The Giants failed to capitalize on multiple scoring opportunities and ended up wasting a fine start by Madison Bumgarner. Key Lines:
Joaquin Arias- 0 for 1. BA= .276. Arias beat out a potential DP grounder, then scored from first on a double by Torres down the LF line. He came up with a bad hammy at the end of the play, which may have cost the Giants this game as Brandon Crawford did not appear to be prepared to face the LHP Ryu and left 6 runners on base. No word yet on how long Arias will be out, but this injury bug is getting ridiculous.
Rest of Giants Offense- 8 for 33, 2 2B, 4 BB. The the Giants loaded the bases twice and came up empty. If they are going to eschew the HR, they need to keep the line moving better.
Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 3.20. Bumgarner pitched much better than the final line would indicate. IMO, he was tiring at the end of the 7'th inning and should not have started the 8'th, although I can understand why Bochy is reluctant to got to his bullpen.
George Kontos- 0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 5.76. The hit was by Puig who drove in the go-ahead run. Personally, I would not have given Puig a chance to beat the Giants. I would have walked him and brought in Lopez to face Gonzalez with the bases loaded, then if that worked, taken my chances with Rosario and Ramirez.
The Loss dropped the Giants into 4'th place in the NL West 3.5 games behind the the idle D'Backs. The Rockies were also idle and remained 3 games behind in 2'nd place but are now tied with the Padres who came from behind to beat the Phillies 4-3. The Last Place Dodgers are 8 games out.
Chad Gaudin was placed on the DL today, and Mike Kickham was recalled from Fresno to pitch against Stephen Fife.
Jean Machi was also sent down to Fresno and Kontos recalled to replace although I believe Kontos technically had to replace the injured Gaudin.
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Lots of different ways to go on this one. I don't like pitching a popcorn hitter like Punto outside. He was looking for the oppo field dink all the way. Bust him inside.
ReplyDeleteBochy decided to challenge Puig, I think after what he'd already seen that was a mistake for the night as well.
But it just wasn't the Gints night. Scutaro's ball down the RF line bounced harmlessly foul. Posey slips on 3B. 2 bad double plays.
On the bright side, the Giants can definitely hit Ryu. And Adrian Gonzo isn't the same player he was with the Pads. Gonna be a tough one tomorrow with young Kickham. Have to bust out of this funk somehow.
I don't have an ounce of the knowledge of Bochy, Righetti, etc, but I figured the Giants would at least try something new with Puig, as pitching him away has not worked well for ANY team so far. Just me, but I think Bumgarner was being a little stubborn out there, trying to pump fastballs by him... otherwise, why wouldn't you drop some breaking balls out in front of the plate against a tremendous free swinger like him? Either way, Puig is incredibly talented, and our offense is really struggling to find the big hit. I wrote a few words about Kickham's call-up on my new blog, cove chatter.wordpress.com, and would greatly appreciate any feedback I can get. All short posts (250 words or less). I love reading this blog every day and would love some input from you all if you had a couple minutes. Thanks, and go Kickham.
ReplyDelete-KG
Nice blog, welcome to the community! I recall your name at my site, good luck with making a go at this. Got more time, I guess, with school over.
DeleteGo Kickham! Go Giants! Beat LA!
I added Cove Chatter to the links to my favorite sites over on the left. Will do some reading and try to leave some comments when I get more time.
DeleteThanks so much for the love! I can't tell you how much I learn from all of you over here. The support and link are much appreciated!
DeleteSeems to me Kontos was sent down because of many a hanging slider, his theoretical "out" pitch. A good slider is almost unhittable, but they are hard to throw, and few pitches are easier to hit than a hanging slider. He hung that slider to Puig. Not a good sign.
ReplyDeleteThat Yasiel Puig is something else. Is good to take flyers on guys with those kind of tools, even if his avg regresses he still has that plus power that every team wants.
ReplyDeleteWhy do the Giants organisation tend to draft or sign players who have no power at all? You already have Scutaro, Posey and Sandoval who can hit for avg, then why not go and acquire some 6-7 hitters who offer pop?? IMO, thats a good combination of a lineup.
What do you consider to be "power"? Both Posey and Sandoval has 25-30 HR power, yet you put them on your "no power" list. Pence and Belt have 20-25 HR power.
DeleteThey have also drafted/signed prospects with power, Villalona, Joseph, Duvall, Kieschnick, Mac Williamson, among others (I'm sure DrB and Shankbone can name others). It is not like they are falling out of the trees, and other teams are looking for HR power too. You have to pick what you want to focus on (or you end up unfocused, like Pittsburgh or Royals), and the Giants have mostly focused on 1) pitching, 2) pitching, and 3) nice hitters who are up the middle (C, SS, CF). It has been a pretty good formula the past few years.
