Zito to the Pen

*He was vastly overrated to start with. The contract was bad at the time and is so much worse now.

• His curveball's not sharp anymore

• The velocity on his fastball is down from low 90s to low to mid-80s, which doesn't give it much difference from his changeup.

So basically, his curveball is no longer above average and his change-up and fastball are basically the same pitch now. But on the plus side, there's only 6 years left on his deal.

We can thank free agency for this fiasco. In the old days contracts for the next year depended on what the player did the year before. Player's Union wouldn't stand for that nowadays. Of course in the old days players had to raise cain to get a $2000 raise but now it has gone too far the other way. Also the hard nose GM's of the past would find something bad in a player's stats if they had done something positive during the preceding year. I remember it took Pete Rose years and years to reach the $100,000 mark and now a rookie makes $390,000 for making the majors.

i just picture him as a manic depressive right now with his wife leaving him or something, but then again he does have plenty of money so maybe not... its just sad to see guys like this, mark prior, and others, such tremendous talents that fizzle out

I wouldn't have drafted him in the last round of the AGM "Man's League"-style 21 team fantasy draft this year.