The Giants ended up losing a hard-fought extra-innings game that had multiple great story lines. Rent getting the game winning hit is a great story, but not the ending Giants fans were hoping for. Oh, and do you think the Giants could use a little Rent right about now? That extra $1 M that it might have taken to re-up him looks pretty paltry right now, huh?
Jeff Keppinger- 2 for 5, 2 2B. BA= .297. Kepp didn't figure in the scoring but may have had the most important AB of the Giants night. Vogelsong was coming off a brutal first 2 innings and was already exhausted. Vogey led off the top of the 3'rd inning with a ground out to the pitcher, Dontrelle Willis. Back in the dugout, Vogey was sucking wind. Face flushed on a hot night and breathing with is mouth open. I really thought he was done. Rowand promptly flied out to LF and it looked like Vogelsong was going to have to go back out and pitch after yet another short Giants inning. The Kepp came up and doubled down the LF line. That extra AB in the inning gave Vogey enough time to put on a new shirt, down some H2O and probably some Gatorade too. After Beltran struck out, Vogelsong took the mound looking like he was starting a brand new game. He ended up going 6 full innings and did not give up another run to get credit for another QS.
Carlos Beltran- 1 for 5, BB. BA= .285. Beltran drove in the first run of the game and scored the second for the Giants, but also struck out 3 times. Still hasn't really made an impact.
Pablo Sandoval- 3 for 6. BA= .302. Sandoval looked comfortable out there.
Aubrey Huff- 2 for 5, SF, SB(4). BA= .241. Huff seems to be gradually heating up. Maybe he can relax hitting down further in the order?
Nate Schierholtz- 0 for 3, OF Assist(Home). BA= .280. Nate subbed into the game after pinch-hitting and kept the Giants alive by unleashing one of his patented laser beam throws that cut down Joey Votto trying to score on a fairly shallow flyball in left-center. Even though it wasn't that long of a throw, Nate had to turn his body at a awkward angle to get the throw off. Most OF's don't make that throw successfully.
Ryan Vogelsong- 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.23. Well, I already told most of Vogey's story from tonight but he showed a lot of heart on a brutally hot night in a bandbox ballpark against a good lineup. After getting put on the ropes after 2 innings, he hung on to give his team a chance to win.
Guillermo Mota- 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.88. Mota may be on the bubble in the bullpen, but it's games like this that show why bumping him to put Zito in as the long man would not be putting out the roster that gives them the best chance to win.
Aroldis Chapman- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.86. OK, THAT is unfair! That bad boy was going 98-101 on the TV gun, and he was hitting the corners to boot! It wasn't just one pitch that hit triple digits either. I'm pretty sure he hit 100 at least 6 or 7 times and 101 at least once. I knew the Giants weren't going to win this as long as he was still in the game. Gotta admit, he is fun to watch, though.
The Dodgers are leading the D'Backs 7-5 in the 7'th inning as I write this. The Giants will remain 4 games ahead of the D'Backs or slip to 3 games ahead depending on the outcome of that game.
Madison Bumgarner takes the mound tomorrow night facing Mike Leake. For awhile there I was thinking Bum might have to lace up his shoes and finish out the game tonight!
The Phillies acquired Hunter Pence from the Astros for 4 prospects, 2 of whom will be named later. Pence is a solid player who should hit well in that ballpark and will give them a threat from the right side of the plate. It would appear that the Phillies and Giants are headed for another showdown at the OK Corral come playoff time.
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Sniping at the Giants for not making Renteria richer? Hard to believe. R is hitting still less well than Tejada (.238 vs .242, which is a wash; but T has an OPS+ of 71, and R of 66), who's a very dubious asset; and his fielding is about as awful. Fontenot, with an OPS+ of 86, a comparable OBP, and competence in the field is a much better choice. Because if one is to endure low mediocrity at bat, one ought to prefer younger players, more agile in the field, we were lucky R hopped on his high horse as to the Giants' offer, and lucky that Uribe went to McCourt LAnd.
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed at how many people take every single sentence written on the internets so seriously, but since you want to be serious about it, let's look at a scenario:
ReplyDeleteBottom of he 9'th, 2 outs, NLDS, Giants down by 1 with a runner on 2B. Who would you rather see at the plate: Fontenot, Tejada or Rent?
