Game Recap: Diamondbacks 5, Giants 2

Not really a recap, actually. Just random notes from this game, I guess.

• That sixth inning sucked. I'll say no more of it.
• As a general rule of thumb, not in favor of Cody Ross leading off against a right-handed pitcher. Career .313 OBP v. RHPs. But hey, it worked tonight. 
• Matt Cain allowed five earned runs in 5.2 innings. Which means Giants starters have gone six or fewer innings with 5+ ER three days in a row. Arbitrary endpoints and all, but if I'm not mistaken, this is the longest such streak by Giants starters since...June 17-20, 2007.
• More arbitrary endpoints: the Giants have scored 23 runs over their last 11 games.
• Ian Kennedy is officially a Giants killer: he now has a career 1.87 ERA against them in eight starts, with 49 strikeouts and 18 walks in 57.2 innings pitched.
• From Elias: The Giants have not scored five or more runs in an inning at home this season, although they've done so eight times on the road.

Game Recap: Reds 9, Giants 0

Well, Johnny Cueto just tossed a three-hit shutout against the Giants. The trade deadline is seconds away, and I don't know if the Giants will trade for a catcher.

Barry Zito's been awful this year. He's not getting swinging strikes, he's not inducing as many infield fly balls as he has in the past, and he's giving up a lot of home runs. With Jonathan Sanchez set to return, I don't know what the Giants should do with him...but I haven't yet given up hope that maybe Zito can still be a somewhat-useful fifth starter. Yes, I'm crazy.

UPDATE: 

Bochy's phone silent. Probably no more deals.Sun Jul 31 20:06:04 via EchofonHenry Schulman
hankschulman

Game Recap: Reds 7, Giants 2

Got sidetracked by that brilliant blockbuster trade the Giants pulled, but here's a brief recap.

This game was pretty forgettable.

I'll look at some positives though:

• Brandon Belt started and will start tomorrow. Much deserved.
• Pablo Sandoval went three for five. 
• The bullpen was good for four scoreless innings.

I hate to see Madison Bumgarner have a bad start like this, because it only distorts reality: he's a fantastic pitcher who's had a couple hiccups (remember that 0.1 IP against the Twins?). He was really on a run too. He had gone six consecutive starts with 6+ IP and one or fewer walks; during that span, he had a 2.57 ERA with 45 strikeouts, three walks, and one home run in 42 innings pitched. He'd allowed five earned runs over his last three starts (21.2 IP), but managed to allow that same amount in four innings in this game.

Game Recap: Reds 4, Giants 3

I'll be brief, because I never really enjoy writing about 13-inning losses...

• Entering tonight, Dontrelle Willis had made 30 starts since 2008. In just four of them, he'd gone 6+ innings with two or fewer walks (for comparison, Madison Bumgarner has done that in 15 of his last 16 starts). So yeah, disappointing to see the Giants couldn't do better than that. 
• I've been waiting for a Ryan Vogelsong disaster start for quite some time now, and in the first inning, I thought it had finally come. But nope. After laboring in the first (31 pitches), he managed to go six innings with only three runs allowed. Easily one of his worst starts this season (as the season-low strikeout total -- 1 -- illustrates), but a quality start nonetheless. Dating back to May 8th, he has a 1.90 ERA; and on the season, he's made just two starts in which he's allowed more than three runs.
• Mike Fontenot is now 0 for 21 in his last six games. This should be fairly clear: he's a left-handed hitter, and shouldn't be starting against left-handed pitchers. In this case, I think Miguel Tejada -- a career .284/.350/.475 hitter against left-handed pitching -- might actually be useful. 
• I'm still worried about Brian Wilson. A good closer still, sure, but not nearly as dominant as last year. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is nearly half what it was last year.
• A note from Baggs -- "[Reds GM Walt Jocketty] specifically said he isn’t shopping Ramon Hernandez, a veteran catcher with a credible stick, even though Cincinnati has top prospect Devin Mesoraco wearing shin guards at Triple-A." If he continues to take that stance, well...that sounds pretty foolish to me.
• Free Brandon Belt. 

