The Giants put together a sustained offensive attack in a big inning while Barry Zito bent but didn't break. The bullpen was mostly lights out and it was just enough to steal a very tough win on the road. Key Lines:
Justin Christian- 1 for 2, 2 BB. BA=.333. How long have I been saying Justin Christian could help a MLB team. Well, he's helping the Giants right now. 6 times on base and 4 runs scored in the last 2 games. Just glad it's the Giants he's helping.
Ryan Theriot- 1 for 2, 2B, SF. BA= .276. The OBP may be ugly but Freddy Sanchez was never exactly a greek god of walks either. Theriot is doing a very reasonable impression of what Freddy Sanchez would bring to the Giants as a starting 2B if he was healthy.
Melky Cabrera- 2 for 4, HR(8). BA= .358. Melky has a double and HR in his last 2 games so I'll stop ragging on him for hitting singles for awhile.
Hector Sanchez- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .263. Two comments about the Hector: 1. He has a short quick swing that should stand him in good stead over time. 2. I wonder what he could be if he did a Camp Panda down in AZ this winter?
The Brandons- Defensive replacements might have saved this game as both Brandon's made plays that might not have been made by the guys they replaced. In Belt's case, there is a high likelihood that Buster would not have made the play simple due to the height difference.
Barry Zito- 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 BB,3 K's ERA= 4.01. There were any number of times Zito could have succumbed to a huge inning, but he hung tough and kept the game within hailing distance.
Brad Penny- 2 IP, 1 H 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. How huge was Penny's two innings in a game where the closer was not available? I have a feeling Penny is going to play a huge role down the stretch in one way or another.
George Kontos- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.50. Speaking of huge roles.... What a godsend Kontos has been! Very nice return on the trade for CStew.
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 0 H 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(5). ERA= 0.72. Casilla reportedly has a blister, maybe from throwing too many breaking balls to Ty Moore last night, but I'm guessing I wasn't the only one who was relieved to see Romo warming up for the 9'th in this one.
Andrew McCutchen(Pirates)- 3 for 5, 3B. BA= .360. I paid $30 for 'Cutch in my fantasy draft. He's been a 5 category stud for me all season. Right now he's leading Melky by a hair for the batting title, but trailing in Hits. Us Giants fans can dream of Gustavo Cabrera one day turning into a player like Andrew McCutchen.
Giants trail the Dodgers by 1 game in the NL West pending the outcome of the Dodgers-D'Backs game. D'Backs currently lead 4-2 in the 6'th inning of a game Clayton Kershaw started.
Ryan Vogelsong takes the mound in a late afternoon game tomorrow facing James McDonald
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To be fair to The Riot, since he healed himself and returned to the team on May 25th, he has hit .313/.351/.368/.719, which is an excellent OBP atop any lineup. It would be nice if he could muscle up a little power too, but his high batting average works too.
ReplyDeleteI was sad about CStew, because I thought that he would work out in a nice platoon with Posey at C, taking all the start against LHP, with Posey taking 1B, since either Huff or Belt would then sit against LHP. He is a lifetime .276/.354/.368/.721 hitter against LHP, and hit .295/.392/.409/.801 last season, so the offense might not have went down much in LHP starts where Posey moves to 1B. I didn't imagine that I would like the trade.
But Kontos has been great for us, and he had good stats last year too, so I did have some hopes that he'll be a good addition to the bullpen. Not too bad for picking up a long-term minor leaguer in CStew for nothing.
Hopefully this is a sign that Melky is finally getting over the hamstring problems that sat him down for 3 games, his power since then had been much lower, with no triples and few doubles on top of that as well.
Penny has been a nice addition. Hitters may hate AT&T, but Penny came back because he considers Bochy to be a buddy. I wanted them to keep him the following season and was sad he went to the Cards. One of the reporter noted that he's a great replacement for Mota, which I agree, and given his experience as a starter, he could move into a setup role as well, and bolster that area even further, particularly in light of Hensley's poor June.
Yes, you have been saying that Christian could help someone, and you are right. I think the timing is almost perfect, as Blanco either hit the wall or pitchers had adjusted to him big time, either way, he's been struggling for a long while.
I feel sorry for Nate, though, as it appears that his chances for starting is close to nil right now, but given the fluid situation regarding contracts, I don't see how the Giants would trade him, it would be better to have him around as possible starter, 4th OF for the 2013 season as well, as his salary should still be cheap.
Barry Zito. Stopper. Bums lost as a nice bonus.
ReplyDeletestopper? More like finger in the dike, where there is still a leak going on. The good news is that while pitchers like him are one of the better starters for many teams in their rotation, he's clearly the 5th starter for us, and by a wide, wide margin.
DeleteTimmy might be willing to volunteer for that #5 starter gig right now.
DeleteOGC - thats the joke
DeleteMcDonald has had great luck at home so far this season, which is why he's among the leaders in ERA. His road ERA is more in line with his season last year, so I would think that regression to the mean will hit McD sooner or later, hopefully tomorrow. Good news is that in his last home start, against Houston, he gave up 5 walks, the first start where he gave up more than 3 all season. And the number of strikeouts per game has been dwindling.
ReplyDeleteSo maybe the cracks are starting to show, kind of like Ubaldo's great first half until regression became his mean.
At any weight Hector Sanchez has little future in the infield aside from first base and catching. But if shedding pounds were to help his foot speed he might make a viable left fielder on an occasional basis. That is assuming you can sacrifice a bit of range (the Giants CF options all have plus range and can cheat a bit to help), that he can take decent routes to a fly ball, and that his catcher's arm translates well to LF.
ReplyDeleteA switch-hitter with doubles power is too good an asset to leave moldering on the bench 90 games a year, and a pinch-hitter with pop who can man an outfield spot allows a little more line-up flexibility when slotting in a relief pitcher. And compare and contrast with the Giants current sixth outfielder, Manny Burriss (the Belt in left experiment is over, and Huff won't be back in 2012.)
The Giants have little to lose by trying but it does have to start with conditioning. And a training partner at Camp Panda might push Pablo Sandoval a little more as well. At worst you get a slimmer Hector Sanchez who at least knows what a fly ball looks like and can play LF in a dire emergency.
-S.F. Giangst
Would you trade Sandoval For Justin Upton?
ReplyDelete1. Sandoval is probably not tradeable until his legal issues are cleared up.
Delete2. I would not trade Sandoval for Upton before this year's trade deadline.
3. I would consider trading Sandoval for Upton after the season is over, but would prefer to see the Giants trade him of high ceiling minor league talent.
4. The Giants should definitely be looking to trade Sandoval before his FA years rather than try to sign him long term. That body is just not going to hold up in the long term.
While it may be the truth, I really hate your 4th reason. Pablo could be my favorite mlb player and I would hate to see him wearing another uniform.
ReplyDeleteI like Pablo a lot too, but realistically that body is not going to age well. If you are looking at it from the standpoint of the long term health of the team, I think you have to trade him before you either have to sign him long term or let him go in FA.
Delete