Aces down

[Frayed Knot]

A fugly beginning (4 starts each) from some high-rent hurlers:

- Sabathia: 0 -3; 18 IP; [u:2708680a2f]27 ER[/u:2708680a2f]; [u:2708680a2f]32 Hits[/u:2708680a2f]; 14 BBs; 14 K; 13.50 ERA; 2.56 WHiP

- Verlander: 0 - 3; 24-1/3 IP; 24 ER; 22 Hits; 12 BBs; 14 K; 7.03 ERA; 1.40 WHiP

- Zito: 0 - 4; 22 IP; 11 ER; 28 Hits; 9 BBs; 8 K; 4.50 ERA; 1.68 WHiP

- Oswalt: 1 - 3; 23 IP; 17 ER; 35 Hits; 4 BB; 16 K; 6.65 ERA; 1.70 WHiP



And to think, Met fans are booing Santana's first 3 outings:
1 - 2; 20-1/3 IP; 7 ER; 16 Hits; 4 BB; 18 K; 3.05 ERA; 0.97 WHiP

[Centerfield]

You have a mistake in there.

You included Barry Zito.

[Benjamin Grimm]

And also, to think that had a few things broken differently, Zito and/or Oswalt would be Mets right now.

[metirish]

Sabathia in his contract year with the bad start , his agent must be pissed , I'd think he would turn things around as will Verlander and Oswalt but Zito looks terrible and the Giants are terrible , they have no offense at all.

[Guest AG/DC]

Brutal:

Zito just like the great Spahn -- when Spahn was 44

By LOWELL COHN,

PRESS DEMOCRAT

COLUMNIST

This is about Barry Zito, but I'm going to start with Warren Spahn. Surely, you've heard of Spahn, the best left-handed pitcher ever. Spahn has more wins than any lefty in the history of big-league ball, 363 to be exact.

Naturally, he's in the Hall of Fame. He played most of his career with the Braves and, aside from throwing left-handed and winning the Cy Young Award, he had something else in common with Zito. He was a thinking man's pitcher. His philosophy was mind over batter, or as he liked to say, "Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing."

I saw him from time to time when he played for the Braves. But he played part of his last year with the Mets and I often got to see him at Shea Stadium or on TV and he was mostly a failure. I apologize for writing those words -- Spahn deserves better than that -- but in 1965 when Spahn had turned 44, it was the truth. The Mets' record in 1965 was 50-112. So you can see they were a dreadful team, an unspeakable team -- far worse than the Giants will be this season, I hope. And Spahn was part of the dreadfulness.

He won four and lost 12 and after a while he ended up in San Francisco where he finished the season 3-4. And then he was done.

I remember him getting his brains beat out with the Mets. He would be doing OK and then balls would start flying out of the park and old Casey Stengel would give him the hook and Spahn, his face old and shaded in gray, would trudge to the dugout, grumpy.

One of the announcers -- it might have been Bob Murphy -- explained what was going on. Spahn's game had become so diminished, he needed to be perfect to win. Spahn could do well -- dominate, actually -- if everything went perfectly, if he pitched according to the game plan, kept the ball on the corners of the plate. In other words, he could not afford to make a mistake because opposing batters would kill his mistakes.

But he made mistakes. Every pitcher makes mistakes -- the good ones survive their mistakes. And that brings me to Zito, currently 0-5, a disaster. It must hurt to be a disaster.

I called a major-league scout.

"What's wrong with Zito?" I asked.

"Lack of arm strength," the scout said.

Let me stop a minute and admit something. I'm not exactly sure what lack of arm strength means. And I don't know how someone comes down with lack of arm strength.

"Can you be specific?" I asked.

"He always could break the curve. He lacks the strength to do that, and it affects his whole game. The curve was his bread-and-butter pitch."

I found this interesting -- sad but interesting. It was interesting because I thought the problem was Zito's speed or lack of it -- I'll get back to that in a moment. But it was the curve, Zito's main pitch, his out pitch.

If the Zito curve no longer is the Zito curve, as this scout was saying, nothing else works. And batters can stand at the plate salivating, waiting to smash the fastball that has no movement -- the inevitable bad fastball. Smash it they do.

"His fastball is what -- 82 to 85?" the scout asked. He laughed derisively. "His change is 80."

He didn't finish the thought. He didn't have to. He meant the change-up is supposed to present a baffling alternative to the fastball, but when a fastball and change-up are virtually the same speed, when they look alike and act alike, batters can murder both of them.

I asked the scout if Zito can get back what he lost. Like most scouts, this one is unemotional, strictly analytical, all business.

"It depends," he said.

"Depends on what?"

"Depends on what the problem is. No one knows."

And that means Zito either will continue to be the biggest bust in baseball, or he won't. It's anyone's guess. And it depends on the root cause of the lack of arm strength.

