B4B

Zito’s claim to fame has been his durability; pitching in 223 innings per season throughout his A’s tenure. Zito was a VORP star because of it; ranking amongst the top 15 in VORP 4 out of his 6 full seasons with the A’s.

One thing VORP doesn’t do is neutralize for defense, and that’s where anything good about Zito’s Post Cy Young Award Winning Career ends. Zito had the fortune of pitching in front of some of the best defensive outfields during his last three A’s seasons, which masked his declining peripherals: Poor career strikeout to walk ratio (1.91), and poor career groundball rate (38%).

This bullet, in a recent Olney entry, has to warm the hearts of Giants fans all over America:

• Barry Zito’s fastball is being clocked in the low 80s, as Andrew Baggarly writes, and his ERA is 14.92. And there is this: He has faced 67 batters [this spring] without recording a strikeout.