The Giants offense failed to mount an attack against Randal Delgado and the D'Backs' bullpen as they wasted a strong performance by Madison Bumgarner. Key Lines:
Tim Flannery- The Giants best opportunity to take the lead in the game came in the 6'th inning. Posey led off with a walk and Pablo doubled up the alley in left-center. Flannery waived Buster home. It was close, but Pennington made a perfect relay thrown and Buster's slide was just a bit on the unimaginative side. He was out by about 4 inches. You could tell on TV from where Buster was on the basepath and how quickly Pollack got the ball to Pennington that it was going to be close at best. I don't know, I just don't think you want the first out to be made at home plate in that situation. There are no guarantees with this team that a they would have scored in a no-out, runners at 2'nd and 3'rd situation, but I like the odds of that better than the odds of Buster scoring from first on a double. He's not Bengie Molina out there and might be faster than JT Snow was, but he ain't a speedburner. I'm guessing that over the years Flannery has won more games for the Giants than he's lost, but he may well have lost this one.
Kensuke Tanaka- 1 for 4. BA= .269. Tanaka was not charged with any errors in the game but he whiffed on 2 balls that I think a good LF would have caught. I like Tanaka, but the initial enthusiasm has worn off. It looks to me like opposing pitchers have figured out they can pound him without worrying about giving up a longball. That severely limits his offensive potential and when you see plays like that in LF, you start thinking he might not be the right guy out there. I'd probably rather have Torres in CF and Blanco in LF against RHP's, or give Frenchy a shot at all comers and see if they can catch lightning in a bottle.
Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 2.93. The triple by Prado in the first inning which led to the lone run Bummy allowed was one of the balls Tanaka should have caught, IMO.
The Loss leaves the Giants in 4'th place and drops them 5.5 games behind the NL West leading D'Backs. The 2'nd place Dodgers kept pace with a 9-2 drubbing of the Nationals to remain 0.5 games back. The Rockies remain in 3'rd place, 4 games back with a 9-3 win over the Cubs. The Last Place Padres drop 8.5 back with a 3-2 loss to the Cardinals.
Tim Lincecum tries to become just the second pitcher in history to throw 2 no-hitters in a row facing the Reds and Bronson Arroyo tomorrow evening.
The doubleheader on Tuesday looms as a potential backbreaker with Barry Zito and probably Eric Surkamp slated to start for the Giants.
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Tanaka is not putting the fear in anyone in terms of his power or lack of. Not even sure I would call him a slap hitter. We might as well bring back Burris. He's a waste of a roster spot and not what this team needs.
ReplyDeleteTough loss for Madbum. Would have been nice to sweep but at least the Bums aren't in 1st place....yet.
Sadly, I agree with you on Tanaka. His defensive deficiencies may well have cost the Giants a win today and he's not making up for the lack of D at the plate.
DeleteRumors going to start coming in.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mlbinjurynews.com/2013/07/cubs-rumors-more-teams-in-on-matt-garza.html
Not a guy I read, but his source is cubs bloggers. Epstein/Hoyer leak games? Not sure.
First deal: Gary Brown for Garza - rejected
Second deal: Susac and Blach for Garza - rejected.
This could be 100% legit. The Giants may not have the steaks in the freezer. However, for me that 2nd offer seems heavy. I wouldn't like that trade at all.
Anyways, we'll see... Heston should get traded within 48 hours also.
I'd agree on Tanaka. I would call up Kieschnick and platoon him and Frenchie. At least that way you have a good arm and a legit OF. Todays loss rankled a bit, yet another opportunity through the teams fingers. They're running out of chances to light the rocket and go get this thing.
What do you think it means that the Giants want another starter when Vogie is suppose to return in around two weeks?
DeleteObviously, Lincecum bought himself some time in the rotation with his no-no, if not the full season. Maybe the talk here is right, strike while the iron is hot and trade Romo to get good value, install Lincecum as closer extraordinarire, and then the new starter takes over in the rotation. Or it could be as I had speculated, Zito's poor performances and lack of future season for big money has made it more palatable to DFA him now that he's struggling again, no need to put up with his ups and downs anymore, and Garza replaces him.
But in any case, what happens to Vogie when he returns? Too good for long relief, though maybe that's where he ends up. Or since he's tough, he is added to setup rotation to help out in relief, where we just lost Affeldt again.
I would not like to see Susac traded period, let alone with Blach.
I looked up Susac's splits after I posted Brown's and Mac's here in the down on the farm wrap. He started strong and has struggled, stats have receded each month. He's been injured, and most likely has had trouble getting his stroke back. His defense needs work. But the combination of youth, holding his own in the Eastern while flashing OBP and power is a nice combo.
DeleteIt's just a weird one. Garza is a good pitcher. Is he a #2 or a #3? Is his injury trouble completely behind him? He has been amazingly consistent for a good portion of his career, and he's young (29). But there is no control, he's a rental. If its sign and trade... Maybe it makes sense, maybe. But the injury risk is pretty large.
Seems like a hedge on next year, get a guy to protect against Zito being bad Zito and Timmy bolting or being Bad Timmy. Apparently Garza has a price, the Cubs decided not to meet it? I don't know enough about that.
The problem with Vogie returning in 2 weeks is the Giants might be out of the race by then. They need help now! On the other hand, Garza would not have been much help in a game like this one which was lost by poor hitting, fielding and baserunning.
