kind who notices that, and like E said, it has affected him. He knows he's on probation, that he cannot, cannot, live up to 126 000 000. But he's trying to, which makes things worse. Like in most things particularly baseball, the harder you try ...

I don't know how to fix this. It is a confluence of factors, how bad the team is, how angry and impatient we the fanbase is, the sheer size of the contract. I say this because the usual "remedies" -- release him, trade him, fire the GM, get rid of Magowan and Baer (!?!) -- are far more difficult, with far more negative consequences, than simply accepting this is a bad season (or bad half-season) and believing the abilities that made him so successful, and beloved on the other side of the Bay, will reassert themselves.

There may be something to the send-him-down thing. I read the quote he gave to Schulman in the Gate today. Still sounds calm and reasonable. I think he's repressing, not meditating. To send him down would be an admission not of failure, but of being in trouble, by the front office, and would probably tick him off and get him to snap out of what to me looks a lot like denial.

Barry Zito has been, since he first showed up, my favorite player. Why? Because he's my type, plus he was good. I looked at him and thought he's like Estes (my Shawnie) but level-headed and can pitch in the playoffs. I spent too many years dreaming of him wearing orange and black to turn my back on him now. I'll just grit my teeth and bear it. But I definitely will have a hard time going to see him at the ballpark this season. I won't be able to take the boos.

I still think that he could improve and be decent over the next couple years, but the length of this contract pretty much guarantees it will be one of the worst ever.