3 run HR's are very good things when your team hits them, especially when they come in the 9'th inning of a game your team is trailing by 2 runs. The Giants had a bit of a role reversal today with the hitters picking up the pitchers. They now head home with a winning record for the road trip. They also got a monkey off their back in the form of a 7 game losing streak at Great American Ballpark. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 2 for 5, HR(3). BA= .241. Pagan is hitting .292 over his last 10 games. He is on a pace to hit about 20 dingers on the year. His previous high being 11 in his great 2010 season. Could be another great trade for Sabes with the worst case scenario being a $12 M+ 1 year offer at the end of the season with draft pick compensation.
Brandon Belt- 2 for 4. BA= .273. Belt is hitting .364 in his last 22 AB's over a 10 game span. With Huff on the DL, Belt should have couple of weeks of daily starts. Well, he should anyway, but Huff being out virtually guarantees it, right?
Joaquin Arias- 2 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .500. Could Arias threaten Brandon Crawford's starting job if he keeps hitting?
Ryan Theriot- 2 for 3. SF. BA= .231. Nice game for The Riot.
Ryan Vogelsong- 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 4.19. This should maybe count as a QS in this ballpark.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's, Save(2). ERA= 1.35.
The Giants have now played 13 of their 19 games on the road and have a 10-9 record. The win today inched them a half game closer to the idle NL West leading Dodgers, 3 games behind. Colorado at 3.5 games back and the D'Backs at 4 games back were also idle. The Pathetic Padres are 8 games behind going into tonight's contest against the Nationals.
The Giants return home for a weekend series against the Pesky Padres with Eric Hacker coming up from Fresno to make the emergency start due to the weather forced doubleheader in NY on Sunday.
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seriously hate that park...and dusty is again a punk, ordering his catcher to put a hit on posey, up the line
ReplyDeletenate back to the cold thing again...he really has to figure it out this season
bochy has to sit down with the pen and casilla and say straight....till further notice, casilla is the closer....no committee bs
vogie was fine...all the pitchers get a pass...cuz i hate that park
shoot...it doesnt even look like a major league park
dont know if arias can win the starting role, but it would be a good idea to allow craw more days off
if arias keeps hitting...he should definitely stay up, no matter what goes on with either huff or freddy
speaking of freddy...elbow tightness again
18 days? dont think so
break at the earliest....or maybe never
I'd put my bet on the never.
Deleteyou may be right...freddy pulled out of rehab for another week
Deletehe only did infield drills
he isnt coming back
dont think that manny and riot can hold the fort all season
culberson? or trade
Grant had a post on MCC about what 2B might be available. Came down to Manny + Riot vs O'Dog. He kinda like the Manny Riot side of that deal and so do I.
DeleteI wonder what the Giants are doing to opposing pitchers? First Cliff Lee goes on the DL after pitching against them. Now comes word that Mike Pelfrey will undergo TJ surgery after last facing the Giants. Pelf was hitting 93 on the gun in that game so the injury must have occured near the end of his stint. Ha! Maybe they pitch so well against the Giants, their managers just leave them in too long? Wierd!
ReplyDeleteUnder the PQS methodology, Vogelsong's start is rated a 4 PQS (out of 5), which makes it a quality (or DOM in their terminology) start.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't think that Crawford would lose his starting gig, but he certainly will fall into a platoon with Arias if both continues to do the same.
Yeah, Belt should get the chance a lot of people have been clamoring for. We'll see how he does, this was the Reds home park after all.
Pagan!
I don't mind a semi-platoon with Arias and Crawford. There are worse things than letting a kid build some confidence by facing right handed pitchers. Truth be told though, he has actually hit some really hard outs. Very low BABIP which should rise over time. I like Arias though, he battles at the plate and has a good idea of what he is capable of doing and stays within himself. Maybe see him a 2B a bit too?
ReplyDelete1/9 through the season now. Still small sample sizes, but our leaders in OBP are Posey at .422, Pablo at .388 and Melky at .375. Belt is the next best at .368 but its worth noting he's among the strikeout leaders with half the ABs. The laggards are Crawford at .235 and Pagan at .277 with the other guys around .300-333. Crawford has a .236 babip, and Pagan has a .230 babip. Both players need to pick up their games, but might benefit from a little luck going their way as well.
ReplyDeleteDon't want to hear about those damn walks? Pagan, Posey, Schierholtz and Sandoval all have high slugging percentages, powered by 3 HRs each. Pagan and Schierholtz are battling out the Willie Mays Triple record, tied with 3. Who leads in doubles? Crawford! SB? We do that? Melky, 5/7.
