Dr. Barry Zizmor

If you're a New Yorker, you've probably seen this guy's ads on the subway. Whenever I see his ads, I think of Barry Zito, and whenever I see Zito pitch, I think of Dr Zizmor. Consequently, I now think of Barry as Dr. Barry Zizmor, Board Certified Dermatologist. And, interestingly enough, he's pitching about as well as the dermatologist might, if insterted into the A's rotation.

Zito's given up 22 earned runs in only 30 innings - that's an ERA of 6.60. But overall, the A's have only allowed 81 earned runs total, meaning that Zito's given up 27% of the A's total earned runs so far this year. Is that a lot? I had no idea, so I looked at all pitchers with over 22 IP to determine the percent of their team's earned runs allowed.

Turns out, Zito's number 1, or uh, dead f-ing last. Here are the pitchers that have allowed the highest percent of their team's ER:

Barry Zito - 27%
Jake Westbrook - 24%
Jeff Weaver - 23%
Brad Radke - 23%
Mark Buehrle - 22%

And the five lowest:

Rich Harden - 7%
Joe Blanton - 6%
Roger Clemens - 5%
Brett Myers - 4%
John Patterson - 3%

I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but as an A's fan, I certainly don't like seeing our supposed ace allowing 27% of the team's earned runs. The good news here, if you can stretch far enough, is that the team is 12-12 after April without any real meaningful contribution from their no. 1 starter. If Zito pitches even a little better, The A's have to be able to play better than .500 ball, right?