Things To Ask BEFORE You Give Someone $126M

I was looking for a topic for my latest post. Then I stumbled upon this.

Jackpot.

Now here's the thing, I don't claim to have much experience as a pro ballplayer, and I have absolutely zero experience as a big league GM. But how the hell does something like this happen? Seems to me, a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PITCHING MOTION is something an organization, now $126 million dollars over 7 years lighter, doesn't want to learn about for the first time at spring training.

So who's to blame, Zito or the Giants? That's an easy one in my opinion. If you read that story past the first few paragraphs, you see Zito has been throwing this way for months. He's been a Giant since late December; about a month and a half. So obviously, Z was tinkering with his delivery while Scott Boras was in the midst of negotiating the most lucrative contract for a big league pitcher in the history of the game. The blame totally falls on San Francisco here. How could they not ask? How could they not attend a workout? How did this not come up in any conversation? It wouldn't have been that hard...

GM Brian Sabean: Hey Z, whatcha' been up to this offseason?
Barry Zito: Oh, not much.
BS: You been throwing at all?
BZ: Sure, 4 times a week. By the way, I completely changed my motion. You know, the motion I've used since I entered the league 7 years ago. The motion I've used to go 39 games over .500, with a 3.55 ERA. The motion that's enabled me to make each of my last 222 starts. The motion I used when I won the Cy Young in 2002. It's no big deal though.
BS (suddenly beat red, reaching for his cell phone): Well, good talking to you. We'll be in touch.

Even when I was with the Expos organization, and making $1 for every $4,235 Barry makes now ($850 a month, April through August only vs. $18 million a season), a scout still held a mini workout a few weeks before spring training just to see how we were doing and check our off-season progress. Although he did take us to Pizza Hut after the workout, so it's more like Zito's making $4,220 for every dollar I make. Sucker.

I'll tell you who I don't blame in this, and that's Zito. He worked hard to get his legs in shape, and now he's trying to use them more to push off of the rubber. In his mind, (which one of the many subjects discussed in Mychael Urban's fantastic book, by the way) he's just trying to get better, and you can't fault an athlete for that. No, this is totally a "caveat emptor lesson" for Frisco. Pitching coach Dave Righetti's worried Zito's trademark curveball might not be as good with different mounds in the National League. Seems to me if my number one told me he was trying to re-invent the wheel, I would want to get a good look at Wheel 2.0 before my ace took it for a test drive in Scottsdale.

We'll see how a new motion affects the most durable pitcher in the game this season, and that's if he even uses his new motion. My guess is, Zito's numbers this year will be about the same as they were last year (3.83 ERA, 16 W, 151 K). The difference between adjusting to new hitters, new hitters adjusting to him, pitching in a smaller park, and pitching to pitchers, should be a wash. But if it's not, and his college-era-motion screws him up beyond repair, or if he gets hurt, the Giants will have learned a very expensive lesson.