BTW, I don't think it's accurate to portray it as an either/or situation with Tejada, Fontenot and Rent in the offseason. The Giants were still interested in Rent long after Tejada was signed and Fonty was re-upped. They just weren't willing to meet his price even though we now know money was not tight for the team.
ReplyDeleteNo big deal though. The Giants are doing fine without him. It was just a reaction to his hit last night which was just another game winning hit for Rent.
BTW,
ReplyDeleteAnyone familiar with this blog knows nobody has been, or continues to be a bigger supporter of the Giants front office and the way they have put this team together, so any "sniping" must be taken in that context.
Well, maybe OGG is a bigger supporter of the Giants management, but this blog is at least #2 in that department.
ReplyDeleteI thought that you, Dr B, ought to be given the respect to be taken seriously when you write something, esp. something with an edge to it. You're right that you avoid silliness (endemic on other sites) as to the Giants FO, hence my being taken aback to see it, I thought gratuitously, here. As for the scenario you pose, I will transpose it into the game last night when Fontenot came up to bat with three on and two out, and struck out on three pitches. Should Bochy have wished he had Renteria (or Tejada) available? Well, Fonty has a slash line of .256/.362/.462/.823 this year against LHP. If one goes by the numbers from this small, current sample, one would predict he'd be just as fine, as to risk/reward, as the other (bad) choices, Rent and Miggy, despite their handedness advantage. In the game, F did strike out but we've all seen Rent and Tejada do the same often enough. Perhaps we can agree that the real problem is our concerning ourselves with Renteria, Fontenot, and Tejada, instead of players who can actually play baseball well in 2011.
ReplyDeleteIn short, yes, Bochy would have been better off with Rent in that situation. I don't care what Fonty's slash line is.
ReplyDeleteI would also hope that readers here would have enough sense of humor to take an occasional offhanded comment with a grain of salt. As I said before, it's not that big a deal in the big picture of things.
ReplyDeleteCampanari,
ReplyDeleteRent's OPS against LHP's this year is .881 and his OPS with RISP is .750 vs Fonty's .441.
You might want to look things up before you go brandishing stat lines.
You certainly seem huffy--and I am not thinking of Aubrey--at what I thought was reasonable and reasoned dissent. Four passes at my first comment and three at the second. Now that I know I should salt your comments, with three or four grains, I suppose I will keep myself from offending you again by taking you straight.
ReplyDeleteMy point was that Fontenot is about as good as Renteria, whom we both saw play (when he wasn't, as he often was, on the DL)at a pretty bad level for two years; and though as per your research .881 is better than .823, agreed, F's record against LHP is quite decent, and I would rather have him on my team, with its crowded roster, than Renteria.
I'm not sure where you get this either/or stuff with Fontenot and Rent. Like I said before, the Giants reportedly still made their offer to Rent AFTER signing Tejada and re-upping Fontenot.
ReplyDeleteAgain, whether it is OPS against LHP's or OPS with RISP, Rent is a better option in the situation that came up in last night's game.
You might want to check out Bagg's comments abut Rent in his Postgame notes on extrabaggs.com.
In short, if the difference between re-signing Rent and not was simply going $2-3 M over $1 M, I think the Giants would be better off right now if they had gotten it done. Just my opinion. You are entitled to yours.
....And for the 3'rd time, it's not a big deal in the overall State of the Giants. It was an offhand comment!(although I do stand by it).
ReplyDeleteThe going price for backup infielders on the Giants this past off-season was $1 million.
ReplyDeleteI've said it before about Renteria:
He was wildly overpaid by the Giants in '09 and '10. By, what, about $12 million? He really shouldn't have gotten all pissy about the $1 million offer.
Love the guy, and not to take anything away from his performance in the clutch. But, that was more Wilson losing the game than Rent winning it.
Oh, Doc, your leadoff comment was absolutely fine. Not sure what Campanari is on about. It's spot-on to question the wisdom of not signing a guy who comes back and beats you next year in the 13th inning. I'm sure the that thought crossed Sabean's mind as Jay Bruce crossed the plate last night.
ReplyDeleteI think the trade for OCab, who is essentially the same player as Rent, except Rent is a much better hitter, pretty much proves the Giants would be better off today had the simply given him an extra $1 M as a bonus for that WS winning HR.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Rent shouldn't have been all pissy about the $1 M offer, but the Giants also should have been willing to go a bit higher if that's what it took.