Gregor Blanco drove in the winning run with a pinch-hit 2-run triple in the 7'th inning to back a solid start from Madison Bumgarner as the Giants gained a series win over the Pesky Ones. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 1 for 1, 3B. BA= .286. Well, Bochy pushed the right buttons in this one. Torres started the game as the leadoff batter and was 1 for 3, but with RH Luke Gregorson in the game, Bochy brought Blanco in to pinch hit even though Torres is a switch-hitter, runners at the corners, 1 out. All Blanco did was win the freaking game with a drive to the CF wall to the right of the centerfielder who never had a chance to get there. Blanco is hitting .414 over his last 10 games and has gotten huge hit after huge hit. And man, you could tell he was feeling really good about it in the dugout after he scored on Scutaro's single.
Marco Scutaro- 2 for 4. BA= .338. This guy just doesn't stop. Dude nearly tears his pinky off, slaps a splint on it and just keeps on collecting his 2 hits a game. Talk about a day at the office....!
Hector Sanchez- 1 for 1. BA= .179. It looks to me like The Hector lost a few lbs while he was rehabbing in Fresno. He's looking much better at the plate too.
Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 3.25. Bummy walked a few more than we're used to seeing, but otherwise a strong outing. Sure enough! He threw a purpose pitch at Jesus Guzman that Guzman somehow managed to dodge, but then started walking toward Bumgarner brandishing his bat. Bumgarner came down off the mound motioning for Guzman to come and get him. Both benches emptied and both Guzman and Bumgarner had to be restrained for more than just a few seconds. Guzman later dinged Bumgarner for a round-tripper that was the go-ahead run at the time. There may still be some scores to settle down the road on this thing. Stay tuned!
Jake Dunning- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. Dunning had his second successful appearance showing off his live, loose arm.
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(18). ERA= 2.54. Romo dispatched the Pesky Padres in short order in the 9'th.
With the Win, the Giants took sole control of 2'nd place, 1.5 games behind the D'Backs who beat the Marlins 4-1. The Rockies lost to Toronto 5-1 to slip 2.5 games behind while the losing Padres dropped to 3 games out. The Dodgers split a twin bill with the Yankees in New York to fall to 8 games back in last place.
The Giants now move on to a 4 game series at home against the Miami Marlins with Chad Gaudin facing RHP Tom Koehler.
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Call me old fashioned, but I would have loved to see Jesus Guzman back up his angry words and actually rush Bumgarner. Remember those stories from the minors that Bumgarner was a bit nasty when he wanted to be? Too bad the Giants 'pen was worn out or else I would have actually been rooting for Bummy to give Guzman some love kisses with his fist.
ReplyDeleteMy mental picture was of Bummy putting him in some sort of headlock like a steer wrestling move or something. Would have been fun to see. You don't want to us the fists because you can break a hand that way.
DeleteI just looked up HRs against for the National league, although it appears like we're giving up bomb after bomb, the Gints are actually only middle of the pack. Now, for our lofty standards that's not good, but its not the end of the world. Love to see that improve in the 2nd half though, and get back to bad contact and long fly ball outs.
ReplyDeleteInteresting fact? Giants are dead last in SBs against in the NL. Cards are 1st. I wouldn't blame Buster on this one, I haven't ventured over to B/R to see if I can slice it out among the starters. Mr Lincecum might be a likely suspect on this one.
The Marlins are one of my most hated franchise. Our players need to all stay safe this weekend, no more injuries. We need to beat the fish down completely. Still pissed about 97 and 03 and 11. Beat em, and beat em good!
And I found it easy. Timmy: 11SB/0CS - miserable, and it appears he doesn't even bother a lot of the time. Never been a good part of his game. Cain: 11SB/2CS. Like a few things about the Haus, the game just needs to be picked up a couple notches. Zito 10SB/4CS. Crafty lefty, but soft tossing. Bumgarner! 5SB/2CS. Man do I love me some Bumgarner. You see that beard he's sporting now? Solid. Mijares/Machi have both allowed 3 each to no CS. This can get fuzzy, because sometimes RPs aren't concentrating due to a lead.
