Matt Cain's streak of scoreless innings ended quickly as he gave up 2 runs in the first inning. Another streak, 14.1 innings of no run support is still very much alive. This one was never much in doubt. Key Lines:
Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .333. Pablo set a new Giants record for consecutive game hitting streak to start a season at 17 passing Willie Mays who was the previous record holder at 16.
Buster Posey- 1 for 3, HR(3), BB. BA= .373. Nice to see Buster hitting for power again. Too little to late for this game, though.
Matt Cain- 6.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 7 K's, 2 HR. ERA- 2.37. Actually a Quality Start, but not his best effort and the no run support thing is getting ridiculous again.
Dan Otero- 1.2 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 0 K. ERA= 8.64. Otero might have punched his ticket out of town to make room for an emergency Friday starter.
There was a very strange article on Fangraphs today about Matt Cain pinch hitting the other day and whether that means the Giants have too many LH batters on their roster. There was passing mention that Theriot was out sick and passing mention of the Giants switch-hitters. Bacci, AKA Walt Kovacs had a priceless comment that literally had me rolling on the floor. The article is worth checking out just to read his comment.
Barry Zito goes tomorrow against Bronson Arroyo.
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They were flat today. Hope they can grab a split of the next two, Cincy is bad juju for us recently.
ReplyDeleteCrawford is OK apparently, that is a big key, staying healthy and on the field. For all players, but especially Craw and Nate.
first, i was downright serious. every time i go to that site i read one more absurd column after another...its like the sports blogging world feels like it it has to copy the mac chron
ReplyDeleteso doc...when are you gonna start posting the k's and bb's dart board thing so we can all ooh and ahh and pretend we know what the eff it means
or lets have a week long discussion on the sabermetrics babe ruth
these guys take all the fun out of the game
not sure if this is bad or good news...arias pulled in the 6th after going 3 for 3....someone is out from the giants....you all get 4 choices of who it is, but i dont think its otero, who will also get a pass for today
im very happy for pablo...ive gotta go back and see who mays faced to get to 16...but some of those games were played at the stick, so no matter how far pablo's streak goes...mays was still better
cain should be a perennial contender for the cy young and have a good shot at getting into the hof....wont get either, thanks to being the guy the team wont score for...but thats ok...hes rich
i dont like latos. i dont like that he caught the team basically sleep walking.
however, i like the doofus even less now...bordering on hate. he called for a hit on posey at his knees. really doofus? knowing the kid was out of the game for a year and something like that could have cost his career? you really think that otero hit votto intentionally? well, you also thought that the game ball thing was the right thing to do. you also had the rule of 7 and loved destroying pitchers arms.
eff you doofus....im gonna go find daren, drag his ass to the belle, and tie him down in front of home plate, while lou g seal runs over him...dont care if he is in college...he will always be that little brat that jt almost killed
JT didn't almost killed him.
DeleteDavid Bell almost killed him. Or some combination of David, Bengie and the baseball.
But, if you've concocted a sweet revenge against Dusty and Latos, have at it. I don't care what your inspiration.
Bacci,
DeleteThat was a ridiculous article that deserved ridicule. Those Fangraphs writers seem to be under a lot of pressure to produce content and sometimes they write stuff just for the sake or writing stuff.
I think I have a pretty good understanding of sabermetric's. One big problem in the field is a lot of guys who claim to be experts in it really have a very superficial understanding of the mathematical principles behind it. The whole field is rife with dogmas that are an outgrowth of this superficial understanding. A lot of those guys truly don't watch the games or give any thought to the mechanics of what produces the statistics.
I try to include sabermetric analysis here when I think it helps bring better understanding to the game, but hopefully it's balanced by an understanding of the human side of it and how things that happen on the field help us understand the statistics and vice-versa. Most of all, I want to hold onto the wonder of joy of the game. I agree, statistical analysis taken too far takes a lot of the fun out of it.
Just one example: Everything, or almost everything to them is due to statistical variation as opposed to skill. Well, I don't know about you, but that takes a lot of the fun out of it for me. Look at Matt Cain. Dude has defied statistical regression for 6 years. 6 years is a large sample size in anybody's book. Those guys don't know what to do with it. They can't let go of their dogma, so instead of watching Matt Cain pitch and trying to understand what he's doing to produce those results, they start talking about pixie dust and something in the water or some black magic that Dave Righetti is practicing. Yeah, they are kind of joking about it, but they also aren't joking about it, because when someone who has watched the Giants and Matt Cain for years proposes a very logical reason for what they are seeing, they go into their ridicule thing.
Oh, and I defy anyone to come up with a statistical analysis of that DP Burriss and Crawford turned the other day. The sabers would love to call that a statistical outlier produced by random chance. Gotta just sit back and marvel at the sheer beauty of it and skills that produced it.
DeleteWell alright. Learn something every day if you actually pay attention. Bacci you are much busier than I realized, you rock the house over at Giants Extra.
