Ricky Nolasco (13-10, 3.55) vs. Barry Zito (4-11, 5.91).
General consensus is that Ryu locked up the number-three position in the Dodgers' playoff pitching rotation with yesterday's impressive performance, but we'll see what Nolasco, who's coming off two rough starts, has to say about that. Meanwhile, this is likely Zito's last start with the Giants. Look for Ned in the visiting dugout, checkbook in hand.
Thanks to Gnomes for the caption.
From Jayson Stark's recent ESPN.com column:
Astounding Fact of the Week
Always-entertaining Dodgers utility whiz Skip Schumaker took the mound last week for his second career pitching appearance -- and again hit 90 miles per hour on the local radar guns. Which inspired this fun tidbit, via Brooks Baseball's handy Pitch f/x tool:
• Skip Schumaker since 2007: 46 pitches, hit 90-plus 10 times.
• Barry Zito since 2007: 17,469 pitches, hit 90-plus zero times.
As always, this is a 100 percent true fact -- the only kind we provide at World Rumblings Headquarters.
Barry "Luckiest guy in the world" Zito vs. Justin "Luckiest guy in the world" Verlander.
Here we are, the nightmare scenario for Dodger fans everywhere (but especially in the Bay Area). The Giants are four wins away from becoming the first team since the Yankees to win two World Series in three years. The Tigers will be able to start likely Cy Young winner Verlander twice in the series, but the Giants are riding another wave of goddamn fairy pixie dust first farted out by Melky "All the benefits, none of the repercussions" Cabrera and continued by the likes of Angel "Mets fans go Whaaaaa?" Pagan and Marco "Plus 50 OPS+ points upon putting on a Giants uniform" Scutaro. So c'mon, Tigers. Act like the badass AL Champions you are and put a stop to this so-called momentum the Giants are riding. We're all counting on you.
Anyway, as the Deadspin link has it, Zito sums up his SF Giants career in one pitch.
Nice.
Chad Billingsley (5-9, 4.15) vs. Barry Zito (8-6, 3.75).
What, we have to play again? Normally, we would expect a ThunderThighs vs. Dreamboat Barry match-up to bode well for us, but we need only look to yesterday's game for a reminder about expectations.
Don Mattingly is switching things up today against the lefty Zito, leading off with Mark Ellis and batting Andre Ethier second in front of Matt Kemp and Hanley Ramirez.
Oh, and Hanley trade bait Nathan Eovaldi is starting later today for the Marlins against the Padres. Knock 'em dead, Nate!
Nathan Eovaldi gave up seven fucking runs in his first two fucking innings of work and fucking Barry Zito held the Dodgers to three fucking hits over seven fucking innings, and in the sixth inning fucking Zito buzzed Dee Gordon, who had the fucking audacity to steal a base during Barry's precious fucking little gem of a performance, and then fucking Zito fucking plunked Andre Ethier on the shoulder, but did Don Mattingly fucking order any fucking retaliation? He did not. But the Dodgers still have the best fucking record in the National League! Not for fucking long if we keep fucking playing like this.
Nathan Eovaldi (0-3, 2.35) vs. Barry Zito (5-5, 4.35).
Barry Zito is the bomb.
There was obviously a lot of pressure on this poor troubled soul when Zito signed his seven-year, $126M deal with the Giants back in 2007. And despite his 48-66 record to date, he has come through huge this year for the Giants, catalyzed by a shutout victory in his first start of the 2012 season. In between relaxing meditation sessions by the Golden Gate bridge with only a guitar as his companion, Zito has powered his way to a 5-5 record, blemished but a tad by his last three starts and their accompanying collective 10.60 ERA.
But fear not, true believers. Even when his gargantuan contract expires in 2014 (assuming the Giants pick up his one-year option, of course!), Zito will be just fine setting up shop on a corner of the Tenderloin district, strumming some of his self-penned tunes for tips.
Zito goes up against a Dodger pitcher who has had some flashes of brilliance this year (MLB.com has a video touting his promise). However, Eovaldi not only sports a winless record of his own; he hasn't pitched in a game all season in which the Dodgers won (they are 0-5 in his five starts). The Dodgers come into AT&T Park with a scant three-game lead in the NL West, having lost consecutive series to Oakland and the Angels on the road. The Dodgers have scored only 13 runs in their last six games.
Zito, this one's in the bag, man! What could possibly go wrong?
Probably because everyone's on two-year deals, but it's still surprising.
