A wretched sloppy 7'th inning negated another solid start by Barry Zito as the Giants dropped a disappointing game to the Reds. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 1 for 5, HR(2). BA= .230. The Giants got 10 hits in the game, but only 2 were for extra bases. Pagan's HR was one of them. Still, you'd like to see the leadoff hitter get on base more often.
Melky Cabrera(.301), Buster Posey(.382), Hector Sanchez(.321) had two hits each.
Nate went 0 for 4 again and was a big part of why the 12 baserunners only produced 2 runs.
Joaquin Arias- 0 for 1. BA= .000. Arias gave Aroldis Chapman all he could handle ultimately smoking one up the middle that Chapman caught while putting up his glove to protect himself.
Barry Zito- 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 1.67. The single run was a dinger to Rolen leading off the 7'th. Bochy might want to think about not trying to squeeze those last 10-15 pitches out of Zito. I believe relievers generally do better if they can start an inning with a clean slate.
Clay Hensley/Jeremy Affeldt- Hensley came in after the HR by Rolen. He promptly gave up a single to Ryan Ludwick. Hanigan laid down a sac bunt that could have been a DP, but Hensley slipped fielding it. He recovered his footing, but then sailed the throw about 3 feet over Burriss covering first base which put runners at 2'nd and 3'rd with nobody out. PH Willie Harris popped out, but Drew Stubbs walked to load the bases. Wilson Valdez hit a flyball to short-medium RF. Nate's throw skipped by Sanchez scoring the tying run with runners on 2'nd and 3'rd again. Affeldt came in to face Joey Votto and promptly uncorked a wild pitch that scored the go-ahead run. Votto followed with a hard double past Pagan in CF to complete the scoring. You knew the game was over at that point.
Aubrey Huff was placed on the 15 day DL due to an anxiety disorder. No word on what it's all about, but Huff has taken a tremendous amount of heat on the internet and Twitter lately. Gotta think that has something to do with it. Performance on the field, obviously, has to be fair game for fans to comment on. Personal attacks and speculation not so much. Remember, these players are people too! I can tell you from personal experience, the internet and social media has the potential to destroy people emotionally. How to deal with that reality is one of the great social challenges of the 21'st century.
Ryan Vogelsong takes the mound in an early game tomorrow against Homer Bailey trying to bring the Giants home from the road trip with a wining record.
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i hate the frickin park....frackin thing sux
ReplyDeletei luv nate...but he is streaky...when he sees the ball well, he is lights not...when he doesnt, its goose eggs
lots of guys have long careers being streaky
arias did smoke it...something tells me that he is not going back to fresno for a long while...freddy did not take the field tonite, and doesnt sound like he will in the near future
zito? happy for him...he has found himself...and for a zen master, thats a good thing
i believe freddy was rushed to sj as a result of the debacle in nyc...he isnt ready and i dont think he is getting back with the team before the break...if then
pen is a mess...the pen is a mess for a couple of reasons...timmy's troubles and a lack of a closer...pens always do much better when everyone knows their roles
regarding huff. baggs posted that he has been going through a divorce. divorces dont happen in a bubble...he was probably having probs last season....would explain why he came to camp out of shape...explain his poor play all season
by his own words, he doesnt always deal with outside stressors well
add that, with last season's postmortem by bochy and sabean, the stuff on blogs and twitter (which he reads, but shouldnt) and finally the 2nd base thing...and he had a meltdown...not really sure its a good idea for him to return on friday...baseball still thinks in 19th century terms.
hacker coming up on friday, im guessing otero is going down
not sure if you saw it, but rowand was on american chopper...seems he found a way to spend some of the millions the giants are paying him to laze around this summer....i really dont like him
travis hit another dinger today....drrty imploded once again
Didn't the Giants' 2011 season unravel in Cincinnati last year. Hopefully they are playing there early enough to recover this year.
DeleteThe baseball life has gotta be tough on relationships.
DeleteSure did unravel in Cincy. American Park of Horrors.