Game Recap: Giants 4, Phillies 1

• Carlos Beltran didn't look great in his Giants debut, as he went 0 for 4 with a couple of strikeouts and a groundout to first, but the Giants still managed to score four(!) runs. 
• The Giants finally have a player with 10+ home runs, as Pablo Sandoval had an opposite-field solo shot to lead off the second inning.
• Tim Lincecum was good (what's new?), but the real awesomeness came in a 5th inning battle against Chase Utley (who was up with two outs and runners at first and second). Lincecum had fallen behind 3-1, but got a couple consecutive swinging strikes out of Utley on two fantastic pitches. 
• Aubrey Huff looked better on the offensive side of things, going 1 for 3 with a double and a walk. I've pretty much given up all hope that Brandon Belt will take the starting 1B role from him. 

Here's the strikezone plot for that fifth-inning at-bat to Utley (via BrooksBaseball.net):

Utley swung way in front of a changeup for strike two, and chased a ball in the dirt to strike out. Fantastic pitching from Lincecum, who did pretty well overall against a left-handed heavy lineup.

Game Recap: Giants 2, Phillies 1

ELIAS: Matt Cain with a K and a BB Wed. ending a streak of 39 straight starts with more K than BB. Longest streak by Giants P since 1900Thu Jul 28 05:18:04 via webESPN Stats & Info
ESPNStatsInfo

• Though he had only one strikeout, Matt Cain was once again dominant.
• Eli Whiteside had a few blunders in this one (like this, and this)
• Aubrey Huff grounded out a couple times, flied out once, and hit a double in the eighth inning, which will only serve to extend his rope. 
• For the first time in 2011, Jeff Keppinger -- who never walks or strikes out -- had both a walk and a strikeout in a game.

Eli Whiteside is now OPSing something around .675, which isn't as terrible as it sounds for a catcher these days. But man, he's not an everyday catcher. Problem is, there's really not any decent trade options at catcher. Miguel Olivo? Rod Barajas? They have worse numbers than Whiteside this year, and in the case of Barajas especially, there's no reason to believe he's all that much better than Whiteside. 

Barajas' career OPS+: 78

Whiteside's career OPS+: 77

Then there's Chris Iannetta. He's the only decent option out there that I can think of, but he's pretty awful defensively, and I doubt the Giants would be willing to offer much to acquire him -- especially considering they wouldn't pull the trigger on Santiago Casilla for Yorvit Torrealba.

It's a big weakness. And not one that's easily fixable, too. I miss Buster Posey.

Game Recap: Phillies 7, Giants 2

By all means, an awful start from Barry Zito. Three home runs, six runs allowed, and against a left-handed heavy lineup. The guy hadn't allowed that many home runs in a game in years.

Anyway, in terms of what was more frustrating to watch -- I'll take the Giants' offense over Zito's outing.

Vance Worley is an okay pitcher, perhaps an above average one (at least he's been pretty good so far this season...though his peripherals aren't great). But man, there's no excuse for this. The Giants reached base four times. In an offensive environment. Hitters three-through-eight in the starting lineup combined to go 0 for 20 with one walk.

I don't want the Giants to trade Zach Wheeler for Carlos Beltran. But something needs to be done about this offense. And that begins with playing Brandon Belt on a daily basis.

Game Recap: Giants 2, Brewers 1

Today's game recap is dedicated (almost) entirely to Madison Bumgarner. He is really good.

This is the third time I've linked this, I believe, but it's worth bringing up once more:

With Bumgarner, the opposite is true: His pitches seem to have improved, as has his usage of them, and so we might expect to see his peripherals rise throughout the year. As a result, he's certainly a good candidate for a breakout.

Though the article was published on the 27th, it was actually written before Bumgarner's start the day before.

So...since then, Bumgarner has compiled the following numbers:

42 innings pitched, 45 strikeouts, three walks, one home run.

Six starts in, and it looks like he really is breaking out.

Now, for some arbitrary number-crunching. This is the 18th time in his career (40 career starts) that Bumgarner, not yet 22, has had 5+ strikeouts in a game with one or fewer walks. That's a rate of 45%. For comparison, Tim Lincecum has done it 42 times in 143 career starts, or 29% of the time.

--

Okay, couldn't resist commenting on this:

Insanely stupid strategy. Giving up an out so that the runner can move over a base, with Josh Wilson coming up. Made no sense.

