The Giants built an 8-1 lead then hung on to win the game 8-6 in another nice game for their young offense. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 1 for 4, BB. BA= .275. Blanco is hitting .323 over his last 10 games with 10 runs scored. All he has to do to be an asset is what he did in this game. Get on base twice and score a run out of every 5 PA's. So far, he's doing that and more since being installed as the starting leadoff hitter. When was the last time the Giants had a leadoff hitter like this? I'm thinking all the way back to Brett Butler or even Bill North.
Melky Cabrera- 2 for 4, BB, SB(6). BA= .331. One hit was a bunt and the other a seeing-eye ground ball, but hey, you need games like that too!
Angel Pagan- 1 for 2, 2B, 3 BB, SB(8). BA= .299. Pagan has now drawn 6 walks in his last 2 games to raise his once anemic OBP to a respectable .349. He's hitting .395 with an OBP of .500 over his last 10 games. The Giants as a team have drawn 18 walks in their last 2 games. We know Blanco, Crawford, Posey and Belt are all very patient hitters. Pagan has had respectable OBP's in the past. Are we seeing the Giants hitting philosophy evolve in front of our eyes, or is this just a random blip on the screen?
Brandon Belt- 1 for 2, BB, SF. BA= .264. Belt had 3 productive AB's, each producing an RBI. Seems like he may be locking down a full time starting gig. I'd say at last, but it really hasn't been that long.
Hector Sanchez- 2 for 3, SF. BA= .286. What a terrific game for The Zito Whisperer! I am as confident with Hector behind the plate and in the lineup as I am with Buster, and that's not a dis at Buster! Man, does Hector look like he's in charge out there or what?
Barry Zito- 5.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 3.00. Zito was pretty good for 5 innings. He left the game 2 outs short of a QS. Edlefsen allowing an inherited runner to score and more makes it look worse than it was. Not the best Zito, but far from the worst.
Steve Edlefsen- 0.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 0 K's. ERA= 4.70. A near disastrous appearance by Edlefsen. I'd say he got BABIP'd but those hits were all smoked.
Rest of the bullpen(Hensley, Affeldt, Romo, Casilla)- 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K's.
Jarrod Parker(A's)- 2 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 4 BB, 0 K's. ERA= 3.90. I guess the fact that his ERA was still below 4 after this one tells you something, but I have to say I was underwhelmed by what I saw from him last night. He's been a much touted prospect for a long time. He did get the FB up to 93, but mostly sat in the 89-92 range. He is supposed to have a great changeup to go with that, but it was not in evidence in this game. His control was off, but I thought he got squeezed by the ump several times. I think he can have a good MLB career, but not quite what I was anticipating in terms of stuff.
Just an observation, but 5 of the 7 members of the current A's bullpen are LHP's. I wouldn't put it past Billy Beane to do that just for the Giants.
The NL West leading Dodgers hung on to beat the Cards 6-5 so the Giants remain 6 games behind them in second place. The D'Backs kept pace with a 6-4 win over the Royals to remain in 3'rd place 8.5 games back. The Reeling Rockies got blanked by Kevin Millwood and the Mariners 4-0 in Coor's Field to fall 10.5 games out. Anybody still want Jim Tracy as manager of the Giants? The Pathetic Padres lost to the Angels 7-2 to fall 12.5 games back in last place.
Ryan Vogelsong takes on the Tyson Ross in an afternoon game today.
The Giants have signed Brad Penny to a minor league deal. Let's see, the last time Brad Penny was any good was......let's see here......when he pitched for the Giants in 2009!
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DrB - your Edlefsen ranking was spot on, eh? So Brad Penny takes on the long man spot in a week or two. Edlefsen can't stay on the roster, he usually doesn't throw strikes, and maybe last nights shellacking shows why.
ReplyDeleteTotally over Manny Burriss. There is no way he stays unless there is another injury. I can see them going with activating Theriot for the trip to Miami, sending Culberson back and bringing the O-dog. Baggs says its unlikely? Well, I'd put money on Culberson staying over Burriss when The Riot comes back on line, that's how bad Burriss has been. But then again, something the Giants see in him has them blind to all the awful results on the field.
