Matt Cain pitched a solid game and helped himself with the bat. The rest of the Giants offense showed some life too. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 0 for 4, BB, SB(3). BA= .234. Blanco used his speed to score 2 runs even though he did not get a hit in the game. His OBP on the season is .357. He needs to be the leadoff hitter, period!
Brandon Belt- 1 for 5, 3B. BA= .246. Blanco reached 3B on a blown pickoff attempt after drawing a leadoff walk in the first. Belt drove him in with a groundball to the right side. Belt later scored on Melky's double after hitting a triple to CF. I didn't see it, so I'm not sure how well it was hit.
Melky Cabrera- 3 for 5, 2 2B. BA= .331. NOW we're getting into unsustainable territory with Melky! Holy moly! Is he hot or what?
Angel Pagan- 3 for 3, 2B, 2 BB, SB(6). BA= .273. So Pagan moves down in the order and THEN gets on base 5 times! This ought to improve that .278 OBP.
Matt Cain- 2 for 3, 2B. BA= .235. Cainer's double drove in 2 runs. With a .235 BA, the Giants might have to consider using Cain as a DH in interleague play! Wouldn't shock me at all against LHP's. LOL!
Matt Cain- 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 2.28. Cain raised his K/9 to 8.42 against a BB/9 of 1.58. His HR/FB is 7.9% which is slightly above his career average, but still significantly below league averages. His BABIP is an insanely low .183. Unsustainable? His ERA's have been trending down his entire career as has his BB/9. It does look to me like Cainer has taken it to a new level.
The Win allowed the Giants to keep pace with the NL West leading Dodgers who edged the Rockies 2-1 to stay 6 games up on the second place Giants. With the loss, the Kirk Gibson managed D'Backs dropped to 7.5 games back in 3'rd place while the Rockies dropped to 8.5 games behind. The Pesky Padres edged the Phillies and Roy Halladay 2-1 to remain 10.5 games back in last place.
Barry Zito tries to bring the Giants home with a split of the 6 game road trip tomorrow afternoon facing a guy who is always tough on the Giants, Joe Saunders. BTW, is there any pitcher out there who is not always tough on the Giants?
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Belts triple was killed would have been a HR in many parks. BTW I haven't heard anything about Tommy Joseph this year. What level is he at? How is he doing?
ReplyDeleteTommy Joseph is the starting catcher and holding his own at AA Richmond this year.
DeleteSince Arizona is one of the best hitter's parks in the majors, it's tough to say it would have been out of other ballparks, but I'm glad to hear it was hit hard.
DeleteBefore my analysis. What would we be blogging if the D'Backs won on a walk off jack?Depends how they lost. Now, let's talk about how they won. This game put things into sharper focus for me.Easily G's two best active hitters are Melky & Angel, the latter's b.a. is climbing the way Buster's is plummeting.In fact, until Belt's triple,the only G's hits were by Cabrera, Pagan and Cain,G's best hitting hurler.How long can G's go with Crawford. I may be too critical of Craw & the rest of the young guys. I often think of them as AAA players at best.I'm 70 but didn't have it together when I was their age also. I may be too hard on Buster. He's slow of foot,mediocre glove & has seen his average plummet from.382-.282.But the kid's been through hell,I'll give him another year to see if he's the real deal. Ian, Victoria.
ReplyDeleteI think Buster is just in a slump. He got his bell rung in last Sunday's game, so that could be a factor. He hit some balls hard in LA that I though would have been out of some ballparks. Stamina has been a issue for Buster going all the way back to the AFL after his September callup in 2009. I wouldn't be shocked if it's an issue coming off an injury year. Thank God the Giants have Hector to take some extra time behind the plate. I'm not sure playing 1B is all that restful for Buster though. The Giants have very high defensive expectations for 1B. It's a bit of a dilemma. You need Buster's bat in the lineup, but if you make him play every day, you kind of lose the bat anyway.
DeleteBelt is the one guy who I think has the potential to break out as a middle of the order bat. At this point, it's tough to see what the G's have to lose by putting him out there and seeing if he can make it click.
Agreed that Buster's combination of slowness afoot and tendency to hit the ball on the ground is worrisome long term.
DeleteMatt Cain does it all. The takeout slide sounded impressive, I'm hoping to get a look at that. This is the leadership I was talking about the other day. Cain definitely does it by example.
ReplyDeleteI hope to see Belt in the 2 spot and at 1B again and Posey on the bench. Bochy at some point has to realize his whole "get em going" act of musical chair lineups is hurting more than helping.
Joe Saunders is serious kryptonite to the Giants. They always seem to play up to good pitching and play down to poor to average (and the rookies - teams should always line up rookies to face the Giants). Here's hoping our lefty can keep it going and steal a win.
DrB - one thing I was thinking about because of your dead pull hitter discussion is how the D-backs use their stadium. They take dead aim at LF and avoid the big CF. When I get a sec I'm going to pull up ESPN HR hit charts and take a gander, I bet the vast majority of AZ HRs in their park are LF pull jobbies.
Happy mothers day to all the moms. I used to think this was a cheesy hallmark holiday. Then I had kids. Moms deserve some special recognition big time.
It IS a cheesy hallmark holiday, but yes, moms do deserve the recognition.
DeleteBashing on Buster. Really!?
ReplyDeletePosey leads us to the WS promised land as a rook. Cool, composed, leads the pitching staff, great arm, solid defense and #4 hitter with developing power. Viewed as the next Johnny Bench. Sustains a career threatening in jury, that by all medical accounts takes 1.5 - 2 years to really recover from. Or have you guys forgotten this?
