I've got two positives, and one Zito

After much time spent looking high and low, I do have two positive things to say about my team:

One: Bowker has a really nice swing, and some great potential. I like this kid.
Two: After another craptastic effort on the mound Wednesday, the Giants may skip Zito's next start.

Okay - so the second one is really just me slyly slipping my cranky pants back on (hey - I found a happy thought; I've earned it). But seriously - did you see the game Wednesday? In the top of the second, ZIto issued a lead-off walk to an American League pitcher. One who was hitless is his only two previous at-bats. That's some special kind of horrible. His entire outing lasted just two innings. I would calculate how much per inning he was paid for the suck, but that would make me very sad.

There's lots of ink (both virtual and real) being expended on Zito and his god-awful season. Let's look at the highlights, shall we?

An excellent analysis from Jonah Freedman on SI.com last week talks about "five reasons Zito may never again be the ace the Giants were hoping he'd be." Can't say that I disagree with any of it, with the exception of one quibble. In his discussion of Zito's contract, Freedman says that none of the other teams chasing Zito was willing to match the Giants' offer. Today on the Razor and Mr. T show, Brian Sabean claimed that at least two other teams were willing to pay that much or more. I don't find that entirely believable, but there it is.

There's also been quite a bit of discussion about Zito's mechanics, of course.

Zito was quite abrupt when Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News asked him about whether he'd considered pitching from the other side of the rubber. I'm sure Zito has had lots of questions about various aspects of his delivery, and rightfully so.

Now that Rick Peterson, Zito's former pitching coach, has been fired by the Mets, folks are talking about bringing him to SF to help Zito find his former self. Technically, Peterson is still under contract with the Mets through 2009, so who knows if that would work.

And even if contractual issues weren't a factor, Buster Olney writes that Brian Sabean doesn't like the idea of the Giants bringing in Rick Peterson, saying it wouldn't be fair to Dave Righetti (from MLBTraderRumors.com - I'm too cheap to spring for ESPN Insider status). Seems to me that despite Rags' other abilities, coaching Zito doesn't seem to be his strong suit right now, and the team should welcome any help it could get.

Also check out the McCovey Chronicle's discussion of Zito, er, Tossy McDufftapper.

All in all, there's definitely something broken here. Sabean was noncommittal about what the solution might be during his program today with the Razor and Mr. T. He knows that Zito isn't performing. He and others in the Giants organization keep pointing out that Zito's bullpen sessions are great, but that he just can't seem to execute in game situations. I really don't care if Zito can throw well all by himself. He's just not getting it done come game time. And considering the huge investment the team has made in this guy, all possible solutions need to be on the table, whether this includes bringing in Peterson somehow (even if it hurts Rags' feelings), having Zito slow it down a bit in Fresno until he can translate good bullpen tossing sessions into good games, or whatever. C'mon Giants Front Office - show us some problem-solving skillz.