Pablo Sandoval led a Giants 6 HR barrage with 3 of his own as the Giants won going away. Key Lines:
Hunter Pence- 2 for 5, 2B, HR(18). BA= .284. When the Rev hits 'em out, they go a long ways. This one reached well into the second deck at Petco, no small feat.
Pablo Sandoval- 4 for 5, 3 HR(13). BA= .277. Holy moly! Sandoval has definitely had a resurgence since he got on a better diet and lost some of his weight, but he had not been showing signs of increased power. Then this! I've had my frustrations with Sandoval, but through it all, I did not drop him from my Savvy Vets fantasy baseball team. He singlehandedly put my team in the lead in 4 offensive categories for the week with this game.
Hector Sanchez- 1 for 5, HR(3). BA= .247. Sanchez hit this one from the right side and it carried over the deepest part of the wall at Pectco park in left-center. I'm tellin' ya, if this kid can keep himself in shape and in good health, the sky is the limit. I'm gonna predict it right here. He makes the All-Star team someday! He's only 24 years old.
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 5, HR(9). BA= .260. Crawford's bomb was pulled down the RF line and he got all of it. A truly monster shot. Crawford has been struggling at the plate hitting just .118 over his last 10. It's not clear that this dinger is the end of that slump.
Tim Lincecum- 5.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 4.50. Timmy pitched better than this line looks. He came within 1 out of pitching a QS. 2 of the walks came in the 6'th and Mijares allowed two inherited runners to score.
Mike Kickham- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 9.85. Although we would all like to see Kickham get another start, the strategy of giving him 1 low-leverage inning at a time may be the best thing for him right now. He needs to keep pitching clean innings and build his confidence. He has the stuff!
The Giants now return to SF and start a 4 gamer against the D'Backs with Ryan Vogelsong facing Trevor Cahill tomorrow evening.
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Tonight was a reminder of what could have been. The starting 8 still looks good on paper. Next year, re-sign Pence, move Belt to LF and with Pagan in CF we have a good start for an OF. Move Posey to 1B, put Sanchez at C, keep Craw,hope Panda has a strong last year of his contract and find a platoon partner for Marco and the INF is set too. Keep some of the young kids on the bench like Roger K, Perez, Noonan and Peguero and keep Arias and the team looks even better.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it needs the big overall some do. Some return to past performance levels and some shuffling of the deck and the offense is good to go.
Belt seems athletic and fast enough to play LF. Moving him there would solve a lot of problems. The Hector has not proven he can be a starting catcher for a full season, but everybody has to start somewhere, right? The nice thing about this plan is it is easily reversible if it doesn't work out.
DeleteHopefully this down year will have a similar motivating effect that 2011 had on some of the Giants players.
A dominant rotation next year would be nice.
DeleteMy dream is Crick is ready by mid-season. Maybe it's a fantasy. 'Don't rush the kid!'
I actually think kickham will be a better long man than a starter with starts here and there.
ReplyDeleteI think Kickham can be a good starter with that 4 pitch mix, but he needs to get his legs under him and gain some confidence.
DeleteIf I recall correctly, I think we do need at least one left-handed reliever to replace Lopez next year.
DeleteWill it be Kickham, Surkamp or someone outside?
Sounds like the Giants want to bring Lopez back, which would be a much better decision than trusting Kickham or Surkamp in a relief role.
DeleteIf Sandoval finishes hot maybe his trade value gets good enough to actually negotiate with teams on equal footing. Lots of chatter yesterday about Mijares and runners inherited scoring in waves. Timmy has had runners cashed in by the pen pretty consistently. Want to do something about it? Stop getting high pitch counts early, and don't leave runners on... It's pretty funny they haven't scored that many runs for Bumgarner in 9 starts.
ReplyDeleteAccording to reports, this outburst was at least partially triggered by BCraw having the temerity to joke with Pablo about catching up with him in HR, referencing a convo they had in April when BCraw was close to Panda and Panda said see me in Sept, so BCraw did after his HR, after which Panda his his three HR.
