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Whats wrong with Zito?

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.

Giants shopping for a first baseman

San Francisco Giants’ GM Brian Sabean said on his weekly radio show that the team is still searching for a left-handed hitting first baseman. The Giants have had conversations within the organization on different players, the two main candidates would be Washington Nationals Nick Johnson and Atlanta Braves Scott Thorman. Both were on the trading block during the off-season and spring training, but are they still available?

I doubt the Nationals would look to dealing Johnson. Johnson has had an amazing start to the season after missing all of 2007 due to injury. He’s been playing first daily again and it looks like the Nationals are very happy with him. So you would have to think the Giants won’t even inquire about him. If they do, I’m sure the Nationals requirements have gone up since the spring ended.

The most likely one out of the two is Thorman. Thorman is currently in AAA and won’t even be recalled to Atlanta unless there is an injury or a major slump. Remember, the Braves have Mark Texeira at first so where would Thorman play? At the moment, the Braves are looking to find a trading partner FOR Thorman. Seems like a perfect match to me. The Giants could easily send an average middle reliever and get the left-handed 1B they seek.

The person who loses out the most in this is Dan Ortmeier, a switch-hitter, is currently the teams left-handed hitting 1B. Ortmeier has pretty much gotten no opportunity to start the season as Rich Aurilia continues to start ahead of him. Guess the team must have lost faith in the 26-year older. Not quite sure why thou as he did have 17 extra base hits (6 of them homers) in just 157 at-bats, he’s even got pretty good speed tallying 4 triples .

MLB Injury Update, 3/26

Here’s today injury update from around Major League Baseball. Today we’ve got updates on the Yankees, Royals, Cubs, Rangers, Twins, Padres, Giants, Mets, Brewers and Angels. Like usual its a long read.

• San Francisco Giants - Kevin Frandsen - Ruptured Achilles tendon. This is an unfortunate injury that will cost Frandsen the entire baseball season. Surgery is needed but has not been scheduled yet. He’s expected to be on crutches for around two months after he does have the surgery. Eugneio Velez should take over his backup role
• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - Scot Shields - Inflamed forearm. An MRI revealed no ligament damage which is a good thing. He’s still expected to start the season on the disabled list. He pretty much just needs to stay behind in extended spring training to get some more action in before facing major leaguers. “He’ll need to pitch and to work out some things, and he can do that better in camp games,” Scioscia said. “If we back-date a DL stint, he’d only miss the first six or seven games. It’s worth the price to pay short term, rather than risk a month or two of the season because he’s doing something he’s not ready for.”
• Kansas City Royals - Hideo Nomo - pulled groin. Nomo pulled his groin in a start Tuesday against the San Diego Padres. He’s now expected to start the season in the minors as he won’t be ready to pitch come opening day. He was already a long shot to make the roster thou.
• Chicago Cubs - Mark DeRosa - sinusitis. This guy has had one rough spring. First an irregular heartbeat, then the flu, now he’s missing game due to sinusitis. The good news for him thou is that the team has finally decided to break off negotiations with the Baltimore Orioles’ about Brian Roberts. His job as the starting second baseman is safe.
• San Diego Padres - Jim Edmonds - strained right calf. Edmonds feels his strained right calf is finally healed enough to at least attempt game action. He’s been running and working out on the side. He will test the calf out this upcoming week in minor league games. He’s still expected to start the season on the DL, just to get in his at-bats.
• Milwaukee Brewers - Yovani Gallardo - knee surgery. Gallardo made his second minor league start today in his recovery from arhroscopic knee surgery. He went three innings giving up one hit and a walk, but no runs. He’s expected to re-join the team in mid-April after a brief DL stint as he is working on strengthening that knee.
• Texas Rangers - Luis Mendoza - finger blister. Mendoza will start the season on the DL because of the blister. This injury really doesn’t affect the rotation thou as he’s the fifth starter and won’t be needed till April 12th. This is more just to get an extra reliever on the Rangers roster during that time. Mendoza will start on the 12th when needed
• Minnesota Twins - Carlos Gomez - left hamstring cramping. The injury isn’t as severe as originally thought. During today’s game, Gomez came up lame after going to the left-center field gap to make a play. The way it looked, it seemed like a strained or pull but luckily it was just cramping. He’ll be considered day-to-day as the team will take it easy with their starting center fielder since this is the hamstring that caused him to miss a few games last season.
• New York Mets - Moises Alou - hernia surgery. Alou showed up at training camp today for the first time since having hernia surgery on March 6th. The recovery time is 4 to 6 weeks, and Alou is hopping to be cleared to at least start jogging shortly. He’s definitely starting the season on the DL with an estimated return of late April, early May.
• Mets - Ramon Castro - strained hamstring. Castro hasn’t played in a game since March 16th and may need to start the season on the DL now. He recently suffered a setback in his recovery efforts.
• New York Yankees - Sean Henn - shoulder tendinitis. Unfortunately for Henn, he’s a victim of the numbers games. Henn is out of options and recently lost his left-handed specialist job to Billy Traber. Due to that, he’ll start the season on the disabled list with shoulder tendinitis. It’s been a while since he’s pitched in a major league spring training game so the Yankees were at least able to back date this and he could return April 5th. Henn pitched in a minor league game this afternoon and experienced no problems.
• New York Yankees - Brett Gardner - split lip. Gardner suffered a split lip today after foul ball bounced back up and hit him in his mouth. He went to see a dentist after the game, this is clearly a day-to-day injury. Gardner may open the season with the big boys if Melky Cabrera serves out his suspension to start the season.
• New York Yankees - Johnny Damon - flu. Damon was scratched from today’s game due to the flu, he’ll most likely miss another day or two with it. Maybe its a good thing, it will leave him well rested for Opening Day in the Bronx.
• New York Yankees - Andy Pettitte - back spasms. And now the daily Pettitte update. Pettitte had a 10-minute bullpen session today throwing 36 pitches and is now fully on target to pitch in the 4th or 5th game of the season. “It makes me feel good that I got through that and I felt good,” Pettitte said. “I could just tell that I felt a whole lot better this morning when I woke up. It loosened up nice for me.”