DeleteAnd like I've said, the interwebz giants fans is a smaller community than you think.
I agree that saberz take the joy out of the game big time, but that article was pretty benign if you ask me. The Giants do have a bit of lefty leaningness... I wouldn't mind having Cody Ross still. Not sure about his lead in this time, it was a stretch.
I have to say Crawford fans are slowly coming out of the woodwork, and there are grudging hedges getting thrown up in reference to him by critics. That defense is mighty sweet.
That wasn't really a saber article. It was a silly article. Oh, and I'm still laughing at Bacci's comment!
DeleteBacci, what happened to your boy Nate last night? Did dime a dozen finally show his true colors? If you can anoint him worthy of starting every day after a week on a hot streak then you better be ready to admit when he is over his head after a horrible night like last night. The guy is a 4th outfielder at best and like I said, you put him in the middle of the lineup and you get the results he gave us last night.
ReplyDeleteMy argument for not starting Nate is based on the fact that his bat can't help us where we need help the most which is either the 2 hole or the 5 hole. Gregor Blanco on the other hand could handle the 2 hole which would allow Melky to go down to 5 balancing out the lineup a bit more with speed and on base at the top and 3 reliable bats in the middle of the order. Instead we had Nate and Belt folding under the pressure.
I didn't have time to look up all of the other RF who compare to Nate and not sure who the one that retired this year was that you mentioned Bacci but Jose Cruz Jr. used to be overvalued by management because of his prowess in RF and then it was Randy Winn who manned the wall better then anyone on the planet according to Kruk. Now it is Nate, another lite hitting corner outfielder who shows signs of figuring things out until the other teams pitchers actually game plan to get him out. Oh but that defense in RF is so valuable that we couldn't possibly find someone who could actually hit and also play D like Nate!! The only 2 guys I have ever seen have trouble playing RF there are Vlad and Dunn, everyone else seems to be able to figure the wall out just fine while also contributing consistantly offensively.
I wouldn't bury Nate after one 0'fer any more than I would declare him a star after on 3 hit game. In fact, Nate is precisely the type of player who needs an extended look before you know what you have because he does tend to run hot an cold. He'll have his 0'fers and he'll have his games where he goes nuts.
DeleteNate has earned the starting RF gig for now. Give it some time.
Nate ain't perfect. But we need to find out if we have a starting RF or a 4th OF. His defense is ++, and yes I have a man crush on the cannon arm. So far we have seen a streaky hitter, due to both untimely DL stints, playing while injured, and Bochy Ball lineup juggling. (Note Giants should have already given Nate his extended look back when Winn fell apart in 09.) Can Nate become a:
DeleteTough out - produce in pressure RISP situations when pitchers game plan to get him out?
Make adjustments - let the low and inside backfoot slider go by and force the pitcher to throw into his zone? Hunt for and hit his pitch?
Use his speed - become more adapt at base stealing. Add this weapon at the 5th spot and you really extend/turnover the lineup.
Bottom line value - hits arb years starting in 2013. Giants better know what they have in Nate this year before they start to invest big $$$.
Nate only becomes great, if he can show he can make adjustments and turn into a consistent hitter. I say let's find out in 2012. Sure is good to have Blanco as Plan B.
Yeah, we need some thump in that there RF. Remember Ellis Burks? That was awesome. Even streaky Reggie Sanders at age 34 clocked 23 2Bs and 23 long flys. It seems like RF has just descended over time into a defense first position. Its one of the few places the Giants can upgrade their offense.
DeleteIt is still my position the Giants are one straw that stirs the drink big time baller corner OF away from absolutely exploding into ownage of the National League. And no, I don't have good ideas how to steal an Upton/Kemp type to do that. But we are one player away from changing the game.
wow
Deletewhole team flat cuz they got to bed at 4 and we are ripping on nate?
i know nate is streaky...which is why i wouldnt put him in the 5 hole
do you also wanna send otero down cuz he imploded
Ummmm. Looks like Otero is being sent down.
Deleteoooooookay...
ReplyDeleteWell...something else might could have to happen by Friday with pitching, so, stay tuned.
huff put in 15 day because of anxiety related disorder
ReplyDeleteand im sorry i made fun of him...it was wrong
i feel very bad now
As someone who has anxiety issues and has self-medicated with alcohol, I can understand some of the things Aubrey might be dealing with. Not being an athlete in the spotlight, there is a ton I couldn't possibly understand.
DeleteIt's difficult to know, when you're not the person, why he is doing the things he is doing. From the outside, with the bravado that Huff carries himself with, it's impossible to know.
If Huff has anxiety issues and is dealing with that anxiety by drinking, the drinking is what the world sees. Huff would probably rather have the world believe that he's a partier than know that he has anxiety.
There was a Sports Illustrated article a couple of years ago on Aubrey. Went into what happened to his father and how he wanted to quit baseball and leave Miami during his freshman year because he was being hazed by, among others, Pat Burrell. So, you can kind of see that he was sensitive.