Puig was a total gamble, Cespedes too, paying $30-50M for unproven prospects, especially Cuban nationals, where there is a long history of the hitters not being any good. Also, the season is long, and Puig is not going to continue to hit for .509 BABIP the whole season, the best full season BABIP in recent years I think was Ichiro, in the .380 range, though with that power, his OPS would still be pretty good, in the 900 range. And the amazing thing is that despite him hitting so great, the Dodgers could only manage a 10-10 record in the games he played in. He looks like he got only one way to go, down, just how much is the question, and with that, the Dodgers would go down as well.
In any case, what's the use of creating a good lineup if your pitching is not maximized to win in the playoffs. When you are in the playoffs, you are facing more top notch starters, and if you don't have better arms on your side, you are playing handicapped. Because starting pitchers have a lot of control over any individual start, some of the best can throw 50%+ of their starts for quality the starts, the elite can get it into the 70-80% range. Up to this year, the Giants ROTATION has been in the 50-60% range, and that was handicapped by whatever numbers Zito was throwing.
I grew up loving home run power, Bobby Bonds, Dave Kingman was my first power prospect, George Foster (sigh...), Jack Clark, so I understand the love for it, but it is stout pitching that wins championships. Studies by the two major analyst groups today, BP and THT, found that offense, even HR driven offenses, did not contribute to a team going deep into the playoffs. It might have helped getting them in, but once in, homers offered no advantage. It was pitching and defense that were the difference makers.
I would say that spending the kind of jack the A's spent on Cespedes and the Dodgers on Puig is a lot more than a "flyer." That is an investment! You have to be convinced that they are going to be impact players. If you have followed the Giants at all during the Sabes tenure, you would know that spending that kind of money on a player with no MLB experience just isn't going to happen.
DeleteI would add that as exciting as Cespedes is, it is still far from clear that he is worth the money the A's invested in him. As for Puig, let's see what happens once the league's pitchers get a "book" on him.
Its pretty crazy that ONE GUY signed all those home run power prospects you list. Truly amazing scouting.
DeleteI believe in the baseball gods. Peter the Pink jinxed us but good giving George Genovese the pink slip. No home grown OFs for you. Its also a lot harder these days, there are 30 teams competing for all the pie now.
Power is the hardest thing to find. The Giants have taken their shots like clockwork in the past 5 years. Lets see what Arroyo and Ryder Jones can do in AZ ball. Gustavo Cabrera is young and raw, as is Natanael Javier. The Gints definitely take their shots, its just everybody always remembers all the successes in MLB and the guys who don't make it fade away. Or limp along, like Posey's draft class buddies Pedro Alvarez and Eric Hosmer.
(there is a new movement afoot to make it seem like Posey was the consensus no-brainer pick at 5 btw, more discounting the Gints...)
As much as my brain agrees with DrB here, I do love guys who just swing the bat hard. Its really fun to watch both these Cuban gents. I know its not Sabean's style to go paying huge moneys for unproven entities, but that shot in the dark has a chance to break through big. I'm surprised Bum didn't hit Puig in the 2nd AB actually.
Wow, the boards are starting to heat up. Lots of trash talk about our system.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious what the industry thinks of Heath Hembree. Because we have a fair amount of guys charging up behind him (well, Jake Dunning decided to skip the line, rude Jake) such as Cody Hall and Josh Osich...
I imagine Runzler will be a throw-in candidate. The Giants have a lot of pen arms now, which can "muddy the water" for teams trying to guess who to ask for. That's another advantage of having a pitching rich system, when your guys have the rep as pitcher whisperers.
Be sure to check out Vander Tuig try to take the Bruins to the promised land tonight! 5PM on the WWL.
I think a bunch of teams will be trying to peal off Escobar. Kickham, Mejia and Escobar. Last year I thought Kickham would be tradebait 1B to Rosin, and the fact the Giants held him raised him up some more. Is he on their no-trade list? Hmmm... Maybe we find out a little more about him tonight! BEAT LA!
Well, Vander Tuig completely shut down Miss. St. including an 0 for 4 from Hunter Renfroe!
DeleteI realize I'm a homer, but I'm pretty annoyed at the trash talking. First, anyone who says our system is horrible obviously hasn't looked at the pitching we have in A ball. Yes, I get still a couple years away, but it is just sick, sick, sick.
ReplyDeleteMore to the point, saying we have a bad farm system while ignoring the number of young kids who made the Dance is just myopic. We have posey, crawford, and Belt who are all very young. Noonan is what 24? Yeah, he's only a reserve but he's been with the Giants a fair amount this year. And let's not forget Perez or Pegs. This is all obviously on top of a number of home growns in our starting and relief pitching. Just seems lazy.
PiLamBear
I agree. No, the Giants do not have any single prospect on the level of a Buster Posey or Madison Bumgarner right now. but the system is chock full of possible future Brian Wilsons and Brandon Crawfords. Those types can be extremely valuable in building a roster.
DeleteOf course, the reason they don't have an Buster Poseys and Madison Bumgarners is because they have been winning and don't have the type of draft picks that yields those kinds of players. Oh yeah, and Bumgarner is still younger than a lot of team's elite prospects, so you can realistically say that the Giants top prospect has been playing for the MLB club for 3 years and has helped them win 2 World Series!! Now, take THAT!