That is tonights update. It’s still relatively early in the evening almost 9pm. If there’s enough updates then I’ll send out a Part 2 around midnight.

Today’s MLB injury update, Part 1

Alright ladies and gentleman, here’s todays part 1 update on various baseball injuries, it’s a long one. This one contains updates on the St Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros.

• St Louis Cardinals - Chris Carpenter, Matt Clement, Joel Pineiro, Mark Mulder, Juan Encarnacion. This team has a full laundry list and almost a full rotation hurting one way or another. All of the preceding players have been placed on the 15-day disabled list, all retroactive to March 21st. Here’s the breakdown of when they may return. Carpenter is still recovering from Tommy John surgery. He resumed throwing earlier this month and his looking to make a mid-July return to the rotation. Don’t hold your breathe thou. Clement is still rehabbing from shoulder surgery and should miss the entire month of April, his status in May will all depend on his performance in minor league starts.
  
  Pineiro threw two innings in a minor league game today as he had to take some time for inflammation in his left shoulder. He’ll get three or four more minor league assignments then rejoin the rotation. Mulder is also recovering from shoulder surgery and should miss the month of April as well. He just started facing live hitters today. Now, Encarnacion he has a fractured left orbital bone and isn’t expected to play at all this season. In fact, his career may be over.
• Tampa Bay Rays - Scott Kazmir, Ben Zobrist. Kazmir was placed on the 15-day DL as well, also retroactive to March 21st. He could return in April but his return has to be up in the air, as the Rays have been very cautious and keep slowing him down. Rays’ manager Joe Maddon said Kazmir will start throwing catch from further distances later this week, 90 to 120 feet. He’s still not throwing off a mound or facing live hitters yet.
  
  Zobrist, the Rays utility man, will be on the DL for the first weeks of the season with a broken thumb. Andy Cannizaro or Elliot Johnson will cover his duties in the meantime.
• San Francisco Giants - Aaron Rowand. Rowand was hit by a pitch in today’s game by Rich Hill. He took the pitch off his right ankle and spent a minute or so on the ground afterwards. He was able to walk off the field on his own, and the injury is most likely day-to-day variety.
• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - Kelvim Escobar, Chone Figgins. Escobar experienced discomfort in his pitching shoulder and had to shutdown his throwing program once again. This can’t be a good sign for you Angels fans, as this was just playing catch he hasn’t even gotten back on the mound yet. He was looking to return by mid-May, as long as its not to serious you could expect this to be pushed back to June now.
  
  Figgins has been sidelined with cramping in his left hand. The injury is day-to-day, and its more of a precautionary thing as the left hand is the one he had surgery to remove the hamate bone. He’s expected to return to the lineup Thursday.
• Seattle Mariners - Adrian Beltre. Beltre is still having problems with wrist pain. The injury has followed him since last season, and he wasn’t diagnosed with a torn ligament till December. Being so close to training camp, he opted not to go with surgery. “It hurts to hold the bat, it hurts every time,” Beltre said. “There’s always pain.” If he’s able to make it through the season I wouldn’t expect much via the way of power.
• Houston Astros - Kaz Matsui. Matsui is on the 15-day DL retroactive to March 21st. He recently had surgery to repair an anal fissure. I’m not going into the details for you on what that details, but if you’re interested you can look it up on Google. He’ll miss the first couple weeks of the season. Mark Loretta should get most of his playing time while he recovers.

Part two of this should follow shortly.

Giants claim Castillo off waivers

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the San Francisco Giants have claimed Jose Castillo off waivers and that the Florida Marlins have decided not to pull him back. The non-move of pulling Castillo back, to me is not to much of a surprise. Castillo has never been the greatest with his bat .256 career average with 33 homers and 181 homers over 4 seasons. His strength has always been his defense at the hot corner, which is something the Giants are looking for.

This move means Jorge Cantu will be the starting third baseman for the Marlins this season. Cantu is slightly better offensively with a .273 career avg, with 45 homers and 209 rbis over 4 seasons. But he did have one breakout year in 2005 with a .286 avg 28 homers and 117 rbis. Last season he only appeared in 52 games for a variety of reasons. The knock on Cantu has always been his defense, but the Marlins must feel he won’t be as much of a liability as they originally thought. Look for Jason Wood to take over the backup role at third base with Castillo gone.

Here’s a link to the Sun-Sentinel article.

Vizquel out with knee surgery.

San Francisco Giants are going to be with out their Gold Glove shortstop Omar Vizquel for 4 to 5 weeks. The 40 year old, Vizquel will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Wednesday and then start rehab. Omar started to experience some soreness in the knee last week but thought nothing of it and thought it was no big deal. Today while testing his knee out thou he felt a pop and thought OK its time to get this taken care of. “My knee was feeling good,” Vizquel said. “I wanted to give it a hard shot in order to make a decision. It didn’t work. I felt a little pop when I was running. That’s what I wanted to see—to see if I could sustain the pain, and I couldn’t.” The injury is being officially diagnosed as torn medical meniscus.

During Vizquel’s absence, Kevn Frandsen will be covering the position. Frandsen was originally to battle Ray Duham for the starting job at second base. This may hurt him some in that race, but it will at least give him more at-bats during the first few weeks of the season and all of camp to show if he can handle a starting role. That should be enough to keep him on the major league roster come regular season thou.

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