The Superman of Walks

Look…up in the sky.  It’s a bird.  It’s a plane.  It’s another base on balls.  This must mark the impending return of the enigmatic Jonathan Sanchez to the Giants rotation.  Sanchez has been on the 15-day DL since June 25 with left biceps tendinitis [cough] general suckiness [cough], and clearly the team has missed his 3.81 ERA and 1.42 WHIP.  Seriously, replacing that 5.92 BB/9 must have been a daunting task indeed.  Hell, there isn’t a qualified starter with a worse BB/9 than Sanchez.  The saving grace is that Sanchez hasn’t pitched enough innings to qualify for that dubious title, although he does still lead the NL in total walks despite pitching just 89.2 innings.  Way…to…go. [quiet applause]

Could it be that Sanchez’ return has at least a little something to do with Barry Zito having a very Barry Zito-esque start—surrendering 8 ER in just 3.2 IP on July 16?  Interestingly enough, Zito had been pitching fairly well leading up to that game, lowering his 2011 ERA to 3.18 in the process.  It really seemed like the former Cy Young Award winner might be poised for yet another strong start too.  After all, the chips were stacked in his favor: a terrible Padres lineup, at PETCO Park, a few extra days rest to heal anything that might be ailing him.  Talk about a recipe for success.  The missing ingredient?  When Barry Zito is the chef, well, anything is possible.  The end result was nothing less than a crap sandwich.  And, everyone knows what a crap sandwich tastes like even topped with capicola.

The end result is that the Giants are now (re)turning to chaos incarnate, Jonathan Sanchez in the hopes that 8 BB games are less damaging to a team’s success than 8 ER games.  While that seems like a logical tradeoff, in the end there’s really no guarantee that the two stat-lines are mutually exclusive.  The funny thing is the team might be correct in their thinking on this one.  Despite his inability to pitch more than six innings (something Sanchez has done only three times in 2011), and his inability to limit free passes, Sanchez seldom surrenders a lot of earned runs.  In fact, Sanchez has given up more than 3 ER only twice all season, hence the “respectable” ERA.  In the end, it’s seldom going to be pretty (often quite ugly), but Sanchez normally gives that Giants at least a fighting chance when it comes to winning ballgames.