OMG! Just when you thought this horrible season could not get any worse, the Giants serve up a game like this. I turned on the game just in time to see Cory Spangenberg swing out of his shoes on an 0-2 pitch in the middle of the strike zone and send it over the CF fence driving in the 5'th, 6'th and 7'th runs of the game for the Padres. I quickly decided I had more important things to do with my time than watch the rest of the game. Key Lines:
Lineup- 9 for 35, 5 2B, BB. How does a lineup hit 5 doubles and come away with just 1 run to show for it?
Jeff Samardzija RHP- 6 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 0 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 4.86. So, how does a successful MLB pitcher throw one down the pipe on an 0 and 2 pitch with 2 runners on base? How does the hitter on said pitch know to be coming out of his shoes on the pitch? Shark has a history of rumored pitch tipping, so there's that, but regardless, the location of the pitch makes you wonder about the thought process behind it. Pitchers who strike out 8 batters and walk 0 in 6 innings should not give up 7 runs, they just should not!
Hector Sanchez C(Padres)- 2 for 4, HR(5). BA= .191. Look at the BA. Just look at it! So, is it even possible for a hitter to spike his performance against a former team on motivation alone? The there-is -no-such-thing-as-clutch crowd would have you believe it is not. That it is no harder to pitch the 9'th inning than the 6'th or 7'th. That postseason heroes and goats are the beneficiaries and victims of SSS luck. But if it is possible to motivate yourself to an exceptional hitting performance, what does that say about all the AB's agains all the other teams in the league? You can't get yourself up for any of those AB's?
Lots of questions. No answers. It's all very frustrating!
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The Giants return home to begin a 10 game homestand tomorrow night by sending out another enigma, Matt Moore to face Josh Tomlin of the Cleveland Indians in an interleague game.
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Yeah... It was something. Not something good. But something.
ReplyDeleteAfter the Cory Spangenberg home run, the Giants clubhouse and bats just seemed demoralized and deflated. After the third inning the Astros scout probably stopped looking at Samardzija and started looking at Trevor Cahill. Too bad because his contract is pretty bad. Shark is not a bad #4 pitcher in the rotation but a pretty big overpay at 19.8 million ( Not to mention losing a 1st round pick). After the first home run I thought well so much for the dream of getting prospects SP Forrest Whitley or SP Franklin Perez.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I have no idea what Samardzija is worth but I'm also not sure they're done (if they were actually interested), even after yesterday. He's 16th in K/9 and 1st in BB/9. His FIP is 3.52 (13th). His xFIP is 3.08 (4th). He's 20th in Quality Starts.
DeleteWhile not Ace, those are all top-of-the-order internals. And yet his ERA is 55th as he's tied for 12th in HR/FB and has a BABIP against of .329.
It's just crazy making If he sucked in everything, you could understand it. But he doesn't. He's actually really good in a lot of his numbers. Yet he's got a 4.86 ERA.
Samardzija is also leads the NL in earned runs, is on pace allow more homeruns in a season than he ever has, and to date has only one season as a starter where he had more wins then losses, which was last season at 12-11. I know wins and losses aren't the be all end all, he eats up innings and his WHIP is strong, but he seems to step on his own toes a lot. Its like he is an unlucky pitcher with a top of the rotation arm.
DeleteLook at Shark's splits with Posey/Hundley: he's 2 different pitchers. I don't think that any stat is better with Hundley. Some are extreme like K/BB. OPS is 174 points lower with Posey.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=samarje01&year=2017&t=p
He gets 2 more starts against SD and Pitt at home through the 26th of July.
The first one is a night game after a night game so it will probably be Posey. Good.
The second is the get-away game (going to LA), but there's a day off so Posey might catch that also. Especially if Hundley is traded. Maybe good.
I've made 6 padres-Giants games this year. Hector Sanchez played in three and hit a lead changing in each.
ReplyDeleteThe (overly) simple problem with Samardija is location. He gets up in the zone, dead center. Spangenberg's HR is a case in point. So, yeah, considering his amazing K/BB ratio, here comes the blasphemy: He needs to walk more guys, staying to the picture frame of the strike zone.
ReplyDeleteDo you wonder about your #5 batter, protecting the only good hitter on the team, slashing .229/.272/.380?
ReplyDeleteMight be why are the Giants are 35-59.