As reported in all Giants media outlets, Barry Zito was named the opening day starter for the 2008 Giants. Many fans showed a lot of outrage over this decision, made before the pitchers had really pitched to show what they could do. The vast majority thought that Matt Cain should have been the starter.
Giants Thoughts
I don't know why Giants fans are getting so outraged over this. Other than they don't like the Giants direction and/or Brian Sabean, and just want to complain about something, anything.
Who cares if Zito starts the D'gers home opener? The key thing to me is that Cain is therefore starting the Giants home opener and that Lincecum will pitch in that series too. It will be Cain, Lowry, Lincecum, our three young, good starters, starting in our first home series of the season. End of story as far as I am concerned.
Plus people aren't even thinking about the ramifications of moves like this, they aren't thinking like a manager or like an owner, which I think any fan should act like because when you really think about it, their salaries are paid by us fans. You are dealing with people's egos and pride here, even for someone as zen as Zito claims to be. He got the biggest contract in history and now is the highest paid player on the team, as well as have another six years on his contract.
To not make the statement now that he is the starter would be a huge blow to anybody's ego and we would still have six more seasons to pay to him. If you can throw 20% of your paycheck into the gutter like that every year and not think about it - lucky you - but in the real world you have to protect your investment and do your best to make sure it is productive. In this case, it means making a definitive statement before any real pitching that Zito's the man.
And as Bochy said, Cain is young - people forget that he's only 23 - and will get this honor in the future, though he will probably have to share it somehow with Lincecum soon. Plus, as I had noted in my post the other day and up above, more importantly, Cain's the opening day starter for the Giants home opener.
Cain and Lincecum are the centerpiece of the Giants future, as I've been harping on since last season, and our starting rotation with them and Zito is what we are going to have to rely on for any future success, playoff or otherwise. And they won't get there any faster by giving Cain the opening day assignment. The Giants had to give Zito that assignment, for the long term health of the Giants franchise. It was the right move to do.
I agree with you. And I also think it would be a stupid move to have Cain be the Opening Day starter. If he was the #1 pitcher in our rotation then he would have to face the aces of the NL like Johan Santana, Carlos Zambrano, Jake Peavy, etc. on a regular basis. He would lose more games than he did last year because he'd get even less run support, both because of our crappy offense and the aces they would be up against. I think it'd be better for Cain's sanity if we put him up against the #2 pitchers where he'd have a slightly better chance to win a little more games. At least Zito's been around long enough to know that his team just sucks and the baseball gods don't hate him.
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