NOW:
Buster is slow footed - of course, in 2012 he is recovering from a major ankle/leg injury. See Molina for foot speed.
Buster has no power - power is generated from the legs. Of course, in 2012 he is recovering from a major ankle/leg injury.
Buster hits the ball on the ground - see above.
Buster lacks stamina - of course, in 2012 he is recovering from a major ankle/leg injury.
Buster is lost in the #4 spot - Do the Giants have a choice, Panda out. Of course, in 2012 he is recovering from a major ankle/leg injury.
Buster can't throw out runners - Of course, in 2012 he is recovering from a major ankle/leg injury.
Just WoW!
Frankly, we are lucky Buster even is playing baseball right now (see Sanchez, Freddie). The fact that Buster busted his ass to get back on the field and is in 4 of 5 games is AMAZING. If you could see the ice bags, psychical therapy and pain that Buster is dealing with to recover on a daily basis, you would retire to the couch right now.
So whine about Sabes, Bochy, Belt/Pill, Huff, etc. But ragging on Buster, that is just plain ignorant. Note feel free to rag on Buster in 2013 when he has his health back.
MS,
DeleteNobody is "ragging" on Buster or "bashing" on Buster. Many of those concerns predate the injury and are legitimate concerns. Also, the injury is a reality that potentially impacts his performance, now and in the future.
Buster appears to have a very slow bat right now. Is he just in a slump or is the long timing mechanism that Vin Scully pointed out need to be looked at? Is stamina a factor? Should he be sitting more to preserve the bat as opposed to "keeping his bat in the lineup?Is his tendency to put the ball on the ground going to limit his power potential and take away the option of moving to 1B? Does he have more trouble with foul tips than other catchers? All of those are concerns that pre-date the ankle injury. I think we are all thankful Buster is back and appears to be in as good a health as he is. Are we expecting too much? Probably, but I think most of the comments here are directed more at concerns about how best to keep him healthy and effective as a player rather than "ragging" or "bashing."
And another promising young catcher goes down with a serious injury. Wilson Ramos has a ACL tear in his knee after a suddenly stopping to field a passed ball and his knee went out from under him. Thankfully it was not due to a collision and could have happened if he was playing any other position on the field.
ReplyDeleteAnyone see Baron Davis's knees go out on him driving to the basket? Man, that was cringel-worthy to see!
DeleteBelts triple was off of a 2-0 cookie right down the middle but I give him credit, those are the types of pitches he needs to take advantage of as he won't see many of them. Belt still worries me as his other at bats he flailed at pitches on the outside of the plate, low in the zone, and he still doesn't do well with pitches on his hands. The RBI groundout in the 1st was a weak grounder so even that wasn't very impressive. One thing I also noticed on the triple was he had the same aggressiveness that he had 2 weeks ago when he got the game winning hit on a line drive to left center. If he can go up to the plate pissed off instead of passive I think he will be much better off.
ReplyDeleteBuster is tired and he needs a break. 1B isn't a day off even if it is easier on him then catching, he still has to go out there and make plays and right now the kid just needs a rest. My guess is he will DH in the Oakland series every game to help rest him a little more. The ground balls are a concern though but I agree with MS, if anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt it is Buster.
Blanco is not perfect but he is by far our best option at leadoff. He isn't afraid to get behind in the count to see more pitches and if he gets on base with less then 2 outs it is probably 50-50 that he scores. We need runs and I don't care how we get them. If he bats .200 over the course of the year but scores 90 runs then he is getting the job done. The 2 most important stats for him should be OBP and Runs and anything else he can do is icing on the cake.
Pagan is a dangerous hitter and adds more value to this team in the 5 hole right now and possibly 6 hole when Panda comes back if they decide to keep Melky at 3, Panda at 4, and Posey at 5 which I think is a solid strategy all things considered. The bottom of the lineup will continue to be an issue as we have the weakest middle infield in the majors. I don't have any good answers but would consider everything at this point. With the Phillies looking at going into seller mode would it make sense to trade for Rollins even though he isn't having a great year either right now? Are there other younger players that aren't getting chances to play like Edwardo Nunez or Michael Martinez they can target? Ben Zobrist has started off cold in terms of average but his peripherals are still better then anything we have at MI right now and TB is always looking to flip players before they get too expensive. I know middle infield is extremely difficult to find but they need to start looking.
Don't look now but Culberson just got called up.
ReplyDeleteWho is going down to make room for Culby? Gillaspie? It seems Gillaspie has become a non-entity at this point, so he would be the logical sendout.
Deletegillespie and Blackley are down, affeldt and culberson up
ReplyDeleteHo ho ho! Well now, let's see how Charlie can hack it. And hack it he will. Might have some success early, but I expect some brutal adjustments.
ReplyDeleteFrom Baggs: Bochy on infield with Pill, Culberson, Crawford, Arias and Hector Sanchez: "I love young players! Gotta change that stigma." That has me laughing as well.
Hey Pato, Pagan has traditionally had great May/June #s followed by some fade. Hope he can keep us floating. 82 OPS+ April, 124 OPS+ May, 114 OPS+ June, 102 OPS+ July, 100 OPS+ Aug, 89 OPS+ Sept. Want the bad news? Least # games played May/June. Possible silver lining? More HRs later in the season, and his BA has suffered. Maybe he gets swing happy. Who knows. Stats should be a guide not a religion.
Monterey Shark - well said on Buster.