The Giants broke out the long ball in a big way today clubbing a total of 6 dingers and completing a 4 games series sweep of the Rockies in Coors field, something Giants fans are not used to witnessing on any count. Key Lines:
Andres Torres- 0 for 4, 2 BB. BA= .219. Even though he didn't hit, Torres did his job as a leadoff hitter by drawing walks and scored two runs.
Mike Fontenot- 1 for 4, HR(4), HBP. BA= .221. Fonty got the HR barrage started in the first inning with a drive the hit off the facing of the second deck to drive in Torres ahead of him. The HBP was a pretty obvious purpose pitch from a frustrated Esmail Rogers.
Carlos Beltran- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .301. Beltran has the third highest BA in all of baseball so far in the month of September. Is it all coming too late?
Pablo Sandoval- 3 for 4, 3B, 2 HR(22), BB. BA= .310. Had Pablo not missed weeks of the season with the fractured hamate, we might be seriously discussing whether he should be MVP. Making it all the more remarkable is that it often takes a full season or more for hitters to get their power back after this injury. Pablo's potential arbitration award keeps climbing by the day.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 5, HR(8). BA= .216. Belt got just 3 hits this series, but they all left the park. Kruk and Kuip were making fun of his swing after the dinger, but man, you can really see the potential for this kid to be an impact hitter in this league.
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 5, 2B, HR(3). BA= .200. Crawford has been swinging the bat much better and still has that great approach at the plate. Kid may be coming around. He's 6 for 15 over his last 5 games.
Matt Cain- 2 for 3, HR(1). BA= .127. Giants pitchers have been really helping themselves out at the plate lately. Cainer got into the act today with a prodigious 2 run dinger over the CF fence. He added a single later.
Matt Cain- 5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 2.86. It's an ugly looking line, but Cain had to battle conditions that made the Coors Field a hitter's paradise and a ridiculously tight strike zone by Cowboy Joe West. West is the same guy who got under Buster Posey's skin last year in San Diego with a ridiculously wide strike zone. That's it, Joe, a huge zone in a pitcher's paradise like Petco and a tiny one in Coors! What, does this guy do this for his own entertainment or something? Let's see how high we can get the score today! Hey, let's see if we can get a double no-hitter today! Cainer and the Giants relievers did a heckuva job keeping the ball in the park today which was the biggest difference in the game.
Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.13. Wilson was kind of feeling his way out there. He looked cautious, but still in command. He threw several curveballs that looked really good. It's a pitch he hasn't used in at least 2 years. He also did not throw any two seamers, a pitch he had relied on a lot before his injury and had some trouble controlling. Anyway, good to see Willie back and appearing to be in good health.
The Giants failed to gain ground on the D'Backs who topped the Pathetic Padres 5-1 to remain 5 games up on the Giants in the NL West. The D'Backs shaved their magic number to 5. The Giants did gain a game in the Wild Card race as the Braves lost to the Mets 7-5. The Giants now sit 4 games back and are tied with the Cards for second place pending the outcome of this evening's game between the Cards and Phillies.
The Giants have a day off before starting a 3 game series against the Dodgers in LA. TIm Lincecum takes on Clayton "Failbeard" Kershaw in game 1.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
honestly, i dont see the harm of having a ss who hits 240 (which he will) if his d is gold glove caliber
ReplyDeleteas long as pablo stays in shape, the left side of the if will be solid
if freddy stays healthy, the right side will be solid
pitchers will be able to pitch to contact with no fear
last time the giants hit 6 dingers in a game was in roxtown in 02 and 4 belonged to shinjo and minor...take that anyway you like
i think cain was confused...when was the last time he threw with a 8 run lead?
tuesday nite...big test
hope the guys forget the chase and just play loose
and carlos will not be a rf next season, no matter where he plays...FACT
and it what looks like a baer managed smear campaign on nuke, leak came out today that billionaire bowtie wanted a 10 mil compensation package....very hard to believe, as it seemed that he was finally living out every giants fan's dream...and the majority of us guys would do it for nothing
Well, Jenkins hinted in his rundown of his sources that the Board's beef with Neukom might have had more to do with non-baseball spending than what he spent on the team. I'm sure there are two sides to the story as there almost always is.
ReplyDeleteAloha Drb,
ReplyDeleteFor the Org to lose its best leader over communication and petty jealously like the article implied is insane.. There has to be more to the story. The good news is its business as usual for the baseball operations, but should we concerned about the leadership of the team? It sounds messed up..Wow, its awesome that the team is not quitting and making a run.. Even if they do fall short, I go into next season with a good feeling about the team.
