Baseball's been Barry Barry good to me

Talk about shocks to the system! When my friend emailed me that word was the San Francisco Giants were getting Barry Zito, I almost fell out of my chair. The cheap-ass Giants who have been living off of older players for what seems like decades going for a young, vital player? And a pitcher, no less? Peter Magowan, did you make a wrong turn at the light? What the hell's going on?

Turns out it's true. Barry Zito, the almost-Ranger, almost-Met and former Oakland A (sorry, A's fans, your colors still suck) is now officially a Giant. Maybe he got tired of playing in Al Davis Park. Maybe he got tired of those coulda, shoulda tries at the playoffs in Oaktown. Beat those stupid drums all you want, A's fans. He's ours now.

And is this a good thing? Yes. For several reasons. For one, it shows the Giants are looking beyond that other Barry. That was very much a concern. After all, the other Barry (Bonds, if you need to be reminded) turns 43 on July 24. Not exactly a spring chicken. And he hasn't been playing like one the last two seasons, which have been full of surgeries and cautious play in the field, not to mention the steroid stories centered around him.

In previous blogs, we've written that we hoped the Giants wouldn't resign Bonds. We're still not comfortable with the new commitment the Giants made, especially a $16 million (way too high priced) contract. A lot of promising young players can be had for $16 million.

Getting Zito doesn't straighten out all the Giants problems, but, as we said, it shows the Giants are looking beyond Bonds. They need to. As it is, the millstones around Bonds' neck regarding the steroid accusations could be a weight on the entire team this year. And as of this writing, the Giants, despite having announced an agreement with Bonds a couple of weeks ago, are still working out the language of the contract, which indicates the two sides are tussling over how Barry will conduct himself this year -- whether he'll be available for all games, for example. (Surprising what perks a star player like Bonds can work for himself.)

Barry Zito, however, is the Barry to watch this year, though. Zito's wicked curve will hopefully confound NL (especially NL West) opponents and put a charge in Matt Cain, Noah Lowry and the rest of the Giants pitching staff (assuming, of course, one of them doesn't get traded).

Zito's coming aboard also shows a renewed commitment to winning by the Giants organization. That lack of commitment was one of the reasons we didn't feel bad about dropping our season tickets after 2005. And it's a nice pick-me-up for the fans who went for the ring the Giants held out last season to get them to buy season tickets after the All-Star Game was announced for AT&T (SBC, Pac Bell) Park. Even with the older guys in the lineup, this will be interesting.

So all looks well. This situation brings to mind a previous marketing slogan: Humm baby, it's gonna be fun.

At the same time, it also gives an extended finger salute to one Jason Schmidt. Blue this!