DeleteIf it was a difference making trade, I would have no problem giving up Susac and Blach for a rental. I like both prospects, but they are not on my untouchable list, which petty much begins and ends with Kyle Crick and I'm even on the fence with him a bit.
I'm just not sure there are any difference making trades out there if you are sending a guy like Tanaka out to play LF. Even Frenchie is a lightning-in-a-bottle kind of guy.
Well, there is going to be a ton of "why didn't we get a LF" nonsense - I saw it started in Giants extra by Carl S in a guest appearance. All the options last year that were any kind of improvement cost in draft picks, commitment years and mad money. And all are looking like huge busts, the kind that sink your battleship as fast as a fat panda.
DeleteHamilton: 223/279/409 - pretty sure Torres has him beat! only 110 MILLION left on the contract!
Swisher: 238/345/387 - he has a higher OPS than Blanco, which is great until you realize he is a 1B in name and in practice. (I called this one - no way Swish is taking the OF in his 30s). 45MM left and a vesting option to sweat!
Bourne: had a 100MM price tag early - 290/332/367, and don't forget the sweet defense. 41MM left and a vesting option to sweat! Blanco: 270/333/358 equally sweet defense and a slam dunk arbitration hearing to sweat!
Fact is there just aren't any good LFs. Even the Hairstons have underperformed (maybe they haven't played the Gigantes enough yet this season?) The best dumpster dive of the year is Marlon Byrd on the Mets. He's 35.
If we need help now, we should have Garza ready to start tomorrow's doubleheader instead of rushing a post-TJ Surkamp up. (Great job training staff on the re-hab though!) This is the problem though, the slicksters in the Chi-Cub office are going to shop everything five times to sunday. They may get burned, who knows. The thing I do like about Garza is he's in the sweet spot of youth, he still throws big heat (93 and change) and he's a California native who wants to pitch here. If the medicals check out, and there is a commitment long-term in place, I could get convinced. A rental in this Jeck/Hyde season? Terrible idea.
Right: no rentals this year! Difference-making trade? What could one be if one were to specify any realistic trade of one's choice? (I emphasize realistic, not the Giancarlo Stanton for Bryce Bandilla plus Brock Bond kind of trade, as dreamed up by wishful adolescents.). A demi-season of Garza for Susac and Blach? No way.
DeleteHunter and Ichiro were 2 guys I thought could fill the LF hole. Hunter is doing well and Ichiro is still slapping.
DeleteI was big on Hunter as well. I thought he was the perfect solution to LF actually. 2 year deal, play a good LF even though he's older, hit the ball. Hit the ball. Something the Gigantes have trouble with. 307/343/446, 111 OPS+. Has even snuck in 7 HRs. 0.9 WAR for 12MM, and that's with -1.0 WAR playing RF for Detroit.
DeleteThat was the perfect solution to LF. He may have wanted to stay in the AL though because he's a career AL guy and he knows the parks and pitchers. I still wanted at least a tire kick.
TH has also said he'd be uncomfortable with a gay teammate, on moral grounds, and sneered at the blackness of black Latinos. Those statements would play badly with lots of Giants fans, and rightly so. As to Ichiro, he turned down two years at $15M from the Giants to re-sign with the Yankees for $3M less--this according to the NY Daily News in mid-December 2012.
DeleteHowever desirable these two guys might have been on the field, neither seems to me to be relevant to a discussion of what the Giants should have done in the off-season.
Interesting points about TH campanari. And yes, the Giants did bid on Ichiro (and tried to trade for him as well) It should also be noted that they traded for Soriano (I would love to know what they gave up) and he invoked his no-trade. So they have been making efforts to snag a LF, it just hasn't worked out. So hello Jeff Francoeur!
DeleteI'm for no rentals this year too. I don't want to sound disloyal, but I honestly think that we're out of it. Doyers and DBs are just too strong and we are not going to make it up. I'd rather not give up Susac or Black (the former maybe giving us a shot to move Posey if we want to, and the latter being someone who I hope can be a good pitcher in a year or two based upon how well he's performed). At a minimum, I think we're selling both "low" right now rather than high (look what we got for our back up catcher last year--a WS ring!).
ReplyDeleteI actually would be fine unloading Romo (we have Hembree and Bochy, not to mention Timmy) and Pence to rebuild.
PiLamBear
Well, to be fair, Hembree and Bochy have not proven anything at the MLB level and have been inconsistent in AAA. Who knows if Timmy is going to be back next year. I'd put the odds at less than 50% right now. Ditto Hunter Pence. Next year could be a rebuilding/reloading year.
DeleteAZ is not that strong. They are an insane 17-2 or something close in starts by Corbin, and a record like the Giants with all the rest of their starting pitching. They should fall back to us as he regresses to mean. La not that long ago was struggling too, even when Puig was hot, they were five hundred ish in his initial games. Maybe this is their new, but Hanley is not that reliable consistent producer, so my initial thought isno, they are not that strong either.
DeleteGarza gone to the Rangers, so all that chatter is moot (Hank Schulman asked and the Greybeards said no offer was made fwiw) and then Braun took a deal. Suspended for the rest of the year.
ReplyDeleteWell, no no-no for Timmy tonight.
ReplyDeleteTonight's the night we became sellers.
ReplyDelete