LINK: Cubs to Sign Todd Wellemeyer

Home Sweet Home

The San Francisco Giants beat the Cubs 4-3 on Monday on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Pat Burrell. Madison Bumgarner didn't have his best game: 5.2 IP, 3 ER, 9 H; but the bullpen picked up the slack. Mota, Romo, Wilson, Ramirez, Lopez, and Ray combined for 5.1 shutout innings, allowing only 3 baserunners. This masterful job by the bullpen confirmed its depth after the Giants' thinned out their pitching staff by designating Todd Wellemeyer for assignment and calling up Emmanuel Burriss. The Giants hitting was not explosive, but ultimately got the job done. In the 5th inning, Andres Torres scored on a Buster Posey ground-rule double, and Renteria then scored on a wild pitch. In the 6th, Andres Torres came through again with an RBI single to tie the game at 3-3. It would remain that way until the bottom of the 11th, when Buster Posey was intentionally walked to load the bases for Pat Burrell. Pat Burrell hit a deep flyball to center, and that was the difference in the game.

Notes:

• After going 2 for 3 with 2 doubles and 2 walks, Pat Burrell is now 13 for his last 36 (.361 avg). 9 of his last 13 hits have been extra-base hits, and he's brought much-needed plate discipline to the Giants.
• Andres Torres was 2 for 5 with a double, and is now batting .354 over his last 18 games. He now has 36 doubles on the season, as he remains 2nd in the NL in doubles. 5 players are tied for 3rd in the NL in doubles with 29.
• Pablo Sandoval was 1 for 3. A lot can be said about his struggles, but he's hitting .323 at home. For what it's worth, ZiPs projects him to hit .304 for the rest of the season with 5 home runs. That would be significant to the Giants.
• Brian Wilson struck out the side. No baserunners. Dominated.
• The Giants improved to 34-20 at home. The National League finally won the All Star Game, so they get home-field advantage if they do happen to make it to the World Series...
• Uribe grounded into the only Giants double play on Monday. Giants are on pace for a franchise record 162 double plays. Their current franchise record? 153.
• Four Giants had multi-hit games, but more importantly the Giants had 11 walks.

3 more games against the Cubs, then a 3-game series against the Padres. What better way to build momentum for the crucial Padres series then to face the Cubs for 4 games at home!

Tomorrow's game: Giants take on Ryan Dempster tomorrow. Aaron Rowand should be left out of the lineup (1 for 13 career, .077 vs. Dempster), but you might just see Freddy Sanchez despite his recent struggles (6 for 17, .353 vs. Dempster). Oh yeah, and that guy Pat Burrell - 8 for 25 (.320) with 5 doubles and 7 walks against Dempster.

Todd Wellemeyer DFA'd. Emmanuel Burriss up from Fresno.

Todd Wellemeyer was designated for assignment (one day after my post about how he is terrible) in order to make room for Emmanuel Burriss. One day after my post disparaging Bautista, he's DFA'd. One day after my post disparaging Wellemeyer, he's DFA'd. Magical stuff going on here....

MLB Trade Rumors: The 31-year-old has a season ERA of 5.68 with 6.3 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 in 58.2 innings. Wellemeyer was a fixture in the Giants rotation before a quadriceps injury sidelined him for much of June and all of July. He makes $1MM this year and hits free agency after the season. Last night's performance and his quad injury will likely limit interest in Wellemeyer.

About Burriss: He's batting .295 this year with 6 stolen bases in 183 AB. He was also caught stealing 5 times though. He projects to be a .258 hitter without much power but his speed will be very useful, as the Giants have only one other player who can steal bases (Torres). Hopefully, Bochy will no longer pinch hit using Matt Cain, now that he has another player on the bench.

