Sunday, May 30, 2004

 

Where's That Blasted Towel?

I admit it. I threw in the towel on the Giants a couple of weeks ago. Now, after an unlikely 8-game winning streak, I'm tearing the hamper apart looking for the towel. As Douglas Adams liked to say, no intergalactic hitchhiker should ever be without his towel. And the Giants seem to be on a real Space Odyssey, or maybe Oddity.

Somehow, the pitching staff found its stuff, all at once. Since Jason Schmidt threw that one-hitter in Chicago, it's been a whole different staff. The team's ERA has plummeted from 5.10 to 4.50. Even Tomko and Reuter are looking like different people out there. The pitching has kept the team in every game.

The hitters have hit just enough to win 8 in a row. It's not really convincing, even though the team OPS has risen 20 points during this winning streak. But it's enough.

This, I think, is how Sabean envisioned the team before the season. Lots of low-scoring games, lots of pitching, just enough hitting and defense to win. No doubt, this team still needs another big bat if it's going to go anywhere. But 24-24 sure feels a heck of lot better than 16-24.

Jefferson 1:52 PM

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Tuesday, May 18, 2004

 

Aurilia Available?

According to this article, the Mariners are getting ready to either trade or release Rich Aurilia.

As the Brain is often heard saying...

Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?

Sure, Richie is having a horrible season. He's hitting .240/.290/.298. But that's still better than Neifi's sanity-killing .203/.246/.266. I'd bet you dollars to donuts that back in the friendly confines of San Francisco, Richie would hit better, field better, and more than anything, give this team a bit of a spark.

Furthermore, bringing back one of the Giants' most popular players would get the fans off Sabean's back for at least a week. Maybe even two.

I mean, it couldn't possibly hurt, could it?

So, my fellow fans and bloggers, I ask you to join me in this cause. Together, we can raise our voices, and maybe, if we yell loud enough, we can FREE RICH AURILIA.

Jefferson 3:56 PM

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Saturday, May 08, 2004

 

Happy Pete and the Prisoner of Stranded Bonds

Last night, Pedro Feliz showed why it is critically important to have a really good hitter batting behind Barry Bonds. Bonds is going to get walked a lot. This may come as a shock to you, but it's true. It's just a given that Bonds will be put on base half the time he comes up, and that adult diaper sales go up whenever the Giants come to town. What's really important is what the guy behind Bonds does with the free baserunner. (Alex over at El Lefty Malo is keeping track of what happens in these 'DNB' situations--excellent work, go check it out!)

Usually, what that #5 hitter does is, well, jack shit. Last night, Happy Pete homered and singled after Bonds was walked. Not surprisingly, the Giants won that game, 6-1. That's the answer, obviously! Bat Pedro Feliz fifth and watch the dividends roll in.

Not so fast. Putting Feliz in that spot is like putting your chips on the '0' on a roulette wheel. Most of the time you're going to come up empty, but every now and again you're going to hit it big. Over his career, Feliz makes an out 3 out of every 4 times he goes to the plate. Even in baseball terms, that's a lot of outs. About one time out of 30, he'll hit a home run. The numbers for 2004 are a touch better--his on-base percentage is .307 and he hits a home run roughly every 20 plate appearances. The end result? Bonds gets left on base. A lot.

Everybody gets blinded by Bonds' power, which is obviously staggering. But the way opposing managers treat him renders him effectively into a leadoff hitter. He's going to be on base a ton, and you know he's going to be on base a ton. Why not structure your batting order accordingly? Put someone behind him who hits for average and makes few outs, and then put a power hitter deeper behind him.

Of course, the Giants are short on both kinds of hitters, which really renders the whole argument "moo," as Joey from "Friends" would say. ("It's like a cow's opinion--it just doesn't matter.") But with the guys we've got, this is the lineup card I'd fill out, if they didn't arrest me for breaking into Felipe Alou's office:

Durham 2B
Bonds LF
Grissom CF
Feliz 1B (after this, I really have to hold my nose)
Dallimore or Alfonzo 3B
TuckHammondMohr RF
Pierzynski/Torrealba C
D. Cruz SS
pitcher

Then I'd hit the liquor cabinet something fierce.

