Tim Lincecum had another shaky start, but managed to get through 5 innings with just one run allowed. The offense, led by Buster Posey and Nate Schierholtz scored early and often as the Giants breezed to a win in the first game of their twinbill in New York. Key Lines:
Melky Cabrera- 0 for 2, 2 BB, SB(3). BA= .305. Melky is adding another dimension as his 2 walks puts his OBP at .418 even as his BA dropped to .305. That ought to quiet the regression theorists just a bit.
Buster Posey- 1 for 4, HR(2), BB. BA= .375. Buster starting to hit the ball with more authority.
Nate Schierholtz- 3 for 5, 3B, HR(3), SB(2). BA= .342. Hate to say it because Nate has teased us hit hot spells in the past, but he's really looking like he could be breaking out this year. He just needs to stay healthy. What a great game today!
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .196. Crawford has been getting good AB's and making solid contact. Today the balls found openings.
Tim Lincecum- 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 8.20. Dominant K numbers but also a ton of walks. 108 Pitches in 5 innings. Baby steps!
Mota, Affeldt, Otero- 4 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. Another shut down performance by the bullpen. Affeldt, in particular, has been extremely sharp since his first couple of apperaances.
Madison Bumgarner now takes on Dillon Gee in game 2 as the Giants go for a win in the 4 game series.
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while its great to see nate making contact...he is a streaky hitter, which is ok...but why he will never be a star...just a very solid player
ReplyDeletepablo is zoned in
but the game story is the mi d...doc, if you havent seen it go to either espn or giants site...go watch manny and craw and how they work together
for the life of me, i cant see it being better with freddie there...as for freddie, he is making solid contact tonite....but we find out the truth on wednesday
bigger story is huff...boards abuzz that he didnt play in either game
he wasnt in the house....not one beat guy noticed
seems he had a family emergency
did he? or did he find out that kruk was blasting him on the knbr morning show
kruk doesnt blast vets unless the org allows him to
something might be going on
but who cares...the kids are playing
What was the gist of the Kruk dress down, Bacci?
DeleteI tend to have wild mood swings on Nate, but I've always thought that if he could stay healthy, get some MLB experience so that he knows the kind of stuff MLB pitchers can throw at him and get some confidence and swagger, he could get hot and keep it going for a whole season or 2 or 3. Hope that's what we are finally seeing now(knock on wood).
DeleteThe highlights of Crawford and Manny are awesome bacci. Manny is 2 years older than Craw almost to the day. 27 and 25, Nate 28. They really are playing the kids, and its pretty awesome to see.
Deletekruk ripped huff on the non play at 2nd on saturday
ReplyDeletenow that baggs is with tv, he is more open and has stated that huff didnt appear to take the move very seriously...there is definitely a problem...huff is a lame duck, he is retiring at seasons end
as for nate...i just wanna know why he constantly has to prove himself
see, i dont care if he is streaky...he does a lot of other things to help the team win...he is 28...how long is the org gonna eff around with him?
Bacci, why don't you just find happiness in the fact that Nate is playing regularly and playing great? They didn't trade him or bury him. It's just so satisfying to see him finally putting it all together after a LONG climb through the minors and several stops and starts in his MLB career. He's 28. Won't ever make the HOF, but still plenty of time to put together a very nice 4-5 year peak to his career. I will say, though, that Nate has now earned himself a very long leash and the Giants better give it to him. You're right, Nate does a lot of things really well besides just hit.
DeleteI still think they are piling on Huff and unfairly so(OK, hope this doesn't start another flame-fest). It is definitely time for Belt to get an extended chance to get a foothold for a whole host of reasons that have nothing to do with that play. I will admit that it is quite possible that Huff thinks he's done and is happy to take his Ring and his money from his tenure in SF. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for him for the Ring, though.
I don't think you get the same value out of Nate if you play him everyday. Corner outfielders like him are a dime a dozen, no matter how good he is going he won't ever be a ligit middle of the lineup or top of the lineup hitter. RF is a spot where you need either speed or power and Nate has some of both but not enough of either to make it consistently. As a 4th outfielder with spot starts he adds a lot of value and I definitely think there is a place for him on this team but I would rather have Blanco in there batting leadoff or 2nd stealing bases and setting the table then a streaky Nate batting 5th or 6th looking silly facing middle relievers like he did tonight. He flies under the radar for a few weeks and gets hot once in a while but when pitchers start to focus on beating him they tend to get him out pretty consistently.
DeleteDr. B, I think there is more to the Huff story that we don't know about yet. If he wasn't in the clubhouse today during a double header then something had to be seriously wrong. I agree with you that based on what we know, the way they are treating him is harsh but I believe he has done something that we don't know about yet that has contributed to the harsh treatment.
