Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness

… thank whomever it is you might pray to that it’s not three times worse:

SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Zito was demoted to the bullpen Monday by the San Francisco Giants, who hope the former ace can correct his problems by working in relief.

The move was first reported by ESPN The Magazine’s Buster Olney.

Zito, who only 16 months ago signed a $126 million, seven-year contract with the Giants to lead their rotation, was informed of the move in a meeting with manager Bruce Bochy.

“I’m certainly not happy with it, by any means,” Zito said. “But this is the bed that I’ve made. I have to lay in it for the time being and I have to overcome. I trust management and I trust what their decisions are.”

The left-hander has lost his first six starts this season and has a 7.53 ERA that jumped considerably after Zito was tagged for eight earned runs in a 10-1 loss Sunday to Cincinnati.

The 2002 AL Cy Young Award winner with Oakland, Zito lasted just three innings against the Reds and was booed frequently by the crowd at AT&T Park during his shortest outing of the year.

“It’s good sometimes just to back off,” Bochy said. “It’s happened to a lot of great players, position players and even pitchers. We just felt at this point it’s time for him to sit back, miss a start and help us in the pen.” (ESPN)

I think most people realized that this was a terrible deal at the outset but… he made it all of 39 (awful) starts before being dumped. While we’re wondering what we’re going to do with 4 more years of Juan Pierre, what do the Giants do with 6 more seasons (and $111.5 million!!!) of Barry Zito? Move over, Mike Hampton, and take a seat, Darren Dreifort. We have a new undisputed champion of worst contract ever.

Looking around some Giants blogs (and yeah, I feel plenty dirty now) it seems that Zito (shown at right caught red-handed stealing money) is like Juan Pierre times a million. Much as we dump on Pierre, he’s at least got some value. Zito? Well…

It can’t be stressed enough. It just can’t. Barry Zito is probably my least favorite topic to think about, discuss, or devote any brain power to. On one hand, I feel bad for watching a once talented pitcher dissolve in front of our very eyes. It’s a metamorphosis none of us thought would happen this soon or this completely. Nobody expected Zito to do what he’s doing right now and I think even the most hard boiled critic of the Zito deal assumed that he’d be alright for the first couple of years and then slowly start to decline. The decline is now and it’s frightening. (Bay City Ball)

Let’s get some stats!

The line on Zito so far this season is pretty pathetic to say the least. He is 0-6 in his six starts this season, with a 7.53 ERA, 15 walks, 11 strikeouts and has given up 30 runs. Lefties have hit .348 off him and righties have hit .333. He’s averaging only 4 2/3 innings per start and taxing the bullpen every time he takes the mound. (michaelnewjr.com)

Brutal! How about the fantastically named El Lefty Malo?

The weekend brought several developments, none of them good. The biggest and least surprising was the continued horribleness of Barry Zito, prompting Giant brass to wonder aloud if Zito can remain in the rotation. Did you catch J.T. Snow on the radio broadcast yesterday? Instead of sticking to the fraternal code of ex-ballplayers — Thou Shall Not Embarrass Thy Brothers on the Air — J.T. basically said Zito has nothing. He wasn’t rude, but he was blunt: No velocity, no command, no confidence. Either he or Flemming, I can’t remember which, called Zito’s pitches “batting practice fastballs.” Batters are comfortable against him; even the outs he got yesterday were pop-ups because the Reds were swinging too hard, Snow said. In other words, no respect. Go up there and have fun, boys.

If I sound like I’m enjoying this well… I guess I’m not quite sure how to finish that sentence. Not that the Dodgers haven’t made any stupid signings in recent history, because they certainly have - just not on this magnitude. I think I’m going to enjoy the next half-decade or so of watching our most bitter rivals suffer.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness