Monday, August 26, 2013

Game Wrap 8/26/2013: Rockies 6 Giants 1

Any fears that the Giants might go on a late season win streak and blow their chance at a top 10 draft pick were quieted by they stinker they put up tonight.  No fight in this one!  Key Lines:

Francisco Peguero- 1 for 4.  BA= .190.  7 Giants had 1 hit each in this one, but Frankie's hit led to their only run scored ahead of Arias' double.

Joaquin Arias- 1 for 1, 2B.  BA= .276.  He's not going to unseat Crawford, but I'd still like to see what Arias could do in a full season of AB's from the SS position, or any position, for that matter, well, except maybe first base!

Barry Zito- 4 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 1 K'.  ERA= 5.81.  OK, now that we are past the potential horrors of Coors Field, can we please see no more of Barry Zito starting?  Kickham, Surkamp, Moscoso, Rosario.  I don't really care, just take a look at someone else!

Guillermo Moscoso- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 4.87.  Moscoso has run hot and cold, but I'd rather see what he can do with 3-4 starts than what Zito is going to do, which we pretty much know even if it mattered.

Jose Mijares- 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 4.24.  Next year's roster spot is probably on the line for Mijares the rest of the way.

Yusmeiro Petit goes against Chad Bettis tomorrow evening.

The Giants are currently in 7'th place in the race for the #1 overall draft pick.

Aaron Harang was DFA'd by the Seattle Mariners.  Anybody interested in him as a reclamation project this offseason?

11 comments:

  1. Zito has been horrible all season, and now Coors is beating him up too. Yeah, he should be pretty done by now, maybe some mop up duty if the bullpen is tired and we need somebody to soak up innings. But with a lot of arms expected once we get into Sept, even that would be minimal as well, unless there are a lot more of these 6-1 games. Still, Coors is a park that can screw with pitcher's heads, no need to inflict that on any of our young starters, really, they need to build confidence, not get screwed up mentally when their pitches that normally do certain things don't do them up a mile high.

    I like Arias but not enough to sit down anyone. But if Scutaro is having another injury plagued season in 2014 like this season, just DL him and start Arias. If we knew it was going to tank like this, the Giants should have had Scutaro operated on and just DL him for a long time.

    Is Mijares doing that badly? His ERA is not great, but as of game time, 9.7 K/9, 2.7 K/BB, 0.6 HR/9, those are pretty good peripherals, just giving up too many hits, but is that BABIP bad luck of a reliever? Rosario at 5.7 K/9, 1.44 K/BB, seems more on the bubble to me. Machi also looks like a better bet than Rosario right now. And Dunning, with a confidence building season like this, could push to win a spot in the bullpen as well.

    Go Petit! No Haranging around here, please!

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  2. Dr B, Why does Sabean and the Giants keep signing players who have to retire after their stint with the team. Only the Giants keep trotting out these kind of players out there cases such as Huff, Burrell, Rowand,Renteria,Torres and now Zito. All these players had or will have to retire. They are not only scrubs but old too. No one wants them except the Giants. I dont understand how a championship team can field such a mediocre team. Is a shame but the truth is that Sabean likes these old washed up veterans and see if he gets lucky but instead of dumping them at the right time he resigns them and thats how a 150 million payroll goes down the drain.

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    1. Anon,

      Ever hear of a book called Moneyball? It's all about finding undervalued commodities in a competitive industry. You mention a "championship team" and a "mediocre team" in the same sentence. Those two terms are mutually exclusive. Gotta choose one or the other. Since it is a proven fact that the 2010 and 2012 teams won championships, they were, by definition, not mediocre!

      The fact is that the Giants would not have won the championship in 2010 without Burrell, Huff and Torres and might not have without Renteria(remember that 3 run HR?). They would not have won in 2012 without Barry Zito and Marco Scutaro

      The Giants have a great, young, homegrown core in Cain, Timmy, Bummy and Buster and now Crawford and Belt on the rise. Sandoval has been great at times. Pence is not over the hill. Neither is Pagan. It is totally untrue and unfair to say that Sabean only likes over-the-hill players.

