It tells you something about where the Giants' season has come to that I don't really feel too bad about this loss because a couple of young players vital the the future of this team played well. The game was a lot closer than the score would indicate and was still winnable until the bottom of the 8'th inning when the Rockies broke it open against Guillermo Mota. Key lines:
Buster Posey!- 2 for 4, HR(2). Posey hit the ball hard in all 4 AB's, but the HR was a glimpse of a very bright future. It was a short, quick swing that drove the ball the opposite way. He appeared to put very little effort into it, yet the ball landed several rows up in the stands. Kruk commented that he won't be doing that at AT&T, but I thought the ball was far enough right that it would have gotten up into the RF walkway. Loved the way Posey conducted himself in the dugout, welcoming Chris Ray to the team, talking to Bumgarner between innings. It looked like he knows he is a leader now and he was stepping into that role with relish.
Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K's. Not a dazzling line, but Bumgarner threw a whole lot of quality pitches, was squeezed pretty tightly by the ump all night, and worked his way out of jams when he had to. His velocity sat at 90-91 MPH and he maintained it late into the game. His breaking stuff was sharp and served as a K pitch on more than one occasion. He's still very young and has a lot to learn, but IMO, he's their best 5'ht starter option going forward. He can continue to learn on the job just like Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum before him.
The Bengie Molina trade looks even better now that Michael Main has been announced as the PTBNL. Main was a first round draft choice, #24 overall in 2007, the same year Bumgarner was drafted, so he effectively replaces Tim Alderson in the organization. Main has been a bit of a disappointment, mostly due to a series of nagging injuries and illnesses. He's still a high ceiling guy and fits the Giants recent trend of scooping up prospects who were once much more highly ranked but whose stock has slipped for whatever reason. I'm really surprised that the PTBNL turned out to be this good which makes me very happy with the trade way beyond the addition by subtraction that most fans are rejoicing about.
Tim Lincecum tries to be the stopper once again tomorrow. against Jhoulys Chacin, a rookie pitcher who dominated the Giants in SF.
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Amen to that, DrB, both played very nicely so the loss didn't sting as much.
ReplyDeleteYeah, contrary to the seemingly general Giants fan, the Giants do give their young players a lot of chances to learn on the job, these people just seem to forget that pitchers are players too. I think both players will get to learn on the job.
And yeah, I was surprised by the pickup of Michael Main too. Good point that he essentially replaces Alderson, did not think of that. Ray and Main is much better than any picks we could have gotten for Molina during the off-season, we basically paid $4.5M to get the two plus two months of Molina keeping the seat warm for Posey, or roughly $1.5M to get Main, which is about what his bonus originally was, except he was unproven then and, while scuffling developmentally now, has shown he has abilities in the pros. Now the Giants need to harness them.
Hopefully Dick Tidrow will take a quick look at Main and see if there is anything that needs to be tweaked.
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