You can brush off one shelling as a fluke, but Matt Cain came back from getting pounded in his last start to not getting out of the first inning in this one. OK, I think we can all officially hit the panic button! Key Lines:
Brandon Belt- 1 for 2, 3B, 2 BB. BA= .259. Second strong game in row for Belt who seems to have put the 0 for 8 with 5 K's completely behind him. He would not have last year!
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4. BA= .270. 3'rd multi-hit game in a row for this Brandon.
Matt Cain- 0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 1 K. ERA= 5.06. Apparently Cainer was lifted because his pitch count had reached 36 in 1 inning. I was working during the game so did not see it or see the velocities on Gameday. Were they down at all? Cain has been the absolute bedrock of this team for so long.....well....this is very disconcerting! I'll just hope it's a mechanical thing or a pitch-tipping thing that can be worked out as opposed to an injury he's hiding.
Mike Kickham- 5.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 10.61. Not great numbers but the K/9 continues to indicate he has MLB quality stuff. Just needs to refine his game. Hanging around for 5+ innings is a good way to facilitate the refining process.
All division rivals are playing later tonight, and does it really matter? Until the Giants find a floor, which they clearly haven't, it does not matter what other teams do.
As if the loss and Cainer's performance were not a bummer enough, Chad Gaudin was charged with lewd conduct stemming from an incident that occured in January in Las Vegas. I won't go into details, but after reading about the incident, man, that is weird beyond belief. So much for what happens in Vegas...... I assume the Giants were aware of the incident when they signed him. If so, they should stick by him and let him have his day in court, or plea bargain or whatever, but man, that has to be embarrassing to the entire organization and team!
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The MLB article says that Cainer is throwing fewer fastballs (47%) and his velocity on those fastballs is down to a 91.1 mph average. Maybe the Gs should put him on the DL and let him rest. I like that Boch pulled him. No need to risk getting him hurt this year.
ReplyDeleteObviously injuries have forced marginal players into more significant roles than their talents warrant, but it seems like more is going on with this team than can be fully explained by an appeal to an overall drop in talent level. I was concerned when Carl Steward reported the Giants had about as somber a clubhouse as he's seen here - and that was the homestand before this one. At the risk of falling into causal reductionism, are we seeing a leadership vacuum among the players?
ReplyDeleteIf you remember back to the white hot intensity of The Rev's speeches and over what period of time that had to be maintained. Well, humans just can't maintain that forever. At some point those white hot speeches aren't going to have the same ring to them and the response is eh, heard that one before.
DeleteI think there was an emotional letdown after 2010. I think there's an even bigger one this year.
Maybe. Although this team seemed to be on an emotional high to start the season. And I think 2011 was more about Posey and Freddy going down than an emotional let down - although, really, when we look back on this season, we'll be blaming injuries too, and not a funeral atmosphere in the clubhouse.
DeleteI think it was more a "not enough rest" vacuum this off-season than a leadership vacuum or an emotional letdown, though to Shankbone's blog post, maybe there is a "rad ass enforcer" vacuum, someone like Burrell in 2010 or Pagan and Vogelsong in 2012.
DeleteAnd I agree with DrB's point about being unable to keep the emotions revved up that high for so long, eventually there will be burn out. Though to Anon's point, we did start off the season really hot, particularly the offense, we were 8 games above .500 because of our offense and in spite of our starting pitching.
More than that, the more I see this, the more I think that the Giants are just in a bad place mentally, trying to force things and make things happen, spiralling downward in a death spiral. That's why I'm focusing on the ASB as hopefully giving the Giants the chance to reset their minds and be normal in the second half, rather than trying to hit that five-run homer in every AB.
And you know what? Most clubhouses going through such a bad period of losing should have a somber clubhouse. If they were cheerful, the reporter would say that the players are oblivious to how poorly they are playing or that they just don't care about doing well, the players can't win in this situation, it's the old, "do you still beat your wife" question, whatever your answer is, you lose.
I like the way Carl writes, but I feel sometimes that he's still too much the A's beat writer, spreading the hatred that the A's management feels towards the Giants.
It's multifactorial and injuries have certainly taken their toll, but if you watch this team closely, I think you have to say there is an emotional letdown that's contributing.
DeleteSure, injuries can obviously be both the root cause of poor play and the somber clubhouse, thus we have to careful to assign anything to clubhouse attitudes. However, not having read shankbones's blog post, I will say I was thinking along the lines of a "red-ass clubhouse vacuum". The Giants of the last several years have always seemed to bounce back strongly from misfortune, which was why it was a bit shocking to read about the clubhouse atmosphere from Carl - again this was noted before the deepest part of this slump. On the surface, it looks like the Giants are caught in a negative feedback loop, which is exacerbating the very real strains that are evident in the lineup.
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