Yesterday, Giants pitcher Barry Zito settled the score with Brewers first baseman, Prince Fielder when he plunked him in the back. The score began last season when Prince Fielder hit a walk-off homerun and met his teammates at home plate for an unusually awesome homerun celebration. The Giants on the other hand did not appreciate its awesomeness.
"I don't know how they get off doing that." Explained Barry Zito. "They're doing some homerun celebration like this was some game kids play on a warm summer's day."
Distraught by the celebration, Zito took matters into his hands.
"I knew I had to get him good." Said Zito. "So I really dialed up the fastball, I think I got it up to like 75 or 76 mph. You can tell I'm mad when I throw that hard."
Fielder did not seem too fazed by the plunking, even flipping the ball back to Zito after getting hit.
"No, I really appreciated the gesture." Said Fielder. "If they were really serious, they would have tried to beat us in a meaningful game. Instead they showed it wasn't personal, by beaming me in a meaningless spring training game."
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8 comments:
Ahahaha. I thought the HR celebration was freaking awesome! And it's not like it was particularly meant to show up the Giants, just celebrate how awesome Prince Fielder is (which he is).
Obligatory "If the Yankees did that" response:
If the Yankees performed a home run celebration like that, they would be excoriated.
Also, Nick Johnson would turn to dust. So we should stick to the playful helmet tossing and pie smashing.
Yup.
Also, I've seen Yankee fans complaining about how wrong it was to celebrate after a walk-off HR. Uhhhh guys? Our team kind of does that too? Remember the pies?
I really hope Nick Johnson doesn't have a walk-off hit this year because he'd probably somehow get conjunctivitis because of the pie.
Barry Zito is pretty hot. That's about the only thing he's good for nowadays, though.
Barry Zito is not terrible. He gives you about 190 innings and an average ERA. Meaning he would be a good deal at about half his salary.
Rich - fair, but he also has an ugly WHIP and K/BB ratio, in the NL West. WARs of 1.7, 1.4, and 2.2 aren't really what you want from an SP. By comparison, other pitchers that achieved 2.2 WAR in 2009:
Hughes (mostly a bullpen guy)
Kuroda (good, but out a good chunk of the year because he got hit with a line drive in the head IIRC, so he only pitched 117.1 innings)
Blanton (pretty mediocre)
Mariano Rivera who, keep in mind, was a relief pitcher that pitched only 66.1 innings, was worth 2 WAR.
fun fact, because I was bored.
Fangraphs pitcher WAR, 1.7, 2007:
Jamie Moyer
Jason Marquis
Barry Zito
Tom Glavine was worth only 1.3 WAR that year? I know he IMPLODED on the last day but still.
1.4 WAR in 2008:
Edwin Jackson
Ian Snell
Livan "my brother rules" Hernandez
Barry Zito
NOT SO FUN FACT: in 2008, only two Yankee starting pitchers pitched enough innings to be eligible to be on the WAR leaderboard. YIKES. (Moose with 5.3 and Andy with 4.4. How was Andy worth only 3.3 WAR in 2009 if he was worth 4.4 in 2008? My poor boyfriend was practically pitching with his shoulder sewn on by the end there in 2008.)
Considering the contract Zito was given and the expectation of him being the number 1 starter, I think his 4.03 ERA and 190 innings don't look so impressive.
Right, we're probably overpaying AJ Burnett (though not nearly as much as the Giants are overpaying Zito, to be fair). The price of pitching is ridiculous.
Looking at his FIP, he was really overperforming it the last few years with the Athletics (2005 ERA 3.86, 2006 ERA 3.83. 2005 FIP 4.34, 2006 FIP 4.89. FIP isn't perfect, but... yeah.). I guess it caught up with him.
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