Deletedime a dozen
Deletepato...please post the vids of all the dime a dozen guys, who can play rf at the belle as well as nate...with as good an arm
and please dont say that isnt important....go ask the pitchers
but come on....post the vids
ill give you a hint...one retired this season
Pato - Nate is tied for the team lead in Triples, and HR, and is behind only Sandoval for RBIs. He's hitting .372 with a .722 SLG! Those numbers don't sit on the bench, they start 5 days a week and twice on sundays. I still wouldn't advocate him hitting cleanup as he did today in game 2, but 5th or sixth behind Posey or Cabrera (later on in the season) will be a great opportunity for Nate to show off his wares.
DeleteAlso, as commented by K&K today, the rhythm that the offense is in in this early season, a lot of the guys - Nate, Burris, Craw - are swinging with a lot of confidence right now. I'm of the group that will advocate sticking it out with Crawford for the whole season and into the future. I've always been a fan and I think he'll start putting together better and better ABs until he raises that BA around .240-.260 with extra base power. The kid is strong and he's smart, he's going to put it together when his bat catches up.
Nate has to prove himself because he constantly fail when the Giants play him regularly or they tell him the job is his to lose.
DeleteSpring training messups, we all know about, he lost the job to first Bowker, then to Belt this season.
Regular season, I've gone through all of Nates games, looking at when Bochy starts playing him regularly and when it ends, and how DLs fit into the picture. Nate basically lurks on the bench, but once he gets his opening, he generally takes it by hitting like he's hitting right now, hitting so hot that you think he's the second coming.
Then IT happens. It generally being an injury, I don't have all the cold streaks tied to an injury, but I know some of them are for sure. The HOT turns to COLD, and generally, the Giants have kept him in there until he's DLed. The only time I can recall him taken out and not given a chance again was 2010, but after the season, he admitted that his hitting was hampered by his early season shoulder injury all season, so that would explain that one. In other cases, when he was DLed, the moment he came back, he was thrust back into the starting lineup and was cold and after a month or so (that appears to be Bochy's limits), he was benched.
If you don't believe me (and you probably don't, most extreme Nate fans won't), go through his game records on Baseball Reference.
I do it because I'm a Nate enthusiast and am rooting hard for him, but he has to earn it, like any other ballplayer. Because I want my team to win. When he hits like this, it validates in my head all the great hitting and, even better, clear improvements he has made as a professional hitter, as he rose through the minors. I rarely see a hitter who figures things out a little each season, usually they either hit or they don't, and that's that.
I would love for him to win and keep the RF starting job, but I've become fatalistic as many other Nate fans have, that he's eventually going to injure himself and lose both his hitting stroke and his starting job.
If the Giants didn't believe in him, they would not have kept him around this long. They would have jettisoned him like they did Linden, Niekro, Ellison, Bowker, Frandsen, others who did well enough in the minors/majors to earn a starting job for a little while. He has tantalized by showing what he could do when everything is going well, only to crush those dreams by hitting as poorly as he did when he was not perfectly healthy.
I wholeheartedly believe that Nate would have kept the starting job long ago if 1) he didn't get injured so much and, even more importantly, 2) he didn't return to the lineup until he was fully healthy, which results in him doing poorly and losing the job anyway. He admitted that he would return from injuries too soon in an interview after the 2010 season. I hope he has learned his lesson, but I'm going to fear every time I hear on the radio that he's diving to get a ball hit to him.
Before Nate it was jose cruz jr who was the best rf in at&t history and then randy winn was irreplaceable for his dominance at rf. Besides vlad and dunn i cant think of anyone else who has come and played rf and had major problems. If you want a true gauge of nates value you dont have to look any further then his trade value which is next to nothing. He is a dime a dozen just like seth smith, josh reddick, and many others who dont hit for average, power, or have game changing speed. Rf is the easiest position to fill and among rf in the league nate would be ranked in the bottom third.
DeleteKruk called Huff out for not knowing where to be on the ground ball to short. He said he had no excuse as a pro he should have had his head in the game instead of wherever it was. I didn't realize that Huff wasn't at the park but I guess the offense will be just fine without him! The moves they made last year with Rowand and Tejada surprised me quite a bit but if they were to cut Huff I wouldn't be shocked. I truly believe that this team would be better off with him either off the bench or off the roster but no more starts when we have this many guys worthy of PT.
ReplyDeleteI think Timmy may be haunted by Jonathan Sanchez's ghost. I know chances are that he will get back in the zone and be right again but the signs we are seeing from him are that this could continue not just this year but for the rest of his career. I couldn't be happier that we locked up Cain and MadBum as those guys will be better going forward then Timmy, I just hope he doesn't drive his trade value into the toilet.
