Barry Zito: Screwing Up The Pitching Market

We all know about "The Contract."

Seven years.

$126 million dollars.

Record: 6-15. ERA: 5.73.

In the word of the great Jon Miller, "The disaster that is Barry Zito in a Giants uniform continues."

The Giants bid against themselves, offering $126 million to a man who's HIGHEST OTHER OFFER WAS $100 million. They could have got him for $101 million, but gave him more for no reason.  

Now, for the Giants mistakes, there is hell to pay, not only for the Giants, but for the rest of the major leagues.

Other pitchers will use Zito and his contract as a building block/stepping stone to gain leverage to get huge contracts.

When Tim Lincecum comes up for free agency, he will not, and should not, accept any less than $127 million from the Giants. He's better than Zito, and deserves more.

When CC Sabathia comes up for free agency, he's twice as good as Zito, so he should get $252 million dollars.

Using the Zito scale, contracts will start to get ridiculous. Teams around the majors are extremely angry at the Giants for creating this scale.

The MLB contract universe is out of whack, and it's all due to one man, Barry Zito, and his agent, Scott Boras.

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