Matt Cain was dominant. Buster Posey went from possible goat to hero with a game winning HR. To say the bullpen was lights out is an understatement. Key lines:
Buster Posey- 1 for 4, HR(15). LOB=4. BA= .324. Buster hit a pop up to shallow RF with 2 outs and the bases loaded in the 5'th inning so he had some making up to do when he came to bat in the top of the 8'th inning. Cashner was throwing peas, but also falling behind most of the hitters. Buster got him into a hitter's count and then crushed one to dead center, a tremendous blast on a cool night in the not-so-friendly confines. I wonder if the scouts who project 15-20 HR's/season for Buster are underestimating the power of his swing because he doesn't look like he is swinging hard? He must be generating major bat head speed though, because he has hit some serious blasts in the last 2-3 weeks.
Matt Cain- 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.00. I think Cainer's experience with lack of run support is holding him in good stead right now. He's absolutely fearless out there and just pounding out the zeros. It's really a shame that he didn't have at least 1 run to work with because he only had thrown 82 pitches by the end of the 6'th inning when he was lifted for a pinch-hitter. Cainer came over in the dugout with the bat still in his hands and had a discussion with Bochy. It looked like it was never unfriendly and they seemed to part on good terms, but Cain sure didn't want to let go of that bat!
Bullpen- 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. As Kruk said, Bochy pinch-hitting for Cain in the 7'th was not a dis of Cainer, but a statement of absolute confidence in the bullpen. The bullpen certainly held up their end of the bargain retiring all 9 batters they faced with alacrity. In the end it was probably a wash as the PH failed to get on base and Buster hit his game winner in the 8'th, but the bullpen sure put an exclamation point on Bochy's confidence. Oh, and Brian Wilson recorded his 44'th Save putting him 1 behind Robb Nen's best season and 4 behind all-time season leader Rod "Shooter" Beck.
With the win, the Giants maintained their 0.5 game lead on the San Diego Padres who dominated the Choking Dogs 6-0 behind Clayton Richard. My goodness! The Dodgers' ineptitude is getting to be downright embarrassing! Surprisingly, the Colorado Rockies lost to the lowly D'Backs 3-1 and now trail the Giants by 2.5 games. How huge might that be? Even though the Wild Card race is not a factor as long as the Giants are in first place, we will just mention that the Braves lost to the Phillies 3-2 and lead the Padres by just 1 game.
Jonathan Sanchez takes the mound tomorrow night against Randy Wells. Wells pitched great in his last start, but Sanchez has been nails himself of late. Plus, it looks like all the starters have to worry about is going all out for 5 or 6 innings. The bullpen will take it from there, thank you.
11 games to go! Go Giants!!!!
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Yeah Buster!
ReplyDeleteI know, even the crystal ball on Sickel's site still hews to the view that his catching will hinder his power and keep him roughly in the 15-20 HR range (I think the peak is 22).
But seeing what he is doing now, I don't see why he can't hit more. I was going to ask on that Sickel post why people think he's not going to continue to show power like this, but from the comments, I think I would be shouted down as a homer/unrealist, because I saw a number of comments along the lines of "nobody has done this crystal ball in the last 20/30 years and therefore this crystal ball is reasonable at best, unlikely most probably."
What are your thoughts DrB? I mean, hitters usually take some time to adjust and then improve some over time. Like Will Clark. Posey is basically at his peak projected performance in his first season!
My understanding is that hitters who can hit to all fields like Posey can are the best hitters, and as they age/mature/develop, they will be better able to pull on the ball when they want to, plus hit for more power as they add on muscle/mass as they approach their prime physical years in their late 20's.
I'm actually liking that Bochy is taking out our young guys early as needed. The point is to win, but also, these young guys will be pitching into the off-season for the first time, taking them out early will ease up the wear and tear on their arms and saves some for the post-season.
And why not when the bullpen is lights out like this?
I would also note that the Cards lost and as their hopes fade, their interest in doing well against the Rockies in the last four games of the season might fade as well, which does not bode well for our playoff chances, as it is going to be close. How the scheduler could have the Rockies playing outside the NL West on the last series of the season, I don't know, they should be playing an NL West opponent since they have been regular competitors for the NL West title in the past few seasons. Instead, LA is facing ARI.
ReplyDeleteI know LaRussa will still be hot and heavy to keep the Rockies from getting to celebrate in front of him, but I don't know that he will be able to get his guys to do better then either, they were actually in the race not that long ago, but now they are just fading. If they couldn't get it up for that, why would they get up to keep someone from celebrating in front of them. I thought maybe playing the Pirates they would be able to get at least a little closer, but they lost last night.
The Giants look more and more like they will need to at least win the series in Colorado, if not sweep, to keep the Rockies far enough away in the standings before the last series of the season.
We definitely want Atlanta to continue to lose. If Atlanta takes the WC, that means the Giants will have to face Philly in the NLDS. If the Pads win the WC, the Giants get Cincy.
ReplyDeleteNo question that Cincy is the team to face in the NLDS.
I used to post over on Sickels' site until I ran into the same login problems with SBNation as I did on mccoveychronicles.com. Let's just say John's fans tend to be very protective of him. It's a good site though. I still go over there to read regularly. It's actually a pretty good CB for Buster, especially if he stays at catcher his whole career. It would have him as one of the top 2 or 3 catchers in baseball for 7-8 years.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just how many HR's Buster has hit. It's also the distance, variety of direction, trajectory. He's hit towering bombs, smoking line drives, right, center, left. I have to believe he is generating tremendous bat head speed with a swing that doesn't look all that much like a power stroke. I have come to the conclusion that there are 30+ HR's in that bat going forward and the scouts must have been lulled to sleep by the ease with which he swings that bat.
If, in fact, Buster is capable of 30+ HR's to go with a .320+ BA, that really puts him in elite hitting territory for any position. It just might be worth thinking about moving him off catcher to prolong his productive career. Maybe Johnny Monell or Hector Sanchez or Tommy Joseph will develop enough to make it easier to do just that.
I had a login problem too, and ended up creating a new ID because none of my e-mails were being answered.
ReplyDeleteIt is a good CB for Buster, but to your well detailed and astute note about his HR hitting (that is what I have been wanting to say but unable to), I too feel that the HR portion of that CB is lacking, but I just don't have any expertise in prospect watching related to judging that. Per your points, I just don't see how he isn't more of a HR hitter than projected, distance and particularly that he's doing a lot of the damage to the opposite field. But even after seeing him do this in 2010, most just credit it to him playing 1B a significant amount of the time, though they are ignoring the fact that he has been a full-time catcher for roughly two full months now, without much rest, and in any case has played a full-season (even firstbasemen are tired now) and yet is still blasting out HR in September with good regularity.
One recent thought, realization, that I had is that Buster Posey is going to do for the Giants going forward what Tulowitski has done for the Rockies in recent years. What do you think of that?
Lastly, per your point about moving him off C, in my head, he'll play to his late 20's, early 30's then move off to play another position (1B is obvious choice, but do you think 3B or 2B is possible?). By then I think he'll be beat up enough that he'll be OK with moving on, asking him now is silly because he wants to do it now and can't imagine the day he wouldn't want to. Age will bring clarity I think.