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		A tale of two pitchers: Moneybags meets The Rookie By Tom Zulewski June 18, 2008

	This is a story of two pitchers. One was good once. The other is just starting to turn heads. In the “I was good once” corner, we have the San Francisco Giants’ Barry Zito. After signing a 7-year, $126 million deal with the San Francisco Giants in 2007, it seemed logical to dole out that kind of money to a left-handed starting pitcher (a golden arm for any baseball team) who won 102 games in seven seasons with Oakland, including a 23-5 mark in 2002. But after the 2006 season, Zito couldn’t resist the money, coming across San Francisco Bay – and across the leagues – to join the Giants. After his latest outing Wednesday, you can’t help but wonder if Zito made the best decision. His record is proof positive. Zito was hammered by the Detroit Tigers, and booed often, in his short two innings of work while his counterpart, rookie Armando Galarraga, was masterful. Who deserves $126 million now? It’s certainly not the guy who wears No. 75 in the orange and black. Once Zito left Wednesday’s game, the bullpen was no relief, either, as the Giants fell to 1-5 in interleague play following the Tigers’ 7-2 victory, its 10th in the last 12 games. Galarraga had a strong outing with only two runs allowed in six innings of work, but ran into trouble after he hit Randy Winn with a pitch to load the bases on with two out in the fifth. Detroit was leading 7-1 at the time, but manager Jim Leyland still felt it was necessary to pay the right-hander a visit. Had to make sure everything was fine, you know. At the rate the rookie, the guy who makes not even a tenth of what Zito does, is going, there were no worries. Galarraga struck out Rowand on a 1-2 slider that had nasty break away from the right-handed hitter. Side retired, bases left loaded. Lead secure. That’s a huge difference from Zito, who fell to a disgustingly unworthy-of-$126-million 2-11 on the season. The Tigers scored twice in the first inning and had a huge chance for more, but Zito struck out Ivan Rodriguez and got Curtis Granderson to fly out to center, leaving the bases loaded. That temporary good fortune was a small blip on the big picture because Zito isn’t the same pitcher he was before. Detroit came out and put up three more runs in the second and the inning started with the worst of righteous indignities, a leadoff walk to Galarraga. When back-to-back doubles from Placido Polanco and Carlos Guillen helped the Tigers build the lead to 5-0, Zito was toast. In four June starts, the laid-back lefty who was supposed to be the ace of the Giants’ staff has an 8.25 ERA – 11 earned runs allowed in just 12 innings of work. Meanwhile, Galarraga worked six innings and continued his solid work. He’s won his last four starts, his ERA is now at 3.28 and his 7-2 record should be worthy of All-Star consideration come next month. He leads American League rookies in wins, is second to Cleveland’s Aaron Laffey in ERA, and opponents were hitting only .173 off him heading into Wednesday’s start, second only to Baltimore reliever Jim Johnson. He isn’t thinking about being at Yankee Stadium, though. One day, one game (win) at a time. And to think, Barry Zito once had numbers like those. It just goes to show. $126 million can buy happiness, but when you’re a left-handed pitcher who was once an ace, it can’t buy you wins.