You clearly heard about all the drama surrounding Willie Randolph and the wrongful axing peaceful separation of the Mets organization and most of its coaching staff. One of the men without a job is Rick Peterson, the former pitching coach. But Peterson might not be out on the streets for too lengthy a time.
This is because a previous stop on his resume -- Oaktown. Namely because of a certain pitcher he coached there.
However, when asked what type of relationship they had, Zito noted that as far back as college, he and his family hired Peterson for private coaching. When the A's drafted Zito, Peterson was their pitching coach.
"I had success from the start there in Oakland," Zito said. "There's a lot to be said for your first coach in the big leagues, too. He moved me on the mound and did something also with my hands, stuff like that, stuff I still do today."
Now, this is primarily speculation, as noted by a no comment from Zito. However, it does make a ton of sense. The likely move -- because clearly Dave Righetti is doing a good job -- would be to pay Peterson to coach Zito, and Zito only.
Any clue as to when the last time a San Francisco Giants starter began the season by losing his first eight decisions was? Because that's what Barry Zito, after dropping another loss Saturday night, has officially done. You probably don't remember this guy, because the year was 1890, and it was Jesse Burkett.
The odd thing though, is that most Giants fans and the media seemed to have settled into some sort of justifying mood where they attempt to not hate on Barry. The latest two articles in the San Francisco Chronicle detailing Zito's starts have been somewhat upbeat, attempting to focus on the positives of his starts instead.
All that and Zito wasn't even the real culprit in San Francisco's latest loss.
The Giants fell 3-1 to the Chicago White Sox, mostly because their offense showed absolutely no vigor for the second consecutive night. They mounted few threats, wasted the chances they did create and ultimately stumbled to their 10th defeat in 13 games.
And actually, if I stare at his game log hard enough, I start to see a "bad-luck" guy rather than "the most overpaid pitcher in baseball". But that could be delusion. Or my inability to comprehend numbers.
The truth of the matter is that Zito has only two quality starts, but yes, he has been the victim of some bad luck. However, when you are rocking out a 1.90 WHIP and a 0.92 K/BB ratio, you are just not going to get a ton of sympathy from me, especially when you're getting eleventy billion dollars to be this bad. Please don't be fooled Giants fans.
Fantasy Spin: And don't you be fooled either, fantasy owners. Starting Zito = detriment to your team.
Barry Zito was "banished" to the bullpen for all of ... exactly zero outings? Yup. Zito pitched so embarrassingly bad as a starter for the San Francisco Giants (in case you haven't been following his season, just think about what that says) that Bruce Bochy decided to move him into the bullpen.
There seem to be all kinds of quasi-contradictory reasons for why Zito is coming back to the rotation, with the bottom line being that Bochy's got a $120 million starter on his hands, and management wants him pitching. And not stinking.
The Giants were going to need a fifth starter by Saturday and decided to have Zito pitch Wednesday, manager Bruce Bochy said, not only to balance the rotation but to ensure the left-hander does not go too long without pitching.
[...]Barry's going to start. He's a starter," Bochy said. "We felt we had to break it up and give him a break. We were hoping we cold get him out there (in relief) a couple of times. Now, that didn't happen, so he's going back into the rotation."
It's fairly obvious (although unsaid, as the Chron points out) that the Giants want Zito to conveniently avoid having to pitch against the Phillies, instead getting to toss against the Pirates and away from San Francisco, where he is apparently not very popular. Because, you know, he's been embarrassingly bad.
The Giants are going to keep preaching "confidence" and other junk like that, but the fact is Zito doesn't have the same stuff he used to win the Cy Young. And unless something magical or dramatic (or magically dramatic) happens, they're going to end up eating -- one way or another -- one of the worst contracts in the history of baseball.
Fantasy Spin: Don't be a sucker, sucka. Leave Zito alone.
Here at the offices of "Stud or Shelton" we examine players who seem to be outperforming expectations to see if they are for real, or instead a flash in the pan like former Tigers hotshot Chris Shelton. As always, we apologize for rubbing salt in the wound of the Shelton family.
