Archive for the 'San Francisco Giants' Category
After last night’s home run, here’s what Buster Posey has done since the end of the All Star game:
43 hits,
9 home runs, 32 RBI .443/.509/.79
4 1.303 OPS
With 23 home runs and 75 RBI, season averages of .330/.401/.546 .947 OPS, and all the intangibles of a real leader; and with the Giants continuing to hold off the Dodgers and D’Backs, he’s emerged as a clear MVP candidate.
Only Andrew McCutcheon has an edge on him, and with the recent struggles the Pirates have had, Posey might even be ahead.
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.
Well, that was some sweet revenge for my friends who are Dodgers fans. What a pounding. I wish I would’ve had the time to write that if Ramirez was available, he would’ve been nothing short of a perfect fit for us.
Yeesh.
I don’t want to mort
gage the future for a rental either, but you never get a second chance to win a title. If this team is mediocre, and there are many reasons to think so; then a trade right now might not make sense. However, career years like Cabrera’s are few and far between, Posey is becoming a legitimate middle of the order force, and everyone but Lincecum is pitching their asses off. One big bat very well could make the difference.
UPDATE: Via Baseball Musings, the Dodgers have gone all in, landing Ryan Dempster on
top of Shane Victorino and Hanley Ramirez. The Giants
got Hunter Pence. *sigh* I feel like Charlie Brown at Halloween.
UPDATE: Whew. The Dodgers didn’t get Dempster. That’s a big relief.
Dan Lependorf, over the Hardball Times, puts together a graph detailing how impressive Matt Cain’s Perfecto really was:
<
blockquote>…. If a pitcher strikes out 14 batters in a single game, it’ll be the lead story on every sports news program of the night. After all, it’s only happened a few hundred times in baseball history. If a pitcher throws a perfect game, it’s one of those landmark events that’ll be sold on DVD in the MLB.com store. And people will buy it, because hey, it’s a perfect game. Only 22 of those.
But both of them at the same time? Congratulations, Matt Cain. You just had one of the best nights from any pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball.
But then Bill James –who Lependorf cites in his article– writes (subscription required) that Cain’s game, while very impressive, isn’t even close to being the best pitched game of all-time:
…. The Game Score for Joe Oeschger, when he pitched 26 innings one afternoon, was 153, a feat beyond the understanding of modern fans. But in the last 60 years, Dean Chance against the Yankees on June 6, 1964, had the highest Game Score on record—116. 14 innings, 3 hits, 12 strikeouts, no runs.
James then goes on to chart the best games, seasons and careers using his Game Score method. It’s a great read, and well worth the $3 bucks a month you have to pay for access to Bill James Online.
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Posted in Baseball Books, Bill James, Cy Young, Hall of Fame, Matt Cain, NL West, San Francisco Giants |
11 Backtalkers »Matt Cain just threw the 22nd perfect game in baseball history!!!!! There were only two real chances to get a hit, and the defense was stellar:
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… Left fielder Melky Cabrera chased down Chris Snyder’s one-out flyball in the sixth, scurrying back to make a leaping catch at the wall. Cain raised both arms and slapped his glove in delight when Cabrera made the play. Then, right fielder Gregor Blanco ran into deep right-center to make a diving catch on the warning track and rob Jordan Schafer for the first out of the seventh. The 27-year-old pitcher hugged Blanco in the dugout
after the inning.
UPDATE: Watching the game, I thought Cain was thinking no-hitter. He looked as locked in as any pitcher I’ve ever seen. I said it to my wife after the fourth, he looked like he knew they couldn’t touch him. After the Melky catch in the sixth, his reaction confirmed it. That’s when I texted all my buddies, including one of them AT THE GAME, and told them we needed to go radio silent. The Blanco catch made me scream so loud I was dizzy. After that, I told my family they had to stay up til the end, because it looked like Cain was gonna throw a perfect game.
Incredible. Cliff Corcoran says it was one of the best pitched games in baseball history…. watching it live, I thought that, and after it was over, it was clear that it was the best game I’d ever seen a pitcher throw, better than either of the Yankee perfecto’s by Cone and Wells. Other than the deep fly balls, there was never a moment when you felt like he wasn’t in complete control.
Congratulations to Matt and the Giants.
Barry Bonds says he’d like to be involved with the Giants in some capacity.
How about hitting instructor? Or better yet, how about czar of hitting, training
and managing the entire organization’s hitting instructors? That way, we could begin to see a system wide approach to hitting that would, if Bonds is serious, of course, begin to correct the vast deficiencies in this team’s ability to develop and train hitters.
UPDATE: It’d be nice if Lincecum could start contributing. As in, wins. The Giants are 2-9 in his starts. If he was pitching like the Freak that he is, the team would be in a lot better shape.
UPDATE, Part II: Now, they’re
2-10 in his starts. This is no longer a small problem.
…. Mr. Brian Sabean. You said no thanks to this guy at the end of last season, and now that he’s healthy, and simply crushing the ball, you’re probably filled with regrets. Mayb
e he won’t be worth the money in a year or two, but we could sure use 10 home
runs and 26 RBI’s right about now. We’ve managed 9 home runs and 35 RBI from our entire outfield.
UPDATE: He just hit his 11th and 12th home runs last night. Sheesh.
UPDATE, Part II: He’s now leading the NL in home runs and RBI. Unbelievable.
Matt Cain continues to get no run support, the story of his career, as he lost 2-1 to the Marlins last night. As I wrote a while back, games like these are exac
tly why I speculated that Cain might consider leaving the Giants. A Hall of Fame career could very well be in the process of being derailed by the lack of run support he’s received since he gotten to the Show.
UPDATE: More hard luck as
the Giants lose Pablo Sandoval for the second year in a row to a broken hamate bone in his hand. Geez. This team seems doomed to squander another year of top-flight pitching as their offense completely tanks, and key players sit and watch. Where’s Stan Conte when you need him?
Angel Pagan adds to his impressive start, slamming a three-run home run in the ninth inning, leading the Giants to a nice 6-5 comeback win. Panda has a 19-game hitting streak, a Giants all-time record, as the offense continues to show signs of life.
…. Joaquin Arias led off the ninth against Cincinnati closer Sean Marshall (0-2) with a walk, and Ryan Theriot followed with a single. After pinch-hitter Brett Pill struck out, Pagan lofted a 1-2 pitch 386 feet into the left field seats to
snap the Giants’ losing streak in Cincinnati at seven games.
Posey is fourth in the NL with a .368 batting average, Sandoval is 11th, Cabrera is 20th, and Schierholz is 23rd. The Giants are 8th in runs scored, 7th in home runs, 3rd in batting average, 7th in OBP, 5th in SLG, and 6th in OPS. Life-changing? Obviously not, but still, these numbers, albeit a small sample, are very encouraging. If the pitching can stabilize at our expected high level, we should be able to win a lot of games.
Sabean deserves some kudos for what looks like a much improved offense.
The Giants locked up RH pitcher Matt Cain today, with a deal that makes him one of the highest paid pitchers in major league history. Cain almost c
ertainly would have gotten more if he had waited and tested the free agent waters next season, so even though the 6-year, $127.5 million dollar contract
is huge beyond imagining, it probably should be viewed as a team-friendly deal.
I’ll have more later….
