The Giants today cruised to another Cactus League win behind the strong pitching of Matt Cain and the hitting of multiple players. Here's the key lines:
Andres Torres- 2 for 4, 2B, 3B. All but wraps up a roster spot if he hadn't done so already.
Edgar Renteria- 1 for 3, SF. BA= .275. It's not much, but it's a start. The glory days are, in all probability, behind him, but a bounceback to near career averages would be welcome.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4, 2 2B. Panda shows no ill effects of the sutured laceration in his leg.
Aubrey Huff- 1 for 3, 2B, BB. Another productive game from Huff.
Bengie Molina- 2 for 4, 2 2B. I think we will be glad the Giants re-signed Bengie. He just needs to hit lower in the order and take a few more days off so he doesn't wear down.
Kevin Frandsen- 1 for 4, BB. BA= .243. I don't know about Kevbo moving behind Downs on the depth chart. Not that Frandsen has earned anything, but Downs looked pretty lost last year in his cameo. I guess it has as much to do with his fielding range as anything. I can't see the Giants getting anything of value for him, maybe a young guy in the low minors who is struggling and has some upside, someone like Darren Ford?
Matt Cain- 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K's, GO/AO= 6/11. Must have had the heater going despite the low K's. He tends to get a lot of flyouts when the old 4-seamer is popping.
Juan Uribe has a sore quad. You know all those utility players Sabes signed over the winter? Well, he might just end up needing all of them. Sanchez is already out for opening day. If Uribe is too, who plays 2B? Downs? Frandsen? Me, I'd move DeRosa over there and let another OF play. Torres has certainly earned some AB's!
Bumgarner got his ticket to Fresno punched. That is probably what was best for him all along. As he put it, he's only 20 years old and still way ahead of the curve. Hopefully his mechanical and velocity issues will get worked out.
Speaking of Bumgarner, I will be watching AA Richmond closely this year to see if other pitchers suffer the same dramatic declines in K's as Sosa, Bumgarner and Alderson did last year. Maybe something in the instruction there?
Speaking of Sosa, Henry will get a split-squad start tomorrow. I'm glad to see this. I really hope the Giants use him as a starter in the minors this year. It's much easier for him to move back to relieving than back to starting. The Giants desperately need another high ceiling starter in the upper minors to back up Bumgarner. I wouldn't mind seeing Waldis Joaquin go back to starting this year too! Even if there isn't room in the MLB rotation in the future, it opens up some trade options and they can always move back to the bullpen if nothing else works out.
Around the League:
A couple of fantasy sleepers pitched well today and look to be on track for starting rotation gigs:
Felipe Paulino, Houston- 5 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. This guy has mid-upper 90's heat. Just a matter of time until he puts it all together. I remember the Giants raked him last year, but I was impressed by his stuff. He just had no command. He gets that and it's lights out!
Max Scherzer, Detroit- 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. Coming off another strong performance in his last outing. I have a feeling the D'Backs are going to regret trading him for Jackson, but maybe he needed a change of scenery?
Yesterday, Clayton Richards of San Diego, another sleeper nominee pitched 6 shutout innings after some rough outings. That probably locked up a rotation spot for him. He should be a decent bet for a late round draft given his career trajectory and home yard.
Aroldis Chapman, Cincinnati- Chapman was lifted from yesterday's game with a sore back. Apparently it had been bothering him for a week and he neglected to tell anyone. Chapman had been lighting up radar guns and appeared to have a chance to crack Cincy's starting rotation out of ST. They might opt to be more cautious with him now?
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Some of our older players are getting injuries? Who would have guessed???
ReplyDeleteNice joke, but in fairness, Uribe is 31 and Sanchez is 32 which is not really old. Sanchez has a history of injuries, so it's fair criticism that maybe the Giants didn't take that history seriously enough. Uribe's doesn't sound serious and he doesn't have a history of repeated injuries.
ReplyDeleteHey Doc, didn't all the coaches at Conneticut move to Fresno. I still wonder about MadBum's mechanics being changed by Decker and coaches...
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I'm not sure. I know Decker is in Fresno. I don't think we can blame him as he had Alderson in San Jose in 2008 where he was sitting at 92 MPH and striking out a decent number of hitters. Beyond that, I haven't kept track of the minor league coaching carousel.
ReplyDeleteI'd be looking at who the pitching coach in CT was last year. You have 3 pitchers, Bumgarner, Alderson and Sosa whose K/9 just dropped off the cliff there. For a league and a park that is traditionally so pitcher friendly, that just looks suspicious to me. On the other hand, who would have thought that Ainworth, Foppert and Williams would all go south at the same time? I'm pretty sure THAT was a coincidence.
After alot of googling, I found out that Grimsley was indeed the pitching coach for 2009 and possibly 2008.. TBox
ReplyDeleteCould be wrong, but I think Grimsley was the pitching coach for Augusta in 2008. So maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions. It does seem like more than mere coincidence that 3 pitchers with at least low 90's velocity and a history of good K rates suddenly just lost it within weeks of moving to CT.
ReplyDeleteMan, I'm glad the Giants don't have their AA affiliate in Norwich, CT any more. Strange things happened there!
A lot of talk has been coming from various pitchers (Cain & Bumgarner come to mind) that coaches are emphasizing "pitching to contact," which is a horrible mistake, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteGranted, you don't have to strike out everyone to be effective, but if you can't learn to miss bats in the minors, the chances of you missing the center of the bat at the major league level is really low. Putting the ball in play also means defense is more important and it's known that pitchers BABIP can vacillate wildly, diminishing their effectiveness when it's high.
I basically agree with you there. I don't think you necessarily have to go for K's on every batter, but you also should not be telling your pitchers to AVOID K's, which it almost seems like they are doing.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think that there is a strong possibility that whoever was coaching in CT last year emphasized "pitching to contact" to the point of overemphasizing it.
http://gregsconnecticutdefenders.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html
ReplyDeleteThe above is a blog concerning the switch of Stanley and Grimsley which caused Stanley to quit. I noticed Bacci made a couple of comments.
TBox
I've read several comments by Matt Cain over the years about him trying to "pitch to contact" more, so I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't an organizational philosophy. Perhaps one or two coaches are more aggressive about promoting it than others?
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