Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Game Wrap 7/8/2014: A's 6 Giants 1

The Giants offense continued to sputter against, well, against pretty much any pitcher the opposing team runs out there, and Sonny Gray is a pretty good pitcher.  Madison Bumgarner got BABIP'd in the 3'rd inning and the ballgame was all but over from that point on.  Oh, and home plate umpire Angel Hernandez poured salt on the wounds with a horsebleep balk call in Jean Machi in the 8'th inning then wouldn't give Bruce Bochy the satisfaction of getting thrown out of the game when Boch argued the balk with some rather salty language.  Key Lines:

Tyler Colvin- 2 for 4, HR(2).  BA= .233.  Colvin has been struggling, but was the Giants offense tonight.

Gregor Blanco- 0 for 4, 2 K's.  BA= .220.  OK, unless the Giants really believe that Angel Pagan is within days of coming back, would it hurt anything to bring up Gary Brown and see what happens?  He can't be worse!

Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 3 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 3.36.  It was not Bumgarner's best night, but the 3'rd inning, in which he gave up 4 of the 6 runs and 5 of the 10 hits included 2 pop fly singles and another groundball single.

The Loss kept the Giants 1 game behind the Dodgers in the NL West as the Hated Ones got blown out by the Detroit Tigers 14-5.

Matt Cain takes the mound tonight as the series shifts to AT&T Park facing Jason Hammel, the other pitcher in the A's big trade with the Cubs and one the Giants were rumored to be interested in this past offseason and possibly at the trade deadline.

7 comments:

  1. I agree; let's give Gary Brown a shot in CF until Pagan is ready (if/when he ever is). Maybe it's that "lightning in a bottle" that Sabean likes to try to capture. It couldn't be any worse, unless you think exposing Brown to ML pitching would further decrease his value as a potential trade chip.

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  2. It seems Brown could be a player whose play is heavily affected by emotions/psyche as he tends to slump with each missed opportunity at a call up. Maybe that trait could work in the Giants favor if they call him up... he definitely has some skills and the excitement of making the bigs could bring out a strong performance in him. The Giants need a spark now, and Brown could be the dynamic kind of player to provide that spark. Of course, his first taste of failure in the bigs could ruin him for the rest of his career, so what do I know?

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  3. I think we will be stronger if we can survive this enervating stretch.

    But we must survive it first.

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  4. This is a weird point to make on a day that Colvin goes 2-4 with a dinger, but I look at his and Blanco's numbers, and I can't help but wonder why Perez isn't being given more opportunities to earn a more prominent role. With Pagan's health, Blanco's hot/cold streaks, and the uncertainty of Morse's future with us, it seems like it would warrant seeing what we got in the kid.

    And if he gets a look and nothing impresses, but Brown continues to progress, well....

    Lucky

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  5. I'm not so sure Gary Brown is the answer here. The organization certainly must consider a few factors:
    1) Is Gary Brown's bat really going to be better than Blanco's? This is at best a 50/50 proposition.
    2) Is Gary Brown's defense as good as Blanco's? In CF that might be rather important.
    3) Is a cameo 1-2 week appearance by Brown a good thing for development? I don't know what the history books say about that but it certainly was good fodder for discussion in Brandon Belt's case.
    4) As it applies to trade bait and super 2 considerations, are the Giants generally against having promising prospects come up earlier than September to protect this status?

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  6. DocGroo

    I think the point is what would it hurt? The main thing is would be trying to catch some spark. I remember when the Giants called up a young guy name Larry Herndon to play CF in the 70's. He was on fire the first few weeks when they called him up and really added a spark then. He went on to have an ok career but I'll always remember how he broke in. Giving Brown some starts over Blanco has at least that possibilty. From some of Blanco's interviews lately sounds like he is even convinced he's not an everyday starter.

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  7. unless brown can play sf and pitch out of the pen, he isnt the answer

    there is no answer

    the season should be over

    but bums have returned to their mean after 3 weeks of good ball

    so i see the rest of the season being the battle of who could care less

    bacci

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