Moving Zito to the bullpen is the wrong move...

...because the Giants should send him back to the minors. But that's not the case, unfortunately.

The Giants have a $126 million long reliever. Barry Zito is heading to the bullpen.

Zito was told the news before Monday's game, one day after he surrendered eight earned runs in three innings to the Reds and fell to 0-6 with a 7.53 ERA.

"Barry is all for doing whatever he can to help the club," Bochy said. "This is the best for Barry and the ball club right now."

No. No it's not. If Giants brass could swallow their egos and accept that they spent nearly twice Kiribati's GDP on a player good for an average of seven and a half runs per game, they'd send Zito to Fresno.

In Triple-A, Zito would be able to (presumably) work out his kinks at no expense of the Giants. He could keep his same routine -- seven runs every five days -- against minor-league talent and not fuck up the Giants' record even more than it already is.

In long relief, Zito could turn a 5-0 deficit into a 10-0 hole in an inning. He also won't get the consistency of pitching once a week in the bullpen. And yes, he'll fuck up the game. He's already done that six times. And at 0-6, he's made approximately $3 million per loss, which is significantly less than what he's making per win.