Jefferson 9:59 AM

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Friday, May 07, 2004

 

Infected

Watching Jason Schmidt deal last night, I got a glimpse of Brian Sabean's state of mind when assembling the Giants roster this offseason.

If you have Jason Schmidt and Barry Bonds on your team, you have one of the very best pitchers and very best hitters in all of baseball. If these two gentleman play a game to their capabilities, they alone can win a ballgame for you. Sure, it'll be a 1-0 or 2-1 win, but it will be a win. Furthermore, it just doesn't matter who else is on the roster. Barry just has to be Barry, and Schmidt just has to pitch a shutout. Everyone else just has to show up and not boot the ball around.

It makes a certain sick logical sense, doesn't it?

Speaking of sick, Barry Bonds missed most of the Mets series with a sinus infection. No Bonds, no Durham = no offense and no wins. Doesn't matter if the pitchers give up 2 runs or 8 runs. It's a loss either way.

Jefferson 10:14 AM

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Monday, May 03, 2004

 

Disaster!

Tonight's post is written under the influence of, or perhaps inspired by, the so-bad-it's-good NBC miniseries 10.5. When it comes to awful, this movie is Neifi Perez at the plate awful. Mispelling "martial law" as "marhsal law" awful. I mean, as the earthquakes are happening, there's someone in the earthquake center shouting out the increasing Richter scale in real time: "6.5! 7.4! 8.2!" Never mind how damn silly it is. I'm gonna start doing this every time Neifi comes to plate. Shouting out his OBP as it declines during a game will be tons of fun. ".255! .253! .250!!"

The Giants experienced a major temblor of their own the other day, a rupture in the "It's Pierzynski's" fault. As often happens after media disasters, the survivors rededicated themselves into focusing on what is really important in life--hitting. While Bonds went 0-for-3 (for the whole Fri.-Sun. weekend, mind you, with something like 55 walks), the rest of the team pounded out 27 runs, 39 hits, and 24 congratulatory dents in Brian Dallimore's helmet. The Giants managed to overcome a 7-run deficit on Friday and 2-run deficits on Saturday and Sunday. They managed to do what they couldn't do in October--beat the Marlins 3 games out of 4. They managed to not hit into any double plays.

It was, by all accounts, a terrific weekend.

Except.

You know how after a big earthquake, you jump every time a big truck drives by? Yeah, me too. Except in my case, it's every time a Giants starting pitcher takes the mound. During those 3 wins, the Giants pitchers gave up 20 runs, 28 hits, 4 balls that the Giants turned into errors, and any pretense of knowing just what the hell Jeffrey Hammonds is doing with that glove in right field. (Donations to the "I told you we should have kept Jose Cruz Jr." fund are gladly accepted.) The bullpen, on the whole, has been stellar, but Kirk Rueter is in a slump as bad as any he's ever been in.

Furthermore, the guys doing all the damage out there are the types who make the casual fan scratch their head and reach for their scorecard. Dallimore? Walker? No, not Kevin Walker, but Tyler Walker? Who? He's 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA, that's who. The regulars, or those who are supposed to be regulars, are still lagging. Tucker and D.P. Pierzynski are showing a few signs of life, but Durham's gone for who knows how long? This isn't a decent team coming around; it's a bad team that's had a good weekend. No team with an ERA of 5.46 is going very far, especially when 2/3 of its games have been played in the pitcher's haven known as Whatever They Name The Phone Company This Year Park.

Of course, I'm assuming that Sabean doesn't somehow shuffle Cy Young, Randy Johnson, Babe Ruth, and Roger Clemens into the starting rotation. As fast as he's shuffling the deck, I wouldn't be surprised by anything...

Tyler Walker? Are you sure?

Jefferson 9:08 PM

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