The Giants were 1 out away from a 1-0 win when Marwin Gonzalez smacked a 3-run homer off Closer Will Smith to turn it into an Astros Win. Key Lines:
Brandon Crawford SS- 2 for 3, HR(11), BB. BA= .279. Crawford broke a scoreless tie in the 6'th inning when he pulled a pitch from Charlie Morton into the arcade down the RF line. It was his first HR since June 30. Crawford has been in a deep slump hitting just .200 for the month of July. His 2 hits in this game were his first of August in which he is hitting .133.
Dereck Rodriguez RHP- 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 2.34. 7'th QS in a row and his strongest Start so far. The kid seems to be getting better before our eyes. His story is one of the delights of this season no matter how it ends for the Giants.
Reyes Moronta RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.75. Another young pitcher who is getting better before our eyes. Did you see his K of Derek Fisher on 3 pitches? It left Mike Krukow a bit incredulous! I could see him moving into the Closer role by next season if not before.
Will Smith LHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 0 K, BS(2). ERA= 1.98. Smith has been lights out. Hopefully this is just a hiccup, but blowups like this can get into a Closer's head. I though he tried to get too cute with the breaking ball, had some close misses early and it deteriorated from there. He couldn't throw the breaking ball for a strike and couldn't get 'Stros batters to chase out of the zone. He seemed to be able to command the FB but maybe didn't have enough confidence in it? If you are a Closer, you have to be able to fall back on the FB which is why I think either Reyes Moronta or Ray Black are the Closers of the future.
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The Loss dropped the 4'th place Giants 6 games behind the NL West leading D'Backs who edged out the Phillies 3-2. Dodgers were idle to drop 0.5 games behind in 2'nd place. Rockies topped the Pirates 2-0 to remain 2 games back in 3'rd place.
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Madison Bumgarner tries to get past this loss facing Dallas Keuchel this afternoon in the 2-game series finale.
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Not looking to make excuses as all teams suffer player injuries.
ReplyDeleteThat said is there a site which has statistics for all teams?
If so; where do the Giants stack up versus other clubs?
Richard in winnipeg
Richard, check Fangraphs. I think they did a story a few weeks ago where they did stuff like graphing days lost to the DL this season.
DeleteHate to disappoint, but the Giants were around the middle of the pack based on days lost.
It got a little more into the quality of players lost and things like that. But based on ML players spending time on the DL, we're middle of the pack.
Dereck Rodriguez is really good.......and so is Will Smith. The 3-run bomb in the 9th was a crusher. Brandon Crawford's great work to get that inside breaking ball over the right field wall was a fabulous piece of hitting by a guy who has been scuffling a bit. The Giants miss Belt, but you have to be pretty happy with the job Austin Slater has done filling in. Panik is back, but doesn't seem to be at 100%, at least not yet. Longoria is back, and has been a really valuable run producer, but his defense has been at best uneven. With Cueto out for 12-15 months, and Samardzija's shoulder sending ominous signals, Mad Bum seems to be rounding into shape, though not quite as fast as many of us expected........
ReplyDeleteThere is young talent making important contributions - Duggar, Suarez, Hanson, Black, Moronta, Blach and the aforementioned Rodriguez. But, we have alraedy seen the best days from Posey, Longoria, Cueto, Samardizja and you can add Panik to the list, I fear. The Brandons are a year or two away from decline, and the decision on Mad Bum that is just over a year away is going to be very complicated.
I love the Giants. I grew up with Russ Hodges and my all-time favorite, Lon Simmons. I rooted for Tito Fuentes and I still remember how excited I was when the Alameda Rocket broke in as a rookie. Willie McCovey will always be my favorite player ever. All of which is to say, I am not a guy that jumps on and off the band wagon.
With all that said, the decision by Giants management to stay the course at the trade deadline was nothing short of baseball malpractice. The writing is on the wall, in bright red paint. Barring some truly courageous moves between now and next spring, it gets worse from here......much worse. The young talent the Giants have are fine players, but there is no elite talent (note: Derek Rodriguez may be elite), the kind of talent that makes am extended playoff run possible. Management hires baseball people to make the best baseball moves they can, considering both the near term and long term. The Giants have not done that, and it's going to be a long, painful time a 3rd and Market if something doesn't change soon.
I said many of the same things. I'd add Holland. He's not likely to ever become 'sexy.' But he's doing a fairly good job of eating innings and giving the Giants competitive starts. He's not an 1/2/3 guy. But it's hard to get more out of a 4/5 guy. And the fact is, you need 4/5 guys.
DeleteAs for the future, they need to grasp the nettle. They don't have enough to more than tease and frustrate unless they start developing these youngsters instead of trading for short-term solutions and aging, former stars.
i'm hoping david bell can ace another draft next season, better scouting will go a long way towards getting back on track long term
DeleteThat would be the "Alameda Rifle," I believe. One of my favorites! :)
Deletei think it's time for the front office to wave the white flag and place mccutchen on revocable waivers at this point. i'd rather get some return than nothing at this point.
ReplyDeleteThat was disappointing. I was crushed. Like that homer.
ReplyDeleteJust when they start looking like they might be a playoff team. I think Bumgarner for NYY top three prospects (a LHP, OF and a RHP), Belt and Dyson for Red Sox top two, McCutch and Samardjiza for anyone they can get. I think it's clear that Melancon, Watson, Smith, Strickland are set-up men and Moronta and Black are closers. Next year Julian Fernandez (rule 5) is back? Rogers? The Bullpen is not far off - they just need to stop 'not having and command today'. And put the 100mph at the BACK END.
ReplyDeleteI take that back about 100 at the back end today...
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