An anticipated pitching duel between Matt Cain and Cole Hamels turned into a slugfest with each team hitting 3 dingers including 1 each by the starting pitchers. Amazingly, the Giants came out of it with the win assuring themselves a win in the series and a winning record on the road trip. Key Lines:
Melky Cabrera- 2 for 3, HR(10), 2 BB. BA= .357. We are getting close to the 2/3 point of the season and Melky is still just killing it! Game after game! He even drew a couple of walks in this one.
Buster Posey- 4 for 5, 2B, HR(12). BA= .314. Speaking of killing it. Buster has been on a tear since the All-Star break failing to get a hit in just one(last night), with 4 games out of 8 with 3 or more hits. .472 BA over that span.
Brandon Belt- 0 for 5. BA= .237. Belt hit in the 8 hole today and left 7 runners on base. Not sure that hitting a guy with no confidence 8'th is the answer to anything.
Matt Cain- 1 for 3, HR(1). BA- .156. Cain joins Madison Bumgarner pitcher HR bragging rights. I could have sworn Cainer had already hit one this year.
Matt Cain- 8 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 2.74. Kind of an ugly line for Cain. Not like him to give up 3 dingers in a game. On the other hand, he kept his pitch count down and stayed in the game for 8 innings giving the bullpen a chance to win it.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, Save(24). ERA= 3.25. Very encouraging that Casilla was able to get a Save with just a 1 run lead in a hitter's ballpark.
The Dodgers won their game over the Mets 8-5 to stay 2.5 games behind the NL West leading Giants. D'Backs play the 'Stros later tonight.
Barry Zito goes for the sweeeeeep tomorrow afternoon facing Jumbo Joe Blanton.
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bad report from fresno, chris put on dl today...no move
ReplyDeletemeans that pagan is going through a terrible slump...and way to take it out on the ump (although that pitch was low)
belt looks like crap....terrible body language
sorry to all the belt fanatics...but cant go into the stretch run with him at first...and no way to hide that bat
hate that band box park
week to go before deadline...i wonder what sabey sabes is gonna do
other note...a's win tonite, they are in a tie for the second wc....always good to have both bay area teams in contention
For a while there it looked like Belt had slain the demons,but his continual inability to hit with men on is really beginning to kill rallies and hurt the club.They won despite him today but is it time to move him? G's whiff too often with none out men on 3rd. Less whiffs, more jacks and G's will be hard to beat. Ian, Victoria, B.C.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Just when we thought Belt would get hot when he hit those 4 dingers, he goes back to his old self. I wish Brett Pill could have turned out to be a Mark Trumbo-esque player. Given their similarities like their age, both right handed power bats that ply first base, and they both spent A LOT of time in each respective farm systems before they made it to the show. Except Pill became a pinch hitter bench bat, while Trumbo became a very dangerous middle of the order hitter.
DeleteIan, I notice you have a fondness for the long ball. I think home runs definitely make the game a lot more exciting and gives the team and fans something to rave about, but hitting a ton of home runs isn't the only way to win games. As long as you get men on base and could drive them home with a ball in the gap, and keep the line moving, it's just as good. Look at the Cardinals game today. They pushed 12 runs across the board in one inning without hitting a home run. They just strung a number of hits together and hit balls into the gaps.
Yep on Belt. I wanted him to get a real shot, and he has had it. He does not deal with failure well. He's gotta get more comfortable with himself. Until he becomes self-possessed, he is hurting the Giants.
DeleteGive Belt until Hector returns. (He is returning, yes?) If Belt doesn't straighten it out by then, send him down. Buster becomes the 1st baseman. Hector catches. Pablo backs up at 1st. Arias backs up at 3rd. I'd rather have Whiteside on this squad than Belt how he is now. Work it out Belt...
This game felt like everything had to even out - just glad the Giants came out on top. Guess Blanco had to miss and make a sac bunt too.
ReplyDeleteIan - Giants torture involves scoring just enough - so hope you enjoyed the power show today.
I think the Giants, especially Posey, really enjoy hitting in the band boxes - they can get their HR knocks in.
Love humbling the Phillies. They still feel like they are superior to the Giants and entitled to beat us. Lucky the Giants pitchers don't feel that way.
Sweep tomorrow? Get 'em Zits.
Anybody notice how crappy Charlie Manuel's managing is? Boch is dancing circles around him again. I know there's a lot of Giants fans out there who think almost anybody would be a better manager than Bochy. Well, think again. We could be blessed with Charlie Manuel!
DeleteYeah and did you catch his postgame interview. "Well shucks Hamels sure was good, but gosh darn we lost." I have a hard time seeing how the fans who booed Santa Claus can stomach Manuel.