If you can stomach the ninth-grade expository writing experiment that is Grantland, here's "The End and Barry Zito" by Chris Jones:
The computer — kept in a windowless, climate-controlled room — holds a database that keeps strict account of every pitch thrown in the major leagues since 1971. When Boras prepares to make the case for one of his clients to earn many millions of dollars for playing baseball, he asks his staff to mine that database for corroborating evidence. Boras is well in tune with the needs of the modern game, with its statistical obsessions, with its quantification of all things. For him, as it is for his computer, baseball is just a numbers game.
In the winter of 2006, Boras prepared to shop Zito, then the left-handed ace for the Oakland A's. Zito had recently left his longtime agent, Arn Tellem, to move across to Boras; it was a reversal of the move Zito had made in 2001, when he had chosen Arn — and Art — over Commerce. But now it was time for business, and Zito, uncharacteristically,1 had chosen to slip back inside the battleship.
After Boras had completed his statistical analysis of Zito's career — including projections for how the rest of his time in baseball would play out, ending eventually, inevitably, with a plaque in Cooperstown — he summoned his client into his War Room. (There was actually a sign outside the door that read WAR ROOM.) On a white screen at the front of the room, Boras made his presentation to Zito, the same one he would later make to a select list of baseball's money teams. Rows and rows of numbers danced on the wall.
"They definitely heightened my expectations of myself," Zito told me not long after, remembering that afternoon in Newport Beach. "I was actually kind of aroused."
Boras then had those numbers printed out on crisp white paper and tucked inside blue binders. Each of them was stamped with silver foil: BARRY ZITO, FREE AGENT PRESENTATION. That binder eventually won Boras and Zito a seven-year, $126 million contract from the San Francisco Giants, then the largest ever for a pitcher. But on that afternoon it was a just a binder, science's rigid attempt to define the abstract. Boras gave one of them to Zito, who took it back to his house in Hollywood. He put that binder on his kitchen counter and left it sitting out as a reminder of the things that he had done and the things that he would do.
Barry Zito is a believer in totems. In those days, he had a replica of Reggie White's Green Bay Packers jersey draped over the back of his couch for inspiration. He had a shrine built to Sandy Koufax in his bedroom, near his own Cy Young Award from 2002. A portrait of Carlos Santana was on the wall nearby. And now there was this blue binder sitting on his kitchen counter.
That binder destroyed Barry Zito.The computer mainframe in the basement of Scott Boras' battleship offices foretold none of this. It didn't see the injuries, it didn't see the waning confidence, it didn't see the fastball that has become a fastball in name only. It didn't see anything like this end. The computer saw only magic in Barry Zito's future, because the computer can do only math.
A promising start to an article...however, the rest of the piece loses momentum quickly, almost as if Jones loses interest in the story he's trying to write (he's no Joe Posnanski). Still, in a season chock full of Dodgers disappointments, it's nice to look at a disappointing story that's not our own once in a while.
Chad Billingsley (8-7, 3.87) vs. Ryan Vogelsong (6-1, 2.17).
Interesting bird, this Vogelsong. He started his baseball career with a seven-year stint in the majors, mostly with the Pirates, and underwent Tommy John surgery during that time. He then spent three years pitching in Japan, returning to the majors earlier this year with the Giants, to replace the injured but still-dreamy Barry Zito. Over his career, Vogelsong has appeared in ten games against the Dodgers, mostly in relief. He has a 5.96 ERA in those ten appearances. Naturally, he's currently in position to turn things around and shut down the Dodgers, whose recently concluded five-game winning streak will likely be their longest of the season.
Hiroki Kuroda (-, -.--) vs. Barry Zito (-, -.--).
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For legal reasons they're calling it a "sleeved blanket," but we all know better: It's Snuggie Night at Dodger Stadium! While Dodger fans swaddle themselves in fleecy goodness, we ask the hard questions. Is it "Kershaw and Bills, and take your blood pressure pills" (courtesy of SoSG Sax), or can Kuroda prop up the back end of the rotation?
Meanwhile, Zito is making his first start of the season after being T-boned in West Hollywood on Wednesday. We hope he's all right, but he was driving a Bentley, so, like, our sympathy can only go so far.
Series split or 3-1 series win? Sleeved blanket or Snuggie? Don't be fooled; Dodger fans want the real thing.
Sax's note: I will be there this (early) evening, for my first game of the season. Even better, I'll probably be even more warm and more snuggable than last year! Please drop me a line in this chain if you are down at field level, third base side...I'll be the one in the mustard-stained Dodgers poncho.
SoSG has always been a fan of Barry Zito. (In the case of Orel, the waters of attraction run ever so deep.) Any player that costs the Giants $126 Million in exchange for almost 60 losses in four seasons is our ACE.
Barry Zito holding his projected number of contract losses...by YEAR FIVE!
