Posts tagged BarryZito at FanHouse

Diesels and Sevens were the hot ticket metrosexual jeans for dudes when I was in school. I have no clue if they're still hip or if metrosexual is even kosher to say; my jeans are Wrangler. And I swear allegiance to all things Favre.

I don't care for $250 blue jeans and I certainly won't pay for them. But some people will, I suppose, otherwise Barry Zito wouldn't be modeling for True Religion, a designer brand of jeans for dudes. (Gracias to 'Duk for reminding me that I heard this on television the other night.)

The Zito ads will appear on the sides of buses in Japan. In San Francisco, a True Religion billboard is planned for a building near the intersection of Bush Street and Van Ness Avenue.

"It's crazy,'' Zito said. "I got a text message from (former A's teammate) Eric Byrnes that said, 'Dude, my wife just saw you on a billboard in Vegas. You've got to be (kidding) me!' "

Zito did not seek out this second career. He told his publicist, Kathy Jacobson, to refuse any endorsement offers - especially when he had an 0-8 record after nine starts.

"I can't be the `Seiko guy,' none of that," Zito said. "That just looks bad, like I'm not focusing on baseball. But Kathy said, `No, it's not an endorsement. It's not because of who you are or that you play baseball. This is a modeling gig.' "

Wow. What a humble guy. $126 mil is enough; 0-8 doesn't deserve any more money or endorsements. Gosh. Zen, like, really.

I do kind of respect, though, his willingness to take on a second career, even if said career is male modeling. It's pretty similar to what I've got going on right now, what with the office job that pays big bucks and the blogging on the side. Less glamorous, maybe, but similar nonetheless.

It's been a while around these parts since we mentioned Barry Zito. After all, it's not really any fun to point out that the guy has been fairly successful (read: not a full on embarrassment) lately. Anyone can do that.

But now that he's sliding back into the lower levels of mediocrity, it's nice to note that things are so bad he's turned to tossing batting practice for the Giants (who are, mind you, not the most offensively minded team).

"It's always a great benefit throwing against hitters in game situations," said Zito, coming off a loss against Arizona in which he allowed six runs and five walks in five innings. "It's something I've done in the past in Oakland here or there. I've got 30 pitches on the side. Why not take advantage of the guys and get their feedback?"

Let's not use words like 'old school' (later in the article) and 'take advantage' like this is something everyone does, people.

Barry's doing it because he honestly can't figure out what the mess is going on -- like me on the driving range. Only I don't get paid eleventy billion dollars to hit on the driving range. So there's that.

Oh, and if you're curious how this relates to the trading deadline today, well, Barry Zito is the only untradeable player in MLB right now. So there's that too.

July 31 is rapidly approaching. Buy or Sell lets each team know where they stand.

It's very odd that a) the Giants are not completely out of their division race and b) that somehow, they are reasonably stocked with prospects. Just imagine what would have happened if Brian Sabean really knew what he was doing.

However, as we have seen from the trade of Ray Durham to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Giants are, heading into the final 11 days before the trade deadline, most certainly sellers. They stand eight games back of their division, and it's not likely that even the most stout of second halves from their youngsters or tepid of performances by the Dbacks and Dodgers will let them sneak into the playoffs.

In terms of assets and receivables, the Giants have a pretty decent situation. They have no true veteran superstar to deal (unless they're willing to pay 75% of Barry Zito's contract and his "star" status is certainly debatable). In addition, they need young offensive help, but they need it everywhere, so it's not like they need to be picky.

Rich Aurilia, Dave Roberts, Randy Winn and even Omar Vizquel represent tradeable veteran talent with three or less years on their contract. They aren't premiere guys by any means, and the two years after this season that will saddle the receiving team might negate their trade value.

With all the Alex Rodriguez and Madonna nonsense going on, it's brought up a lot of debate as to whether or not a player's personal life is something that should be covered with such zeal. Personally, I'm more on the side that says somebody's family life should be exactly that, and unless they're breaking the law or endangering others, it really shouldn't be any of our business. I don't care whether your A-Rod or Rasho Nesterovic, your home life should be just that.

Still, I understand the coverage of the story. I mean, it's baseball's best/highest paid player reportedly having an affair with an aging pop icon as his wife leaves him for another rock star. It sounds like an epically bad movie of the week, and it's the kind of thing people are interested in reading. So while I generally don't like reporting on stories like this, I understand that readers want it, so I'll do it and just shower afterwards to feel better.

Tabloids aren't always bad, though, as there are times when they save a lot of people quite a bit of pain. Like any of you New Yorkers out there who complain about the Post or Page Six, you should probably be grateful they exist, because if they didn't you'd likely have to be watching Barry Zito pitch every five days.

When I first found out yesterday that the Oakland Athletics had traded Rich Harden to the Cubs, my first reaction was "Why?" I didn't even know who Oakland had gotten in return from the Cubs, and already the deal didn't make that much sense to me. Then I heard who the A's got, and the deal made even less sense to me.

Don't get me wrong, I think Matt Murton has the potential to flourish in Oakland as he's finally found an organization that can appreciate what he's capable of (Matt has struggled this season, but does still have a career OPS of .810 without ever getting regular playing time), and Sean Gallagher could end up being a very effective pitcher for the Athletics. Eric Patterson is probably just an insurance plan should Mark Ellis not re-sign with the team after the season, as the A's are pretty thin at second base in the minors, and I don't know anything about John Donaldson.

