Giants baseball was on display at the Oakland Coliseum last night as the Giants scraped together just enough runs to support their trademark strong pitching. Key LInes:
Giants offense- 7 players had one hit apiece with Huff having the only XBH, a double. Blanco and Nate each had a SB. Pagan made a strong throw from CF to cut down Cespedes at the the plate.
Matt Cain- 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 2.10. Pretty standard start for Cain. Almost certainly would have been a QS had it been in season.
Bullpen- 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K's. Affeldt looked sharp(were you watching, Pato?). Romo abused Cespedes with a slider that broke at least a foot wide of the strike zone.
Brandon Crawford was a late scratch due to a mild sprain of the left thumb. He's expected to be ready on Opening Day.
Today is cut down day. It's looking more and more like Brandon Belt will be the starting 1B with Huff moving to LF, Cabrera to RF and Nate to the bench.
Yusmeiro Petit, who won't be on the active roster, will make the afternoon start at AT&T. Petit would seem to be first in line for a callup if the Giants need to replace a starter, at least until Surkamp is healthy.
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I wonder how much time Pagan will lose to Blanco in CF. I don't see his position as any more safe than Torres's in 2011.
ReplyDeleteIn any case a Blanco/Pagan and Schierholtz make a great group of late inning defensive replacements, pinch hitters and pinch runners.
I wonder how often you see a team trade for a guy and then another guy comes along to outplay the former so convincingly that they go with the latter?
ReplyDeleteI think Pagan will get reasonably long leash. He went through an unbelieveably cold stretch in spring training. Sometimes that turns around quickly once the season starts.
ReplyDeleteYaboy. Youth and offensive potential won the day.
ReplyDeleteI think the customer is right in this case and it looks like management agrees as well...
DeleteBelt
Sanchez
Blanco starting in CF. Wait, maybe not so fast...
Chris Stewart traded to Yankees. Righty reliever coming over (George Kontos)
ReplyDeletestewart....not nate? wow
Deletehector is gonna be backup then...which means monell will be starting catcher for fresno....
no way can they go with whitey
stewart as backup for the yanks is a smart move on their part...they need a guy who can help their staff
Kontos looks like a pretty good Pitcher to me. Big strong guy who fits the Giants mold. Pitched 6 innings for the Yankees last year without embarrassing himself. Had excellent K and BB numbers with AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre.
Deleteit was a solid trade. and a thank you to stew...they didnt send him to no man's land...hes a yank
Deletekontos is definitely the type of pitcher the giants like
Also, this should be his first full healthy season after recovering from his TJS in late 2009, what I recall is that it takes up to two years to fully recover from TJS and that would be late 2011, yet he had a pretty good 2011 season in AAA for the Yanks, though I suppose he could have recovered early. Still, this is his first full season out of the shadow of the TJS surgery.
DeleteI would have preferred holding onto Stewart and letting Sanchez try to show that he can be a starter in AAA. They say it was the offense, but it could also mean that they don't see him any more as a starter anymore, that this is as good as it gets. If so, then it makes sense to have him up here now and learning to be a backup, rather than a starter.
I love it Dr. B, calling me out regarding Affeldt!! I did watch him pitch and he was still a little wild but he definitely looked a little sharper last night, he seemed to have a little more nasty on his curveball. I know he struggles with control and if he hits his spots I have no doubt he can return to his 2009 form but without control and that extra mustard he put on his curve, he will get hit around.
ReplyDeleteI am so frickin excited about this 25 man roster I can hardly contain myself. I am warming up to Huff being an everyday guy, before I thought he woiuld just keep guys like Belt and Hector from getting their chances but looks like both will get their opportunities. I love Blanco as well and would like to see him leadoff and Pagan bat 2nd putting Melky in the 3 hole where I think he will be within the next 3-4 weeks anyway. The rest of the lineup shakes out nicely with a ton of speed at the top and good contact hitters behind them to drive them in.
I couldn't be happier that within the last 3 days my outlook on this team has gone from dismall with the potential of losing Cain to now ecstatic with the infusion of youth, speed, and just the right amount of veteran presence. No Stewie/Whiteside is huge and shows that management is thinking a little more outside the box then in previous years and really maximizing the offensive potential of this team.
It is pretty amazing how fast things can change. I was getting really down as well. Glad to see things shaping up. I am amazed at the faith they are placing in their system. Its just straight up exciting. Good ballclub taking shape. They'll get Freddy back or that's the odds on position to upgrade via trade.
DeleteGame plan of scout, draft and develop, coupled with smart reclamation projects, incremental trades and avoiding that mediocre middle market or for that matter the entire free agent market with the exception of one year prove it deals. That is what the Giants are set up to do well. Is it Friday yet?
I can't remember the last time they showed this much confidence in young players. Belt, Pill, Sanchez, Burris, and Crawford are all going to play large roles this season. Second base will be interesting, I don't have a ton of confidence in Burris or Theriot right now but that could turn around. Blanco may need to get a few starts every once in a while especially if Pagan is cold. There are multiple options at almost every position which should create some good competition this year. I couldn't be happier with this team going into the season.... maybe if Pujols were starting at 1B I could be a little happier.
DeleteOh ye of little faith! You guys listen to the naysayer crowd over on MCC and Fangraphs just a little too much.
DeleteAnd Lefty Malo too. That guy is a serious naysayer.
DeleteOl' Lefty surprises me sometimes though. He's not always naysaying. I've seen him defend Sabes from time to time and pretty strongly.
DeleteI was joking of course, Lefty treads a great line between rational and cynical and doesn't sweat the small details. My lunatic fringe tendencies came to the forefront because of Matt Cain. Now that he's signed, all I can say is the offseason was well played. On the long term planning front it was excellent. Sometimes its what you don't do more than what you do. Everything that has taken place tells me the Giants know what they're doing with their development. I'm not as sold on the RDF crew as you, but they did step up so they get their credit too.
DeleteI agree with Shankbone totally on Lefty, he does a great job of walking that fine line, plus a good dose of humor. Though this offseason I have found him leaning on the side of the Naysayers a bit more than usual. But overall, very good at presenting both sides of the story and being objective about the Giants and Sabean, just as DrB is pretty good about that as well.
DeleteAs far as showing faith in young players, I assume you mean position players, but they have shown faith before with their young rotations of the past 4-5 years plus Wilson as closer. The reason for the faith in young position players this season has less to do with vet love and more to do with better young prospects relative to other seasons.
And really, the Giants showed faith in young position players last year as well, they kept on bringing Belt back to see if he was ready to do it, and they did the same with Crawford as well. It was just that they didn't not just not perform, but they were total sinkholes in the lineup when in there, until late season.
For example, Crawford was hitting .161/.242/.196/.438 for 7 weeks before the Giants sent him down and acquired OCab. As badly as OCab hit for us, it was better than that .438 OPS. Moreover, Crawford, at the time was sinking, hitting only .138/.206/.138/.344 in the prior 4 weeks. And he was the starter for the most part during that time. Yet as badly as he did, they brought him back when they thought he was doing better (they don't just promote all guys they had up earlier in Sept), and he actually ended the year nicely: .256/.333/.419/.752 in Sept then had a nice AFL, rewarding the Giants faith enough that they made him the starting shortstop during the off-season.
Though, at some point, they had no money, really, to get a decent starting SS so you either go with a young guy with potential or some older guy who can't win a starting job elsewhere for $1M. May as well go with the former.