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.