Barry Zito reportedly agreed to a 7-year, $126 million deal today with the San Francisco Giants, meaning he will not be a Met in 2007. I'm a little bummed about this - I thought he'd bring a fun personality to New York, and, obviously, help the Mets immensely this year.
It seemed like the Mets were making a strong run lately for Zito. I really was convinced word would come down one of these days that he was going to be a Met - that's why I was waiting on my off-season recap (a first off-season recap, anyway), because I had a feeling the Zito signing would happen over the holidays, and I thought he'd be coming to the Mets.
Now that he's not coming to the Mets, I find it a little easier to see Zito's flaws. First, let me say that he is a very good pitcher, and coming to the National League, he will probably put up better numbers than he did in the American League. But Zito isn't a GREAT pitcher. He gives up a lot of runs a lot of time. This will continue to happen in the NL - if his curve doesn't curve, he's not effective. He's definitely going to be the Giants' ace, but he might not be the best pitcher in the National League.
An interesting fact I saw today - the three highest deals in history (over $100 million) for a pitcher have been Kevin Brown, Mike Hampton, and now Barry Zito. Zito better hope his deal turns out better than those other two.
That said, the Mets certainly could have used Barry Zito in 2007. They needed a front-of-the-rotation guy. Hopefully within the next week I will be back with a first look at what the Mets have done this off-season and what they still need to get done.
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1 comment:
I don't know who the hell "Bossxero" is, but his website is confusing as hell.
But...it makes more sense than the giants giving Zito all that money.
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