The Giants got a tenacious performance from Ryan Vogelsong and the offense came alive late in the game. Santiago Casilla held on, barely, to save it in the 9'th. Torture was alive and well out at the ballpark last night. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 3 for 4, HR(1). BA= .286. I believe Blanco's HR was the first of his MLB career and it was hit a long way fairly far back in the arcade in right-center, probably the toughest area to hit it out of AT&T Park. That blast broke through against Christian Friedrich and tied up a game it was starting to look like the Giants might lose 1-0. I was almost more impressed by the way Blanco started the winning rally in the 8'th. Leading off, he guided a perfectly placed ground ball to the left side, almost like he rolled it out there and beat it out. That skill will get him some base hits and a few extra times on base that other batters would not get.
Buster Posey- 2 for 4. BA= .289. Good to see Buster with a 2-hit game. The second hit was a very hard hit ground ball up the middle to drive in the go-ahead run with one out and runners on first and third. Had it not been hit so hard or right over the 2B bag, it could have turned into an inning ending DP.
Brett Pill- 2 for 4. BA= .255. The second hit drove in the insurance run that turned out to be needed. Pill is putting together consistently good games and can field 1B with the best of them. I would say Belt's playing time is shrinking in front of our eyes again. At least the FreeBelters can't say it's because Bochy has to play veterans.
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 3. BA= .212. Crawford seems more confident on the field and at the plate the last few games.
Ryan Vogelsong- 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 2.66. Vogelsong once again refused to lose. He was battling a small strike zone and at least a couple of the walks, to Troy Tulowitzki, may have been strategic, so I think the 5 BB's are a bit misleading. I'm sure we'll see another article about his inevitable regression on Fangraphs today written by somebody who didn't see the game.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, Save(8). ERA= 1.29. Casilla showed some grit out there getting out of a very tough situation not entirely of his making. Closers are going to have games like this and it's important for them to not fold when it happens. Good growing game for Casilla.
Christian Friedrich(Rockies)- 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 10 K's. ERA= 1.38. Sometimes it's hard to tell if a pitcher has good stuff against the Giants because, well, because almost every pitcher has good stuff against them! This was Friedrich's second MLB game. He comes with an excellent pedigree. His college scouting report had him with a plus-plus curveball. When you can put that with a FB that runs 91-94 MPH, you've got good stuff. Were it not for Gregor Blanco's timely dinger, he could have easily pitched a CG shutout, although I thought he was showing some signs of fatigue in the 6'th and 7'th innings.
With the Win, the Giants kept pace with the NL West leading Dodgers who got the best of the Kirk Gibson managed D'Backs 3-1. The Dodgers maintained their 6 game lead. The D'Backs dropped another game down to 9.5 games behind while the Reeling Rockies fell to 10.5 games behind. The Pathetic Padres lost again to the Washington Nationals 8-5 as Bryce Harper hit his first MLB HR and are now 12.5 games back in the cellar. The Giants also got their record back above .500 at 18-17. They stand 2 games behind the Mets in the race for the final playoff spot.
Tim Lincecum takes the mound tonight against Jeremy Guthrie.
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Belt should not be concerned with his playing time.
ReplyDeleteHe will play plenty against tough left-handers.
It took a little while but Blanco is a better choice to lead off, it would seem. At least so far so good.
Nice win. As soon as a runner reaches base, Casilla scares me. Good for him to knuckle down, that is a nice pitching performance.
ReplyDeleteKemp to the DL. This is a 2 week period where the Gints might be able to cut into this lead. It would be nice for the diamondbacks to show a sign of life and hey, how about a Big Time Timmy Jim sighting? I think we're due for that.
The Giants defense is getting better, and Arias redeemed himself well, good game for Crawford except for that Tulo play. If you're gonna hit in the Mendoza area, got to make the routine and the spectacular. Interesting Bochy subbed in Burriss for Culberson in the ninth. Some knuckleheads are upset Belt wasn't subbed for Pill. Hey knuckleheads, Pill was our top rated defensive 1B in the organization, BA last year. Belt might be marginally superior, but Pill is a good 1B. The Pill hatred is piss poor.
Bochy is just an odd duck. He has a habit of praising whoever had the great play in the game and then hastily talking about whoever is on the bench. So he promised that Nate would get plenty of time when asked about Blanco. Who should be leading off every day.
Personally I think Belt is far superior to Pill, but he has to show it when given opportunities. They both need to see more pitching. What is worse: watching a lunging Pill miss a slider out of the strike zone badly, or Belt miss on a ball in the strike zone? They both have bad swinging strike percentages, by the way, as do most the young Giant players. Growing pains.
pill busted his ass in the minors...and has seen a lot more pitches than belt. the only way one can start hitting mlb breaking stuff, is by facing it. there are times that belt looks clueless, and that has a lot to do with his lack of at bats
DeleteAnd that gets lost in the equation with the Belt love. He only has 1K professional PAs.
