Comments on: The Reinvention of Barry Zito

By: phildo

phildo — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 11:17:25 +0000

zito’s babip was lower in oakland because he has always generated a ton of infield popups and the coliseum has enormous foul territory. notice his iffb% is way down since he was signed by sf.

it’s not ironic at all. parks are different and therefore skillsets play differently in them.

By: Joe R

Joe R — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:00:09 +0000

He does play good defense and slug at least; could do worse at C.

That .277 really is brutal, though.

By: Kevin Crossman

Kevin Crossman — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:23:07 +0000

To be fair, Zito was pulled the other night for a pinch-hitter because the Giants had runners at 2nd and 3rd with two outs in the 6th. He wasn’t pulled because of the pitch count.

Would have been worth talking about Zito’s lack of run support this season. The Giants haven’t scored a single run for him in more than a third of his starts. While Zito hasn’t pitched perfect this season, if his record was 13-7 would anyone really be complaining?

By: dat cubfan daver

dat cubfan daver — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:50:51 +0000

Hey, scott – you know this is Fangraphs, not BP, right? I haven’t seen/read any of those chats. Can you spare me the snark and give me at least a brief answer? Thanks.

By: B

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:12:11 +0000

Or just plug Sandoval in to catch for all our pitchers. Our current C is sporting a nice .277 OBP at the moment…

By: Alireza

Alireza — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:50:54 +0000

I really don’t get why Bochy doesn’t just plug Sandoval into catch during Zito’s starts. Zito is obviously handled better by the guy and it really should take much of a toll on Sandoval.

By: scott

scott — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:51:42 +0000

Jesus, can this question die, please? It is asked in every. single. bp chat and gets answered every. single. time. Who cares.

By: tribescribe

tribescribe — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:37:59 +0000

Moneyball quotes Billy Beane as saying Zito had an 88-mph fastball at the time of the draft : http://tinyurl.com/l7qs6r

Doubt he ever consistently sat at 92, though he may have touched it from time to time.

By: dat cubfan daver

dat cubfan daver — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:35:16 +0000

Just running this up the flagpole, knowledgable baseball folks: An Alfonso-Soriano-for-Barry-Zito bad contract swap. Good idea? Bad idea? Remotely feasible?

I’m not necessarily promoting the concept, and it’s not like the Cubs need a fifth starter – even next season. But I’m curious as to whether such a deal would have any legs to stand on.

By: fanOFdefenseAGAIN

fanOFdefenseAGAIN — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:02:46 +0000

It’s funny to me that FIP doesn’t normalize for league or park conditions (correct?)

Clearly Zito has improved this year. This is more a question about the usefulness of comparing Zito to a AL East pitcher in Camden Yards, for example.

Does tRA or whatever account for these important differences?