The Giants are just pounding the ball on this road trip, and after last night’s insane 15-0 shellacking of the Cardinals, they now lead the NL in runs per game on the road, at an unbelievable 5.18. Buster Posey has put himself in the MVP conversatio
n, and soon the Panda returns. Hopefully the team can continue to perform at a high level as they try to hold off the Dodgers and D’backs.
UPDATE: Well, I’m not jumping off or on the Pence bandwagon just yet. Let’s see.
He could have a knack for triples alley, he could go all en fuego for the rest of the season…. Anything’s possible. The Giants didn’t trust Schierholz, and they (among many of us) failed to
see Carlos Beltran’s resurgence (27 home runs and an NL-leading 80 RBI).
Pence seems like a good fit, although as I said earlier, I would have jumped at Hanley Ramirez instead.
Currently the top teams in each of the NL Divisions are ranked in the top six for pitching:
Washington, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Atlanta.
Of these teams only Atlanta is ranked in the top six for batting.
Hunter Pence’s statistics since the trade: 6 hits in 43 at bats, zero home runs, one walk, eleven strikeouts. That works out to a batting line of .140/.159/.210.
And, the best part is, we’ve got him under contract for next year at only $13 million!
Pence is a worthy successor to Aaron Rowand…
Ouch
I realize my Pence comments may seem overly negative. I see Pence as a solid regular, if not a star. It’s just that I think Schierholtz could have given the Giants close to the same offensive production, and better defense. C’mon, having watched Pence flailing at pitches off the plate over the past 10 days, do you think his excellent career hitting stats reflect pure skill, or that part of this has been playing in great hitters parks and being lucky on BABIP?
But as you say, Bochy didn’t believe in Schierholtz. That lack of belief caused us to take on a marginally better player who is $10 million/year more expensive, and to give up our top catching prospect in the bargain. Bad trade in my book…
Two things folks need to understand about what to expect from Hunter Pence:
1) He’s played his whole career in great hitters parks, and now he’s moved to a terrible hitter’s park.
2) His .300 BA last year was largely luck, based on a .360 BA on balls in play which is unsustainable.
Factor in these two points, and I project a .270/.330/.430 batting line for Pence in 2013. By contrast Nate Schierholtz’s line this year is .255/.321/.420, and last year it was .278/.326/.430. Plus Schierholtz is a better outfielder and is roughly $10 million/year cheaper.
Bochy put huge obstacles in front of Schierholtz’s career, on the theory that if he was a super-star he would overcome them. Nate didn’t, and so Bochy is probably congratulating himself that he knew it all along. The upshot is that the Giants gave up one of their top minor league prospects in exchange for a very costly player (Pence) who is at most only marginally better than Schierholtz.
It’s a little-known fact that “Hunter Pence” is Latin for “Shea Hillenbrand”.