Wednesday, May 7, 2008

I Hope You Learned Your Lesson

Barry Zito's exile to the bullpen lasted just over a week, as he's been named the starter for tonight's game against the Pirates. He made no relief appearances since the demotion. This is interesting:
The timing of the announcement was intriguing, since the Giants didn't need to reinsert a fifth starter into the rotation until Saturday. Bochy said that returning Zito to the rotation Wednesday was not intended at the time of the pitcher's demotion. Zito said that he heard hints of this plan Sunday but wasn't officially told until Tuesday.
I'm going to throw out the idea that the decision to return Zito the rotation was not Bochy's. Whose was it then? Oh, I dunno. Maybe someone who stands to look totally foolish for giving hundreds of millions of dollars to a mop-up man? No, I don't have any information upon which to base that assumption, but it's a question I'd like to see someone ask.

1 comment:

Mr Lomez said...

This may have more to do with the fact that the Giants play the Phillies at home over the weekend.

Ideally a Zito return takes place in a low pressure environment and I can think of no situation more low-pressure than at PNC for a game that will start at 4pm PT, when most Giants fans are still at work. Zito returning to face Utley and co. at AT&T for a weekend game is just about the opposite end of the pressure spectrum.