The Giants managed to make a game of this one, but weren't quite able to get over the hump and prevent an embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Dodgers. Key Lines:
Buster Posey- 1 for 3, HR(12), BB. BA= .280. Buster's HR got the Giants within a run, but the scoring stalled out after that.
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4. BA= .238. Crawford hung in there against the lefty with 2 outs and runners on base in the 4'th inning and drove in the second Giants run of the game.
Jake Peavy- 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K's. Peavy wasn't getting the close calls on the corners and he needs those at this point in his career.
Dan Uggla- 0 for 3, BB, 2 E. BA= .152. Uggla scored the first run after drawing a walk, so that was a positive. He also committed 2 errors, the second of which resolted in an unearned run to start the Dodgers scoring. In 3 games, Uggla has now contributed to 1 run for the Giants and has committed 3 errors leading to 3 unearned runs.
Pablo Sandoval- 0 for 4. BA= .275. Is it just me, or has Pablo fallen off the nutrition wagon? He is not looking at all small up there lately. I would not trade Pablo before the trade deadline, but I also would not sign a long term contract with him. Give him a QO and a 2 year deal with an option. If he can do better on the FA market, take the draft pick.
The Loss drops the Giants 1.5 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West.
The Giants stay home this week to face the Pittsburgh Pirates with Madison Bumgarner facing Vance Worley in game 1 tomorrow night.
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By some metrics Sandoval is the best defensive third-baseman in baseball. He didn't look overweight diving for Ryu's grounder over the bag. If they don't sign him who exactly can they get to replace him? His OPS this year is .750 after a horrible April. Posey's OPS is .780. If you move Posey to third you lose defense there and count on Sanchez/Susac to provide both defense to replace Posey and hitting to replace Sandoval. Pay fair market value and sign Sandoval.
ReplyDeleteSandoval is having a good season, and I have defended him here many times against those who want to trade him before the deadline. I am just commenting on his current physical appearance compared to earlier in the season. He looks like he's gained a significant amount of weight in the last few weeks. But that's just to my eye.
DeleteSandoval is an incredibly talented player. In the past 28 days he's had 6 extra base hits, a slash of 304/345/456. As the ESPN article stated, he's among the top of the heap defensively, but that has fluctuated with his weight. His defense was awful in 2013.
DeleteI don't see Pablo taking that kind of lowball offer. He's 28, and as we've discussed more than a few times, the scarcity of hitters on the market will get him paid. So then it becomes - do you want the 30th pick in the draft, with its 3.33% odds of being a player like Pablo, 10% odds of some sort of cup of coffee? Or do you want to go more targeted with minor or MLB results? By the reports from the beats, it appears that Sabean is obsessed with holding the line to go give a generous offer. And then I go back and look at his extra base hits. Do you really want to go pay top dollar for this type? That's a hard decision to make, no doubt. I don't see the Giants shuffling off a piece because they're in the race, but in the long term interests of the club, he's in this non-lockup situation because of his inconsistent play. I'd want to see some major heroics, and yes, I would go against the grain right now and trade him off.
The biggest weakness not addressed this offseason if a backup plan for 2B/3B. Somebody major should have been signed, instead it was the B-team backup plan. It's biting pretty hard right now with Dan Uggla booting the ball around.
I honestly don't get Uggla move. Let Panik play. HIs defense is very good and he's not hitting any worse (and in fact better). I think we need to understand if he's ready, since we have holes to fill: LF, SP (I'd be shocked if Vogey is resigned), 3b and 2b. If we can fill one internally, that is great. Frankly, here's hoping Kickham is up to the task at end of year and he can step in for Vogey so we can cross two off our list.
DeleteThey'd be working Panik in there, but he's still mending from a sprained ankle. Reports say he should be back soon.
DeletePiLamBear:
DeleteIf Panik did not sprain his ankle, I think Uggla would still be in Fresno, and the Scutero/DePaula/Noonan moves might not have happened.
Just how bad is JC Perez's defense at second? He play there for the first few years of his minor league career. It can't be worse than Pill/Huff and the current version of Uggla.
I cannot see Pablo receiving a long term offer. He has struggled with his weight in the past, and it will only get worse as he gets older. He is good but too risky for a long term commitment.
DeletePersonally I would not give Pablo anything more than a 3 year deal. Some team out there will go for longer, though.
DeleteI am over Uggla. Next.
ReplyDeleteBut weren't you saying a couple of weeks ago, Pablo is going to get PAY!!!! like if it was something amazing. An overrated player who hasn't done anything in the last 2-3 years.
ReplyDeleteI still think Pablo is going to get paid. I just hope it's not the Giants for anything longer than 3 years.
DeleteWe need health on our side! Keep treading water till we can get Belt and Pagan back. Sabean was quoted saying that he met with Pagan in Scottsdale and that after the meeting acquiring an OF was no longer a priority. That leads me to believe he's going to be back in the line up sooner vs latter.
