Seven-year glitch for Zito, Giants
Not a good day for C.C. Sabathia, here or there.
The big payday comes for Sabathia this fall, as the premier pitcher in free agency. Barry Zito got his $126 million, and Sabathia could get his too.
In the meantime, his to-do list: Win, and root for Zito to win. That seven-year contract won’t come easy for Sabathia, not if Zito’s seven-year contract remains an albatross around the neck of the San Francisco Giants.
Opening day did not go well for either pitcher. In Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox roughed up Sabathia for five runs in 5 1/3 innings in a no-decision. At Dodger Stadium, Zito gave up three runs in the first inning and one in the second, eight hits in five innings for the loss.
For Zito and the Giants, the worrisome numbers were not the ones on the scoreboard. They were the ones on the radar gun.
The Giants signed him 13 months ago, and his fastball still hasn’t shown up. He topped out at 84 mph on Monday.
Maybe his velocity comes back, maybe not. He cannot be sure. No one can. He spoke gently, with more hope than confidence in his voice.
“I want to get that 88, 89, 90 back,” he said. “I’m sure it’s just a small tweak away.”
Zito at 84 is not Jason Schmidt at 84, a power pitcher stripped of his primary weapon. Zito never operated at 95. He lives on off-speed stuff. However, if his fastball is not much faster than his curve or change, a batter can guess off-speed pitch and still adjust to a fastball. Hit it, or foul it off and drive up the pitch count.
Zito struck out one, looking. Of his first 60 pitches, the Dodgers swung and missed at one. In five innings, he threw 87 pitches.
On the first day of the new season, Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti said he was tired of addressing the diminishing difference in velocity between Zito’s fastball and curve.
“It’s been going on a year and a half now. They’re always asking me the same questions,” Righetti said. “I don’t mean to blow you off, but I can’t help you.”
Zito insists he is not hiding an injury. His shoulder is fine and his elbow is fine, he says, so there must be some defect in his delivery.
“There’s no pain or anything like that,” he said. “Right now, it’s 84-85 on the high end, which is frustrating for me. Usually, when things like this happen, it’s either an injury -- which it’s not -- or it’s something mechanical.”
He tinkered with his delivery last season, his first with the Giants, when his 4.53 earned-run average was almost a full run higher than his career ERA. He tinkered again in spring training, when he went 67 batters without a strikeout.
These are the kinds of results that make clubs tinker with contract offers, that make fans wonder why the Giants committed seven years to Zito. The Giants billed him as the face of the franchise in the post-Barry Bonds era, but for now Zito is no better than the third-best pitcher in their starting rotation.
“The durability quotient was why he got seven years,” said Scott Boras, the agent for Zito. “It wasn’t that he was a power pitcher.”
Zito leads the major leagues in games started over the last seven seasons, although the Giants signed him as his strikeouts had decreased and his walks had increased. But durability did not distinguish Kevin Brown after he signed with the Dodgers for seven years, or Mike Hampton after he signed with the Colorado Rockies for eight.
Brown, who signed at 33, was on the disabled list 10 times in those seven years. Hampton, who signed at 28, was on the disabled list eight teams in the first seven years, with this year to go.
Zito signed with the Giants at 28. Sabathia turns 28 this summer, and the durability argument could be played against him in negotiations for a seven-year contract: He is a power pitcher, and threw 256 innings last season, including the playoffs. The conditioning card could be played too; the Indians list him at 290 pounds.
Brown pitched well over the life of his contract. Hampton did not. Zito has not, but a comeback season would enable Sabathia to say the odds of success in a seven-year deal might not be so prohibitive.
For Zito, that is the least of his concerns.
“I just take care of my stuff here,” he said. “However it relates to other people, I wish them the best.”
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