Ryan Vogelsong's inconsistent pitching put the Giants in a hole and the offense could not muster a comeback in game 1 of a 4 game series against the Braves. Key Lines:
Marco Scutaro- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .289. 2 more hits for Scooter, but an error and another miscue that was not counted as an error contributed to this defeat.
Buster Posey- 2 for 4, HR(5). BA= .296. The HR was a classic Buster AB where he just kept fouling off pitches while digging himself out of a 1-2 hole, got back to 3-2. When he finally got a hanging breaking ball, he crushed it. That made the score 3-2 Giants and you had to be feeling good about the game at that point. Alas, Vogie couldn't hold it and that was the last run the Giants offense would produce.
Brandon Belt- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .222. The double was a bit flukey as it was a chopper down the 1B line that caught an edge of chalk. He added a soft single to left-center later. Hey, it's a start! Belt had been just 1 for his previous 13. With Brett Pill tearing it up in Fresno, you have to wonder how much more rope the Giants will give Belt. I think the myth that the Giants hate Belt and are impatient with him can be put to rest for good now.
Ryan Vogelsong- 4.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 3 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 7.78. Vogie came out breathing fire and struck out the side in the first inning. He made a location mistake to McCann in the second, but recovered nicely. Then, once again, he suddenly lost velocity in the 5'th. I thought something was funny when Kruk called 3 consecutive up-in-the-zone pitches to one of the Uptons changeups, and referred to another pitch as a changeup with a 2-seam grip. Then I realized Vogie had just simply run out of gas! Now that it has happened two games in a row, gotta be concerned going forward.
George Kontos- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.26. Terrific job by Kontos, but in a losing cause.
Chad Gaudin- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.33. Another terrific performance by Gaudin, also in a losing cause.
The Loss dropped the Giants into a tie for first place in the NL West with the D'Backs to took one from the Phillies 2-1. The Rockies lost to the Yankees to drop 0.5 games behind in 4'th place. The idle Padres are 3.5 back and the Dodgers bring up the rear at 6 games off the pace.
It does not get any easier tonight as Matt Cain faces longtime Giants nemesis Tim Hudson.
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Am also starting to get concerned about Vogelsong and the rest of the Giants starting rotation. Too many IP pitched under too much pressure could be taking its toll on them, IMO. Why not try a mixture of Vogelsong/Kontos or Vogelsong/Gaudin (3-4 IP each) in the next couple of starts to see what results it brings or just skip him and put Gaudin or Kontos (am sure he was a starter in minors) for a couple of games, its still early in the season, better to try it now than later.
ReplyDeleteLooking further ahead, a good trade option should be Bud Norris, he's young, cheap and probably hasn't reached his ultimate ceiling yet and as Houston are in a rebuilding mode and we all know the best way to rebuild with its pitching, the Giants should be a good trade partner as theres a ton of good arms in the minors.
Yeah, like that worked for the Rockies last season...
DeleteIf pressured pitching was a problem, then how do you explain how well they pitched under pressure in 2010 as well as 2012? Are you saying that this is when the straw broke the camel's back?
The staff has actually been pitching well sabermetrically, PQS, just not well in key situations. So I expect the team to continue using them for most of the season unless things go really south sabermetrically or if Blackburn forces them to (don't think any other minor leaguer is in position to do that at the moment, among starters, unless they decide to switch Osich back to starting, which I doubt given his injuries history). No trade is happening, I don't think.
Blackburn? Blackburn ain't gonna be in SF anytime this season. Take that to the bank.
DeleteIt's not pitching in pressure situations. It's the accumulated fatigue of pitching until November 2 out of the last 3 seasons and in Vogie's case pitching in the WBC.
This just looks like a tired pitching staff. Maybe they will get a second wind, but right now, they look like they are just too pooped to pop.
People can love and hate, depending on the mood.
ReplyDeleteWe can be sure and it's good that at this time they don't hate Belt.
We can't be sure what happened before. It could have been anything. No one can say for sure. It's best to move on.
I am happy they don't hate Brandon now.
Maybe another private batting lesson from Bochy...
Other than that, let's move on, as life marches on.
The Giants never "hated" Belt. If they did, he would not have stayed up in the majors all season in 2012. And I doubt they hated him in 2011 either, that's just fans jumping on the Belt fan wagon when the Giants were already on that sucker since they drafted him and the accusing the Giants of hating their latest infatuation, much like they piled on the Giants for hating Freddy Lewis or even Nate Schierholtz, when they just did poorly overall when the Giants gave them extended tryouts as the starting OF.
DeleteBelt is just not mentally strong enough, confident enough to stay consistently within his comfort zone right now. He has not listened to the Giants, fighting against their advice, then when he took their advice, credited that to him watching video of how he did when he was going well. He'll be up and down until he trusts his abilities and just "see ball, hit ball" instead of thinking constantly about his batting stance.
Here, I agree with ogc.
DeleteVogelsong - is he being impacted at all from playing in that World Baseball competition?
ReplyDeleteDid Biedrins say he was gassed after playing for his country one offseason? Maybe he is just not good to begin with?
It's hard to figure all these things out...athletes being so finely tuned, one little thing can throw them off.
Gaudin: another Sabean scrap heap success story (so far).
ReplyDeletehow many "its a start" does belt get
ReplyDeletenot sure that pill is more than a 4a player...but i like him better
as for vogey, the guy keeps himself in great shape during the offseason, he looked great in st and the wbc...and then total collapse
maybe the short off season and the rush to get ready for the wbc did affect him
if that is the case, just skipping a start may not be the answer
it could still be something mechanical that is gassing him
and i would still like to have wheeler in the minors....yup, gonna beat that dead horse
bacci
It's dead, Bacci. Dead!
DeleteBelt has that ceiling while Pill is probably a 4A player at best. The Giants will give Belt some more rope, but I don't think it will be for all season.