Friday, May 21, 2010

Game Wrap 05-21-2010: A's 6 Giants 1

I didn't see any of this game on TV due to family obligations. It looks like that was just as well as it looks like it was a real snoozer, if not extremely anger inducing. A clearly not-at-his-best Barry Zito was backed by a listless offense that once again couldn't seem to drive in any runs to save it's life. Just don't try telling Giants fans right now that it's more important to get on base than to drive the baserunners in. Key lines:

None, really! Sandoval, Huff and Torres had 2 hits each with Torres getting 2 doubles.

Zito- 6.2 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. We had to know this was coming as his 1+ ERA was clearly unsustainable.

The Giants and A's go again tomorrow with Matt Cain taking the ball. Hoss has pitched some pretty good games against the A's in his career. Let's hope he has one in him for tomorrow.

4 comments:

  1. not anger inducing, but i still would like to question why sabean and company didnt see more upside in raj davis

    if you are not gonna have a team that hit for power, you need a fast team that gets on base...raj does that....14 sb already this season

    the a's won thanks to their speed and some bloop doubles....the ugliest park in the world plays huge

    in the tv booth there was kruk, miller and fosse...a totally hilarious night

    you have miller the consumate pro and two homers, both trying to outdo each other in terms of shilling for their own squads.

    it was also great to listen to them reminice

    best part was when both miller and kruk were basically dissing the look of the coliseum, thanks to mount davis...and fosse trying his best to support it as being a much better park for hitters with the mount davis backdrop

    there is no way that any sane (or not being paid by the a's person) can really say that the coliseum is a great place for baseball.

    some notes...medders sent to dl, casilla brought up

    wellemeyer is back in the pen, and they are skipping his next start...i see no upside in keeping him as a long man...that would mean that only pucetas or madbaum could replace him on the 40 man, and its hacker who has been having the best year so far. so look to wellemeyer being dfa'd in order to add hacker to the rotation. no great loss. i usually dont out of my way to dislike players, but todd has a terrible attitude, and i really question his work ethic.

    again, additional proof that st stats and performance mean very little.

    another observation...the giants need a lead off hitter. rowand is just not the guy. he doesnt like working counts, doesnt have speed and doesnt take enough walks.

    and im gonna give it a full month, but i may have to eat some crow on sanchez. his d is still not there, but he looks like the same contact hitter that he was before his injuries.

    and finally, im very bothered at what has gone on with nate. we now find out that he has been playing hurt since the end of april. and apparently both bochy and sabean were aware of this. so if the gm is aware....why is he saying negative things about him in the press?

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  2. The reason is that Davis is at best a 4th OF, something the A's realize too, from what I've read about them and him this season. He was really lucky in the second half of 2009, high BABIP that was unsustainable.

    Guys who can steal but not get on base enough abound on the fringe, like Willy Taveras.

    What was the negative Sabean said about Nate, I missed that. Still, perhaps Nate was holding back on severity or regression, look at how poorly he hit in the meanwhile, that cost the team. I love Nate, but I'm not happy about what he did, he took too long to take himself out. And why wasn't the training staff on top of this?

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  3. Bacci,

    I agree with the general notion that if you want to build a team without a lot of power in the lineup, then speed is essential. Station-to-station baseball has never worked. Even with great OBP's the odds dictate that you will end up leaving most of them on base.

    With respect to Rajai Davis, I'm not sure what Sabes should have seen would make him think he was any different than Jason Ellison, or Calvin Murray or any number of other slap and boogie guys that have passed through town. Sometimes players just find the right place at the right time and it's nobody's fault that they were released from other teams.

    Meanwhile, the Giants have some speedsters down on the farm in Ford, Peguero, Evan Crawford and Adrianza, even Thomas Neal who hopefully will eventuallly contribute some speed to the lineup.

    I wasn't able to find Sabean's exact comments about Nate just now, but my understanding is that he commented on Nate's lack of power and used the word "weak" and it was in the context of the general lack of power in the lineup. Again, maybe the way he said it was clumsy, but whether it's because he's been hurt or for other reasons, Nate has been a slap hitter so far in the majors.

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  4. P.S. on Rajai Davis: He had a nice game last night, but he's at .246/.280/.310 on the year so far. I'm not sure how those numbers would have helped the Giants.

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