Barry Zito has improved dramatically from his horrible start. Willing to have him pitch like an end of the rotation guy for another couple of weeks as he gets comfortable. Eventually want him to start earning some “W”s and money.

Comment starter: What would it take to not feel completely hopeless regarding the Zito situation?

Not to be a downer, but nothing is going to make me feel better about Zito. He’s thrown “well” over these last two starts but how sad is it that we’re grasping for positive straws after just 11 innings of baseball?

The loss of velocity, command, and seemingly pitch quality make me think that whatever Zito gives us, is what we’ll get. Regardless of how good or bad it is.

If Zito can actually pitch into the 7th inning at least twice this season (remember, he was partially signed to be an “innings eater”), I’ll move back from the narrow ledge and onto the slightly wider ledge.

Big speed differentials between pitches without tipping too much which pitch is coming. Constant control enough to routinely spot the batting practice fastball. That kind of stuff. Tell then he is strictly canon fodder/reclamation project.

As Kitspool says above, if Zito starts being an actual innings eater, I thing I would be OK with it. We can’t have the bullpen coming in early for all of his games.

He has no out pitch. He got ahead of a lot of hitters before working the count full because he can’t get them out when they’re hitting to protect.

When his command was on (earlier in the game) he was inducing a lot of ground balls with the curveball and change-up and the hitters looked off balance. Once his command was gone he couldn’t put hitters away and they’d foul balls off until he made a mistake.

He may have the awful record, but I still think he’s got potential to be alright (see sharksrog comment above).

I hated the last stretch with Matt Morris. Just like I hate, hate, hated it with Armando. With Zito, I feel like he can get back on track. I try not to think about the money, because I’m not a fan of the San Francisco Business Transactions, I’m a fan of Giants baseball.

You know how with Matt Cain, when he struggles (as he’s done this year), we all pull for him anyway, and we kind of don’t mind as much, because we know he’s got the skills to pay the bills? Well, somehow, at least today (admittedly, I wouldn’t always be so sunny about this), I feel just a teeny bit of that with Zito. I think he’s in the process right now of earning all our trust. He’s struggling through it, and if he emerges positively, he’ll have made fans out of a number of people. That is, to me, the silver lining of this situation.

Remember: he’s young, he’s got a crazy curveball and at least he doesn’t historically have the same BB problems that Lowry and even Cain have had. He can be a different kind of good than Caincecum, and sandwiched between them, a decent Zito slowballer could be a lot for other teams to handle.

{/irrational optimism}

I’m loving the only 1 walk. 8 baserunners in 6 innings is very decent.

If he could’ve pitched 1 more inning with the same line otherwise I’d be stoked.

But, realistically, what would make me encouraged is if Zito pitches like he has the last two games for the rest of the year. Otherwise, he’s a bad pitcher. That is the situation right now and it would take months of consistently good pitching to change that.