Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Game Wrap 8/13/2013: Nationals 4 Giants 2

The Giants lost a game that was interrupted after 4 innings cutting short the starts of both Madison Bumgarner and Gio Gonzalez with the Nationals leading 1-0.  Key Lines:

Joaquin Arias- 4 for 5, 2B.  BA= .289.  Call me a dreamer, but I still think there is a star players in there somewhere.  I would not be heartbroken if the Giants found somewhere to ship Pablo and made Arias their starting 3B next year.

Madison Bumgarner- 4 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 2.73.  The way the Giants are playing, there are no guarantees that they win this game without the rainout.  After all, they had not scored against Gio, but Moscoso gave up 2 runs after the delay and the game was over for all practical purposes.

Tim Lincecum faces Jordan Zimmermann tomorrow.

11 comments:

  1. I still don't understand why we aren't taking a look at guys like Perez, Roger, and Pegs on a nearly everyday basis. We know what the vets can do and it isn't pretty.

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    1. I agree. No reason at all to keep running Torres out there and I'm rapidly getting over the notion that there's a 4 WAR player hidden in Frenchy somewhere. Blanco is useful as a reserve but not as a starter. That's 2 starting roles that could be filled with kids for auditions for next year.

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    2. You guys can't wait two weeks till the Giants can add to their roster? What is the point of axing vets to make room on the 25-man roster when they can audition pretty much whom they like so soon, and without creating discards?

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    3. I think its going to be a August 31st release for Frenchy. Maybe Tanaka as well. Hembree will be up, Peguero will be up. Gary Brown hasn't earned it so he won't. Personally I think there's an outside chance Panik might get a look actually. That sounds silly, but he is really heating up, and I think they may want to take a quick look to see about contingency planning next year.

      Problem with both Perez/Peggs is neither can take a walk. We already have a few of those (I like hackers, I really do) so it throws off the balance.

      Biggest thing I see for the Giants to do is a) find a running mate for Buster Posey. Bonds had Kent. This is an impossible task, but Posey is not Bonds, he needs an equal hitter to him, to take the heat off. That's hard as hell. b) the Giants have to find more balance to their lineup. You cannot hit Pablo and Pence back to back. Pence really is best as a #6 hitter with intangibles. Asking him to do more is asking for trouble, but he can be a bridge to something else down the line at least.

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    4. Why wait and continue to send out guys who clearly aren't part of the future of the club? The longer look st what you have in Pegs amid company, the clearer the picture is for next year.

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    5. Given what we have learned about Giants coaching with Belt and Brown this season, plus Bochy's influence adding one win per season to hitters, maybe the Giants management has seen enough of the Peguero and Perez that they would rather run the vets out there now.

      As much as we fans have given up on the season, Bochy probably hasn't yet (not openly at least), and he wants to put out the team that he can win with, not give ABs to prospects that they perhaps think has more things to work on, or worse, has reached the limits of their development. Just putting the young guys out there don't mean that they will hit, and maybe the picture is clear already with Giants management on what is happening with those guys.

      Let's tackle Roger for example, since you named him. If you haven't noticed, he has 20 strikeouts in 40 ABs and hitting only .250/.302/.250/.552 (no power!) and yet he's still getting starts, so the Giants clearly see something they like, unlike Cole Gillespie, who they dumped rather quickly after a short MLB trial with them. Why do the Giants have to give him every start? Why not let him have the platoon advantage against RHP while he's figuring things out at the major league level? Why not ease him into things since he's not doing that well in the first place?

      If the player in management's viewpoint is incapable of performing well, why do fans just want to throw that player out there to the wolves? Earl Weaver, in his great book on baseball, talked about how he had to massage the ego and confidence of young prospects, putting them into situations where they can succeed. So no, dumping the vets and playing the young guys is not always the best solution, these young prospects are humans, people, and they get down too, and throwing him out there when you know he's going to fail (remember, these are experts) is not the way to go, you can crush some people's spirits and motivation like that.

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  2. We love vets more than rookies...maybe not. It's proven we don't love vets over rookies.

    What can we get for Panda? We could use a young #2 pitcher. Madidson, young #2, Gaudin, Vogelsong, Lincecum (maybe) and Cain.

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    1. The problem with Pablo is I don't think his trade value is very high right now. Probably the best bet with him is to keep him around for next year and hope he is motivated by a walk year on his contract.

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    2. This is the problem in a nutshell. They need a contingency plan because they absolutely cannot allow Pablo to torpedo another season like he did this one. I don't think that "highly motivated" is going to get him squat. He's Johnny Sanchez'in' it big time. Even Tom Tolbert has picked up on this.

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    3. I agree that they need a contingency plan for Sandoval, I also agree that his trade value is so low right now that keeping him is the best option. I will say in Pablo's defense that the radio guys noted recently that Pablo has lost a lot of weight recently and looked more spry on defense in recent weeks.

      I think that Arias, Noonan, Dominguez, Duvall are the contingency plans for 3B next season. There is so little bench in the majors right now that having a better alternative is not really possible, without trying to stash a former major leaguer who obviously has some issues now in AA since we need Duvall starting in AAA, presumably. Still, given how poorly Pablo has hit, I think that Arias and Noonan can beat that, they just can't meet his great production when he's hot.

      The problem with Pablo is that once he's injured, it takes him out of his comfort zone hitting, and it takes around two weeks for him to regain it. I don't know if that's due to him needing more time to heal or what, but this reminds me of the Durham situation, where the Giants are better off just DLing him for a couple of weeks the moment he's injured, rehabbing him a week or two, then bringing him back to the majors.

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  3. Arias can definitely produce the production of the "Bad Panda" that we are seeing but I can never see him matching the production of the "Good Panda". He will be more consistent I believe and I'd ship off Pablo and replace him with Arias for the good of the team in the long run.

    Agree, no need to run Torres or Francour out there any more,they are what they are and have no future with the team past this year. Try the kids in the OF, put Pill in or even get Belt some starts out there for him to get more comfortable of need be.

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