DeleteAll told its 51 SBs to 12 CS (19%). If the Giants wanted to work on a couple cleanup moves, this could be an area to save a couple runs here and there. But if Cain gives up half his 15 HRs, I bet the Gints are up 1.5 instead of down 1.5. The Starters have been the biggest issue.
There is something to be said for not getting too far out of your game to prevent SB's, but they have hurt the Giants a few times.
DeleteI still think getting the batter out is the #1 priority.
Cain definitely needs to step up and be his old self. He hasn't been the same since his Perfect Game extended him out to over 130 pitches. And given that there won't be a lot of rest this season, except for the ASB, due to a killer 46 games with 2 days rest within it stretch in late July to early September or so, I don't think Cain is going to get much rest to improve his arm. He might not recover until 2014 at the earliest, depending on whether we make the playoffs or not.
DeleteI'm on DrB's side of the fence, while I would like our pitchers to pitch in with keeping runners from stealing, the main priority should be getting the batter out, particularly strikeout or ground ball.
Lastly, based on numbers, I have to wonder if Posey is part of the problem. His defense has not been good since he came back from his injury, and he's worse this season. He was a plus one win defensive player before the injury, but subpar defensively since. His CS% before was around 37% but it was only 30% last season, then 17% this season. Quoroz is 40% in limited play this season, ugh, Hanchez is 0% (oh-fer-6).
And I haven't forgiven the Marlins for 97, 03, and 11 either, so I would like them to take it to them good, at least win the series, but hopefully sweep it, somehow. Just do it.
Oh I know I'm nitpicking here fellas, but its the small little trim jobs that help out. Don't be worst in baseball at allowing SBs, get to the middle of the pack. Improve. The Cards pitching staff has been lights out so far, pretty amazing numbers, although their pen could improve. And it might make a good case for Yadier Molina's all-star bid, if you get hopped up about all-star stuff. Me? I'm definitely still a little shaky from Atlee H, although its fun to see Pablo rock Verlander's world on the flip side.
DeleteAnother place we're lacking on the pitching staff: Quality Starts. Just not getting enough good pitching performances, and going deep in games. I am sure the Giants are working on this.
Yeah, hard for me to see any of our pitchers to go the ASG after what happened to Atlee there...
DeleteThat's (QS) where my point about Cain comes up, he has 7 DOM starts (using PQS methodology) in 15 so far this season, but at his 80%+ rate he was doing before, he would have 12-13 DOM starts right now, almost double. That would push the team's overall DOM starts up 7-8 percentage points, from good to great.
And I would note that the Giants have been having a lot of good DOM starts where they end up giving up a lot of runs (and therefore is not a QS), so there has been an amount of bad luck from a sabermetric viewpoint, though from the fan viewpoint, we know that Lincecum, in particularly, has suffered from throwing the wrong pitch at the wrong time, screwing up the nice bell curve that sabers expect from batted balls and the like. Also, to your point elsewhere, Cain has given up a buttload of homers, much more than usual. Cutting out those poor starts and all those homers will make a huge positive difference in the team's overall QS stats.
Gregor Blanco is so easy to root for - what a fabulous pick-up by the front office. I completely enjoyed Torres's work for us in 2010, and there's no denying he's a great comeback story, but... I'm ready for him to be replaced - by Perez or Kieschnick or Peguero.
ReplyDeleteDunning looks like a terrific SS-to-P conversion, and just what we needed to bolster the pen.
The Giants have done an outstanding job of finding role players for practically nothing by just being on their toes and beating the bushes for castoff characters. Joaquin Arias is another one who, if he got regular playing time, I think he would open a lot of eyes. What a great athlete! Abreu is looking like another one, if he can stay healthy.
DeleteOne great thing about all these guys is their enthusiasm for whatever role the Giants give them. They've been down a lot lower and are just thankful to be on a MLB club, and it shows.
Is this the "Giant's Way" that was bandied about a couple years ago? Grabbing near-30s (ie older non-propects) that really want to play and will be happy with that back-up role? I wonder what kind of energy they bring to the clubhouse in comparison with guys like Giambi, Ichiro, Hunter, or even Burrell - older guys that are former greats, and reportedly good clubhouse dudes. I just can't imagine them having the same energy as a Torres or Blanco.
