Barry “Worst Contract Ever” Zito? Really? Really.
Yes, the Braves were shut out for seven innings by a man who has lost eight more games than he’s won (7-15) and accumulated a 5.43 ERA. Even after subtracting his miserable first six games, he is 7-9 with a 4.85 ERA. The more advanced (and accurate) calculations also show him to be absolutely terrible this season; his VORP is -5.2, good for 19th out of 20 Giants pitchers and ____ in the majors**. His WHIP? 1.70.
And yet the Braves managed just seven hits (five off Zito) and went 1-8 with runners in scoring position. Chipper sums it up nicely: “Bad, bad baseball,” Jones said. “A lot of mental mistakes. Forgetting outs. Forgetting counts. It’s everybody.” Yep.
The Braves finish their most recent homestead with an 1-6 record. They are now exactly a million and half games out of first and 147 games below .500.
EDIT: In fairness to Zito, there’s this:
The major league leader in losses, Zito has won just 18 of 58 starts since signing a $126 million, seven-year contract with San Francisco before the 2007 season.
He improved to 97-5 in his career when receiving four or more runs of support, including 12-1 with the Giants. San Francisco has scored no more than one run in 24 of his starts.
97-5 is pretty good. San Fran scoring one run or less in over 40% of his starts is god-awful but, then again, so are the Giants.
**baseballprospectus.com is trifling me right now.