So it's with a sense of sadness that I'm forced to (borrow the) report that Barry Zito's $126 million ass will be riding the bench.... at the bust stop.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Giants are sending $126 million to the sideline. Struggling left-hander Barry Zito was left off the team's playoff roster Thursday for its best-of-five National League Division Series against the wild-card Atlanta Braves. Zito is making a team-high $18.5 million this year.Manager Bruce Bochy told Zito on Wednesday he will not start, and Zito said he didn't know if he would be in the bullpen. The team announced the 25-man roster Thursday morning, and Zito wasn't among the 11 pitchers.
Though as a lifelong Braves hater, I'm thrilled he isn't starting even one inning. Is an enemy who's an enemy of another enemy still also a friend?
Clayton Kershaw (1-0, 4.50) vs. Barry Zito (2-0, 2.25).
COMMENTS: Your Monday. How's it looking? The answer: You can't tell yet, because a Dodgers-Giants series hangs in the balance today. On Friday the power of the Dodgers' bats outlasted the incompetence of their bullpen, and wings were had by all. But yesterday, Tim Lincecum threw his glove and bat around, and it was the first time the Dodgers have been shut out this year. In fact, it was only the second game in which the Dodgers have scored fewer than five runs.
Today we get two lefties: Kid K against Barefoot Barry. As with Chad Billingsley, the Dodgers would love for Kershaw to go deeper into games, especially since Kershaw has as many walks as strikeouts (11) so far. Joe Torre doesn't seem to have as tight a leash on Kershaw this year, having allowed him to throw 109 and 110 pitches in his first two games.
Meanwhile, Matt Kemp's streak of home games with a homer is over at four. Time to start another one.
Oh, and this will also act as your Game Thread for today's Lakers playoff game, which starts at 12n PT. No pressure, boys:
Still smarting from a Prince Fielder walk-off victory over the Giants last year, Barry Zito sought to get even by drilling Fielder with the first pitch in a spring training game (link through to see the video, but we won't embed since it will evaporate in a week, and our blog respects more permanent artifacts!). You go, Barry:
Six months after Prince Fielder riled the Giants with an elaborate home run celebration, Zito got even. He plunked Fielder in the back in the first inning of a Cactus League game between the Giants and Brewers at Scottsdale Stadium.
Fielder picked up the ball and flipped it back to Zito, then jogged to first base without incident. Home plate umpire Ted Barrett did not issue a warning to the teams and Milwaukee manager Ken Macha later referred to the incident as a "non-issue."
After leaving the game, the two players had decidedly different reactions. Zito seemed detached to the point of oblivious. Fielder was admittedly miffed, but expressed the hope that any animosity between the two teams is now history.
"I've always said, 'I play the game hard. I run hard. And after that, I don't care what anybody thinks,' " Fielder said. "If that's what they've gotta do, that's what they've gotta do. Let them hit me once, and if that makes them feel better, that's awesome. Now we can just play baseball."Barry Zito's fastball clocked in at an average of 86.5 miles per hour last season -- the fourth-slowest velocity for any starter in the majors. But as the left-hander showed Thursday, a well-timed heater in the right spot can still make an eloquent statement.
To be fair, Fielder is a hard guy to miss. But at least he can rest easy knowing a 86-mph fastball from a #3 pitcher doesn't really hurt all that much, even in the small of one's back.
And don't fret, Giant fans! You only have Zito for four more seasons. By 2013, he'll be drilling people with reckless abandon. With 75-mph fastballs, no less.
After being temporarily derailed with adequate pitching, Barry Zito's done it again. Six weeks left, five losses to go. Clap your hands if you believe in Zito.
From "After 0-6 start, Giants move $126M ace Zito to bullpen" at ESPN.com:
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. The move was first reported by ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.
Zito, who signed the seven-year deal with the team before last season, is now 0-6 this season with a 7.53 ERA. He was informed of the move in a meeting with manager Bruce Bochy.
Bochy did not give a timetable for Zito's return to the rotation.
First the Blue Jays release Frank Thomas, then the Pirates release Matt Morris. Now this—accepting sunk costs has become downright fashionable in the major leagues. Dodger fans can only wonder if Joe Torre and Ned Colletti are taking notes.
The California Travel & Tourism Commission has hired Giants ace Barry Zito for their "Inside California" campaign. If you've ever wanted to find out Barry's thoughts on his favorite California haunts, click here!
...on fathead.com. Santana's wall cling, originally priced at $100, is now $40.
I am sad that there are no Dodgers players available.
I find it hilarious, though, that the only Giant (Barry Zito) is also half-price. And, unlike Santana, he's not rumored to be on the trading block, so it isn't just an obsolescence issue...or is it???