DeleteMy theory on Freddy Sanchez is he knows how to recover from injury better than anybody else. Like 2010 when the Giants finally had to put some pressure on him to get him up, that is what is happening. Once he finally plays in a game, it'll be about 3-4 weeks. I can live with having Freddy for less than 100 games if he comes correct. At this point in his career we have a sort of big risk of watching a Dave Dravecky situation unfold though. I wouldn't count him out though.
I really hate Cincy. Looks like Dusty still felt like he had to get even yesterday for Votto getting hit by Otero in game 1 so he had Chapman drill Pill. Afflack is a nightmare. When you are a LOOGY and asked to get a guy out who hasn't hit anything all series with a base open and you throw a ball away and then almost throw another one away before giving up the double, that equals fail!! You gotta admit Dr. B, for 5 million I think the expectations need to be a little higher then one good game then one bad then one good then one awful!! So far that is at least 3 outings by Afflack that have been horrible. Lopez hasn't been all that much better but I give him a longer rope for having a great year last year and the playoffs in 2010.
ReplyDeleteShankbone is right on in regards to the RF situation. Nate is a great hometown guy and we all would love to see him break out for 30 and 100 but if we had a stud RF batting cleanup for us, this offense would be unstoppable!! Pagan is not a leadoff hitter either and eventually I think he will end up batting 2nd with Blanco batting leadoff. Blanco has better approaches at the plate for a leadoff hitter and Pagan would do well in the 2 hole which would move Melky to the middle of the order and balance the whole lineup out.
Go around the league and see what Loogys are out there and what they are getting paid. $5 M for Affeldt is right about market rate and he's better than most. Not gonna join the Affeldt haters club just yet. He needs to stop blaming his problems on the rookie catcher, though. That's pretty bush league if you ask me and I'm disappointed in him.
DeleteAfflack and Lopez: Gigli?
DeletePato, Affeldt has always been expensive, look up his salary numbers at cots contracts or B/R. What is done is done. Relievers can be finicky. He is a good one. As a left hander, there just aren't many available right now, especially in his sweet spot of experience and potential. Lopez needs to throw strikes. There is a seriously small number of lefty relievers capable of pitching in the majors at the current point in time. As I get into the draft more I have been bitching a bit about not turning one of these guys into a arb offer/draft pick, we'd be picking around the 50 spot in addition to the 20 and 84. But that's spilled milk, and Sabean will always go with the bird in the hand. And you know what? In this case he's dead correct.
I do think Bochy is having a little adjustment period. Saber people may yell about proven closers, but the actual players like order in their life. The guy who gets the ball in the Ninth sets a hierarchy. Baseball is all about that hierarchy. Bochy is having a bit of trouble sorting out the pen, and the NY part of the trip definitely didn't help either. Affeldt needs to not blame his wildness on the catcher, and Lopez needs to throw strikes. I am confident they'll work it out. They get 60 odd chances during the year, there will be rough spots. If it gets too rough, Bochy will make the adjustment. He does that well.
Ugly loss...
ReplyDeleteNice to see Zito really pissed about coming out. Angry grasshopper = velocity.
Not so nice to see Affeldt (Afflack, LOL) pissed at Hector. That was bush league. Hector should leave a steak knife in his locker.
It's either June for Sanchez or done. I fear it's the latter.
I am willing to give Nate leash, but 0-4's not good in the 5th spot. He has got to become a tough out. Focus on AB's not abs.
Like Arias because he can give Crawford and Burriss some rest, while maintaining the D.
I wasn't happy with Affeldt last night either.
ReplyDeleteI think we are going to continue to see some errors in this young team but it sure is nice when Hector comes to bat knowing he is not a sure out and it is also wonderful to know that balls hit 5 feet to the right or left of the SS are not going to be hits. I'll take Crawfords D and Hectors Bat and excuse a few errors here and there.
I think these issues will slow down soon as the team begins to jell and the rooks get used to being in the show.
I also have to agree with the Blanco in lead-off stance. Pegan's OBP is weak and he has some pop in his bat so I would move him to #2 in the order and put Burris at the top until Blanco forces his way into the line-up some where. (I would like to see Pegan in RF and Blanco in CF)
We really needed Nate to step up last night with RISP. The 5 hole on the team can almost be re-named the "black hole". We have to get Melky/Posey/Sandoval in the 3-4-5 spots of the order.