Right now, Zito pitches like Spahn pitched at the end. He must be perfect. He can't make a single mistake because batters annihilate his mistakes. He makes mistakes because he is human.

He is 29 years old going on 30 in a few weeks but he is getting pounded the way Spahn got pounded at 44.

That is all he has in common with the great Warren Spahn.

You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or

lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com

.

[Valadius]

Barry Zito = Brian Lawrence.

[metirish]

Valadius wrote: Barry Zito = Brian Lawrence.

Not fair on Lawrence that , he had one decent year and never signed a huge contract.

[Fman99]

Finally a thread that makes me feel better about Castillo's 4 yr./$19 million deal.

[Guest Triple Dee]

Fman99 wrote: Finally a thread that makes me feel better about Castillo's 4 yr./$19 million deal.

I'll make you feel sick again; it's 4 years/$25M

[Fman99]

Triple Dee wrote: ="Fman99"]Finally a thread that makes me feel better about Castillo's 4 yr./$19 million deal. I'll make you feel sick again; it's 4 years/$25M

FUCK!

[Benjamin Grimm]

The objectionable part is the four years.

It matters not at all to me how many millions he gets over those four years.

[Guest AG/DC]

It's six million a year after the signing bonus. I think the Mets'll mostly be OK, even if he isn't.

What's interesting right now in their pay scale is the sharp decline from the top of the scale to the bottom. They have a lot of control and maneuverablity, from my perspective. I'm guessing that between Delgado, Castillo, and Scoeneweiss and possibly Pedro, about $50 million looks like bad money over the next four years. That's not good, but it may be within the margin of error for a big-market club.

They bought themselves a lot of useful cost certaintly by locking up Wright and Reyes.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Between SNY and Citi Field, the Mets will be raking in a lot of dough.

A bad contract here or there shouldn't cripple them, especially not at the middle level where Castillo's is.

[Guest Triple Dee]

The Mets are currently ~$16M below the luxury tax threshold.

They'll lose ~$48M in payroll this upcoming offseason, but they'll need to sign a 1B, at least 2 starters and possibly an OF.

The luxury tax threshold will increase by $7M for 2009.

[Frayed Knot]

And while I'm not the biggest fan of either Luis Castillo or (especially of) the contract he signed, let's not go overboard and treat this season's small and injury-recovering sample of him as the standard of what he's been all along.

In 9 full seasons to date he's [u:29b1486ba9]once[/u:29b1486ba9] hit under .290 and once got on base at less than a .360 clip (both back in 2001).

[Guest Triple Dee]

Espen wrote: The highest paid pitcher in Major League Baseball is out of a starting job. San Francisco moved $126 million ace Barry Zito into the bullpen on Monday. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3372794

[metirish]

WOW , I'm stunned.

[TransMonk]

That's the stupidest thing ever. This is beyond an ace being down.

[Guest KC]

Giving him that contract was the stupidest thing ever.

[smg58]

The DL would have made more sense. Something isn't right with his arm, and you might as well find him a decent doctor and free up a roster spot.

[Guest AG/DC]

I don't know that we have any reason to suppose they haven't been consulting with decent doctors.

[Guest KC]

Yeah, an investment like that has plenty of good docs so I don't quite
get what smg means.

I can't help but imagine the shit-storm if the Mets were saddled with Zito
and he ended up being the bust he's become.

I always thought he was over-rated ... but jeez.

[TransMonk]

KC wrote: Giving him that contract was the stupidest thing ever.

No one knew he would have such an Ankielian reversal. His contract was big but not out of comprehension. There's no way he still doesn't have top half of the rotation talent. Whoever their pitching coach is (Righetti?) must be a moron.

But now that he is what he is, I have no clue how going to the bullpen is going to remotely help the situation. If he's hurt, then DL him. If his head's not right, get a shrink. The fans in the bay area seem to hate him anyway and even with Zito at ace strength they are a sub .500 team, IMO.

[Guest KC]

The number of years was ridiculous.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

So what's the story with Zito anyway? You know, I see very little of him and don't watch ESPN. He's a curveball/flyball guy, so what happened? Are his flyballs now HRs and curve not curving?

[metirish]

As I mentioned somewhere else here I've read that his fastball is only in the mid-eighties and his curve is like 82 , not going to work that.


The same article had a scout saying that his arm strength is shot and that's why he blows.

[seawolf17]

I think he came down with a bad case of the suck.

[Guest KC]

Maybe he had to quit using something that gave him more kahnfidence too.

[Guest AG/DC]

I'm going to guess that his arm, while not disabled per se, snapped off the curve too much and can't snap like it did.

[Guest holychicken]

Is there anything else to say other than "ouch?"