Game Recap: Giants 4, Brewers 2

• I must say, I was not thrilled that Aubrey Huff was in the starting lineup over Brandon Belt. I understand that he's hit better against left-handed pitching this year than right-handed pitching, but his career platoon splits (which have more predictive value than the 400 or so PAs he's had this year) are in line with what we'd pretty much expect. He hits rightys better than lefties. So yeah, wasn't on board with that. But I have to hand it to him, he had a great game. Worked a couple walks, along with a single and a sac fly. 
• Last year, Aubrey Huff had eighteen multi-walk games. This was his fourth of the year, so certainly great to see. Especially considering they both came against a lefty. Huff's got a 6.5% career walk rate vs. LHPs, as opposed to 8.9% vs. RHPs. 
• Nate Schierholtz continues to rake, with a three-hit game here. Remember June 17, when he was hitting .253/.294/.400? Me neither.
• Extra Baggs poked at the idea of trading Francisco Peguero and Dan Runzler for Carlos Beltran. I'm not on board with trading Gary Brown for Beltran, but I'd be on board with a Peguero/Runzler-Beltran deal. Seems like a fair return on both sides, actually. 
• Oh yeah, and if you missed it earlier, check out the Mike Murray interview.

Game Recap: Brewers 4, Giants 2

• Pablo Sandoval could have made that play
• Matt Cain could have gotten out of it
• But the hitting still sucks
  
• No Brandon Belt in the lineup
• Pablo Sandoval and Nate Schierholtz went a combined 0-for-7

Game Recap: Dodgers 1, Giants 0

If you missed this game, here's all you need to know...

• Tim Lincecum was really good. 
• Sergio Romo was really good.
• Clayton Kershaw was really good. 
• The Giants' offense was...not. 

The Giants got three hits in total. Chris Stewart had two of 'em. Emmanuel Burriss had the other one. None of those hits went for extra bases.

Inning eight in particular was tough to watch. Nate Schierholtz and Andres Torres both managed to work the count full, only to strike out. Then Mike Fontenot struck out on three pitches.

Just a bad game. All's good though, as the Giants took two of three in the series. 

Game Recap: Giants 5, Dodgers 3

A lot has gone wrong with the Giants this season -- injury-wise, at least.

This was the Opening Day lineup:

Batting
Andres Torres CF
Freddy Sanchez 2B
Aubrey Huff RF
Buster Posey C
Pat Burrell LF
Miguel Tejada SS
Brandon Belt 1B
Pablo Sandoval 3B
Tim Lincecum P

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/19/2011.

Every single one of those hitters one-through-eight has incurred some sort of injury this season, with the exception of Aubrey Huff, who has been the Giants' least productive player. Funny how that works.

Today, though, after a 5-3 victory of the Dodgers, things looks really good.

Brandon Belt is finally in the majors, and had no trouble adjusting in his first game back -- as he went two for four with a home run. The Giants acquired Jeff Keppinger, an average offensive middle infielder with fantastic contact rates, in exchange for two relief prospects (not even top-20 prospects in their system, really), and look to have an acceptable middle infield with Brandon Crawford, Mike Fontenot, and Keppinger. Nate Schierholtz has found a groove, and Pablo Sandoval is nearing a 30-game on-base streak (while making excellent defensive plays). Cody Ross has an OBP above .350, and Andres Torres has been the Giants' third-most productive hitter.

With all of this, in addition to that magnificent pitching staff the Giants have....I'd say things are looking good.

And wow, what an outing from Madison Bumgarner. Need I remind that he's just 21 years old? He's doin' some special things on the mound. (h/t McC)

It's a great time to be a Giants fan.

--

Some brief programming notes: I've finally finished my midseason top 25 prospect rankings, which should be posted tomorrow morning. In addition, I've updated some of the pages at the top (specifically About/Tickets), and I've added a Reference page with links to some stat glossaries. 

Game Recap: Giants 5, Dodgers 0

Ryan Vogelsong is just ...well, good. It's pretty simple, really.

Game Recap: Giants 4, Padres 3

Nice way to end the series. Giants took three of four, on the road, against the Padres. They managed to score a total of nineteen runs at PETCO. I'll take that any day with this offense. A few brief notes:

-- That was Matt Cain at his finest. He struck out nine of the 25 batters he faced, walking just two. Lots of weak contact too.

-- The Giants stole six bases in this game, the most they've stolen in a game since 1987.

-- That 11th inning from Brian Wilson....wow. It's not often a pitcher gets by with a scoreless inning while tallying three walks and zero strikeouts. Wilson himself had never done it before.

-- Perfectly executed squeeze.

