FLOSI
Nerf Herder
I know. I like the guy would be nice to see him play well again. Its crazy that he just went to pieces when he left oakland.
Take a look at his numbers though:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/z/zitoba01.___ml
If you look at 2004 on he's not had a single year with an ERA under 3.80 and in that time his WHIP has been really high as well. He was slightly better from 2004-2006 when he was in Oakland but his numbers with the Giants are really not all that far off, especially if you throw out 2008 when he was putrid (10-17, 5.15era, 1.60whip). The Giants got what they paid for, a guy that had one great year and several average ones.
They were looking for a guy to replace Barry Bonds as the face of the franchise and felt Zito had built in star attraction since he was from right across the bay... Zito also, pre-Giant, had a good rep as a fairly personable guy that was media friendly. That went away pretty quick once he crossed the bridge.