In the Comments section of yesterday's post, I said that the season would hinge on the performance of the starting pitchers. I may have to take that back a bit after this game. You can't blame Ryan Vogelsong for the 4 losses he has accumulated in his last 4 games, not with a 2.91 ERA over the same span of game in which he has gotten no, that's right, zero run support. Vogey pitched more than well enough for a W and the bullpen did their job too. This one is entirely on an offense that generated just 7 baserunners and 0 XBH's against a good, but beatable opposing pitcher. Key Lines:
Ryan Vogelsong- 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.86. See discussion above.
Sergio Romo- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 5.00. Romo's slider has been consistently biting in his last 2 appearances. Again, doesn't do him a lot of good if the offense is not scoring any runs.
Joaquin Arias- 1 for 3. BA= .186. OK, I get that Arias probably does need some AB's and I get that he's a RH batter facing a LH pitcher and I get that he had one of the team's 4 hits in the game. He's not somebody I feel I need to see more of as a fan! When Crawford needs a day off, and I agree he does need more of them, Ehire Adrianza should be getting every one of those starts whether it is to showcase him for a trade or to evaluate him for the future. He's as good at the plate as Arias is now with better defense at SS and he has the added value of opportunity to evaluate a guy who could have a bright future, either with the Giants or with another team.
The Giants suffered a double whammy of offensive failure as the Padres' offense did a faceplant against Paul Maholm and the Dodgers to lose 1-0. That meant the Giants drop a game behind the Dodgers in the NL West.
Madison Bumgarner tries to right his ship and finish the first half with a series win facing another guy the Giants have never seen before, LHP Vidal Nuno who the D'Backs acquired recently from the Yankees in the Brandon McCarthy trade.
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A team is not going to win many games when your cleanup hitter has a mediocre 40 RBIs. Time to start bringing some heat upon Posey, he has not been producing at all. Last year was the same an avg year from a supposed super star. This year he has been at best mediocre, no power no avg not great OBP. I am starting to wonder if Posey is going to turn out into another Joe Mauer type of contract.
ReplyDeleteAgree with your take on Arias, he is just simply useless no need to have him on the 25man roster either. If the best option is Adrianza then theres trouble. He is not a major leaguer and by playing more he is going to get more exposed. Has no trade value, IMO
I expressed a great deal of uneasiness about Posey's contract at the time it was made. I think it was premature. I'm not sure why the Giants felt they had to get it done that soon.
DeleteI don't agree with you on Adrianza.
Another shut out...one longs for those Marvin-Benard-as--the-leadoff-hitter years.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of leadoff hitters: The problem with Posey at cleanup is not that Posey is a bad player to have, per se. He's currently sitting 5'th in MLB catcher fWAR, but it's that maybe he should not be hitting cleanup. Hunter Pence should not be hitting leadoff either. Now, that is mostly because of Pagan's injury which will hopefully fix itself shortly after the All-Star Break but Pence should be down in the middle of the lineup making it longer.
DeleteI believe that having a long middle of the order is more important than having a single stud in the 4 hole.
Maybe I'm alone in this, but I'm over Buster catching. Not cause I think he's a bad catcher, but cause these slumps almost always seem to coincide with him getting his ass kicked behind the plate. We need that MVP bat and the only way I think you can increase the chance of that resurfacing is limiting the abuse on Buster's body. We paid him like a MVP now we need to try and insure that's the production we're getting.
DeleteDitto on this one. Problem is, Buster's gotten quite a few opportunities to get out from behind the dish this season, between off days and Belt's injury. His offensive numbers are above average for a catcher, but certainly not what we know he's capable of. I seriously don't think there will be any changes until well after his best years are behind him.
DeleteThe other thing about Buster that nobody seems to talk about is if you break down his swing mechanics, he actually has a lot of moving parts and a long timing mechanism. Any part of all that gets out of whack and the whole thing falls out of whack.
DeleteGRAND SLAM FOR BUSTER!!!
ReplyDeleteLG
And then for Bumgarner!! When is the last time the Giants had grand slams in consecutive innings? (I'm tested to ask when is the last time they scored 8 runs in consecutive innings.)
DeleteNot tested, but tempted. Damn autocorrect.
DeleteNot sure, but Bummy is the second pitcher in MLB history to hit 2 GSHR's in one season. I know who the other one is and he hit both of them in 1 game….against the Giants! I listened to the game on the radio. Tony Cloninger of the Milwaukee Braves.
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