Todd Wellemeyer is Terrible

In the midst of another Giants' loss (6-3 loss to the Braves), we once again witnessed a terrible performance by Todd Wellemeyer. This was his first chance at the long relief role, and frankly, it should be his last. Of the 4 hitters he faced, every single one got a hit. Meanwhile, due to a short bench, Bochy had to use Matt Cain to pinch hit for Jonathan Sanchez in the 5th inning. Who knows what would've happened if Todd Wellemeyer wasn't Todd Wellemeyer, but instead, a hitter on the bench. Then we wouldn't have to rely on Matt Cain, who's batting below .100, to pinch hit. Not to mention, we wouldn't be risking the loss of our most consistent pitcher (let's not forget what happened to Dan Runzler when he tried to hit in Milwaukee...he's still on the disabled list). Also, instead of using Wellemeyer to pitch in the 5th inning, we could've used one of our other bullpen guys - for example, Santiago Casilla, who relieved Wellemeyer today and gave up 0 ER and just 1 hit in 2 innings. At this point, Wellemeyer offers absolutely nothing to the Giants. We have a great pitching staff, so the chances that we'll need a guy to eat up innings in the bullpen are slim. Even when our pitchers aren't pitching well, they usually keep us in the game. No need to give up these games by using Wellemeyer. Let's just keep an extra hitter on the bench, at least until Affeldt or Runzler returns. Then we can re-evaluate our situation. After all, it's only a few weeks until the rosters expand. For now though, a hitter, like Jesus Guzman for example (who projects to hit .269/.319/.405 in the majors for what it's worth...), would be of significantly more value to the Giants than Todd Wellemeyer. Guzman is hitting .382 over his last 10 games in AAA.

Giants Lose Opener in Atlanta

An Eric Hinske home run was the difference in a Giants' 3-2 loss, as the Braves improved to a phenomenal home record of 37-14. After giving up two runs in the first two innings, Jair Jurrjens shut them down for the next 4 innings. The Giants failed to captialize, as evidenced by the 17 left on base. Their offense was not quiet, though. Sanchez, Sandoval, Torres, Uribe, and Huff all had doubles, and the Giants did not go in the ninth without a fight. Aaron Rowand battled against Wagner, then flied out to right near the warning track. Then, Renteria, who had homered against Wagner earlier this season to tie up a game, hit a fast line drive back at Wagner who quickly snagged it. Torres promptly came up and hit the first pitch for a grounder through the hole between short and third. With Torres at first, Freddy Sanchez battled against Wagner, crushing an inside pitch just a few feet foul of a home run, but eventually struck out. Buster Posey's bat was silent in the game, 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Meanwhile, Pablo Sandoval appears to be quietly making a return to the .330-25 Home Run guy that he was last year. He went 2 for 4 with a single and a double.

Lincecum's outing was not bad, but it wasn't particularly great. It was just barely above the bare minimum for a quality start, 3 ER in 6.1 IP. With the exception of the two home runs, he pitched quite well, but gave up 3 walks, one of which scored on a 2-run home run.

MLB.com: "Lincecum had gone 67 starts without allowing multiple homers, a lapse he last endured on July 20, 2008, when Milwaukee's Ryan Braun and Corey Hart victimized him."

However, Lincecum did manage to retake the National League lead in strikeouts.

Tomorrow, the Giants will square off against Tommy Hanson. They are hitting a collective .188 against him with 9 strikeouts in 16 at-bats.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news...

Media is making this SF-ATL series out to be a competition: Posey vs. Heyward:

ESPN: "Heyward and Posey were on opposite teams during a 2005 state championship game in Georgia and could battle again for NL rookie of the year."

Lastly, a day after my post disparaging Bautista, he has been designated for assignment to make room for Todd Wellemeyer.

Official Giants' Twitter Page: "Today's SF transaction: Denny Bautista has been designated for assignment. Todd Wellemeyer has been reinstated from disabled list #SFGiants"

To be honest, as bad as Wellemeyer is, I can't see any harm in this. It's clearly only a temporary move, as Runzler and Affeldt will be back soon. If a Giants starter happens to have a bad start, Wellemeyer can be used to eat up innings. Within 2 weeks, hopefully, we'll cut all ties with him.