Filed under: Giants, NL West, MLB Rumors, San Francisco, Fantasy MLB

Barry Zito was “banished” to the bullpen for all of … exactly zero outings? Yup. Zito pitched so embarrassingly bad as a starter for the San Francisco Giants (in case you haven’t been following his season, just think about what that says) that Bruce Bochy decided to move him into the bullpen.

There seem to be all kinds of quasi-contradictory reasons for why Zito is coming back to the rotation, with the bottom line being that Bochy’s got a $120 million starter on his hands, and management wants him pitching. And not stinking.

The Giants were going to need a fifth starter by Saturday and decided to have Zito pitch Wednesday, manager Bruce Bochy said, not only to balance the rotation but to ensure the left-hander does not go too long without pitching.

[…]Barry’s going to start. He’s a starter,” Bochy said. “We felt we had to break it up and give him a break. We were hoping we cold get him out there (in relief) a couple of times. Now, that didn’t happen, so he’s going back into the rotation.”

It’s fairly obvious (although unsaid, as the Chron points out) that the Giants want Zito to conveniently avoid having to pitch against the Phillies, instead getting to toss against the Pirates and away from San Francisco, where he is apparently not very popular. Because, you know, he’s been embarrassingly bad.

The Giants are going to keep preaching “confidence” and other junk like that, but the fact is Zito doesn’t have the same stuff he used to win the Cy Young. And unless something magical or dramatic (or magically dramatic) happens, they’re going to end up eating — one way or another — one of the worst contracts in the history of baseball.

Fantasy Spin: Don’t be a sucker, sucka. Leave Zito alone.

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