Friday, August 21, 2015

Game Wrap 8/20/2015: Pirates 4 Giants 0

The Giants bats were quiet against an old nemesis in a game they were never really a threat to win.  Key Lines:

Charlie Morton(Pirates)- 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K's,  GO/AO)= 7/2.  ERA= 4.06.  It just seemed to me that Charlie Morton's historical success agains the Giants is significantly out of proportion to his career averages, so I looked up is splits on B-R.  He's played his whole career in the NL, so I did not count starts against AL teams which he has faced just 1 or 2 times each.  In 12 career starts against the Giants he has an ERA of 2.59.  In 7 career starts, he has an ERA of 2.70 against the Padres.  His performance against all other teams ranges from mediocre to bad with the Rockies and Braves being the only other teams his ERA is under 4.00 against and those are in the high 3's.  I don't think it was just Giants hitters being bad against him last night.  His stuff looked fantastic, at least when I was watching.  I guess as Kruk and Kuip like to say, "ownage is ownage."

The Giants best chance to score came in the 7'th inning when 2 HBP's helped them load the bases with 2 outs.  Gregor Blanco hit a hard liner to RF that held up for Polanco to catch and the runners were left stranded.

The Loss dropped the Giants to 2.5 games behind the idle Dodgers in the NL West.  The Cubs smacked the Braves around 7-1 so they now lead the Giants by 4 games in the race for the final Wild Card playoff spot.

Madison Bumgarner tries to even the 4 game series tonight facing lefty Jeff Locke.

The Giants organization has one less Johnson today as they sent minor league RHP and reliever Stephen Johnson to the Cincinnati Reds for OF Marlon Byrd.  Byrd gives the Giants some badly needed RH pop in the lineup with Hunter Pence on the DL.  Johnson hit triple digits with his velocity in college but has settled into the mid-90's in the pros.  He has battled control issues which have gradually improved throughout his pro career.  His ceiling is likely middle relief/setup.  A very reasonable price to pay for a 6 week rental of Byrd.  Byrd does have a team option for $8 M next year which becomes a vesting option if he get's 550 PA's on the season.  He has 388 so far.

5 comments:

  1. We have a ton of RP type arms (Broadway, Okert, Black, any number of Johnsons) so you're trading from depth there. Hey Doc, I'd love for you to do a "team of the future", as in most likely to be a position player within 1-3 years, our top 7 RPs and when they're ready, and our top 5 RPs (since Osich and Strickland) are in the pros. Seems like despite the morons who bash our farm, we're pretty deep in most positions.

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    1. I might do something like that after the minor league seasons end. I will definitely be doing organizational depth charts in the offseason.

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    2. That would be great and much appreciated.

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  2. I'm not terribly upset by the trade in what we lost. We have a lot of strong relief-type arms in the system right now. Osich, Broadway and Okert are all pushing for big-league time.. Then behind them we have Black, Cordier, Crick (maybe), Law, Bochy (who has been very effective as a middle reliever this year), Hall and a few others. Plus if players like Beede and Bickford fail to turn into starters, they still may turn into relievers. So it's really hard to get terribly upset and losing a relief prospect.

    BTW, the free MLB cast of the game was horrible. The two homer announcers were the biggest pack of ***holes I've ever heard in a professional broadcast. They were actually treating the Giants players with contempt and derision. I've never heard any hometown announcers from any other team do that. They may not say nice things, but they certainly don't around trashing the players of other teams like those clowns did.

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    1. I think Cordier has moved on to another organization, but yes, the Giants have plenty of bullpen arms in the system including several current starters like Coonrod and the Johnson's. Then there are guys nobody is talking about like Dan Slania, and Jake Smith. The list could go on and on.

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