DeleteAlso loved this comment from Grant over at MCC, "MATT CAIN joins pizza, sex, and Star Trek on the list of "Things That Even When They're Bad They're Still Pretty Good"
Mike J. 12 runs in one inning including 7 doubles.No homers,now that IS an aberration.Atlanta wins after being down by 9,another aberration. Cain and Hamels going yard in the same inning.All on one weekend.Just when you think you've seen it all.In closing,safe to say that Buster's recovered from his leg injury. Ian,Victoria, B.C.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness, Ian, you haven't been at all shy about cherry picking isolated situations to support your point about HR's either.
DeleteI continue to support Belt, but with the caveat that he probably needs to go back down to AAA to get things figured out. He doesn't have the same swing mechanics he had last year.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think Belt was harmed by last year's yo-yo-ing. He should have started the year in AAA. Around the time of his hot streak, a lot of media focused on how he had gone back to his mechanics from 2010-2011. I don't know why he changed, but he did. And, it seems he is still trying to get his swing back. Just watch any of the highlights from last year--the guy could really turn on inside pitches and was driving the ball. Once (if) he gets back to that point, he'll be the contributor the Giants need.
Also, Fresno's manager is the one who created his successful mechanics. Maybe he might notice something.
DeleteThe "Beltists" tend to engage revisionist history when they complain about Belt's supposed "mismanagement" by the Giants.
DeleteBelt came out of college with an inside-out/opposite field/line drive approach. The Giants worked with him in Fall Instructional League to open up his stance and give him a slight uppercut to his swing. The following season(2010) he destroyed the Cal League and did well at higher levels too. Everybody assumed he would be assigned to Fresno in 2011 with a possible call-up no earlier than mid-season. He made the MLB squad out of spring training when Cody Ross pulled a hammy at the end of spring training.
Belt never got untracked at the beginning of last year and was eventually sent down to Fresno to get things sorted out. He was brought back about a month later and had a few good games when he broke his wrist which sidelined him for another month or so. He rehabbed in Fresno and was called back up in August and ended up with a very encouraging September.
We all know the story of this season, so I won't recount that. For some reason, Belt seems to have a strong instinct to go back to his college approach at the plate which robs him of his power and leaves him with enormous holes in his swing. His problem isn't just swing mechanics though. He lets way too many hittable pitches go by yet swings at pitches he has no chance of hitting. When he does get pitches on the outer half of the plate, he is late and just fouls them off. At this point, he appears to be afraid to swing at all. He draws a lot of walks by not swinging, but that is not a good thing in his situation.
Belt has not been yo-yo'd any more than most prospects in similar situations. There is simply no contending team that is going to put up with his lack of production for a prolonged period to see if he can work it out. He did suffer an injury at a critical point in his development that the "Beltists" seem to conveniently forget.
At this point, Belt needs to get back to the stance and swing mechanics that he was taught in the 2009 Fall Instructional League and that were successful for him in the minors in 2010. In addition, IMO, he needs to shorten his swing and give himself more room on the inner half of the plate. He could accomplish both by choking up on the bat like Barry Bonds and Hunter Pence. Another possible approach would be to back off the plate like we saw Jason Heyward, who has gone through similar struggles, do in Atlanta.
At this point, it's probably best for him to work on these things in Fresno for the month of August and then maybe come back up in September and see how it works at the MLB level again.
Maybe Belt is a bust. Not all players who bat great in the minors or are top prospects are going to be successful in the bigs or even make it. Why do you so many Giants fans have to think that every farm player has to be good and if not is because he was mishandled by the manager, organisation or even batting coach. Still to this day, a lot fans keep believing and putting up excuses for Schierholtz failure to be anything than a mere fringe player. Still dont get what they see in these players.
DeleteI'm not ready to write Belt off as a bust just yet, but I do think us Giants fans need to face a possible reality that his 2010 season was a aberration and everything he did prior to that and after that is closer to his norm.
DeleteAnonymous,
DeleteI think people lose sight of the fact how highly regarded Belt was coming into 2011. Many scouts who saw him said he was ready to make a Posey-esque impact. Shierholtz was never highly regarded. His ceiling was always a serviceable OF, but not a star or even a major offensive contributor.
People keep comparing Belt to Bowker, Ishikawa, Ortmeier, etc., but that is a bad comparison. None of those guys were/are as highly regarded as Belt was/is.
But, with all that said, it doesn't change the fact that Belt might end up being a bust. It also means he might be one of those highly regarded players who puts it together somewhere else ala Carlos Pena, Carlos Gonzalez, or our own Melky Cabrera.
