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Alright, let's take a look at this Zito signing after we've all had a day to absorb everything.
First, more details of the deal has been released. The key thing is that Zito will make only $10 million this year as he agreed to backload some of his salary to help the Giants and their budget. Which is another way of saying "have money left over for the other Barry." The signing should come soon. The Giants budget this year will be $92 million, their highest yet and about $12 million more than their standard $80 million. This all sounds well and good-- we like teams that spend to win, but one wonders what would have happened if they decided to break the bank earlier. Like, oh, resigning Jeff Kent. Or going after Vlade. Or another good starter to back up Jason Schmidt.
According to John Shea, the Giants thinking is that the Phonebooth is primarily a pitcher's park. Pitcher's parks usually means you need to emphasize pitching and defense, something they didn't necessarily need to concentrate on with a healthy (and jacked up) Barry B in the lineup. With a not quite healthy Barry for one season and no Barry for the season after that (probably), the Giants are now much more serious about going in a pitching and D way. Since Zito is a flyball pitcher playing in a park with a spacious outfield and in a division full of parks with spacious outfields, Zito could possibly do better than he was doing before. And while the names Mike Hampton and Kevin Brown are being bandied about-- two pitchers who signed seven year deals and turned out to be major busts-- everyone is thinking that Zito could be the second coming of Tom Glavine. Glavine is, of course, a pretty good bet for the Hall of Fame.
In describing the deal, Giants officials were bandying about the phrase "franchise player." They're thinking that Zito will not only be a good leader of all the young pitching studs that are on the team, like he was in Oakland, his presence on the team will also help "loosen" everyone else up as big singings make people think the team actually wants to win now. Considering people are now thinking they have a chance next season, that is turning out to be true. As for 2008 and beyond, like the Cylons on Battlestar Galactica, the Giants are supposed to have a plan. And like the Cylons, nobody is quite sure what the hell the plan is or if the Powers That Be are just making it up on the run. Unlike, the Cylons, however, the plan does not seem to consist of threesomes. But whatever it is, Zito apparently was impressed with it and signed with the team partly for that reason. Athletes, however, always say stuff like that as a way to pretend they're not doing it for the money.
The reaction online is still a mixed bag. Or as El Lefty calls it, a battle between "Fanboy v. Nerdhat." Giants fans are pretty excited as the team signed their first significant free agent since the signing of Barry Lamar in '93. Statheads aren't so excited, however, for the reasons Baseball Prospectus lays out. McCovey Chronicles is also asking a pretty pertinent question in that it's great for the pitching, but who is going to score the runs? The Giants lineup is still pretty weak and nobody seems to be thinking what happens to that lineup on the days Barry is not playing.
There does seem to be a consensus forming in that it's a pretty good deal in the short term for all of the reasons mentioned above. It's just that, well, nobody likes that contract. Thus all the ambivalence on the blogs.
Actually, we think the best way of describing what happened is given to us by a commenter on McCovey Chronicles:
"Actually, this off-season is a lot like an airport restaurant. The choices aren't very appetizing, and the prices are ridiculous. But what are you gonna do? You've gotta eat something. You can pay $10 for a rubbery days-old sandwich in plastic wrap, or pay $20 for a burger that is at least cooked to order.So, all in all, I'm glad that the Giants signed Burger Zito. Err, Barry Zito."
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