But why now, Billy Beane? Why pull the trigger on this deal when your team is only five games out of first place in the AL West, and only 3.5 behind Boston for the wild card? There is no way that Beane can honestly think his team has a better shot at making the playoffs this season without Rich Harden.

Yet, while on the surface this deal makes absolutely no sense to me, I also realize that Beane knows what he's doing and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's just tired of being held hostage by Harden's injury history and is tired of having to build a team around a pitcher who may or may not be available at any given time. If you look at Beane's history of letting his pitchers go, he seems to have great timing, as Mark Mulder and Barry Zito have never been the same since leaving the bay area.

It's still way too early to tell if this was a mistake or not, but I have to say, at the moment I don't think this was one of Beane's finest moment.

In recent weeks there had been plenty of teams who were interested in the services of 16-year old Dominican pitcher Michael Inoa. The 6'7 prospect has had scout salivating for a while now, and organizations were lining up for the chance to add him to their team. Well, when it was all said and done and Inoa was allowed to sign with somebody, he ended up choosing the Oakland Athletics.

As details came out about the signing, other teams (like the Rangers and Reds) found out that even though they offered Inoa more money, he still chose the Athletics over them. This didn't make sense to these other teams, so in their minds, the only logical explanation is that Oakland cheated and signed Inoa before the deadline. Now it looks like MLB will be taking a look into the deal.

Adam Katz, Inoa's agent, would not discuss the offer from Texas (or a reportedly larger offer from Cincinnati), but he said the A's did not sign Inoa until the 12:01 a.m. EDT deadline Wednesday.

"There was no contract before the deadline," Katz told The Chronicle on Sunday. "Absolutely not. Billy (Beane) and the team followed all the rules carefully. Billy and I were both very aware how high profile (Inoa) is."

Personally, I don't think Oakland did anything wrong here. I mean, maybe Inoa and his agent chose a smaller offer from the A's because they've seen the success Oakland has had in developing young pitchers. You know, guys like Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito (he used to be good Giants fans, I swear), Dan Haren, and now Rich Harden and Justin Duchscherer.

Needless to say, the Rangers and Reds don't have the same kind of history. Well, the Rangers can develop good pitching, they just trade it all away before it's ready for the bigs. Just ask John Danks and Edinson Volquez.

If you are failing to thrash Barry Zito when he faces you on the mound, you should feel ashamed. If you are getting absolutely dealt on by Zito, well, life's not good for you. The Dodgers got toasted by Barry on Saturday, in what was his best start of the 2008 season.

The Giants snapped the Dodgers' four-game winning streak and moved four games back of National League West-leading Arizona. The bigger story line, however, seemingly always is the fate of the $126 million man.

Zito was as aggressive in the strike zone as he has been all season, pouring in 73 strikes in 109 pitches, hitting a season-best 89 mph on the radar gun and locating a late-breaking slider throughout. After a first-inning hiccup that had the fans booing, he was dominant from the second to sixth innings, facing the minimum, allowing only one hit - which he erased with a pickoff - and striking out eight.

"Sometimes you want to make the fans happy, but you can't want it too much or you'll start pressing," Zito said. "You just have to let things happen, be yourself out there and not try to be anything more."

Zito went seven innings, striking out ten Dodgers as the Giants picked up the win. Is Zito back? I doubt it. I really do. But the game log is kind of looking up, no? Sure, he got smacked around by the Cubs but his start against the Indians (one earned, no walks) looked similar to the Dodgers outing.

Interesting tidbit -- tonight, after Matt Cain struck out 10 batters en route to a win, the Giants, for the first time since they moved out to the Bay Area, have three pitchers to record 100 strikeouts before the All Star Break. Joining Cain are Tim Lincecum and Jonathan Sanchez.

Sanchez, who was named the National League Player of the Week on Monday, said he and Lincecum made a friendly bet as to who would have more strikeouts at the end of the season. Sanchez said it was more of a joke, but now it appears a dark horse has entered the race with Cain on the verge of getting his 100th strikeout.

"We're all having fun," Sanchez said. "[Lincecum] strikes out a lot of people, but I'm close. I have to strike out 12 more, but he's going to start again before me."

Again, quite a shame that the Giants didn't have the foresight to, you know, not raid Shady Acres for the rest of the roster; they could actually be pretty freaking good if they had some offense (-43 run differential).

Still though, they're somehow only five games back (I know, right??) of the lead in the NL West and as long as they have pitching this stout, it's kind of hard to count them out of it. Then you remember that they employ Barry Zito. And you start to count them out. Fun story though.

Unfortunately for the Giants fan in this clip, "not burying your head in your jacket like an ostrich" outweighs "not acting like a professional while in the announcing booth" in the scale of things things you don't do at a baseball game. So instead of chastising Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper for mocking a fan, it's probably best to embrace their artistic creativity with the teleprompter.



Unless, of course, this was a Barry Zito start. Then the fan would be totally excused for attempting to hide his face/smother himself with his jacket.

H/T: SBB

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.