DeletePerez and Noonan are both on the AAA-MLB shuttle all year I think. Along with Quiroz and HSanchez. They'll be up until they are sent down to get more playing time, and then they'll be rotated back up to replace injuries, rests, and slumps. They've proven useful in that bench role, and I figure Boch to stick with this group in 2013, and then for the Brain et al to evaluate their performances and keeping them versus bringing back Torres and others in 2014.
I don't think we'll see much of Kieschnick or Peguero this year. They are having nice seasons, but nothing that demands making room.
Well, Sabean has been emphasizing the need to be faster and more athletic in the OF for a long time now. I do think the sweet spot of a guy in his 26-29 age group is a great scouting profile. Torres was beyond that when he became a Giant (31), Blanco was 28. I'd note the Giants do emphasize achievement: Blanco was MVP of the VWL. Arias was the MVP of the DWL. That's one thing that I really like about young Christian Arroyo, MVP of Team USA's efforts.
DeleteI'd agree on Roger K and Peguero, but there are always odd injuries that change things. Mainly those two guys have had their promising minors careers derailed themselves though.
Finding Gaudin is the pitching equivalent of finding outstanding role position players.
DeleteI don't think they thought a few months they would need to find about 2 or 3 Gaudins.
I've been enjoying the Giants dumpster diving on former top prospects. Chris Stewart was a good defensive catcher but never hit for much, but if you look at this contact rate and BB/K ratio, he had numbers that good hitters have. Offense was developing late for him. And he kills LHP, so he's good in a platoon or off the bench.
DeleteBoth Blanco and Arias were once top prospects. Arias was a key part of the A-Rod trade, if I remember right (wrong choice, they could have had Cano instead...). Blanco for some reason never got a chance to stay in the majors, even though his OBP was above average (for some reason in the era of Moneyball, he was not valued). I know his issue is ISO/SLG, but he's a great platoon or 4th OF, with great defense and he can come in with his good OBP, and fit a nice role atop the lineup. That's total Moneyball. Arias had good contact rates but just never got the chance.
Torres was making a huge change with his batting approach and his old team just didn't notice it even though he was right in front of their faces. The Giants somehow noticed the change and pursued him.
I would also note that Burrell was a castoff as well when we picked him up, seemingly washed up with over a season of suckitude with the Rays (Thanks for him and Posey! Lincecum too!). Somehow the Giants got him hitting well again as well.
When a player can see the end of the line, up close and personal, only to have a team like the Giants pluck them up and make them useful and building an MLB pension, they are going to bend over and do anything the team wants, plus pass the word out to the others on the island of misfits that the Giants are a good org, check them out.
Gaudin has been a nice find, much like the position players. His K/9 and K/BB has actually been good in two of the past three seasons, and the one where it wasn't good, he only got 8.1 IP (though admittedly, it was a very bad 8.1). What he's doing for us is basically the skill set that he showed in 2010 and 2012, and being around his prime, it should be expected that he would continue to show his talent.
But our rotation needs more than a set of Gaudins if we hope to go deep in the playoffs. Getting Cain turned around is our most immediate thing to do, he has not been as dominant since his perfect game, he was extremely dominant prior to that, throwing quality starts over three-quarters of the time, but he's been in the mid-40% since then, good, but not great. If we have great Cain paired with Bumgarner in the playoffs, we can survive OK with a combo of Vogie, Timmy, Zito, and Gaudin taking turns in the rotation during the playoffs. And we'll be good if one of them can stand up and be dominant. And we'll be great if two of them could do that, like we were in 2010 and 2012.
I enjoyed the book for sure. And the movie. There are some serious flaws in there, but it did popularize new stats and make some sort of evolution in how to evaluate ballplayers. The bad part of course is the hoards of Jr Saberz with their OBP badges running around on the interwebz, but what you gonna do? The main concept I take from Moneyball that is fun is the 90/10 rule. Get 90 percent of the production for 10 percent of the cost.