LG
LG,
ReplyDeleteAgree this late season run is encouraging for next year. Best part is some of the young players are getting valuable AB's and experience. It would be great if Belt and Crawford have figured something out and turned a corner. It's also intriguing that Pill has done so well. He may be an option we hadn't counted on. Love what I've seen of Hector Sanchez so far too.
I thought Neukom did some good things, but I question whether he was really the transformational leader that some have made him out to be. Don't forget, the Giants had already drafted Timmy, Bum and Posey by the time he arrived on the scene. They had also already beefed up their international scouting and budget. They had already stopped giving out anything longer than 2 year contracts to FA's. Neuks may have codified it in his book, The Giants Way, but as he himself pointed out. the pieces of that were already in place. He just put it together into a printed package. No small feat, but maybe not the intellectual breakthrough that some are painting it as.
Personally, I don't see this having much of an impact at all. It's not like the Giants went out and made a quantum leap in the budget by signing a CC Sabathia or Mark Teixeira or a Carl Crawford, and you know what? They are better off for not having signed those players! Let some other team overpay for Pujols or Prince Fielder or Jose Reyes or even Beltran. I'd be happy if they sign Coco Crisp to play CF, get Buster and Sanchez back from injury, put Belt in LF, Crawford at SS, let Zito, Sanchez and Surkamp compete for the #5 starter job in ST and roll with that.
DRB...I'd be far from happy if that's what happened...It would just add up to another team that doesn't make the POs...The team desperately needs a CF and Crisp would not be my first choice, but I could live with it...But The team also desperately needs a short stop that can hit a bit and field, Crawford has shown zero hitting ability in upper levels and no way can he be counted on..Give him at least a half season straight in the upper minors....Counting on Belt is also very risky as he really hasn't shown he can handle ML pitching....seriosuly, an OF of Belt, Crisp, and Schierholtz (average at best as a starter, but tremendous as a 4th OF) could be one of the worst in the league..Either by trade of by FA, the Giants need to aquire a short stop and at least one OF..Won't be easy without dealing pitching
ReplyDeleteSteveVA
I like an OF of Belt Crisp and Schierholtz a whole lot more than Lewis, Rowand and Winn. Our 2008-9 was pretty terrible. I think Schierholtz has another year of development before we know exactly what he is (most likely league average with excellent defense). Belt has tons of potential. And whoever is in center is a placeholder for Gary Brown. I like that a whole lot more than the mediocre guys on the market. Cheap outfield with good D, Belt can go to first and you try to get a big bopper in left once Huff is gone and Gary Brown is up.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing signing mediocre OFs should have taught us is there isn't enough of a gap between the cheap stopgap or minor leaguer. Winn, Dave Roberts, Steve Finley, Rowand, the list goes on. Its a crapshoot - and to be fair to Sabean I think Grissom and Reggie Sanders were pretty sweet signings, but the market has thinned a ton in the last five years. If Crisp wants more than a year, you gotta walk away.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteSo, what is your solution? Sign Beltran for 5 or 6 years like Boras is expected to ask for? Sign Jose Reyes for 7 or 8?
The Giants have won a WS and stayed in contention down to the end with two teams that are no better than a Nate/Crisp/Belt OF + Huff/Pablo/Sanchez/Crawford IF + Buster at C. I don't see where you get that it would be just another team that didn't make the playoffs. If it is, at least they aren't hamstrung if they want to hang onto the pitchers or make another signing down the road.
wow
ReplyDeletenow there is buzz that carlos is happy being a giant and boras is about to have a sit down with the giants brain trust
giants main goal needs to be keeping their pitching staff together...which is gonna be hard
cannot blow the hudget on carlos
gonna lose 2 maybe 3 arms from the pen
carlos cannot dictate terms...he cannot play rf at the belle
Bacci,
ReplyDeleteWhere have you heard the Giants aren't willing to raise payroll under any circumstances? I sure haven't heard that! Baer said payroll wouldn't go down and people jumped to the conclusion that meant it wouldn't go up either, but he didn't say it wouldn't go up.
Brian Sabean has said that pitching is his #1 priority. Sabean may have his flaws, but whenever he makes a statement about priorities you can pretty much count on him following that path.
Do you really think Beltran would sign with the Giants without some assurance that they were going to keep the pitching together? The pitching is what led him waive his no-trade for the Giants in the first place.
I don't see signing Beltran and keeping the pitching intact to be mutually exclusive. In fact, signing Beltran makes it more likely they'll keep it together since then they won't have to trade for a bat.
