SF Giants: Zito Just Going Through the Motions
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by user Trecole696
Apparently, all the commotion over the past couple days over Barry Zito changing his motion was all for naught. Zito cleared up the mis-understanding Saturday saying that the change in his delivery was just to help work out some kinks in his old one. Back along with his old delivery was his big sweeping curve and he had a couple of teammates impressed. Bengie Molina, who faced Zito many times in the American League, is now Zito's main catcher. After catching Zito's bullpen session Saturday, Molina said he now knows why he couldn't hit him over the years. This is refreshing news to a lot of people, even Giants coaches and management, who wondered what in the world he Zito was thinking for totally making over his whole pitching motion. I really didn't question it as long as he knew what he was doing and didn't hurt himself. Zito looks like he's on well on track to cementing his spot as the opening day starter for the Giants. Bruce Bochy hasn't officially said it will be Zito's job, but he has hinted it. All signs are pointing towards Barry Zito vs. Jake Peavey, for April 3rd's opener at AT&T Park. Should be a good one.
Noah Lowry has also come to camp and has impressed so far. Lowry worked out with center fielder Dave Roberts and Padres All-Star closer Trevor Hoffman, among others in San Diego this winter, and said that he, like Zito, really concentrated on strengthening his core muscles this winter. This is going to be a big year for Lowry. He looked like he was on his way to becoming one of the premiere young lefties in the game after his first 2 season's in the bigs, then 2006 rolled around, he got injured in the first inning of his very first start of the year, and never fully recovered. Besides a nice string of starts he put together in August, he was inconsistent all year. The Giants need him to step up and build off of that brilliant second half he put together in 2005. I think Zito should work wonders for him if. Lowry has a good change-up, but he needs to work on the consistency of his curveball. When Lowry has his curve working along with his change, he is tough to hit. When he's just relying on his change-up and fastball, he gets predictable. Lowry also seemed to lose velocity in his fastball late in the year. He went from being in the 89-92 mph range in '04-'05, but was down in the 85-87 range last season. Let's hope the core strengthening will help out in these areas.
