The Giants scored 5 runs in the last 2 innings for a come-from-behind win over the Peskys. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 1 for 4, BB, SB(26). BA= .246. Let's see, do you take Blanco's on-base skills, speed and defense against RHP's or Nady's power? Can't quite get the memory of what Cody Ross did 2 years ago out of my mind. I bet that thought has crossed the Giants minds too.
Xavier Nady- 1 for 1, HR(4). BA= .196. Forget the .196 BA here. The important numbers are .293 in September and .308 over his last 10 games. He was robbed of a dinger over the CF wall last night and hit one today. This guy could be the Giants secret weapon for the postseason, much like Cody Ross was last year.
Hunter Pence- 2 for 5, HR(24). BA= .257. Sometimes you have to throw the sabermetric bible out the window and just say, "the money lies in the RBI's."
Brandon Belt- 2 for 5. BA= .276. Belt got another start in LF.
Hector Sanchez- 2 for 3, BB. BA= .278. Hey! He drew a walk! Hector and Belt have almost identical BA's. Belt will give you more walks and Hector will make up at least some of that with more hits, XBH's and RBI's. Belt hitting in front of Hector, though, has some nice symmetry to it.
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 3, SF. BA= .248.
Tim Lincecum- 6 IP, 4 H 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K's. I only saw a few innings of the game, but in the parts I saw, Timmy's stuff looked pretty good. The dingers are worrisome. I will say this, Petco Park is a whole different beast in the daytime. Especially on a warm day like today. The ball can really jump out of there.
Dan Runzler- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.00. Runzler has an ERA of 0 in 6 appearances covering 3.2 IP since being recalled. The Giants are trying to get him into the AFL. With Runzler and Mijares on the roster, I wonder if they will consider Affeldt expendable?
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(13). ERA= 1.82. Romo would appear to be the closer for the postseason except for tough LH outs which might come up in high leverage situations in the 9'th innings.
The Dodgers and Cards both won their games so the Dodgers trail the Cards for the final Wild Card berth by 2 games with 3 to play. The Dodgers elimination number is 2. I'm sure the Giants would be glad to give them that in the last series. The Cards play the Reds in the final 3 games and there is no love lost between those two teams either, so I'm sure the Reds will be trying to knock the Cards out of the playoffs just as much as the Giants are trying to keep the Dodgers from coming back to haunt them. Great way to finish the season!
Matt Cain starts game one of the final series facing Aaron Harang. Go Giants!!! Beat LA!
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This game gets shrugs right now... One of the reasons I think statistics are a barometer and not a bible. September games can be very meaningful and very meaningless. Beltran last year tore it up in september against sub-par pitching. That is what superior hitters do, he did his job. If he didn't do it, and Sabean re-signed him, he would have been hung out to dry. Instead, the Gints made a nice measured move. Notice there hasn't been any noise about Beltran since his hot start??? Sometimes fans need to step way the hell back.
ReplyDeletePence is heating up at the right time. I admit to long time admiring, but he is the right age for a good 3-4 year deal. I am not worried about his struggles at this time.
Timmy, he is going to be a gigantic question. He has had a good second half, but some regression here and there makes him the joker in the deck. I think you have to roll the dice. He gets focused and he is a different pitcher.
I like all our young players. Crawford, Belt, Sanchez. The Gints have done a great job of scouting and development. Look for the good stuff while nodding at the flaws. Its baseball. I will take these types of players with room to grow over the Winns, Tuckers, Tejadas and Orlando Cabreras every day of the week. The playoffs are going to be epic, and its a privilege earned through hard work by the guys in the French Vanilla, not a right of us fans. Thank you Los Gigantes for putting on a great show, now go kick the Bums in the nads and jump start the post season the right way!
Before 2010, I was seriously beginning to worry that the Giants were truly cursed and might not win a WS in my lifetime. During some of the more tense moments in the 2010 postseason, I was literally curled up in a fetal position moaning on the couch. That win, has given me some equanimity about this year. Still hoping for another win to quash all those fluke and luck accusations, but otherwise, it will be a pleasure to watch my team play in the postseason.
