Jarrett Parker stayed red hot, but it wasn't enough to overcome some weak pitching by the Matt Cain and George Kontos. Key Lines:
Jarrett Parker LF- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(2). BA= .444. Parker is on one of his hot streaks and is well on his way to winning the starting LF job for the Giants. BTW, Parker's double came against Scott Kazmir, a LHP.
Matt Cain RHP- 2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 1 K, GO/AO= 4/0. ERA= 9.00. The positive sign here is the groundball ratio. Of course that does not count the batted balls that went for hits.
Ty Blach LHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, GO/AO= 4/O. ERA= 2.25. Blach continued his mastery over the Dodgers. I would not count him out of the 5'th starter job although the job is still Cain's to lose.
George Kontos RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 2 K. ERA= 13.50. Set the table by walking 2 batters then gave up the 3-run dinger. Kontos has always been a bit homer prone which is OK but you can't be walking batters that ride home on 3-run dingers. It's still early.
David Hernandez RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 0.00. Barring injury, Hernandez will be on the Opening Day roster.
Neil Ramirez RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.00. Ramirez is an interesting story and a sleeper to make the Opening Day Roster. Former first round draft pick of the Texas Rangers. Had a couple of pretty good seasons pitching out of the Cubs bullpen. Apparently got in Joe Madden's doghouse by going on the DL with abdominal pain which came on after sneezing. He did not pitch well for Milwaukee or the Twins. Maddon may have been a bit unfair as sneezing is a well known cause of pulled abdominal and chest wall muscles. Ramirez FB velocity was down a bit last year but still averaged more than 92 MPH. He is basically a FB/Slider guy. Even in a down year last year, he averaged over 9 K/9.
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Giants play a split squad DH tomorrow with Matt Moore facing the ChiSox in Scottsdale and Tyler Beede getting the start against the Angels in Tempe.
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Parker: After last night, Parker's OPS is 1.806. That's like two whole sluggers in one body...
ReplyDeleteLOL! I love it!
DeleteI know this might sound like a knee jerk reaction, but if Cain does not get it together before the regular season starts then I hope the Giants give Blach the 5 spot. How many chances do you give Cain at the expense of the rest of the team? On paper the NL West is more competitive, and the Giants may need every win it can get. I'm actually an optimist and think the Giants have a great shot at winning the division over the Dodgers, but even I think that LF and even 3B are kind of up in the air. Lastly this is most likely is Cueto's last season with the Giants, so there should be a real sense of urgency to win this season.
ReplyDeleteI hear you on that, but don't forget Barry Zito in 2012 who stayed back in camp after a terrible spring, then came back to have a pretty good year and was absolutely the reason the Giants won another championship with a sensational playoff run.
Delete@ The Doctor. Yeah, I admit the Giants would not have gotten to the world series without Zito ( And Vogey + chicken enchiladas.) in 2012. So I get your point. But did you have to use Zito. His contract still makes me reach for the Pepto-Bismol and thank the baseball gods that Timmy never pursued a long term contract. Imagine if the Giants did sign him to one. No Cueto and probably no Shark either.
DeleteI'm tired of seeing Mac being yo-yo'd between Sacramento & SF. I'm still rooting very hard for him to win the job, and do believe like you DrB that he has all the tools to be a key player on the roster. I let a few things I heard about Parker from Sacto fans get in my head a couple years ago, and I think it's finally time to admit that I have underestimated him. He has worked as hard (and probably harder than most) as anyone in the organization to get to this point. Repeating levels multiple seasons, grinding up the system one stop at a time. It seems that he's finally hitting his stride, which could be a very good thing for the Giants. And THAT is the most important thing right now.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I wouldn't be shocked at all to see Parker & Mac on the field together in a quarter of the games this season if Pence has more issues. I hope they find a way to keep both on the roster, but I'm not counting on it for Opening Day.
PS - I wish they'd move Cain to long relief.
Cove Chatter
Mac his not having a good Spring Training. He's hitting .250. His OPS is .650. He made an error on Tuesday (and it was an embarrassing one where he totally misplayed a line-drive and just stood there instead of moving back a few steps. Which lead to him tipping the ball instead of catching it).
DeletePlenty of time for him to turn it around though. But if he doesn't show out, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in AAA. Evans kind of hinted (or maybe that was explicit) that if Williamson didn't win the job out-right, he was going to AAA to get his ABs.
OTOH, while Parker's hitting up a storm right now, we can't read anything into Parker's fielding. He's only had one fielding opportunity in four starts.
Of the up-and-comers -- Dugger is fielding well (as expected). 6 for 6 in 18 innings. Slater is doing ok at 6 of 8 plus an assist with a single error in 24 innings.
Cain wasn't baaaad through 1 & 2/3's. IF, magic IF, he had gotten the 3rd out, well, we would have liked it a lot.....
ReplyDeleteSame with Kontos, IF he had't walked the first 2.....
IF's are like crying, there are no IFs in baseball.
Parker IS the girl with the curl on her forehead.
Williamson should play, not sit, get his ABs.
For those obsessing over Matt Cain's performance in his two games (not you, Doc) might want to look at Moore's, Samardzija's, and Bumgarner's games. Not much to see.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe check Johnny Cueto, except he hasn't showed up yet, so his record isn't encouraging either.
Williamson's obituary may be premature, too, he's 4-12 (all singles) plus a couple walks and several sparkling defensive plays.
Parker is being Parker, when you're hot you're hot. I'm one of those guys who watched him in Sacramento: he's not a positive defender.
Could get by in left field, and Giants have survived that before, but they may need 3 defensive backups.
Apologies to PilamBear. I was trying to publish your comment from my phone and accidentally hit the wrong button.
ReplyDeleteThe gist of the comment was PB thinks Cainer is a sunk cost at this point and would just as soon see him released to make room on the roster for a better option or place him on the 60 day DL to save face.
My response is it may well come to that, but it's too soon IMO. Giants can take this right up to Opening Day. Cainer had a good run going last year before the pulled hammy, so I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that he is not salvageable.