There is a lot to feel good about even with shaky Timmy and spaced out Huff. I really like Blanco, his approaches at the plate are that of a true leadoff hitter. He takes pitches and battles when he is behind in the count. I think Hector needs to see more PT as well and if it means less Belt and Pill I am ok with that. I am even pleased with Burris, he finally seems like he is relaxing and coming into his own a little along with Craw. It would be great if one of them could step up and hit 2nd for us to help balance out the lineup but other then that I don't see how Giants fans could be more pleased with how things are panning out.
Very nice day for the Giants and us fans, that's for sure!
DeleteTimmy is having problems with 2 strikes. Can't finish guys like he has in the past. He talked about pitching to contact more in ST. His pitch count ballooned because he nibbled some or just didn't have control. Is that the ghost of Johnny Sanchez? Not really, Sanchez had unhittable stuff because he went high in the zone a lot. Timmy goes high in the zone and gets clocked. He needs to keep the ball down.
DeleteI think this is all about teams having a book on him. Adjusting to his change, not fearing his velocity but mainly just leaving that ball in the dirt alone. He needs to change the book. I think he will do it, and with authority. It might take some time though.
Trade value? Come on, this is the Giants, and this is Brian Sabean. If you think we're trading Tim Lincecum you will be waiting for guffman, guffman's butler and the butler's butler. First, casual fans. Second, Cy Youngs. Third, he saved Sabes job. No way in hell Timmy gets traded, I really don't think its worth even discussing. They'll ride it to the end, either to a world series, a contract renewal or letting him walk.
I hope you are right but if Timmy turns into a RH Jonny Sanchez then he will be traded just like dirty. Ubaldo Jimenez was the toast of Colorado for 2 years before going in the toilet and they had no problem shipping him out on a team with very little starting pitching depth. Sabes is definitely more cautious and will give Timmy every chance to recover but I think at this point it is wishful thinking that Timmy reverts back to the stud he used to be unless he all of a sudden finds the strike zone and an extra 2-3 mph wouldn't hurt either.
DeleteI'm pretty sure if Huff has to leave for a family emergency in Florida it is related to his children, he has 2 sons. I hope everything is OK. Definitely leave that alone and think good thoughts for him.
ReplyDeleteOn the Krukow matter I agree with ya'll, no way does Kruk blast a veteran without explicit authorization. It sucks that he has basically become a company guy, because he didn't use to be. I enjoy his pitching analysis but much prefer Kuip's slightly cynical side over Krukow's homerism. So reading between the lines, something isn't right. For Baggs to come out and say "he has no interest in next year's contract" is a pretty strong statement as well.
Nate has teased before with this type of play. I hope he can stay healthy and build on it. His stats point to him being a nice 4th OF with his great defense and arm. If he steps up to something else that would be awesome.
Loved Cody Ross going off today. We could see this one coming. He just never got any hot streaks going last year.
Crawford's barehanded play was so damn sweet. Who cares what he's hitting. The Giants pitchers love this, absolutely love this. And Burriss is looking a lot more comfortable, I have been impressed, even though I'm pretty skeptical about him. He's answered the call after that ugly game yesterday.
Everything feels better after a double header win. Its always very sweet. And congrats to Hector on his first MLB HR. Sandoval and Posey going yard big time was very nice as well. Hey, good defense, good pitching and wait for the big hit. They came correct today.
It would also explain his prior game where people said that he wasn't like he was earlier in the season and why he was not locked in regarding how to field a new position for him.
DeleteIf Huff were cut loose, it would be sweet to see a little more of Hector behind the dish with Posey at first.
ReplyDeleteNate Schierholtz is no dime a dozen. Playing D at AT&T is a premium defensive position, both because of the tricky wall and because it is crucial for RF/CF to get the ball back in quickly on hits to that gap. On a gifted offensive team, I agree that Schierholtz would be an asset as the 4th outfielder, but this is no offensive juggernaut and I give Bochy props for playing the hot hand.
Burriss is starting to look comfortable, which is great. I'm not so ready to give up on Freddy just yet. The guy is an NL batting champion and although he won't regain that form, he is still a great situational hitter. The other thing I have to say about Freddy as a fan is that like Buster Posey, I've never watched him and thought he wasn't playing as hard as he possibly could. Excited to have him back.
If Burriss keeps playing like this, it's going to be very hard to sit him for Freddy. I don't expect Freddy to come roaring out of the gate. He's missed too much time facing big league pitching and it always takes him a awhile to get going anyway.
Delete