I just wanted to touch upon a few issues regarding the sliding San Fransisco Giants. Many of my friends are Giants fans and can relate, and some of you are droids of the Dark Side (aka blue crew, fair weather fans, MannyWood, Vin Skully's Dodgers). Now if you haven't been foll
owing the season I'll give a quick update on where we all stand:N.L. West
1. Dodgers -
2. Rockies 2.5
3. Giants 6.5
N.L Wild Card
1. Rockies -
2. Giants 4
So what Steve, who cares? Well I do dammit and I hate to sit back every night and see this opportunity, for an overlooked team, slip through our fingers. I'll elaborate...
The season is closing on it's last 22 or so games and it really couldn't be a tighter race. For the first time since 2002, the N.L. West is getting some street cred as one of the best divisions in all of baseball. Most of the time we get overlooked because 1. We are the N.L. 2. East Coast teams get all the pub and 3. There hasn't really been any big-time players since Barry Bonds bowed out.
Currently the Giants have a World Series caliber pitching staff and bullpen that could hold it's own in pressure situations and could match up with any other rotation, maybe in all of baseball. The the offense is a different story as we rank almost last in every offensive category. :(
Let's first touch on the positive pitching staff who just recently had to push back a start for our best player, Tim Lincecum. Back spasims and injuries happen, but this couldn't come at a worst time. The Giants then had the idea to start a rookie, and former first round pick Maddison Bumgardner, who pitched good enought to win but failed to record his first major league victory after the bullpen gave up the lead and the offense went quietly into the night. This is common place for the Giants who don't average more that 3.5 runs a game but have pitchers with ERA's around 2.00. Sigh...I'll breifly recap, as I could go into serious detail about our defensive rotation, situational hitting, extening an inning and creating a winning mental fixture to get our guys over the hump. It's the small things that will get the Giants back into the good graces with the Baseball Gods and that means stepping it up when others fail to do so. It's a basic formula in baseball:
Good pitching will always beat good hitting.
Most games are won by runs scored in 1 inning.
Win every inning and you won't lose a game.
Walks = baserunners, extened innings, higher pitch counts and opens up the defensive alighnment.
We as Giants fan cannot worry about what the Rockies and Dodgers are doing, even when we are playing them in the weeks to come. We really need to focus on run production to match our outstanding pitching staff.
Figure out how to get the table setters on base and extend innings for guys who can drive in runs. It's that simple. See, this ended up being a positive post :)Giants, I've loved you guys since I knew what baseball was, and I hate the Dodgers with every fiber in my body so LET's TAKE IT TO THOSE BUMS AND MAKE A RUN AT THIS THING! WHOSE WITH ME!!!
Ride the Wave,
Steve in Seaside
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I watched Bum pitch. I was very surprised with his poise. for being 20 yrs old, and pitching in hisfirst big league game, he pitched with a level head and I can see why his record is so good. He will be a welcome addition to an already dominant staff.
ReplyDeleteOffense: what can you really say? not much. all you can do is hope that the pitching staff holds it to one run, and pray someone hits a homerun. Right now our small ball production is terrible. Were missing bunts, were missing base on balls, we are missing patience and approach. We have a good hitting club (only when we are patient). When we keep it simple, we do well. get him on (any way possible), get him over, and get him in. perfect example of approach is Rowands triple play. He has no outs, guys on 1st and 2nd and he hits it to the left side of the plate. If Sanchez is out there i guarantee we would have seen and at bat where he is looking outer half, looking to hit it the other way. or he would have struck out looking for the opportunity to put it to the right side. Rowand should have gotten benched for that. Dont get me started on Bochy's trepidation toward bunting. I understand that you dont want to give up an out. this approach works when you have a 2004 A's team that has an insane OBP. but lets face it, with the free swinging Giants we need to get them over so a base hit scores. grrr... I get so frustrated watching the Giants hit. They just have no approach. Whoever the hitting coach is I bet he is one of two things, very frustrated because nobody listens to him, or a bad hitting coach. ahhh thanks Steve, a place to vent and lament and enjoy the Giants win or lose.