Personally I have no problem with Beltran playing RF for the Giants. They need his bat!
beltran is a crip
ReplyDeleteand this is just a boras ploy to get his worth up in the market
cards and snakes won tonite...atl lost
snakes magic number down to 4
giants still trail cards by half, atl by 3.5
beat kershaw, and i will believe
Beat Kershaw and I will believe. I like that. Huge hump to get over. Timmy needs to shake off his apathy and be BTTJ tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteSorry Dr. B I agree with Bacci, I'd rate Beltran as a poor RF. We're spoiled by Nate's moves and arm, but still it hasn't been pretty.
No way they can resign Beltran without going up in payroll though. And if you're thinking about agent sitdowns and Boras, you'd better think about Greg Maddux for a sec...
(See it all ties together - rainy day fund, Maddux Money, getting suckered by Boras - the more things change... the farther up the ladder Larry Baer goes)
That was a really nice HR display though. And now it comes down to the Dodgers. Old school. Love it. The lads better bring their best tomorrow. You do realize Bochy will start Cabrera right? Hopefully Pill gets the call to balance it out. Prove us wrong Orlando, do something dramatic besides ice cream cone catches please.
Hasn't been pretty? You don't call a 7 game winning streak and scoring about 8 runs a game pretty? I'll take a step slower and a couple MPH slower on the throws in exchange for Beltran's bat in the lineup in a split second!
ReplyDeleteHis bat has been awesome - Beltran is the true professional hitter (not Cabrera ya hear Bochy) - the D has not been awesome though. Maybe if it goes to the wire he'll pick it up and go for some balls, but especially at PacBell, RF is hard.
ReplyDeleteHe's 34 with bad knees, skills decline, I'm not mad at him! LF would be great for the dude - and allow the CF to cheat towards triples alley as an added bonus. Its an 8 game streak now! Lets keep it going. It'd be nice if the Mets do Beltran a favor as well and throw down on the Cards.
DRB - As I said in the last line of my post, It won't be easy without dealing pitching....And I honestly would consider dealing pitching for either a short stop or an OF...Yes, i would start with Sanchez (but his value is low) but I would also consider the likes of Wilson, Romo and one of the big two if it got me a huge return.....I would try like heck to overpay on a short term contrat (say 2 years) for either a short stop or OFer, if possible...And trade for the other.If it is not doable, I guess we are stuck with what we have--which is as good as signing pedestrian FAs..But, neither is a good solution..
ReplyDeleteAs far as contending with what we have, yeah, we will because of the pitching...but with the Diamonbacks offense and THEIR YOUNG pitching, if we don't improve the offense significantly, we will lose out again next year...and next year is all the matters, not what happened the past three years...
JMO
SteveVA
I'm not opposed to trading pitching as long as there is young talent coming back. It needs to be for the purpose of long term talent upgrade, not to temporarily plug a hole.
ReplyDeleteDRB - Agreed...But not for young prospects, only for young established or semi-established Major Leaguers...But, easier said then done!
ReplyDeleteSteveVA
Did you see this list of top AZL Players?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/rankings/league-top-20-prospects/2011/2612367.html
Who else is pissed that the value of Jonathan Sanchez is about nothing. Before the 2010 season people were talking about him for Fielder straight up. Now the question is to give him arbitration or not. If we don't then he could walk and we get nothing for him. If we do pick it up we have a pitcher making over 6 million who isn't worth a damn. I think we should offer him arbitration and hopefully some other team will take him on a 2 or 3 year deal and we get a pick for him.
ReplyDeleteThis leads to my response on whether we should trade pitching for hitting. The answer is absolutely for a proven MLB hitter. I would not trade Cain or Lincecum unless they don't want to sign long term. But if someone wanted Bumgarner for lets say Ryan Braun or Robinson Cano you have to do it. I wouldn't trade Bumgarner for a bunch of high level prospects because most will not pan out. Bumgarner could end up being a #2 starter someday if Cainer or Timmy left. He had a couple bad games but our offense lost him at least 6-7 of those losses.
Roger
Ooooh! I don't think I would trade Bumgarner when his contract is controlled for at at least 4 more years.
ReplyDeleteSanchez is tough. On the one hand, he had a terrible season and acted like he didn't want to be out there for some reason. On the other hand, lefthanders with his stuff don't grow on trees.
Unfortunately, if the Giants offer arbitration, there is no signing with another team and getting compensation. He's guaranteed a contract and the Giants have to negotiate with an arbitrator's decision hanging over their heads.
IMO, the whole arbitration system needs to go away or be seriously reformed. I'm pretty sure that at least 90% of baseball fans would say that Sanchez deserves a pay cut after his non-performance this year. In reality, he would be almost guaranteed a raise via the arbitration process.
So, at this point do you offer Sanchez arbitration and hope he bounces back next year, or do you non-tender him and let him go?