DeleteI don't think it should be a surprise nor a point of ridicule that Pill has trouble with major league sliders. He is who he is, and that can be a good thing. He does remind me a bit of Pedro Feliz, but you never know, there is always a chance he makes adjustments and lays off.
My take on Pill is a good role player. He brings fastball hitting for power with a knack for big hits so far, good D, can pinch hit and has RH/LH splits with Belt. It is fine seeing him in rotation with Belt at 1B, after all Bochy has to rotate someone, right?
DeleteJust don't go back to rotating Huff at 1B. Let Buster sit down for days off.
Blanco lead off is all to the Giants good. He and Melky just might force this team (and Bochy) to pay attention to gap hitting, speed and small ball to win close games. And when don't the Giants play close games.
Got to love 4 ERAs below 3.00. Please Timmy join the club today!
The problem is that even AAA slop is getting Belt out, his strikeout rate in AAA is horrendous for anyone we hope to be the big bat in the middle, as he was in AA and below. MLB breaking stuff just makes it even worse.
DeleteHmm, that's pretty good, yeah, Pill appears to be an across the diamond version of Feliz at 1B. With the major difference being that Pill had good zone coverage in the minors, his contact rate was good in the minors, boding well for the majors, given time. Feliz was always a free swinger in the minors, striking out a fair amount of the time at every level he was at. It was not until his later years that he was able to hit with less strikeouts, but either he got too old or his change to improve his strikezone coverage changed things, but his power disappeared along with his strikeouts.
I didn't get that Bochy promised Nate plenty of time, my understanding of that interview (and perhaps we read different reporter's versions) is that he promised that Nate would get another chance to start at some point, that he's not permanently 4th OF (yet), and that he'll get plenty of chances to play.
Blanco is nice, but his numbers vs. LHP is pretty sad, I wouldn't want that atop my order every 4-5 games (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=blancgr01&year=Career&t=b#plato::none) Plus, he has hit better with RISP than he has with the bases empty (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=blancgr01&year=Career&t=b#bases::none) And I'm not saying no, just noting that is something to watch for.
It could end up a platoon of Cabrera for all, for LHP, Schierholtz and Pagan, for RHP, Blanco and Huff. At least until it shakes out how bad/good Schierholtz and Huff is.
I think that few think that Pill is better than Belt. Pill is clearly better now, though by how much, not sure, but he's also older, and as noted, got a lot more AB's under his belt, so he is more advanced in terms of experience.
Odd duck, or showing the love for people he thinks needs it? Also, should he praise, say, Belt for striking out so many times in a game? I think he is feeding the media machine, they come to him wanting a quote and sound bites regarding the game, they are all hopped up about the Giants poor offense, so almost every question is regarding the offense. So he has two choices there: praise the good plays or come down on the bad ones. OK, three, he could spin the bad ones.
But if he praises only the good plays, then the ones sitting on the bench might lose hope that he'll ever play again, especially given that the media paints him as one who goes with the hot bat. I think the situation dictates how Bochy handles the situation, he wasn't always so praisey over the bench players, but whereas he made it clear who the starters were in prior seasons, he's making the point, it seems, that it takes a team to win, that he needs everyone, together, because together they're Giants. :^)
Pill has 85% contact rate, and very very consistent ratios. His minor league stats are a model of showing up to work. BB/K ratio is about .50. His walks should fill in, that is one thing that I misjudged, he actually has shown some BB ability, I hadn't realized that.
DeleteFrankly, I don't know what I think about Bochy anymore. He can handle a pitching staff pretty well. He is in love with platoon splits, and possibly in love with small successes. The mix and match lineups every night take their toll. Sure there is some justification, but the manic constant switching is unsettling for some players I'm sure. I would like him to tone that down. As far as his praising players, I think he wants to make sure everybody is included. Does that make him an odd duck? I don't know, maybe I was off the cuff a bit. He's an old timey baseball guy who really doesn't want to deal with some of the noise, that's my conclusion. Sometimes with wins, some problems get glossed under the table.
DeleteI don't view him as being in love with platoon splits. There was plenty of opportunities in prior seasons when i would have been platooning, but he didn't (like Ishikawa/Garko, Ross/Rowand, Roberts should have been platooned, I'm sure others but have to think hard on).
Deletethe problem, as I see it, and I think you do too, is that when you have a team of young players and none of them are grabbing hold of a starting position, you find ways to give them all opportunities to show off what they can do. In the case of Pill/Belt, Pill's good power hitting so far, helping us win a bunch of games vs. LHP, means you got to find him ABs, and his play in LF basically pushes him to 1B. Blanco's emergence is putting the seal on that one. Platooning is the easy and obvious way of doing that, until Belt figures things out.
