Thought that last start against Cleveland was a sign? Think again. Barry Zito was roughed up for five funs on six hits and five walks over five innings in a 9-2 home loss against the Chicago Cubs.

News flash! Giants lose 7-2 to Detroit, behind a stellar two inning, five run/five hit/four walk effort from good ol’ Barry Zito. $500,000 grand well earned today!

This year has been great as far as bad contracts are concerned in the major leagues. With Andruw Jones, Miguel Cabrerra, Eric Gagne, the crown jewel of all bad contracts Barry fucking Zito, and now Dontrelle Willis all complete flops, GM’s around the league have to be even more wary of spending the big dollars on extensions for younger players and those big free agent fish.

It was announced today that Willis, or “the human earned run” as I like to call him since he was traded to Detroit (note the 10.32 ERA), has been sent down to Single A. I’m sure it’s just to “work things out” or whatever, but the truth is his numbers had declined steadily for the two seasons previous to Detroit acquiring him during the off season due to the fact that he can’t seem to mix in a strike every once in a while.

Detroit as a team fucking sucks this year after many predicted them to be world series contender, and after putting Jeremy Bonderman on the DL earlier in the day things don’t appear to be looking up any time soon. They have one of the highest payrolls in the bigs, and I looked forward to seeing that lineup come together on the field, but such is the way of baseball. After all, who would have predicted Tampa Bay to be 38-26 at this point in the season?

I’m a Giants fan, so I naturally hate the Dodgers. And even though the Giants are the current owners of the worst contract in all of sports (see Barry Zito’s $136,000,000 fiasco) the Dodgers don’t have a lot of room to laugh. This off-season they signed Andruw Jones to a 2 year, 36 million dollar contract to patrol center field and to add some power to their impotent offense. It was a risky signing to start with, considering the fact that he only hit .222 last year with 26 home runs (which is tied for his lowest total since he started playing full time) last year and he was healthy. The market was totally dry for him because he had a terrible 07′ and he turned in to kind of a fat ass, and the only reason he signed with the Dodgers in the first place is because they were literally the ONLY team that were willing to offer him a two year deal worth a shit (everybody else was either offering one year for big money, or several years for shit money). So the fact that he is not only having an even worse year this year (he’s batting .165 with TWO home runs and only SEVEN rbi’s in 43 games!!!!! WHAAAAAAT?!?!?!), but he is now on the shelf for 4 to 6 weeks after having knee surgery earlier today makes me laugh until I piss down my own leg.
The Dodgers also signed away the Giants best pitcher, Jason Schmidt, before the 07′ season giving the then 33 year old with a declining fast ball a 3 year, 47 million dollar deal that most people thought was a pretty big risk at the time as well. He almost immediately blew out his shoulder (which was no surprise to any giants fan that watched him pitch through the 06′ season) and in two years has pitched in all of 6 games, amassing a 1 - 4 record with a 6.31 era.
The team is currently hovering around .500 with a 26 - 24 record coming in to play today, which makes them a huge disappointment considering their stacked pitching staff, and with Nomar Garciaparra, Andruw Jones, and Jason Schmidt all on the disabled list for quite some time the future doesn’t look too bright.
As a Giants fan I couldn’t be happier.

Anybody who even remotely pays attention to sports heard about the 7 year 126 MILLION dollar contract Barry Zito signed with the Giants before last season. At the time it was viewed by everyone but the Giants front office as a financially irresponsible signing, but now it has turned in to nothing short of the worst free agent acquisition EVAR!!! Zito’s record is now an historically bad 0-8, and even though he has been “better” since being demoted to the bullpen for a few days, in his last start 14 out of the 28 hitters he face reached base. I would be willing to bet that if you put a batting tee at home plate instead of Barry Zito 14 out of 28 batters wouldn’t reach base. I mean, that’s almost hard to do. Shit, I’ll bet that even if Bengie Molina pulled a Crash Davis (Major League is a cinematic masterpiece btw) and told the hitters what was coming it would STILL be hard for 14 out of 28 of them to reach base!

Not that he needs any more money, but I just thought of a great endorsement deal for Zito to sign. He would be the perfect spokesman for a chiropractor, because his neck has got to be sore from whipping his head around so often and watching all of those balls leave the yard.

Great signing Brian Sabean!!! You are now 0 for the last 5 years and you STILL HAVE A JOB!!! Wow Giants. wow.

The question above is a good one. On this hand, you have Barry Zito; a season into a seven year, $126 million contract, Zito has established himself as one of baseball’s bottom of the barrel starting pitchers. On the other, you’ve got Mike Hampton; at the tail end of receiving millions upon millions of dollars for 100+ missed starts over the past seven seasons. ESPN analyst Jayson Stark has a nice contrast and comparison here.