      You have to fill out the team with undervalued players. Sabes thinks older players are undervalued. No, he hasn't hit on 100%, but he's hit on enough that he won 2 championships with them. How many GM's have won even 1 championship let alone 2?

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    2. It's rarely to see a winning team made up entirely of young, on-the-rise players

      The last time the Warriors won a title, they had to bring in a veteran forward. I think his name was Bridges or something.

      Last year, the Niners almost won with a not-so-young Moss.

      The keys, I think, and this goes for ALL general managers of all sports, are 1) one shouldn't rely too much on these, i.e. they should be supplementary and 2) one should pick wisely which vets, just like picking a player/prospect of any age and 3) one should realize that these vets are not young anymore and try to avoid the temptation that they can repeat whatever magic they have brough for any lengthy period of time.

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    3. Not only the Giants, THT did a study of WAR value and found that there is a secondary peak of value with older players, and the author also noted Sabean preference for older players and invoked Moneyball as well.

      The fact is that no team survives just by developing young ballplayers. Look at any championship team and you will find that they also have old players who are about to retire. If you want to build only from within, you will find that your young guys become old guys while waiting to develop your teams only via internal options.

      The key is to build up a core set of key young players to build around. The Giants have built up a great core, Cain, Lincecum, Bumgarner, Romo, Posey, Sandoval, Belt, Crawford, and yes, some of the core will move to the wayside (like Wilson has, and maybe soon Lincecum and Sandoval), but the Giants are developing prospects who are hoping going to move up and take a starting spot. And the Giants have done a great job of that with limited amount of losing - the Rays needed to lose horrible for a decade to build up their young core, the Braves lost horribly for 6 seasons to get to the Chipper era, the Nats also had a lost decade plus as well - while the Giants turned it around in only four seasons, and really hitting a home run with Lincecum, Bumgarner, Posey selected - the Braves with all their top 5 picks only found Chipper Jones.

      This is one of the least understood things about team building, you cannot build entirely from within, you still need to hire the veterans or you risk waiting until your young guys become old and retiring. Plus, as has been noted this season in particular, but also in past seasons, these vets supply things to the young guys, like a Yoda, that is not evident on the back of their baseball card, giving tips, helping with correcting things, helping the young players jump hurdles that otherwise they might fail at.

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    4. Sabes tried to field teams made up almost exclusively of veteran players in the immediate post-Bonds era, but I believe that was due to the failure of AFW and not having the resources field a homegrown core. He obviously rectified that starting with the Timmy draft of 2006.

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  3. I hope we get a few Surkamp starts. His Fresno sessions as you have pointed out previously have been very good.
    Petit appears to have the body of a horse; albeit maybe a Clydesdale. Go tonite "Yus"!
    Could be me, but Frankie P does nothing for me.
    I'd prefer to see Pill and Roger K get the left field starts this September. Pill has shown he has power, is consummate team player, willing even to be waterboy. Classic work ethic, and I believe has skills. He is only turning 29, so not unreasonable that he could with the opportunity provide great bench role player for 4 to 6 years.

    Richard in Winnipeg

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    1. I'll buy into Roger K. I just don't know if Pill is ever going to be able to consistently control his strike zone at the MLB level.

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    2. In a perfect world Pill gets at least 8 to 10 straight full games and Ab's to see if he is able to adjust. Though I do not expect to see this happen.

      Richard in Winnipeg

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    3. I'm glad Peguero is finally getting another look, but the dude has to see a few more pitches. We already have one frequent hacker (Pablo), we really don't need another in the lineup. Roger sees more pitches, but just hasn't done much with them so far. I'm not sure if either is the answer, but I'd run them out there every day from now until the end of the season to find out.

      I would love Pill in a bench utility role. The Giants don't have much power in general, let alone power off the bench. I don't think he's got the eye to be an everyday player, but if he can put together good pinch-hit AB's, he's got value to me... Not ideal for him, but if it keeps a guy in the bigs, hey...

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    4. Everyone is different and so, I can't say this will happen to Peguero. But it didn't just take Belt a few games to be able to contribute like he has recently.

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