Burriss/Theriot/Arias again was just a way of splitting up the AB's because Burriss and Theriott both were terrible. Hopefully Theriot heals and do hit well.
I would also note that most young left-handed hitters are typically horrible vs. LHP, except for the very good. They usually kill, relatively, RHP. That also screams for platooning, and of course, the Giants have a lot of young left-handed prospects.
not sure if you saw the news but kemp is out with an actual hammy injury...the time to strike is now
ReplyDeleteits pretty cool that the giants 4-5 guys have something to prove...
i have accepted the fact that nate probably wont be with the org past the deadline...i just hope that sabean trades him to a good org, he has done nothing to deserve the drrty treatment
i believe it was blanco's 3rd career homer
let belt and pill battle...its healthy
finally....freddy aint coming back...just had an mri on his back. his body is failing him
this is kinda why i think nate is gonna end up as bait...package nate with a couple of arms for a 2nd baseman, if there are any to be had...unless culberson really steps up
Yeah, it was Blanco's third career homer, first with the Giants, first for the year.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean? The FreeBelters will spin it and declare Pill a veteran because he's played so many years in the minors, he's a minor league veteran!
What a gutty performance from Vogelsong. Even the best pitchers can't throw a gem in every outing, the key is to limit the damage when you are not at your best (or at a disadvantage, in the case of the funky strike zone). He's just impressing me more and more.
That's why I love VSG. Doesn't have the best stuff. He sticks out there and battles, makes it work.
DeleteHey OGC, here's a thought on Zito. I agree completely with you that the bandwagon should be avoided. In fact, forever. He should always be viewed with mild distrust, at best. However, this is sort of interesting:
http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfx.aspx?playerid=944&position=P
Don't know if the link will take you straight to the PitchFX, but I notice he is throwing his slider a bunch more. And the fastball as the payoff pitch, only 11% of the time. Personally, I think standing taller works better for him. The crouch thing hasn't worked so well. He is pitching backwards, and hopefully toughening up finally.
Not sure if House is the answer. To me, Raggs is the best coach there is, with the proven track record. Don't listen to him? Ship him, like Johnny Sanchez found out. Raggs is one of the jewels of the Giants organization in my opinion. So Dave Cameron and I sort of agree on something, even if we express it differently.
yes, the link works. He is using the slider a bunch more, and probably this is what you mean, he barely used it his first two seasons with us, in 2007 and 2008, when he wasn't really that good for us, but since he started using the slider more, in 2009, his stats have been much better for the Zeets. Excellent observation!
DeleteThat would explain how he's able to be competitive even though his fastball velocity has fallen precipitously last season.
Moreover, his usage of his regular fastball has dwindled to almost nothing, just 11% FA%, but his usage of the Two-seam fastball has jumped up high the past three seasons, and his use of the cutter fastball has risen greatly as well.
His signature curveball is on the low end of usage for his time with the Giants. Changeup usages has fallen, though not as much as that for the fastball.
House maybe isn't the answer. Then again, while I agree that Raggs is probably the best coach out there, that does not mean that he knows everything.
I think the key to Zito is the bits of info out this season. Most important is the bit in the Chron where someone noted that Zito has pinpoint control when throwing bullpens but then it disappears in the game. That totally screams to me that he's overthinking things out on the mound, that he starts aiming pitches and makes it impossible for him to throw with precision all the time. That great article by Malcolm Gladwell on Choking explains the physiology and psychology pretty well, I think, and my experience with that helps makes this case for me. I don't know if Raggs can help with that.
Personally, I see Raggs as a tough love type of guy. Posey too. I don't think Zito can handle tough love. I think that is where Hector Sanchez comes in. He's in awe of Zito. Maybe thinks Zito can't do wrong or at minimum is a very good pitcher. I think that kind of support is what helps Zito be more consistent, getting that regular love from his catcher, and trust. Hence why Zito raved about Hector last season while I don't recall a peep out of him about Posey.
I don't know about the marriage angle helping him, at least in the diamond. For some people, that could up the pressure. For others, the comfort can relax them, lead them to see the bigger picture, help them see it more as a game. Not sure how to see that with Zito.
He might also finally be putting that huge contract behind him, allowing him to be more himself and less of a thinker on the mound.
I agree that Raggs is one of the jewels. That is why he has survived three different managers here, so far, though I can see Bochy/Raggs being a pair for the rest of their careers, here with the Giants. I don't see Bochy moving on, and I don't see Sabean giving up on him, particularly if the Giants turn out the way I've been envisioning for them, the Team of the 2010 Decade.
Great callout on the Gladwell article on choking. I heard him talking about it on NPR a little while ago.
DeleteLove the crowd here, where Malcolm Gladwell gets referenced. Definitely not your typical sports hounds.