When you play as many close, low-scoring games as the Giants you are going to lose a few like this. It's still frustrating to waste a good pitching performance, especially when the difference is an unearned run. Key Lines:
Cody Ross- 1 for 4, HR(5). BA= .276. Ross is hot, but no one else helped him out today except Nate who reached base a couple of times.
Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 3.42. Bum has pitched 8 consecutive Quality Starts with an ERA of 2.02 in that span. He just might be the Giants #2 starter right now. The W-L is not at all indicative of how he has pitched and is due to atrocious run support.
With the Loss, the Giants again exchange places with the Arizona D'Backs who moved into first place in the NL West by 0.5 games with a 2-0 win over the Nats. The Rockies gained 0.5 games on first place to 5 games behind with the Win. The Dodgers outslugged the Reds 12-8 to also gain 0.5 games to 6 back. The Pesky Padres won again 6-3 over the 'Stros to also gain 0.5 games on the lead to 7 back in last place.
Ryan Vogelsong tries to keep the magic going tomorrow against Jason Hammel tomorrow afternoon.
Bad news for Brandon Belt who had an MRI that revealed a fracture in his wrist that was not seen on plain X-ray right after the HBP. He'll be out for about 1 month. Conor Gillaspie gets the callup. It will be interesting to see how Gillaspie is used and how much PT he will get. I believe he has only played 3B in the minors.
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Why was an MRI not done at the beginning? Why did they do one now? Is this normal? I don't know if you can really answer this question, but what is your professional opinion of this Giants' medical staff?
ReplyDeletei was under the impression that it is regular procedure to send for an mri the next morning
ReplyDeleteim shocked that it wasnt done
Wow. Our pitching (starting for sure, and probably the pen) is better than last year??? Amazing. But, I mean, we're in this, with incredibly inconsistent offense.
ReplyDeleteOK...I know this is a stupid idea, but I want to throw this against the wall. How bad an idea is a 6-man rotation, when/if Zito returns (with the caveat, of course, that he is pitching decently)?
I realize that this is just bending over backwards to screw up a good thing...
Positives:
It does SOMETHING with Zito. (Other than DFA him...which the Giants won't do) From all takes I've heard, Zito can not be allowed to pitch any meaningful innings out of the pen.
It takes innings off the arms of the starting staff, which seems to be an on-going concern.
It's not unprecedented. They run 6-man rotations in Japan. (Admittedly, if the internet doesn't lie, they do a LOT of strange stuff in Japan.)
The negatives:
If the starting rotation is anything less than spectacular in a 6-man, the 6-man will be blamed and heads will roll.
It pulls an arm out of the bullpen. (But if starters are getting more rest, they could go deeper, easing the burden on the bullpen...I guess that's a real longshot hope there.)
The 5 starters would probably not be happy with getting less starts.
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Don't kill me for throwing it out there. I don't want to see this. I'd like to see Zito be a NORMAL pitcher, who, when he loses his rotation spot, can contribute out of the pen, be traded or get DFAed, NONE of which seem to work for this guy.
Another possibility is to trade Sanchez. Here is the analysis:
ReplyDeleteFirst priority is to make it to post season. Assuming Zito is healthy, and pitches no worse than he did last year, and Vogelsong continues to pitch close to what he has been doing, then a rotation where Sanchez is replaced by Zito will probably be good enough to get to post season, due mainly to the weak NL West.
Once you reach post season, the fifth starter becomes irrelevant. There is not much drop off from Sanchez to Vogelsong for the 4th spot, again, assuming Vogelsong continues to pitch as he has. If anything, if the Giants can get an impact bat for Sanchez, they'll be stronger for post season run.
The caveat of course, is whether you can get an impact bat for Sanchez, and whether there is a back up plan in case of injury to one of the starting pitchers. The second point is probably the biggest issue. The Giants just don't have another starter anywhere near ready to step in.
I don't think the Giants should trade away their biggest strength, which is their rotation.
ReplyDelete"Sometimes, the best trades are the ones you never make."
In regards to Zito, I think it's time to convert him to a knuckleballer.
With regards to the MRI: I am not an orthopedist or an emergency physician and I did not examine Brandon Belt, so I am only speaking in generalities here. My understanding of standard care in diagnosing possible fractures is you get a plain X-ray first. There are a certain number of false negative plain X-rays, especially in the wrist area. If there is persistent pain and tenderness in the area, you might consider repeating the X-ray as sometimes fractures that are not seen on the original X-ray will show up after a few days of bone remodeling in the area of the fracture. MRI's would be reserved for cases where there is pain and tenderness severe enough to make you suspect a fracture and the repeat X-ray is negative. So, without knowing the specifics of the case, I don't see anything unusual or substandard in finding a fracture a few days later on an MRI after a negative X-ray.
ReplyDeleteMy general sense is that MRI's are often done much more quickly when professional athletes at the top levels are involved. MRI's are enormously expensive and probably grossly over-used in this country. It's cases like this that understandably fuel an intense demand on the part of patients.
As for Zito and the rotation: Obsessive Compulsive Giants Fan proposed this awhile back. I don't think it's an outlandish idea, especially in long stretches without a day off like the Giants are in now. College pitchers, for instance, seem to be able to go harder and longer in games because they are only pitching once a week. Timmy and Sanchez are the two pitchers who might benefit the most although I worry about Matt Cain's workload a bit too. Bumgarner is just a big 'ol ornery horse! I think he just keeps getting stronger with more work! The downside is it takes starts away from your better starters and gives them to weaker starters, like Zito Think of it this way, in a 162 game schedule, would you rather have Zito pitching those 27 games or would you rather have Timmy, Cainer, etc. pitching 5 more games each?
ReplyDeleteAnother possibility would be rather than a strict 6 man rotation, have each of the 5 starters skip a start here and there for a breather and have the "6'th starter" fill in those starts.
Okay, I have given Zito so many chances that I have given up. May I introduce everyone to the new mop up guy? That is the best I believe in.
ReplyDeleteNow I really want to clog up things. Bring up Neal....