Barry Zito: Not Setting the Good Example

When a Diamondback jacks one out of the park the song that gets played is Won't Get Fooled Again, by the Who. I wish I could say the same for Barry Zito.

The toughest thing in major league baseball is to be credited with a win if you are a starting pitcher. Hitting a ball is said to be the most difficult thing to do but if the pitcher is having trouble locating his pitches and more times than not leaves one over the plate, hitting aint that tough.

Enter Barry Zito. He doesn't give the impression of someone who learns from his mistakes.

In back-to-back starts he faced the Arizona Diamondbacks and their ace, Brandon Webb. And in back-to-back games he allowed the opposing pitcher (Webb) to smack the hit that drove in 2 runs. Webb has 4 runs-batted-in this year, all courtesy of Barry Zito.

There is another thing Zito should learn from this lack of concentration and that is to make himself a better hitter. That way if the opposing team chooses to pitch around the eighth place hitter to get to Zito he can make them pay. It takes some of the pressure off of his teammate and really is a part of the game he didn't have to work at in the specialized American League.

When I see Zito lay one in there to the opposing pitcher it reminds me of how the Giants' pitching staff handled the opponent's pitcher last year. I don't know how I could go about getting a hold of such a statistic but I'm pretty confident when I say I think they didn't fare too well against the opposition's pitcher. I think they led the league in allowing the most hits, RBI, total bases and runs scored to the pitcher's spot in the batting order. (Not necessarily the 9th spot.)

To the point: the opposing pitchers did a pretty good job of rubbing it back in the Giants' pitchers faces by not allowing them what they were allowed when they were at-bat.

Kevin Marquez