I think Arias might threaten Burriss before Crawford. He has a .310 babip, .277 BA and .333 obp on 13 singles and 4 BBs. No extra base hits. I really liked Arias ABs so far, and he has some extra base pop, which Handy Manny definitely does not. If Arias can give Crawford days off against tough lefties, plus a day or two with Burriss, pretty soon you have a 2B/MI rotation.
The Tigers just unconditionally released Brandon Inge today. I don't think Sabes would swoop on that, but in another month, a free dumpster dive might look inviting. Its discouraging to hear about Freddy, but I still say never count out a guy who has overcome a clubbed foot and being pigeon toed to play ball.
Good to be home. They need to beat up on this glorified AAAA team, something the Giants sometimes have problems with. Important homestand to build team identity and get something good going. Pitchers need to step up as well, but the hitting has been doing the job except for this low action with runners on. And of course the silly throwing errors need to stop. Great win today, and I'm happy for my man Pagan.
Good stuff, shankbone! And I agree that Arias is more likely a threat to Burriss's playing time than Crawford's.
DeletePlease no Inge. He is my least favorite players to watch hit in the majors. He has no plan when he goes up to the plate, tries to pull everything and instead ends up hitting weak groundballs to the left side of the infield.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can do without Inge too.
DeleteI'm not a fan either, but at some point Sabean will start tinkering.
Deletehttp://chronicle.augusta.com/content/blog-post/billy-byler/2012-04-27/greenjackets-gameday-fastball-fun
ReplyDeletejumping the gun here...this belongs on the farm thread...but that isnt up
great article from augusta
Bacci,
DeleteI dare you to post that link over on MCC. One look at those inspirational messages from Decker will send that crowd into apoplexy. Hack away, Greenjackets! LOL!!
If you want to see some restrained outrage on MCC go look up "The Brandon Belt Problem and simple solution". One poster actually dropped the Giants Rain Man comp, somebody I only know by legend.
Deleteshocked that you are still awake...and nope, aint going over there
Deleteyou can post it
i hope alex and baggs link it
nice to know that there is a beat writer for augusta
they only report scores in richmond, same in sj
not sure why local papers dont see the importance of following the local team
as has been shown in many areas, a successful milb team is good for the community
Shankbone,
DeleteJust read through the Belt Fanpost and comments over on MCC. What a hoot! My opinion? I think there is all kinds of stuff going on in MLB that go unnoticed by players and coaches that ordinary fans can pick up from watching carefully on TV. This may be arrogant on my part, but I actually think I might have been the first person to pick up that Crawford was holding his hands too low for too long last year. So, this guy comes up with a perfectly reasonable theory backed up by pics and some discussion by a respected hitting coach(Mattingly) and gets absolutely fried for it, apparently mostly out of sheer jealousy and territoriality on the part of the guys who were doing the flaming. Classic MCC stuff!!
Yup. I think there is an interesting ratio of thoughtful and considerate to kneejerk and snarky posters on MCC. They tend to come out of the woodwork for discussions like this. The OP came in with a chip on his shoulder, but said some interesting things. There is a lot of stats dogma on MCC where if it can't be proven statistically it has no basis in fact. I'm doing my small part to contribute something, I maintain its the best group discussion for giants fans there is, even if they are very territorial. You have to search a bit, but there are a lot of good posters. I know a lot of other good posters have been turned off and left though.
DeleteShould have said message board. The discussion here is quite excellent.
DeleteYahoo, or mlb, or pro sports daily, or the old Baggs blog... I think MCC can generally wipe the floor with them as far as content and civility. But it comes at a price. Out of lockstep folks get picked apart too much for my taste. But the prospect guys and the fanposts can be quite excellent, and I like Grant's writing a lot. I think the pressure of writing all the time has him phoning it in from time to time, and I have a different viewpoint on the state of the Giants, but I do like his writing and have read him for a long time, back to his old site waiting for boof.
Love it when baseball reminds us that all is right in the world. Bochy put it well, "One of those games that saves your sanity" Amen!
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't seen it, go over to CSN and watch the Panda dump the ice bucket on Pagan just before his interview with K&K. Both their faces are priceless. The Panda knows how to keep it loose.
Casilla was a stud today. Get a beard hombre, you've earned it.
I know Votto is a $1/4B man and he gets his hits, but the Giants pitchers break him down for swinging strike threes like nobody's business. I would rather have Cain and MadBum than Votto for the $$$'s.
Happy home flight indeed.
"Get a beard hombre, you've earned it." - Hahaha, classic Shark!
ReplyDeleteCasilla's demeanor on the mound used to scare me because I felt like he'd unravel a bit after giving up a hit. Lately he's been downright nasty. His fastball velocity has actually tailed off a bit from the last couple years, but his movement is downright sick. I flipped open MLB GAME DAY yesterday while watching the game because I wanted to see what kind of movement he was getting on his fastballs... It was extreme in a great way.