The Giants, once again, could not get baserunners home to save their lives which led to a close defeat. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 3 for 5, 2B, 3B, SB(8). BA= .270. Each of Pagan's hits led off an inning and he didn't score. Amazing!
Tony Abreu- 0 for 5. BA= .242. A miserable night for Abreu who played 2B in place of Scutaro and batted second. The batter in front of him plus the two batters behind him went a combined 7 for 15. Hey, maybe next time Bochy needs to rest Scutaro and sit Crawford against a LHP, he might consider a configuration of Arias at 2B with Adrianza at SS.
Brandon Belt- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .282. Belt had 2 hits, but made outs each time Pagan was on base ahead of him, and no, I'm not blaming Belt for the loss. There is BABIP luck and there is clutch luck. The Giants have had a pretty good dose of both this year on the negative side.
Buster Posey- 2 for 3. BA= .309. Buster took a foul off the 4'th finger of his right hand and had to leave the game. It seems like just a bent back fingernail, and at this point he is planning to miss just one game. No need to rush it at this point in the season, though. Maybe someone can educate me on this. Aren't catchers supposed to keep their throwing hand clenched and tucked behind them until the ball is received?
Madison Bumgarner- 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 2.91. Another Caining for Bummy.
Heath Hembree- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.00. Very nice MLB debut for Hembree whose family flew out from South Carolina to see the game. He featured a FB that topped out at 92 MPH but looked faster and he was able to spot it on the corners and keep it down in the strike zone. He backed that up with a tight slider that he threw on any count. I did not see anything that I would call a changeup in his 11 pitch inning. Hembree showed off a weird mouth tick between pitches so he's already in big league form with that. Equipment manager Mike Murphy raised some eyebrows by giving Hembree #38. I'm going to take a wild guess and say this may have as much to do with what Murph thought of the previous owner of the number as what he thinks of the kid!
The Loss puts the Giants in 6'th place in the race for the #1 overall pick in the 2014 draft.
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Wow, 6th pick.. we're really making a push for the top 5! It's unreal how much this team missed Pagan. The guy has got to put a couple of healthy seasons together (at least) during this contract if we want to be competitive.
ReplyDeleteI thought Hembree looked very poised out there. And I also thought the fastball got on hitters better than the low-90's readings they showed on the gun. It still baffles me that he wasn't called up months ago.
We will have to see those low-90's readings were due
Delete1) stadium gun
2) real loss of velocity (due to age, mechanics, injury etc)
or
3) Giants pitching philosophy of sacrificing a little velocity for better control when necessary.
Another loss...6th place.
DeleteThat's all you can ask for. Play hard, stay healthy and lose...but gain another spot on the draft order.
I don't mind repeating this formula until the season ends.
Just remember to hit the ball hard, and pray it's right at someone...for this month only, of course.
Hembree was asked to develop another pitch, and that is what he has been doing in the minors. This also explains his bad start and strong finish.
DeleteThanks.
DeleteI read somewhere before though, that they had asked some pitchers to throw not as hard in order to have better control.
The Pitch-fx pitch identification algorithm identified Hembree's 92-93 mph pitches as cutters. If accurate, then there's more in the tank.
DeletePeter
Thanks Peter.
DeleteCan't wait for him to show his mid-to-high 90's fastball as well.
I'm not sure about the situation last night, but in the past they mentioned that Posey didn't tuck his arm in back so that he would have a quicker catch and release time when runners were on base.
ReplyDeletepi.fa
Maybe more bad luck production-wise this year, and we will get more good luck in the future.
ReplyDeleteThat's how it works, I think.
Health-wise, I believe we have caught up and should be pretty even going forward with everyone else in MLB.
That does not mean Panda and everyone on the team should not be on a healthy diet and work out diligently in the off season.
I decided to ask Dave Cameron over at Fangraphs about Timmy and whether the Giants should offer a QO and whether TImmy should accept if they do. His answer was a bit terse, as his tend to be, but he said yes, the Giants should make a QO and no, Timmy should not accept. Now, how do you like them apples.
ReplyDeleteIf Timmy does well here on out, I could see another team giving him a longer (2-3 year) type contract which would dwarf a CO. Given mediocre pitchers command a ton, I could see him gettng $25-30mm. I'm fine with that. We get a 1st round pick. Timmy isn't the answer for us. Next year would be nice but longer term we don't really need him given the talent we've got coming up.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping Escobar is ready to go (so he's your 4). Little worried about Chaudin and Vogey, but I'd be ok with them as 3/5 respectively, and give Blackburn and Crick a shot at AA to be ready if those guys fail. We also have Surkamp and he'd be a fine No 5 if he's ready to go (I could see a rotation of Madbum, Cain, Escobar, Vogey/Chaudin and Surkamp too).
Ultimately, I'd rather have the high draft choice than suffer through another year of Timmy (no-no notwithstanding).
ps, I'm warming to Pence getting a longer term contract. He's played a lot better recently, and I think Pagan plus Pence is pretty good in the OF. Problem is we've go no real threat at LF, other than Belt moving there. I don't see that happening unless they really think Posey is the full time 1b or Angel V. is ready to go (both of which are about a year off).
PiLamBear
There were times when you see Sabean signed someone without much upside, but his likely production for the coming season is known, rather than someone with some upside but iffy about whether he can produce, for various reasons, such as recovering from an injury or what not.
DeleteAnd some would ask why? Why not the latter? The latter would seem 'no risk,' especially if you can get that guy 'cheap.'
Well, the risk is REAL. The risk is, even at zero cost, if he doesn't produce and you are relying on his production to achieve team immortality, you just blew that chance. That's your cost. That non-monetary cost is as real as your monetary cost.
Cheap contracts are not low cost...if you consider not making the playoffs costly (not money, but happiness at team immortality).
So, in terms of the rotation of Madison, Cain, Vogey, Escobar and Surkamp, I don't know what our experts think, so I can't say for sure. But it doesn't seem like the for-sure foundation thing (of a pitching and defense team) we were used to see (not that we had not been fooled by that sense of certainty before).