If the San Francisco Giants started the season with one strength, it was the starting pitching. Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum represent two of the most promising young starters in all of baseball and – at least before the season started – Barry Zito seemed like a decent #3 pitcher (even if he is the highest paid pitcher in the history of the game.)The rotation was set to be rounded out with Noah Lowry and Kevin Correia, but an injury to Lowry opened up a spot for Jonathan Sanchez.
Sanchez has absolutely taken advantage of this opportunity, though he got off to a rough start against the Brewers, allowing seven ER in just four IP.Owners who have hung tough with him since then have been quite happy, thanks, as Sanchez has only allowed another six earned runs in an additional 29.2 innings.Overall, this season he's 2-1, with 40 K against just 16 walks, with a 3.48 ERA and a respectable 1.28 WHIP. The kid has been dealing, that's for sure. The question is, is he a stud, or a flash in the pan?
You and I have something in common with Barry Zito. We all have the exact same number of wins as professional baseball pitchers in the month of April. No, I don't have any either. Relax.
Dollar for dollar, it's hard to fathom that any pitcher in professional baseball could be worse. And Zito knows this. Which is how he ended up in front of his locker apologizing to the freaking media following the latest shellacking that dropped him to 0-6. This was followed by a principal-office-visit-like trip to Bruce Bochy's office.
'Obviously, I'm hurting the team right now,' Zito said. 'I just have to keep grinding and fighting. For me this is an opportunity to stick it out and toe the line.'
Bochy called his pitcher into his office after the game to notify him that he may be sent to the bullpen or have his next start skipped.
Degrading? Absolutely. But better than having to visit the minors. Really, the best thing the team could do though, is just have the guy fake an injury. Send him in for fake surgery if you have to. But the Giants -- who have a pretty nice, young rotation outside of Barry -- need to get him out of the public's eye.
San Francisco is only at 11-15, but that's better or equal to five other National League teams, which, sadly, is an improvement from our preseason projections. But when Zito takes the mound and gets knocked around, which is to say every time he takes the mound, Giants fans aren't reminded of the young talented group that could make up a decent rotation in the future. They're reminded of Brian Sabean's incompetence. And it's not it will cost them any wins.
Fantasy Spin: Please don't own Zito. Much less start him.
New Studs takes a look at players ready to make the leap from "possibly productive fantasy player" to "must-have fantasy stud." This is not a "you've never heard of this dude, but ... " series -- these should be names you already know.
Both of these guys came into the season with gobs of upside, but tempered expectations for different reasons. With one, we were worried that he's still not ready to make "The Leap," after having been teased by his potential the past two seasons. The other? Well, his team sucks. Really, really sucks. So did you really want to waste a high draft pick on a guy that can't win more than ten games? Judging from ADP charts, the answer was a resounding "NO!"
All of a sudden they have something in common: They are simultaneously making the jump from, "dude, he's pretty damn solid, but ... " territory into the "This guy is a freaking monster!" zone. When you drop the "but," the guy is ready to make an appearance on the ever-growing "New Studs on the Block," list.
Welcome aboard, Linc and King Felix. Please bring your nasty stuff and power arms as you join us ...
San Francisco Giants outfielder Dave Roberts landed on the DL this week, with a torn meniscus and "additional debris" behind his kneecap. I'm no doctor, but that doesn't sound good.
And indeed, Roberts could miss at least a few months with this injury. So, why would Giants fans be happy about this?
It's not any hostility towards Roberts, one of the few talented veterans left on the team, and by all accounts a really good guy. Though he's 35, he still has wheels, swiping 31 bags last year to go with his solid defense.
But there you have it -- he's 35.
