I Won't Miss Barry Zito by Ned
Even before opening night for the ’06 A’s I’d said that I really won’t miss Barry Zito next year when he’s gone.
I’d be willing to bet that the A’s front office won’t either.
Of course they’ll miss Barry Zito, the good guy. But they won’t miss Barry Zito the pitcher. People with more than “fan-typical” baseball knowledge know that Zito, the pitcher, is overrated.
He’s a charismatic, eccentric baseball player. Combine that with a Cy Young award (100 years ago)…and you’re going to see some serious “overration”.
The fact is, in professional sports, one recipe for superstardom is awesome production. However, there’s another way to become a “star”…
Eccentricity and a little bit of success. And I do mean “a little bit”.
And that’s specifically why Zito will get $14 mil per year after this season from some over zelous owner. Not because he’s worth that, but because a lot of MLB general managers/owners have “fan-typical” knowledge as well. And thats a sad, sad thing.
If you look at Zito’s stats since his Cy Young year he’s been simply…average. Yet he still has all that respect. Boggles my mind why people can’t get past the name on the baseball card and just turn it over and look at the stats on the back.
And thats why I won’t miss Barry Zito next year when he’s pitching for a different team.
Simply put, he’s not that good.
Sure he has his stretches where he still shows flashes of that past dominance. But a lot of pitchers have good stretches. What really gets me is that, like Eric Chavez, you can count on Zito to take half the season to get warmed up.
I’ve heard rumors that the Rangers are already intersted (what pitcher aren’t they interested in). To be honest…fine with me.
Having Zito pitch against the A’s in their division doesn’t worry me at all.
–Ned
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Speaking of people that are too “fan-typical”…..Barry Zito has become the official whipping boy for A’s fans that believe we should have made at least 1 World series appearance and 2 ALCS’s in the past 6 years. It’s understandable that A’s fans look at what we had with the big three, Giambi, Damon, and Tejada and can’t come to grips with the fact that the team didnt take home at least one ring, but Barry Zito is not the reason for that. Mark my words, he will be 100% wearing another uniform next year and maybe by the all star break, but he still has one of the top 6 or 7 pitches in baseball and will give it his all this year to try to prove that he’s not scrap heap material. Zito is now the official face of the team’s past failures and unless the A’s go on to win a world series this year with him he will continue to shoulder the majority of the flack (along with Eric Chavez) from overzealous A’s fans.
DON”T GET ME WRONG, Zito’s command has dropped off big-time in the past two years but people outside the Bay Area see this guy’s Cy Young pedigree and think that he’s still a top line starter. I say take his ups and down’s for the first half of the year, and get max value for him when the dodgers or yanks feel the heat at the trade deadline.
Either way, I liked the guy while he was here, if for nothing else than making Giambi look stupid everytime he throws him the hook.
EV
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