Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Game Wrap 8/16/2011: Braves 2 Giants 1

The Giants absorbed another tough loss tonight, but the bigger story, and possibly the more damaging going forward is injuries, injuries on top of injuries. Beltran and Sergio Romo got placed on the DL for starters. Then came word that Jeff Keppinger has a jammed wrist and underwent an MRI. Preliminary report, "it doesn't look good!" Nate fouled on off his foot last night and thought he might have broken a bone. X-rays were negative but he is day-to-day. Even Aaron Rowand has a strained side. He can bat but can't throw so is available only as a PH. Once the game started, Jonathan Sanchez twisted an ankle while fielding a ball off the mound and limped off the field after throwing one pitch to the next batter. I told Ricky Oropesa's mom that at this rate, they might have to call Ricky up this year! LOL! Key lines:

Cody Ross- 1 for 5, HR(10). BA= .241. Ross was the Giants offense tonight as they managed just 4 other hits. The dinger came in the 7'th inning and broke up a no-hitter by Braves rookie RHP Randall Delgado. Cody looked like he might have been swinging for the fences a bit too much on subsequent AB's.

Jonathan Sanchez- 2.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 0 K's. ERA= 4.26. Well, we'll see how bad this one is. Runzler was called up to replace Romo. Looking at who else is on the 40 man roster, it's between Steve Edlefsen, Waldis Joaquin and Clayton Tanner. I would think Joaquin would be the next callup with Runzler moving into the rotation, unless they throw a Hail Mary and add Eric Surkamp to the 40 man roster. That's all assuming Sanchez has to go on the DL.

Guillermo Mota- 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.94. Another lights out long relief performance by Mota!

The Dangerous D'Backs proved just how Dangerous they are by coming from behind to bite Roy Halladay and the Phillies 3-2. That moved them to 3.5 games ahead of the Giants in the NL West. Ordinarily I would say it's too early to panic, but with all the injuries piling up, it's pretty easy to envision the Giants fading out of sight pretty fast here.

Matt Cain tries to stick his finger in the dike tomorrow evening facing Jair Jurrjens. Hate to say it, but it could be another Caining.

10 comments:

  1. i now honestly believe that sabean sold his soul to get the ws title last season...and the devil is now taking his payment

    no way to be angry...its the game

    sad thing is...this may be the giants last opportunity for a run...till at least 2014...cuz snakes are about to get really scary

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  2. The Giants are in good shape going forward. D'Backs are building a good team but you never know. Some of those players are going to be FA's soon and the Giants have way more financial resources than the D'Backs. Giants have a strong farm system that is more balanced than the D'Backs plus the big bucks to keep the players they want to keep. D'Backs will be tough but I'm not conceding anything to them.

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  3. whats funny is...showtime gave the ok for 2 extra epis...to show what? a team totally imploding? boy, thatll make for great ratings

    no one to blame...its like 96

    thing is...even if the giants are 6 behind on sept 1, sabean wont throw up the white flag...which is sad, cuz he then could put some of the dls on 60 day and put some guys who need looks (and last shots at the mlb) on the 40

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  4. OK, OK, OK, I APPRECIATE the fortuitous series events that was 2010 already!

    Lyle f'n Overbay???

    What we have going for us, notwithstanding recent events from Phoenix, is that this is a weak division and it's mid-August, not mid-Sept.

    Ride out Atl., fight AZ to .500 in head-on games, and beat up on the rest. Giants CAN do that still. It's not looking good, but it's plausible.

    Sabean can renegotiate with Satan...

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  5. There were a few dark moments last year when things looked pretty hopeless too. Way too early to give up, but the evidence is starting to mount that maybe a repeat isn't in the cards.

    The Giants have done well enough this year already to say that last year wasn't just all about luck. Pitching will take you a long ways and this team has pitching!

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  6. Even if the Giants do fall out of realistic contention (which I now think likely), Sabean & Bochy will never be smart enough to promote and then actually play the younger guys - so it will be another wasted year.

    Bochy made all the right moves late last year, and he deserves a ton of credit for that. But his veteranophilia, and Sabean's, doom the franchise to never grooming young talent.

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  7. Lyle,

    I usually appreciate what you have to say, but this comment completely ignores the fact that almost half this team(before injuries) is homegrown.

    Timmy
    Cainer
    JSanchez
    Wilson
    Romo
    Pablo
    Posey
    Nate

    In addition, Belt got a solid look out of spring training. Crawford got extensive playing time. Burriss has contributed. Ford had a role until he got hurt. Several other young players have gotten cameos.

    It is just wrong to say that Sabean and Bochy don't give young players chances. Show me a contending team that gives young players more opportunity. The fact is that Belt and Crawford didn't produce offensively during their stints. If the Giants weren't in contention, it would make sense to let them work it out at the MLB level. As long as the Giants have a chance to repeat a championship, I think they have to try to acquire veteran like Beltran, Kepp, OCab to try to repeat. Belt is getting another look now. I'm sure Crawford will get other chances too.

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  8. Show me a contending team that gives young players more opportunity

    the atl...by neccessity...with at least freeman

    and doc...again...if you look at what the hole in left cost in runs and pitches...the offense that cabrera and miggs bring...doesnt balance out

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  9. Bacci,

    Panda usually plays 3B, so throwing Miggy's name out there is a bit of a straw man. Crawford was a total black hole in the lineup. As I have said before, OCab is not a perfect solution but overall is a slight upgrade on Crawford, Miggy or Fonty at SS.

    OK, you named one team and admitted that it is out of necessity. Overall, the Giants have a darn good record of bringing homegrown talent to the majors over the last 4-5 years. It just drives me crazy when people spout off about Sabean and Bochy hating young players, yet overall, the Giants have one of the best records for bringing young players to the majors amongst contending teams.

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  10. I tried to post this earlier, before today's game, but funny how bad times brings the Naysayers out of the woodwork complaining, then the Giants do well again, and then they crawl back under whatever they came out of.

    The Giants have been in great position even with this bad stretch, and I actually thought that yesterday was a positive in that despite all the bad news they were getting, they still hung in there with a top team like Atlanta into extra innings.

    What these people fail to recognize is that the Sabean/Bochy team over the past three seasons has been winning games at around a 90 win pace, which is very good (but not good enough for them).

    Since he wants to bring up the Braves, they traded for Gonzalez, getting tired of Yunel, a much younger player with more potential. They also signed up Derek Lowe for big money instead of going with one of their young great pitching prospects, and he is their Zito. And they picked up Uggla when they could have played Prado there for cheaper. Even with his hit streak, he is still under .750 OPS, which is not that good. certainly not what was expected, and that's with his hot streak.

    7 of their position players are over 30, and McLouth turns 30 soon. They also have a number of really old pitchers in their rotation, Lowe and Hudson.

    Overall, looking at hitters and pitchers, the Giants are overall less than one year older than the Braves in terms of age and usage weighted. That is not that huge a difference.

    Certainly not big enough to boast about how they go with youth and the Giants don't.

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