Games like this are why they have Hector Sanchez instead of Whiteside. He got a little Pablo'd out on his last AB, swinging for the fences with greedy eyes. Great game for him anyway.
OH, and hello Barry Zito: “It’s good to just go out and fight, you know?”.
ReplyDeleteI'll never trust the guy, but I am enjoying the ride.
Nice win tonight.
ReplyDeleteEdlefsen/Otero seem cut from the same cloth - just not enough stuff against MLB hitters. Actually amazed how well the Giants bullpen has held up given hits to Beard/Affeldt/Mota/Runzler. Casilla is solid and now with Affeldt back and Romo being lights out this is one tough pen.
Two games with hitting? Seems like Blanco has helped establish the identity of the offense by getting on and scrapping for least one early run per game. The rest of the hitters seemed more relaxed knowing Blanco is setting the table. Sac flies are welcome.
Are we seeing Craw emerge in #2 spot? Belt getting on and with some RBI pop? Sanchez has been really solid.
Zito, just keep it up. Amazing watching him blow a 83MPH FB by a hitter.
Add Lopez to the pen arms after today ;-).
DeleteWhat a shocker, the Giants dive head first into the dumpster to find..... a Penny!! The fact that we all look at moves like this and say, yeah that makes sense is somewhat discouraging! It is kind of like a bag lady checking pay phones to see if someone forgot their change after a call and what do you know we found some.
ReplyDeleteShank, you must be glowing right now with Craw hitting 2 and actually putting good swings on the ball in a few at bats! I still think he lost his starting job when they started to platoon him with Arias before Panda got injured which prompted them to move Arias to 3rd. Just for the record, I haven't lost all hope in Craw I just don't think he should be counted on to be an everyday contributor for another 2 years.
One more thing I wanted to add about the Cuddyer argument that I didn't get a chance to respond to several posts ago (I don't check in for 3 days and it seems like a year ago when all the responses came in). OGC especially seems to have all the stats to back up why the move was a good move and they are mostly because of his defense. I have no problem admitting that guys like OGC, Shank, and Dr. B, and quite a few others actually are much smarter than me when it comes to digging up stats and putting together fact based arguments. I tend to go by what I see and fly by the hip but I don't think anyone can say that I don't also know what I am talking about so here are a few more things I wanted to point out.
Cuddyer's defense is not great at any position but balance his offensive potential out with his bad D and you still have a much better player then Burris, Culberson, Pill, Belt, Arias, or Craw. My biggest problem so far and for a while with the Giants (maybe over the last 10 years or since we had guys like Ellis Burks, JT Snow, and even Reggie Sanders) is that we cannot complete a middle of the lineup to save our lives! Cuddyer is a ligit 5th hitter, better than anything else we could possibly put out there which is a huge value that I think everyone is overlooking. His defense is bad yes but he could be holding down 2B or even 1B in many games which would enable the rest of the lineup to be much more balanced.
The other side of the coin with Cuddyers D is that none of the options we have right now are playing great D either so even though he may have cost the Rockies a game in the standings already with his sucky D, our guys have done at least that so not like he would be a downgrade from the garbage we have seen so far this year. Lastly, with this lineup and in this ballpark, a gap to gap hitter like Cuddyer has sooooooo much more value then to a loaded offensive team or even a team that plays in an offensive ballpark. If he is a 7 on a scale from 1-10 for other teams, he is at least an 8 for us because of our lack of offense, the huge hole he would fill in the middle of our lineup placing others in more comfortable positions in the lineup, and the fact that he would be perfect for this ballpark.
One of the reasons I have been arguing to trade Timmy is for the same reason but on the pitching side. I believe that Timmy has been a 9 on a scale of 1-10 but in our ballpark he ends up being a 10. Conversely, if we were to pick up someone like Vogelsong or Penny or someone else to have perceived less value by other teams, stick him in our ballpark and he goes from a 5 or 6 to a 7 or 8 simply because this ballpark turns decent/good pitchers into very good pitchers (just look at all the opponents that come in here and dominate! partly because our offense is trash but also because it is a good place to pitch). So it just makes sense to not tie up half the payroll in 3 starting pitchers when we could find a couple on the cheap and spend that money on some offense that we still need. That is why I refer to the Giants ownerships as Cheap, I know they spend money but they don't spend it to address all the needs and have overspent for sentimental reasons and because they are chasing a strategy that has only worked once in the last 5 years.