Despite the fact that the Giants have won three straight games, no rational San Francisco fan thinks this is anything but a lost season. And well run teams do one thing in those kind of years -- find young talent to help them rebuild. So it was particularly galling for these fans to watch the season begin with youngsters like Fred Lewis, Rajai Davis and Eugenio Velez struggling to find regular playing time. That all changes with Roberts taken out of the mix -- Lewis and Davis have gotten starts in the last three games (all wins for the Giants) and while they haven't played at an All-Star level, that's really not the point. At the end of the year, manager Bruce Bochy and GM Brian Sabean need to know what they have on their hands to help plan for 2009.
In the meantime, all three of these guys -- Davis, Lewis and especially Velez (who can play both outfield and infield slots) are not only helpful to the Giants, but to fantasy owners as well. They're all fast (Velez might be one of the fastest kids in the league) and stolen bases are a hot commodity.
So, in a season that Giants fans most likely will want to forget, there are a few positives -- though Dave Roberts might not agree.
OK, so he might not be at A-Rod status of hotness, nor David Wright either, but Rich Aurilia is doing pretty well in his own right. Check this out: Aurilia is enjoying a 12-game hitting streak, during which he's batted .388. In the last five games he has nine hits and six RBI, but most of all, he's been clutch. On Thursday he delivered a two out two-run tiebreaking double in the sixth inning which helped spark the Giants 6-2 win. On Wednesday, Aurilia delivered the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the 12th to give the Giants a 6-5 extra-innings win over the Cardinals. In his second stint with the Giants, Aurilia is concerned with more than just himself:
"It's a good feeling. It's nice to be able to come back home and contribute like this ... Now, if we can just get on a roll and win a few more in a row and get back to .500, that'd be great."
The Giants have rallied from a 1-6 start to win five of their last seven games, thanks in large part to Aurilia. It's a positive sign for Giants fans who starting getting seriously concerned early in the year, writing the team off.
The 42 year old left fielder crushed two more bombs on Sunday in the Giants' final day of spring training, bringing his spring total to seven. The amazing part is that Bonds was perfect at plate in the game; two at-bats and two home runs. With seven dingers in just 45 at-bats, suffice it to say Bonds is ready for the season opener on Tuesday, as he closed out exhibition play with an exclamation point. Pitcher Noah Lowry summed things up:
"Unreal ... The guy, he just looks healthy. When he's healthy, the results take care of themselves. Hopefully he can stay healthy all year and we get to see history in the making."
History will be in the making, and Major League Baseball needs to start making plans for when Bonds breaks the record because it looks like that point is coming sooner rather than later. Seven homers in only 45 at-bats? Hot dang Barry. Looks like he wants to not only obliterate Hank, but put the record out of sight for Pujols, A-Rod, and anyone else who comes along.
Because Captain Cranium announced on Saturday that Bonds will bat third in the Giants lineup. It's something Cranium has been doing throughout the Spring, and now he says it will continue during the year:
"Our plans are to hit him third right now .. Whether that changes at some point during the season, I can't answer that. We'll see how we click offensively."
With no Jeff Kent, Bobby Bonilla, or Andy Van Slyke around to protect him in the lineup, doesn't this move seem long overdue? Obviously Cranium's got the idea -- it's his first season at the helm and he's putting his best batter in the three hole -- where he belongs. Baroid has had an OPS over 1.000 since the time OG Nintendo was in, so with him hitting third, you won't see too many 1-2-3 innings.
And the most glaring impact this move will have is that it will allow more opportunities for Bonds to break Hank Aaron's career HR record (he's only 22 dingers away). I'm figuring this should add an extra plate appearance or two per series which is a lot for the 42 year old who seems to defy the aging process.
By the way, I pass along condolences to Captain Cranium, his mother died Friday night due to complications with Alzheimer's disease.
Any clue as to when the last time a San Francisco Giants starter began the season by losing his first eight decisions was? Because that's what 
Here at the offices of "Stud or Shelton" we examine players who seem to be outperforming expectations to see if they are for real, or instead a flash in the pan like former Tigers hotshot Chris Shelton. As always, we apologize for rubbing salt in the wound of the Shelton family.
You and I have something in common with 
New Studs
San Francisco Giants outfielder 
OK, so he might not be at 
The 42 year old left fielder 
Because 