ReplyDeleteBelt is a toss up, unfortunately. Concussions are tricky business all around. He was still working his way back in to the groove of things when this crap went down now we have to endure him getting back into the swing if things again.
Lastly, we need a legit 2B something bad. Uggla is not the answer. Sometimes you're just done and I think it's safe to say he's ready for the fork. Sabean needs to keep his dumpster diving to the bullpen and position players on the right side of 30. That being said, IF we can get a healthy Pagan back then I think we can live with Panik at 2B. That lets Blanco go back to spelling Morse in the outfield, which in turn will hopefully let him catch that second wind. He's been run into the ground bad lately.
Can anyone tell me why we did not sync our rotation with the Dodger's starters before the all star break? Skipping starts or moving up a start to make it work. Sending Lincecum, Vogelsong and Peavy against Greinke, Ryu and Kershaw is a huge mismatch. Who is steering this ship? We just lost another 1.5 games on top of the 9.5 games previously. Shaking my head.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that we give up 2 decent prospects for a RENTAL who was 1-9. It came out today that the Giants were receiving calls for Escobar and Hembree. There was nothing else out there? I think if we sweetened the package with Susac and Crick we might have been able to get Price who would be able to stick him at the #2 spot behind Bumgarner for 2015. I don't get it. Can someone enlighten me on what is going on?
And people were asking about Noonan in spring of 2013, I believe.
DeleteBy the way, is Righetti back with the team now or is he still recovering?
Neither we or really anyone in the league can match up with Greinke and Kershaw so why try to sync up with them? Run out whomever you have and try to catch a break or two. It's not like this is the best of a 5 game series, still a bunch of games left and you have to win those too to keep close.
DeleteW-L record is not a good way to gage a pitcher. If you look at Peavy this year and the rest of his stats, he matches up actually very similarly to Cain. We in essence replaced Cain with Cain instead of Petit and kept Petit as our long man and spot starter. You tell me how valuable that is compared to a couple of guys that aren't probably going to sniff the big leagues for a couple of years minimum? BTW, Peavy is only costing us $2 million for the rest of the year so we now have room for another trade like a second baseman.
I'd like to get Price but the tea leaves are not pointing in that direction. Not sure even Susac and Crick could get it done (although as a Giant fan I would do that) but there is also a money consideration. I don't think Price is coming unless Sabean finds a way to get real creative and moves some other payroll.
We have done very well against the Dodgers this year and last year so I don't necessarily agree with you here. Matchups are everything with the Dodgers because we don't usually score very often against them. We have blown them out a few times here and there but usually it is a rubber match.
DeleteThe Giants have only won 5 out of 15 of Matt Cain's starts. So to say Jake Peavy is just as good is not saying an awful lot.
I agree with you here. As a diehard Giants fan I guess I would just hope they were out there looking for quality. Peavy is my opinion is at the end of his career. I don't see much value there. Price might have been a stretch but I am sure there are other decent pitchers out there that are controllable for 2015. Hell, I would rather put a package together for a guy like Dallas Keuchel of the Astros than Peavy.
Do you honestly think the Astros are about to trade a cost controlled lefty who's pitching like a top 20 pitcher in the game right now? As much as I hate the entire Astros org atm, they're not everyone else's minor leagues. They wanted a lot for a year and a half of Norris (Crick and Blackburn) multiply that by 3 or 4 and you have what they would ask for Kuechel. We were not going for one of the rentals or expensive big boys, ergo Peavy, a solid 3/4 option.
DeleteKershaw is pitching in one of the best stretches statistically speaking in baseball history. We DO NOT have any one that can match up with him, I am sorry. Grienke has pitched better than every one of our other pitchers with maybe the exception of Madbum but that is debateable too. The Dodgers just have stronger pitching then we do, it is just a fact. All we can do is *hope* we win when we face either of those two and personally I don't want to waste a good performance on them as we will probably lose anyway.
DeleteYou are still too hung up on wins for pitchers. Ever heard of the expression "Cained"?
I addressed this in the comments of another post. First of all, the Giants rotation post All-Star Break was largely dictated by Matt Cain's situation.
DeleteI do not believe it is necessarily good strategy to have your #1 matched up with the the other team's #1, especially when the other guys are as dominant as Kershaw and Greinke. Back in the '60's, both the Giants and the Dodgers tried to avoid Koufax-Marichal matchups preferring to essentially punt those games to the other team's ace and bank of their ace winning against a lesser opponent.
I not advocating for purposely altering your rotation to avoid an ace-ace matchup, but I also do not think you should alter your rotation to get one.
It's rare lightning strikes twice.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that was the thinking in relying on Pagan as our leadoff, with Blanco in there occasionally.
The alternative is, since Pagan was hurt last year, more or less tanking the season (plus starting pitching and poor overall hitting - but many will agree that Pagan was, is and will be the sparkplug), maybe we should have had a Plan B in place...or at least should have talked about it or management did but couldn't find one...because it's not possible to have a backup plan for every position.