DeleteOne of those Yankee articles I posted up in the MCC "thread from hell" today had an interesting acronym I hadn't seen: SDSD. Scout, draft, sign and develop. That's the Yankee way, and Sabean has made it the Giant way. I have a feeling they devote a lot of time to upper minors, Indy League, Winter Leagues. You saw this in the 2012 draft if you calmed down about the lack of HS guys: they snagged some very interesting seniors who had really excelled in small conference ball. Going to the outer fringes is increasing that long, long shot of hitting on draft picks.
Yes, a lot of thanks to those genius Rays, who have definitely let things slip by. Although I think the Longoria pick looks pretty sweet today OGC. Hank tweeted that the Giants love Alex Torres, nice lefty who has been on the roster because of David Price being hurt. Can't see him being the answer this year though. I thought he'd be a great Rule 5 guy, but he got another year of sneak due to arcane rules.
For yet another year, I will say keep an eye on Chris Perez, who has been hurt and had some johnny law issues. I can see the Giants making a move for a closer type actually, and Perez might come pretty cheap being this beat up.
Oh, I wasn't knocking the Rays for selecting Longoria, but given that nobody selected Lincecum in between, the key break for the Giants in getting Lincecum was Longoria breaking out (he was originally ranked 10th by BA pre-season, so I had my eye on him as he heliumed away from us...) and getting the Rays to select him, as for sure had the Rays picked Lincecum, Longoria would not have made it to us. I would love to know who the Giants would have selected had Lincecum not been available at that point.
DeleteI agree that the Giants will be looking at closer types. Right now the Giants are on edge, Affeldt probably could function as closer, but don't really have that mentality, I don't think. Casilla and Romo, I would be afraid of someone breaking down at some point, if not both. So I can see the Giants giving up on one of their prospects having a nice season, who is not on their "Don't Trade" list, to get a closer type to supplement the back end of the bullpen. They were going to do that a couple of years back and pick up Aardsma, until he got injured and scotched (luckily) that deal, I think that was in 2010. Perez has had enough ups and downs that his team might tire of that and trade him away for a prospect or two.
Though, push comes to shove, if Romo should for some reason go down, that might be an ideal situation for the Giants to move Lincecum to closer and get a starter. That's about the only move to the bullpen that could be labeled a lateral move from the rotation.
blanco was the one who hit the triple?
ReplyDeletedont tell ted baxter...cuz he never noted that blanco ph'd for torres and kept calling blanco torres, right up to the time that he scored on the single
so ted is either totally incompetent, blind or a racist...or maybe he is all 3
i was unlucky enough to have been driving between jobs during parts of the game...and here is what i got to hear
war hero jerry didnt show up till the 3rd, cuz he got lost on the escalator up to the booth
jerry reminded everyone that he is a bay area native and graduated from lowell (guess this was long before lowell was a magnet school)
jerry cant believe that maddy was as good as he was pitching (in fact, the entire booth acted like they had never seen him throw before)
ted forgot who was playing cf for the giants and referred to him as "that guy in cf"
ted, jerry and that other guy think its still funny to make fun of the glove and coke bottle
its time to retire these buffoons
bacci
They butchered Torres name pretty nice on Guzman's flyout to the wall as well.
DeleteWhen did it get old to make fun of the glove and coke bottle?
Blanco has a nice swing and puts a charge in the ball. He's a great player for the park, and he knows all about them alleys. I love triples. Incidentally, the Giants have given up the least # of triples in the majors, most likely due to their fleet of foot and savvy defenders.
I live in SD, and its TORTURE to here "Uncle Teddy" do anything. He does quite a few radio ads, and I want to stick an ice pick in my ears when I hear his over-excited description of the tiniest details.
DeleteI listen to KNBR on iheart as much as possible, in part because of him.
Bumgarner usually comes across as laid back. I was at the Grizzlie game when he lost his cool and was thrown out of the game. When I watched him motion for Guzman to bring it on I immediately thought of that game in Fresno. Don't mess with Big Hoss. :) APGiantsfan
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, Bumgarner has a bit of the badass in him, I too thought of Fresno (I wasn't there but saw the video) when I heard that he gestured to Guzman.
DeleteI think it should be an unspoken rule that players shouldn't challenge any other player who buys livestock as a wedding present to his bride. Barking at the wrong fence there.