The real problem is that Giants fans were spoiled by the fact that Sandoval and Posey arrives seemingly fully developed. Expectations for Belt have thereby increased.
DrB,
DeleteI do think the Giants mismanaged him last year and that is has played a role in his struggles. He was brought up too soon and was played infrequently. When he did play, he had trouble with breaking balls, which in turn led to a lot of discussion about him needing to make adjustments to handle breaking balls. I think this in turn led him to make changes to his swing sometime during the offseason, which may have allowed him to better handle breaking balls, but had a negative effect as well.
I agree that nobody can say, "Its all managements fault!" But, I do think the mismanagement (even if slight) contributed to his changes.
I agree that he needs to get his swing fixed and I agree that it needs to happen down in AAA. The guy spent the entire offseason of 2009 perfecting the swing he developed in the instructional league. He spent all this offseason screwing with hit. It may take another offseason (hopefully) to get it back.
Belt is not a bust. He is Avery promising prospect that many Giants fans took as a fait accompli, when most prospects suffer through some period of adjustment, development, and improvement. He made some true progress this season but has fallen back to bad habits. Two steps forward, sometimes is followed by two steps back.
DeleteI still would have preferred that he started out in AAA and solve his issues with AAA pitchers. Now I think that Bochy has a nice platoon sort of, with him giving both Hanchez and Belt good amount of playing time. And I am still willing to give Huff one last try to make good for us this season.
I think it is clear now that Belt is more like Matt Williams who took a number of years to figure it out. I am willing to be patient with him, unlike other failed position prospects we have had, he is different, which few complainers have noticed, treating him like others. He is also no Posey or Sandoval, but that is OK, few are.
TK,
DeleteI guess you and I will have to disagree about Belt's so-called mismanagement. I see it as Belt failing to take advantage of multiple fair opportunities.
Demoting Belt makes sense for 2 reasons. He can't hurt the Giants playing in Fresno where he can get the coaching he needs.Trading him could be risky given his"potential" long ball power. If he gets it together with another big league team,he could come back & haunt them,not to mention the 2nd guessing.Ian,Vic.B.C.
ReplyDeleteAgreed too early to give up on Belt entirely. He does have a tremendous power potential if it can be harnessed.
DeleteSandoval has really cooled off. Maybe time to give him a rest and insert Burriss who while not the hitter panda is, is much more fleet of foot. Ian, Victoria, B.C.
ReplyDeleteSandoval may need a day off, but he's worked his way out of these by playing through it in the past. I wouldn't sit him for more than 1 game.
DeleteOh my gosh--you cannot be serious about Burris. Have you SEEN his numbers? People complain about Belt, but compared to Burris, Belt is Babe Ruth. If Panda is rested, the only logical (though not great) solution is Arias at 3B.
DeleteBurris shouldn't even be on a major league roster.
Alright Ian, settle down with the trolling. Manny Burriss will most likely get the ax in a couple weeks, although the guy has mad roster survival skills. If there is one easy criticism of the BrainTrust on roster construction, it was giving Manny B another shot based on his hot spring training over the veteran dependability of Mike Fontenot.
DeleteHere's the main reason I'm enamored with the home run.Given that the Giants have a proclivity for leaving runners on 2nd and 3rd with alarming regularity,I have yet to see a batter stranded after going yard. The Giants penchant for stranding r.i.s.p.is concerning.Had they not blown so many chances to score, there is no doubt in my mind they would have a much better record.I know this applies to all teams but the G's are the biggest culprits. Ian, Victoria, B.C.
ReplyDeleteNobody here is arguing with you about HR's being a great way to score runs. The problem is where are you going to find said HR hitters and how much are you willing to pay in terms of players traded or money paid out in free agency. A corollary to that is the characteristics of the ballparks the Giants play in and whether FA HR hitters are even willing to come to SF. Rowand was a HR hitter....in Philadelphia! The problem with Rowand in SF was that the HR power was his only offensive weapon and when that was suppressed in SF, everything else collapsed with it. So, yeah, HR hitters are great, but you have to be real careful about which ones you acquire to play in places like AT&T, Petco, Dodger Stadium and Oakland which is where the Giants play 102 of their games every year. The money may be better spent on guys who hit the ball gap-to-gap and can run a little, like Melky Cabrera. Who would you rather have on the Giants, a guy like Aaron Rowand or one like Melky Cabrera?
DeleteNate the Great is hot! Hot under the collar at being called a 4th OF, must hit dingerz!
ReplyDeleteForget showcasing him, just let him ride. Love the hot Schierholtz streak!