DeleteMe too.
Delete"Noise about Beltran": Both Pagan and Melky C, who combined cost less than Beltran in salary, outperformed Beltran this year, with Pagan having a 3.8 rWAR as opposed to Beltran's 3.3; Cabrera was well over 4. Since the A-S break, moreover, Beltran has been hitting .235/.300/.444, which is just a notch better than Pence (.015 BA and OBP better, and--in a more hitting-friendly ballpark--considerably better slugging), who has disappointed fans so much. Beltran would have disappointed them just a bit less.
DeleteWell, while we are at it... Gints are 5th in MLB in BA and 8th in MLB in OBP . So there hasn't been much yak about that issue either.
DeleteIn the ESPN relative power index they are ninth, and third in the NL. Despite playing half their games in what is supposedly a pitcher's park, they have outscored the Reds and Braves, and are quite close to the Nationals. If only their pitching had lived up to expectations . . . And of course in post-season it still may.
DeleteSo, the Giants are going to slug their way to the WS???
DeleteNow that would break some glass!
Predicting the future is very diffidult, as the saying goes.
DeleteProbably as difficult as talent evaluation.
Who would have thunk at the start of the season that our pitching would not perform like an elite staff this year and can score like they have done?
Great points Shankbone! That's the thing the Naysayers don't get, the Giants have been putting on a great show since 2009 and all they can do is focus on the past a lot.
DeleteYeah, the playoffs are going to be epic, and in a different way from 2010. Then, we had the uncertainty of past Giants failures staring us in the face. Now, we have an suddenly unsettled starting rotation that looked rock solid not that long ago.
Yeah, the 2010 playoffs had a lot of tense moments, mostly in the Atlanta series, but the Phillies had some too, and I had the same feelings of hoping to quash all those fluke and luck accusations that was flying around even then, but I've felt for a while that the Giants will eventually win a World Series Championship during the 2010 decade, so I think I was relatively calm.
I think I'll be more on edge for this year's playoffs, mainly because the pitching is not as shut down as before. The rotation was not really that great in the last two months of the season, merely good, and my research showed that getting DOM starts are key to winning. Still, giving Cain and presumably Bumgarner more of the starts will help things out, as they have been our two top starters this season, and Lincecum was among the good in the second half of 2012, so I feel good about the first 3 starters, but in 2010, I felt invincible when Lincecum was pitching. And I am not so sure about Zito, or even Vogelsong, so these two final starts will be telling for me.
The Yakking Naysayers will always find something that annoys them, I'll bet they are focusing on Pence's poor hitting (RBI's are not real!), Sandoval's weight, Posey's back spasms, the lack of great pitching in September (though still good, they just focus on the bad), the lack of a closer plus the closer-by-committee.
I would be in favor of a 2 or 3 year contract for Pence.. He gives them a HR threat in the #5 spot that is not easy to find..
ReplyDeleteMaybe Affeldt becomes expendable if the Giants can find a reliable closer in the offseason.. Should they offer "The Beard" a contract for 2013? Shouldthey go with the commitee again?
There were a couple of developments that stood out that really made the season enjoyable.. The contributions made by youngsters like Belt, Crawford, and Sanchez.. Its a major accomplishment for the org winning the Western Division while bringing along 3 rookies.. Thats not an easy thing to do.. The other thing is Buster Posey never ceased to amaze.. A catcher playing in his 1st full reason in MLB coming off a major leg injury is not suppose to play so good that he's in the running for the batting title and MVP award.. Amazing!
Go Giants! Go and knock the Bums out of the playoff chase.. Can't wait for the playoffs!
LG
The track record for pitchers coming back from a second TJ is not good. Maybe if the Giants go deep into the playoffs and have some extra money to show for it, they try to get something done with Wilson to avoid arbitration. I can't imagine them offering arbitration to him. I could see both the Giants and Wilson wanting to work something out after he is non-tendered.
DeleteI expect them to non-tender Weez, then sign him to a 1/3 with a team option for 10M with a 1M buyout. He is a HUGE team guy and incredibly marketable. I think something like this contract is win/win.
Delete