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San Francisco Giants “ace” pitcher Barry Zito is continuing to struggle in his second year with the team. This is something that is definitely a head scratcher as Zito was almost always on point in his days with the Oakland Athletics. Some argue its the money, but I don’t buy that, players may slack off after a big contract but they don’t completely lose their talent. So the question is, what is wrong with Zito?

The first problem with Zito appears to be his fastball. He’ll be 30 in May, but is already experiencing a decrease in velocity on his fastball. Pitching coach Dave Righetti, has recently called this a “transition period in his career” because of that. Zito has never had much movement on the pitch, which is something he will need to gain if he wants to be an effective pitcher. Righetti has worked with him throughout spring training and the season to date, on his mechanics, including how to hit the corners more effectively and get a little more movement on the pitch. “When you’re a lefty and you’re a little straight, you have to be fine,” Righetti said. “You’re going to have to be more of a corner guy.”

The lack of velocity on the fastball could partially explain the drastic drop in his K/BB ratio. This year, Zito has walked 12 batters already, while only striking out 10 in just 25 innings pitched. Back in Oakland, Zito was a strikeout pitcher that did give up quite a few walks. In the beginning of his career, he was almost a strikeout per inning pitcher, by the time he left the team thou that number was already dropping. Looking back at the last 3 seasons (not including 2008), his strikeouts have been dropping at an alarming rate, 20 per season. In 2005 it was 171, 151 in 06, and then 131 last year. As a pitcher gets older, people say “he’s learned to pitch”, which could be a reason why those numbers have gone down. But wouldn’t that mean the pitchers walks have dropped as well? Not in this case. Zito is still walking batters as frequently as he did early in his career. Here’s the comparison, 2002 arguably his best season, he raked up 182 strikeouts with 78 walks. In 2007, He struck out 131 batters with 83 walks.

Righetti like mentioned before has been working non-stop with Zito on mechanics and just throwing strikes. Righetti, said, “Some of it is concentration. We know he can do it. He has some bullpens when he never misses the catcher’s glove.” Zito has even said himself he needs to pitch more like a Greg Maddux and just throw stirkes. “There were times Maddux came out and they asked him how he did, and he’d say, ‘Fifty-eight (strikes) out of 75 (pitches),’ ” Zito said. “I’ve got to start getting into that type of game, just try to make each pitch, one at a time, and the results will take care of themselves.” It’s a pretty novel idea, throwing strikes. This could lead one to believe, the problem is all in Zito’s head thou. If he’s throwing lights out in bullpen sessions, you would think it would at least partially carry over to game day.

The San Francisco Chronicle, threw out ideas such as skipping one start, long relief, etc. Righetti flatly threw all of those options out of the window, “No, because who the hell is going to pitch? We’re not that deep in starting pitching. Noah Lowry is hurting now and we’re not that deep in Triple-A. We need (Zito) to pitch.” The Chronicle did bring up a good point thou, Matt Cain was skipped in a start because of struggles, two years ago, since then he’s been one of the better but unluckiest pitchers in baseball.

In the end, Zito will never be the pitcher he once was, he will never live up to his whopping $126 million contract, BUT he can still be a very effective pitcher in the big leagues. He’s still got those off-speed pitches that are so devastating, but like Mike Mussina of the New York Yankees, he’s got to figure out how to spot his pitches better, limit making mistakes but still get strikes. It’s definitely doable, and knowing Dave Righetti the two will figure something out. My guess, he ends up with a similar era as last season, around the 4.50 mark.