It's great that baseball is opening up a bit on things like anxiety. Votto dealt with it a few years ago. I think he missed time during the season to deal with it.
Anyway, Bacci, I wouldn't feel too bad about your conjecture. It's impossible to see an anxiety problem. All you can see is how a person is dealing with it. It just looked like Huff had become someone who didn't really care enough to be prepared to do his job.
And that's the thing about alcohol. You can use it to deal with something like anxiety when you're younger. The body recovers from it quickly. But as you get older, the body can't deal with it as well. So it could be, in Huff's case, he previously could drink to deal with anxiety and still recover quickly and effectively enough to play MLB. But, the past couple of years, not so much.
If that is the case, then Huff still had the anxiety, but the way he dealt with it was diminishing his skills. Which, of course, created more anxiety.
A ton of guessing here. I could be WAY off base on everything I've said.
I, like everyone, wish Aubrey the very best. I can't imagine how incredibly difficult it must have been for him to feel that he needed to step back during the season, when there would be a lot of attention.
Well said Kelly.
DeleteDr B..
ReplyDeleteSo do you agree that the Giants are too lefty? You know how much I did like Renteria and Ross, who were both righty. I have a feeling the Giants will see a lot of LOOGY's this year.
Ideally the Giants would have 1 more RH bat off the bench, but the switch hitters counter the problem to some extent. Sandoval and Burriss are weaker from the R side, but Pagan, Melky and HSanchez seem to do OK from that side. Nate and Huff both hang in there against LHP's pretty well and I think Belt will in time. Most teams only have 1 LOOGY so it's not like they can keep throwing them out there. Arizona is the exception. They have 3! Gee, I wonder why?
DeleteHow many teams have successfully Rule 5ed a player and then made the playoffs?
DeleteWell Dr. B, chalk up another crappy outing for Affeldt. I am getting sick of being right about this guy. Nate had another game that should bring those hopes of him being an everyday RF back down to Earth. Oh and just saw the replay of Affeldt talking to Sanchez in the dugout after his horrible inning and reading his body language I would say he was blaming Hector for throwing the ball to the backstop that tied the game.
ReplyDeleteThis is stupid, Bochy needs to make an adjustment to the lineup that includes getting Sanchez in to at least 3 games a week and Blanco should be in RF setting the table for the middle of the order which would actually be a bit more of a threat with Melky in it. The rest of the time he should have Pill at 1B when Posey is catching and lets see what those 3 guys can do to pick this offense up.
While we are on the subject of Pato predictions that have come true, 10 K's for Darvish for his 3rd win of the year against the Yanks and Cespedes raking like a gardner in the fall. Crawford is struggling and Huff should stay in Florida for the rest of the year. I wish I would have predicted Zito's dominance but nobody could have guessed that would happen.
Nate put that throw on the money. Sanchez is green, a more experienced catcher puts two hands on that ball. Yes, Nate had a rough night at the plate.
DeleteThere is a learning curve for rookies. This is part of it. Affeldt took out some frustration about sucking on Hector. I predict dueling arguments, some calling for Sanchez to get sent down for seasoning so he doesn't make mistakes, and the hitting arguments like you just put up. I think Sanchez can learn a ton right now. He seems to be very fast on that level. I think he is a good defender, but I also think he's green.
The biggest thing Bochy needs is for the late inning throwing errors to stop. He's sorting out his pen, it appears he's left his starters in for one too many batters.
I have to say, I've been impressed with Darvish. Cespedes isn't half bad either. Not bad Pato, but we're only 10% into the season, lets give it another 10 before the Gints make some adjustments.
And yeah, bad beat tonight. Great American ballpark is a treehouse of horrors for us.
If the defense is what is keeping Sanchez from getting more PT then maybe they should move him to 1B. I don't think the past ball was his fault either, he called for an inside pitch and Aflack bounced it in the RH batters box. Nate has a gun, no denying that but he is what he is which is a dime a dozen. If he were on any other team we wouldn't spend 2 seconds talking about him or wondering if the Giants could trade for him. The only reason we like him is because he is a homegrown Giant and we want him to succeed which is like a parent wanting their kid to do well.
DeleteAlthough I love the "raking like a gardener in fall" comment, I don't think we can quite say Cespedes is dominating. He's doing well, early on: .242/.342/.484
DeleteWe'll see if Cespedes adjusts or the league does.
New Game wrap up above.
DeleteAffledt needs to cool it with Sanchez. He threw the ball away, plain and simple. Neither Buster nor Whiteside nor CStew would have come within hailing distance of it. WP is the easy call on that one. On the other hand, Affledt was lights out in NY and a big reason why the Giants were able to win 3 of 4 there. No pitcher is perfect every outing!
I'm still sticking with Nate for awhile.
Darvish walks a lot of batters and Cespedes has holes in his swing. Both are pretty good players, but not worth the $$$ spent on them, IMO.