The Cure For Zito's Struggles

[love_that_reefer]

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, the Giants just might have figured out what to do with Barry Zito. Have him throw to Pablo Sandoval. Barry Zito had his best start of the year and it was a real beauty today against the Padres. I know the Padres offense isn't that great but anyone has been able to hit Zito. But today Zito looked sharper than ever throwing seven scoreless with five strikeouts and more importantly, ZERO WALKS!! He did hit a guy but he immediately got the double play. Barry Zito looked like a whole different player out there today.

Now before all you guys jump on me and say its just one game, this isn't the first time this has happened. Barry Zito's best month of his Giant career came last September when opposing hitters hit .225/.301./.336. Guess who caught the majority of those starts? That's right, Pablo Sandoval. Sandoval caught five games last year of Zito's and hitters hit .213/.293./.311 while giving up just one homerun. That's a lousy .604 OPS! A lot of pitchers have had their own personal catcher. Maddux had one and so did Randy Johnson for a while just to name a few HOFers. So combine last year's month worth of games to today's start and I think we have found Zito's very own personal catcher. Zito has not had a stretch of six games this good with any other catcher so why not give Molina every 5th day off? Look what Molina did today. He got the walkoff, pinch hit single!

It doesn't take long to see that a pitcher and catcher connect and mesh well and its very obvious Zito and Sandoval do. Sandoval even caught Zito in spring training and he did well. Zito is a whole different pitcher when Pablo is behind the plate with a cool calm about him and an aggressive charge to him. If the Giants want to win ballgames, they need to keep the Sandoval as Zito's backstop.

[henks]

Pretty crazy that all it takes is a different catcher behind the plate for a guy to turn his numbers around like that. Hopefully there's someone from the Giants' coaching staff reading this thread right now.

[love_that_reefer]

With Zito, it is all mental with him. If he is comfortable and likes the way Sandoval calls the game, keep it going. Sometimes a pitcher likes a catcher devoting most of his time on him. For the money he is getting paid, maybe he should get his own personal catcher.

[missionhockey21]

I buy into the theory. Bronson Arroyo is a totally different pitcher depending on who is catching him, especially with the kind of breaking pitches he has, so there is some definite truth here. And like you mentioned, most of it is mental with Zito and if he believes he will be successful with Sandoval, he'll likely be more successful.

[love_that_reefer]

Zito goes 6.1 innings with Sandoval again and gives up just two runs!!! He did not get the win but the Giants did which is all I care about.

[browntown653]

Is it possible this guy actually can turn it around with a new catcher? I would hate to see that contract be a complete waste so here's hoping Zito continues to give the Giants productive innings.

[missionhockey21]

Zito will never be the dominant pitcher the Giants hoped he would be with them, but if he can consistently pitch 6 or 7 innings of a quality start game, then that contract becomes a whole lot more tolerable. It'll be interesting to see if he can build some momentum if he can string several QS's together.