the $126M Barry Zito shipped to the Giants Bullpen

[phils phanatic]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Zito calmly accepted his demotion to the bullpen Monday and vowed that he soon would rejoin the Giants' starting rotation, although manager Bruce Bochy didn't offer a timetable for that event.
Bochy announced the move one day after Zito's worst performance of the season, a three-inning, eight-run outing in a 10-1 loss to Cincinnati. That dropped Zito's record to a Major League-worst 0-6. He also owns a 7.53 ERA and a .336 opponents' batting average, well above the respective National League averages of 4.06 and .255.

The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Zito to work things out in bullpen

[phils phanatic]

Stark talked to an official from a "pitching-starved" team. This person said the Giants would have to eat at least $80MM of Barry Zito's remaining $112.5MM if they want to trade him. One scout suggested Zito's only chance at revival is a reunion with Rick Peterson.

mlbtraderumors

[kfkorn]

Not sure I want to see him on the Mets, unless the Giants are willing to eat more than $80 million.

A change of scenery might do Barry Zito good, not sure the Mets need him though.

[Korrupt]

I was going to relate this to the Mike Hampton situation, but it's sort of different. Hampton lost it going to Coors; Zito just plain lost it. So yeah, unless the Giants are willing to eat the vast majority of that contract (the other possibility is to give up a fairly well regarded prospect in addition as a thank-you for taking his contract), they're screwed.

[Longballer]

I'm just glad they finally got around to putting him in the pen His 3 innings per game did nothing but put us in a 2-6 run hole every game.

That contract is almost inpossable to trade. Nice move signing him Sabin.

[phils phanatic]

Originally Posted by Korrupt

So yeah, unless the Giants are willing to eat the vast majority of that contract (the other possibility is to give up a fairly well regarded prospect in addition as a thank-you for taking his contract), they're screwed.

the problem with that is they don't have any eye catching prospects other than angel villalona who's in his first full season in the minors.the only other possible guys who could be incluced would be either a matt cain or tim lincecum but they seriously just can't do that.

on the flipside of all this,the one thing that i think is killing zito is reduced fastball velocity.he's still controlling his pitches very well,he still has an average change,and he still has his very good curveball.the problem is with reduced velocity there's no real speed change in his pitches,therefor hitters can lock in on one speed.apparently there's no structural damage in his arm so getting velocity back would be pretty simple.it now becomes a matter of just strengthening the arm