ReplyDeleteOne site also noted that Pablo watched tape of his three HR series and said to Bam Bam he is ready, if I remember the quote right so there is that too.
I read that article from Baggs, and personally thought it was a joke. If only it were that easy, Pablo would be a 40-HR guy.
DeletePanda (and a lot of players) may be rich, but he, and these other players, could still use guidance in life.
DeleteI think he needs to be motivated - by his family, friends or coaches or some incident in his life or whatever - and he will likely fulfill what he is capable of.
This is the offense we saw in April/early May. If Pagan, Belt, Pablo and Pence can produce around Posey plus Craw and Scoots platooned, then we have a longer and more powerful lineup.
ReplyDeleteThe key to next year, though, is all about the starting pitching.
MadBum solid and raising
Cain needs to become steady again, no 2-3 inning starts. His QS stats after the Perfect Game show a really bumpy road of up and down stretches.
Voggie returns bulldog status again, w/less pure stuff but more rest and determination
Timmy comes back and I want to say builds on his base of conditioning and learning how to pitch. Well I can have hope, can't I?
Gaudin/Kickham/Petit/Surkamp/Dumster Dive all compete for the #5 starter and long man. It will be good to have some depth here for a change.
Yes, and please keep Lopez.
After what we've been through this season, I think I have a big problem with Petit/Kickham/Surkamp/whoever entering next year as a potential #5. If that happens, it's been a poor offseason in my opinion. Sabean needs to make a trade or sign a capable free agent to fill the rotation... and there aren't many, so it's going to take some work and creativity.
DeleteIf it is just one rotation slot to fill, I think a competition between Petit, Kickham, Surkamp and Escobar should be yield a #5 starter who is well above league average for the slot.
DeleteFYI, Cain's QS string of starts had been ragged until August, when he had a solid stretch there until the injury. Not enough to prove he's back, but a nice start to his prior normal greatness until stopped by injury. If we got a back to normal Cain to pair up with a dominant Bumgarner in 2014, we could probably survive a high risk/high reward flier with the #5 starter.
DeleteVogie has been hampered by his lack of stamina into the season, suffering from late season issues both in 2011 and 2012, then he was really tired to start this season due to the playoff, shortened off-season, plus WBC. I would favor having the long reliever spot start once a month for Vogie, to keep him fresher deeper into the season, or putting him in the traditional #5 starter role, where he don't get any starts in the early season until later in April.
I disagree, Gaudin is great for the #5 role, he has been almost as good as Vogie has been in prior seasons, only he has more bad starts than Vogie. But that is fine in the #5 spot. If we rest Vogie, Gaudin would also be fine as a #4, the QS numbers he's been putting up for the Giants are probably good enough to be #3 for most clubs.
Moscoso also wants a shot at the #5 spot too, and he has done fine for us in limited duty, though not good enough to displace Gaudin. But he should be in the mix too.
I also don't see what the problem is with Petit, he's done all that was asked of him and more as a replacement starter.
I totally agree with DrB's statement that the four starters would yield a fine #5 starter.
I would like to see Lopez back too, and the Giants indicated as much when discussing why nobody was traded.
I am still very hopeful that Kickham can put it all together and be a starter.
ReplyDeleteHe's fairly dominant starting out most outings, then things would fall apart at some point. He did have a great relief appearance where he went 5 plus innings and that would have qualified as a DOM start had it been a start, and that's obviously good too.
I would be OK with him pitching an inning or two here or there for the rest of this season, but would prefer that he be kept a starter in 2014. If they need a LHP to replace, say, Mijares in the bullpen next season, I would lean towards going with Surkamp instead or even give Osich a shot, in order to keep Kickham as a starter. I like Surkamp as a starter too, but I assume he's still building up his stamina after his TJS, so 2014 could be a transition year for him, plus give him some more MLB experience. Earl Weaver liked easing in starting pitchers in the majors, so that would work.