Great, time to find my Paxil.

Midway through the year, Cliff Lee had a few bad starts in a row, so I figured he was done – and I dropped him from my fantasy team.

SAD.

The Giants won’t be able to avoid paying the whole deal.

I voted ‘No’ because this is optimism week, right?

Have read SF still owes Zito $101.5. Oh, AND he has a complete NTC. Ouch.

How much is a 4th starter worth? $5M? $7M? With five years still remaining on this deal would assume SF would have to eat $60-65M. Doesn’t sound great but would save the team $6M – 8M a season

There is going to be a point where the Giants will release him…a la Russ Ortiz with the DBacks. Sabean might not be GM by then

Grant depresses me, boo Grant. I want my Cy Young for Timmy high back!

you are forgetting the key “loves himself” chart in which Zito destroys the competition.

I was thinking there’s six years remaining on the deal. Being reminded that there’s only five years left was great news.

Grant, maybe if some of you Sf’ers have some pull with Nancy Pelosi, could you see about getting the Giants included in the government bailout? I’m pretty sure our bad debt (Zito) is hindering our competitive advantage in the marketplace. And surely Brian Sabean is just as undeserving as the heads of GM, Ford, Chrysler, AIG, et al.

Maybe we should have picked a better day to pick on Zito:
http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2008/11/13/660652/rip-barry-zito-s-mom

Even a crappy pitcher like Zito would probably be worth three years, $36 million on the market. So looking at it that way, the Giants would have to eat two full seasons worth of the contract and about $6-$8 million of the other three seasons, thus coming up with a total swallowing of about $54-$65 million of the contract. I just can’t see that happening. Maybe when he has only three years left on the contract, but I don’t think it’s possible with five.

but he was actually effective against lefties this season. They hit only .213/.316/.287 against him. So, if we keep him, that’s probably where he’ll end up.

He had a pretty decent last half of the season. I know that’s pretty characteristic of him, but it looks like he figured out the problems that plagued him in the beginning of last year. If he has another year or half a year of utter crappiness, then I think we start talking about shipping him somewhere and eating the contract. One more year to redeem himself. Even if he can put up a line of 6 IP, 3 ER, that’s handled quite easily as a fan. And I still think he can accomplish at least that. Yes, I am an eternal optimist.

ARROGANT, INEFFICIENT BROWN ROT COHABITS THROATILY. ADULTERIZE!

Experience is beating hope by 6 votes

He’s pitching his entire career here.

Zito is owed $91M+ for the next 5 years. He’s also from SoCal, so he might approve this trade.

Giants get Juan Pierre, who is owed $28.5M for 2009-11 plus Jason Schmidt, who is owed $12M for 2009 plus about $8M in signing bonuses.

We get two of agent ned’s three biggest blunders, he only gets one of ours. he gets a starting pitcher with a perfect history of health to replace a pitcher who hasn’t given them anything and has only known success with the giants. we get noodle arm, who we can DFA for all i care.

why would the dodgers do it? they have gotten nothing for their $36M invested in Schmidt, whereas they get dependability AND good looks in zito (trust me, i live in socal and these asscats care about these things). Instead of sinking $20M into a void in schmidt they get their starting pitcher and get rid of their logjam in the outfield.

why would we do it? we free up $43M+ and get a slight boost with the fairweathers in bringing back a name they all know.

this wackiness is all about going for tex/cc. if we are making a run and zito’s contract is the hangup then hopefully there is thinking along these lines.

What dollar amount do you all think it would take to buy out Zito’s contract in cash right now?

$60 million? If I was the Giants, I’d probably think about it at $40-50 million.

giants release zito the final year of his contract two months before the year is over

If that report on his mom is true…

I think Zito will have a much better year in 2009. He started doing things in games late in the season that he hasn’t really done since his first years in the majors with regards to striking out batters. Of course, that’s when he was very good and won the Cy Young.

Assuming he can continue that into 2009, since he is now clearly demonstrating skills he hasn’t shown in years, our rotation could be pretty awesome, probably Lincecum, Zito, Cain, Sanchez, and [fill in the blank], as both Cain and Sanchez also demonstrated new abilities in 2008 that speak well for 2009 if continued.

Cain for the first time was able to keep his ERA low on the road and not just at AT&T. That’s a huge change for him, because previously he would pitch well at home, poorly on the road, giving inconsistent results.

Sanchez was pitching like an ace for most of the season until he hit the wall and starting giving up runs left and right. That appears to be a wall that, if he strengthens up over the winter, won’t hit him in 2009 and he would be able to dominate throughout the season.

That would give us 4 top of the rotation performances out of every 5 starts, and even with a poor offense like 2008, we should be able to be competitive in 2009, which is the goal laid out right after the season. Well that and good relievers to bridge to Wilson.

maybe if the giants could like… you know… score runs… he could even out that record with some no decisions and 9-7 nailbiters.

How about the Giants send down Zito and never call him up. Then he would agree to a buy out of less than 50% of his remaining contract so that he can pitch somewhere else.
Hey a guy can dream right?

this is quite a tight race

QUANTUMZ OFF SOLAZE!1 I WUZ TOTLY THER FOAR TEH MIDNITE SHOWZ TEH AUHSUHMZ

But where’s your proof, Grant? Huh?

I voted no, but it’s pretty much up in the air at the moment. He’s certainly going to be a Giant for a while yet, but there’s a reasonable chance he won’t always be. I think with Zito, it’ll be an issue for a couple of years time.

In a couple of years, we’ll hopefully have internal pitchers who are requiring Zito’s spot (Bumgarner & Alderson the obvious ones). Hopefully Zito will rebound from last year & be able to put up reasonable numbers over the next couple of years. He’s not going to put up great numbers or be worth the money, but if he can perform at around his 2007 level then he’d still be a useful pitcher. He’ll also only have 3 years left under contract, so would be much more tradable, although not obviously without eating money. If say we ate half of it (leaving him with around 3/$30M left) then i could see us trading him to someone in need of experienced starting pitching.