Barry Zito
Zito's curveball was so devastating that hitters often looked foolish even when they knew it was coming. His 2002 Cy Young season with Oakland featured that signature hook alongside pinpoint command, making him the ace of those early-2000s A's teams that revolutionized how baseball thinks about value.
The southpaw's 165 career wins tell only part of the story. His 1,885 strikeouts came courtesy of one of the game's most recognizable breaking balls, a slow, looping curve that dropped off the table. That pitch carried him through 16 seasons, though his effectiveness varied wildly — his career ERA+ of 105 suggests league-average performance overall, but his peak ERA+ of 175 shows just how dominant he could be.
Zito embodied the artistic side of pitching in an era increasingly defined by velocity and analytics. When that curveball was working, few pitchers were more captivating to watch.
Career · Hitting
15 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | ATH | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2001 | ATH | 35 | 5 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2002 | ATH | 35 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2003 | ATH | 35 | 6 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2004 | ATH | 34 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2005 | ATH | 35 | 7 | 0 | 0 | .143 | .286 | 38 |
| 2006 | ATH | 34 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2007 | SF | 34 | 62 | 0 | 3 | .113 | .254 | 33 |
| 2008 | SF | 32 | 51 | 0 | 2 | .118 | .299 | 40 |
| 2009 | SF | 34 | 51 | 0 | 0 | .118 | .299 | 40 |
| 2010 | SF | 34 | 51 | 0 | 2 | .118 | .252 | 35 |
| 2011 | SF | 13 | 13 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .071 | 10 |
| 2012 | SF | 32 | 53 | 0 | 2 | .075 | .245 | 34 |
| 2013 | SF | 30 | 34 | 0 | 2 | .147 | .294 | 41 |
| 2015 | ATH | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| Career | 434 | 344 | 0 | 11 | .102 | — | — | |
Career · Pitching
15 seasons| Year | Team | G | IP | W | L | ERA | ERA+ | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | ATH | 14 | 92.7 | 7 | 4 | 2.72 | 175 | 78 | 1.176 |
| 2001 | ATH | 35 | 214.3 | 17 | 8 | 3.49 | 126 | 205 | 1.232 |
| 2002 | ATH | 35 | 229.3 | 23 | 5 | 2.75 | 155 | 182 | 1.134 |
| 2003 | ATH | 35 | 231.7 | 14 | 12 | 3.30 | 133 | 146 | 1.183 |
| 2004 | ATH | 34 | 213.0 | 11 | 11 | 4.48 | 100 | 163 | 1.394 |
| 2005 | ATH | 35 | 228.3 | 14 | 13 | 3.86 | 111 | 171 | 1.200 |
| 2006 | ATH | 34 | 221.0 | 16 | 10 | 3.83 | 118 | 151 | 1.403 |
| 2007 | SF | 34 | 196.7 | 11 | 13 | 4.53 | 98 | 131 | 1.347 |
| 2008 | SF | 32 | 180.0 | 10 | 17 | 5.15 | 84 | 120 | 1.600 |
| 2009 | SF | 33 | 192.0 | 10 | 13 | 4.03 | 107 | 154 | 1.354 |
| 2010 | SF | 34 | 199.3 | 9 | 14 | 4.15 | 98 | 150 | 1.344 |
| 2011 | SF | 13 | 53.7 | 3 | 4 | 5.87 | 67 | 32 | 1.398 |
| 2012 | SF | 32 | 184.3 | 15 | 8 | 4.15 | 97 | 114 | 1.389 |
| 2013 | SF | 30 | 133.3 | 5 | 11 | 5.74 | 67 | 86 | 1.703 |
| 2015 | ATH | 3 | 7.0 | 0 | 0 | 10.29 | 38 | 2 | 2.571 |
| Career | 433 | 2576.6 | 165 | 143 | — | — | 1885 | — | |
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.