P-duk, okay I'll bite - You don't know what you are doing. But we love you man.
DeleteShank may have you eating Craw. And don't look now, but Craw is hitting second again.
Cuddyer ain't here, cold case.
Save the Timmy trade talk until he can pitch 6+ and win. Zito is more valuable right now.
Giants ain't cheap, A's are.
Pato - there are many different ways to present baseball arguments and I'm grateful for DrB's joint to allow that to happen. Hell, I think the occasional talk of the much maligned RBI is just fine, something that is mocked immediately and mercilessly by Saber guys. Defensive metrics are definitely grain of salt, even as they get refined. While I appreciate the immediate need for a #5 hitter such as Cuddyer, you also have to look at the long term aspect, he's got 3 10.5MM years on the book now. The Giants just don't have a good track record of success with these things. And Cuddyer hasn't earned that in WAR values except in 2006, 2007 and 2009.
DeleteAs far as Crawford, we'll enjoy a game sometime soon. I don't know how long he'll last in the 2 spot, and I don't expect him to tear it up by any means, but he should be better than he was in April on both sides of the ball. I don't agree with folks demanding immediate results, but its hard not to get impatient when the team struggles.
Oh, and look at me starting to hedge out of my bold Pagan predictions at the wrong time. He's at 371/443/435 for the month of May so far.
I'm sure the Gints will have a relapse in the next week just as we start to get excited. I think its important to remember how big a blow Sandoval is, and that the team is young and they'll be streaky and inconsistent, so very few big winning streaks.
I agree with you to an extent about the Gints owners being cheap. But I'm not sure the perfect opportunity to throw money muscle has presented itself yet either.
OK, I'll play by your rules. The whole basis of your argument is that we need a #5 hitter and Cuddyer is the guy. He's currently hitting .259/.315/.444/.760 while playing half his games in a great hitters park in Colorado. Our current #5 hitter, Pagan, has a higher SLG (.461), while also having a much better OBP.
DeleteThe reason, though, why our middle lineup hasn't been working, though? Sandoval is not in the lineup. If he were here, we most likely have someone among Cabrera, Posey, and Sandoval batting in the #5 spot. I would rather have any of them there than Cuddyer, especially once you consider his contract. I think we can sign Cabrera to a similar sized contract and he'll be much younger to boot. People just seem to forget how big a hit it is to lose Sandoval, it is like they don't appreciate what his bat does. Just like last season when we didn't have Posey.
About the pitchers, this just shows your ignorance. Vogelsong and Lincecum have both done well at home and on the road. And they throw quality starts too. You think you can just pick up a top line pitcher just like that from the scrap heap. If it were that easy, all the teams would be doing that each year and suddenly the league would be filled with Ryan Vogelsongs all over.
At least their strategy worked brilliantly in 2010, I'll take that. You claim power is the be all and end all, but last I seen, Billy Beane does not have a World Series Championship trophy but he sure does have them middle power hitters. He keeps on trading away the pitchers he needs to compete in the playoffs.
I think history will show the validity of the Giants strategy, I'm just sorry that people like you have not been able to enjoy the past 5 seasons as the Giants have built up one of the best pitching staffs around while building up their lineup as well. Your loss.
Edlefsen, Otero, Burriss, Theriot,Huff,Culberson,can you say,liability? Sanchez,Posey,Belt,Crawford,Pill, Pagan,Cabrera, Arias, Assets,albeit still not completely sold on Pill,Arias.Patience at plate seems to be paying off. G's can no longer afford to miss chances to gain on L.A.They must stay within 3 games to have any chance of reining in Dodgers in back to backs.G's paucity of jacks,if not addressed will prove to be their undoing. Always tough deciding which young guys will get better and which are in over their heads. Ian.
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