Game Recap: Padres 11, Giants 3

On July 2, after Barry Zito's second start back from rehab, I wrote the following:

First of all, forgive me for not being particularly impressed by Barry Zito. Decent outing, yes. And he was pitching on three days of rest. Six innings, zero earned runs, five hits, and a couple of walks. Not bad, eh? But only one strikeout. Furthermore, per Brooks Baseball, of the 78 pitches he threw, just three resulted in swinging strikes. Going back to his last start, that's now a total of 11 swinging strikes on 186 pitches, or roughly 5.9%

Rest assured, he won't be able to sustain this success with that kind of whiffing ability. Super-small sample size and all, but the 5.9% is actually considerably worse than what he's maintained over the last few seasons. He had an 8.1% mark in 2010.

In his next start, on July 7, he had one of the best performances he's ever had as a Giant: eight scoreless innings, seven strikeouts, and most importantly: zero walks.

As I noted that night:

August 2, 2009. Entering tonight, that was the last time Barry Zito had pitched in a game without walking a single batter. It's been a while, eh?

His last no-walk game in which he had more than five strikeouts? Well, you'd have to go all the way back to July 7 of 2007 for that one.

Point is, that Barry Zito we saw out there tonight was special. That's really good Barry Zito.

Fresh off rehab, he'd gone three consecutive starts, totaling 21 innings with just three runs allowed. And only three walks. Still, he'd had just 11 strikeouts in that span; and his swinging strike rate up until this point had been 6.7%, still the lowest of his career. So it was hard to believe he'd sustain that kind of success.

Now's the part where I remind everyone that Barry Zito is great for a fifth starter, and in reality, he's a slightly-below-average pitcher -- at least, if the last few years of his performance have anything to say about it. The one underrated aspect about Zito is his durability (with the exception, of course, of that freak foot injury). The guy's made 30+ starts in each of the last ten seasons, one of the reasons he's a valuable guy at the back-end of a rotation. He's paid too much, yes. But he doesn't suck, per se.

Game Recap: Giants 6, Padres 1

-- Andres Torres has been on sort of an extended slump of late, hitting .197/.293/.291 since July 1; so naturally, whenever he busts out one of these three-hit games (in addition some smart baserunning and nice defense in centerfield), I get a little excited. Even with his recent struggles, he's been good for average production. He's no slugger, but this is a guy that had 61 extra base hits last year, so I expect the power will eventually manifest itself some more. He's ultimately half the player he was last year...which still makes him an above-average centerfielder. I'll take it.

-- Hit streaks are nice, but Pablo Sandoval drew a couple (okay, one unintentional, one intentional) walks. And that's all I really care about -- that the one guy in this lineup capable of being productive at the plate continues to do so.

-- I have no idea why the Giants called up Hector Sanchez. But he walked in his first major-league plate appearance, which is noteworthy. Other Giants to have one plate appearance in their major-league debut, and walk in that PA:

Player	Date
Doug Clark	2005-09-14
Randy Gomez	1984-08-21
Chris Bourjos	1980-08-31 (1)
Gary Alexander	1975-09-12
Jack Clark	1975-09-12
Jake Brown	1975-05-17
Monte Irvin	1949-07-08
Alex Konikowski	1948-06-16
Phil Weintraub	1933-09-05
Harry Rosenberg	1930-07-15
Earl Webb	1925-08-13

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/16/2011.

The first three guys on the list had rather short careers (played in a combined 41 major-league games). The next two, Gary Alexander and Jack Clark, had pretty good plate discipline throughout their careers, posting respective career walk rates of 10.6% and 15.3%. Now obviously this has no predictive value whatsoever, but it's interesting to see nonetheless. Anyway, Hector was doing okay in Triple-A Fresno, but he just doesn't seem ready for the majors. We'll find out.

-- Anyway, a nice day for the offense in a not-so-friendly hitting environment. The one stat the sticks out in my mind: six walks, five strikeouts.

-- The Giants now own a 5-3 record against the Padres on the season, meaning I'm winning that bet with RJ's Fro.

Game Recap: Giants 6, Padres 2

A typical Giants-Padres game, in that through nine innings, they scored a combined two runs. The Giants went on to score five runs off of that Padres bullpen in the 12th though...quite a feat.

A few notes:

-- Aubrey Huff broke one of the longest homerless streaks in history with that ninth-inning home run off of Heath Bell. No, it wasn't Huff's homerless streak; it was Bell's. