The Giants were able to mount a sustained offensive attack for a change while Madison Bumgarner and the bullpen pitched a strong game as the Giants salvaged a game out of the weekend series against the Dodgers. Key Lines:
Jeff Keppinger- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .294. With runners on 2'nd and 3'rd with one out in the 6'th inning, Mattingly, for some reason, elected to intentionally walk Cody Ross and pitch to Kepp with the bases loaded. I KNEW what would happen next. Kepp hit a double into the gap in right-center to drive in a pair. The Dodgers were already trailing 3-1. Wouldn't it make more sense to just tell the pitcher not to give Ross anything to hit? I mean, Cody Ross is hitting .230 and Kepp is hitting over .290! Not that it affected the outcome of the game, but wow, Giants fans should be thankful for Bochy!
Pablo Sandoval- 3 for 4, 3 2B. BA= .301. Maybe I'm imagining things, but I thing Pablo has dropped some weight since he came off the DL. You can almost start to see some muscle definition through the uniform! Huge game for Pablo. He has certainly played his heart out this year.
Aubrey Huff- 2 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .244. Huff looks younger and hungrier with out the beard. Maybe the sawtooth pattern his career stats have taken with alternating good an horrible years will hold true next year?
Mark DeRosa- 1 for 1. BA= .254. DeRosa had 3 pinch hits this series. He's looking at possibly signing a minor league deal this offseason and looking to get closer to his home in ATL. Could he be of enough use to the Giants to offer him, say, a $500 K MLB deal with incentives?
Brandon Belt- 1 for 2, 2B, BB. Belt has not looked lost at the plate the last 2 games. The double today was a ringing drive off the wall in RF. The BB was a good AB too.
Brandon Crawford- 0 for 3, BB. I like Crawford's approach at the plate. His swings look tentative and his bat a wee bit slow though.
Madison Bumgarner- 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 3.33. Bumgarner struck out the first 4 batters he faced then ran into some trouble in the 2'nd. He pitched his way out of a bases loaded jam with just the one run allowed. He came out after 5 because his pitch count was up to 104.
Dan Runzler- 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 7.54. It looks like the Giants have reversed course on the SP/long relief idea and are now auditioning Runzler for a LOOGY role. With Lopez a FA and Affeldt's option unlikely to be picked up, Runzler may be needed for that role next year.
Steve Edlefsen- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. Edlefsen had his sinker going today.
Waldis Joaquin- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, GO/AO= 4/1. Joaquin was throwing a 94 MPH heavy, hard two-seam sinker and the Dodgers were beating it into the ground. Again, with the current Giants bullpen starting to become expensive, are Edlefsen and Joaquin options for next year?
The Dangerous D'Backs staged a late rally that came up short against the Pesky Padres who won 7-6, so the Giants are now 8.5 games behind first place in the NL West. More importantly, they gained a game of the 3'rd place Dodgers and are now 3.5 games ahead in the race for 2'nd place.
The Padres come to town and start a 3 game set tomorrow evening with Aaron Harang going against Rookie Eric Surkamp.
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i think that craw, like belt...is shell shocked
ReplyDeletei really dont like how the kids were handled this season
craw was not tentative at the plate when first brought up...even after the league found his holes
craw needs to be assured that if he can hit 250, he has a spot on the team....i dont think he knows that now
Well, Belt seems much more confident his last 2 starts.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Crawford HAS been told if he can hit AT ALL, he has spot on the team. I don't think giving him an arbitrary number of .250 is conducive to anything.
I like Crawford and Belt. They needed to give Crawford some playing time to help them decide on the SS position in 2012. I had no problem with Crawford being sent down earlier batting under .200.. I don't like how Belt was yoyoed. I never understood why they didn't call up someone like Thomas Neal instead to be the injury fill in.
ReplyDeleteAgree that both Belt and Crawford need to play the majority of games from here on out. It looks to me like Belt is getting more comfortable while Crawford still has a ways to go.
ReplyDeleteDrB, I don't see a problem with the way the Giants handle their young players, but I do get concerned when they promote a player with limited AA/AAA experience to the big club. Posey and Pablo proved they were ready for the show, while Belt wasn't early on.. I'm wondering if teams really know when their best prospects are ready? Freddie Freeman and Mark Trumbo spent the entire 2010 in AAA, while Eric Hosmer had only 80 abs in AAA before making the jump. Hosmer is a special player. They are all having excellent rookie seasons. Anthony Rizzo had 350 abs in AAA and is struggling with the Padres. The point being that I'm hoping the Giants take a more conservative approach with Gary Brown's development then they did with Brandon Belt's.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteBrian Sabean has said many times that he thinks a hitter needs about 1500 AB's in the minors before they are ready for MLB. That's about 3+ full seasons in the minors. A few special players are capable of moving faster than that, but in general, I think that's about the right number.
Even then, it's still a bit of a crapshoot who is going to make it and who isn't. You can't always tell by the numbers. There is still a huge adjustment to the majors.
Actually, none of the players you listed are really a surprise. Freeman and Trumbo have performed about the way you would expect from their minor league numbers. As you said, Hosmer is one of those special hitters. If you look at most of Rizzo's minor league numbers going back prior to this year, you might expect him to be a low average high power guy, and Petco kills power.
I thik Belt will be a factor for the Giants next year but, plain and simple, Crawford can not hit..hasn't hit anywhere above Cal League and needs AT LEAST a full season in the minors to learn how to hit..I don't think it will be too long before he is behind Adrianza and/or Panik...atthe least, it will be a huge competition...Giants will need to trade for or sign a Short stop for next season..
ReplyDeleteSteveVA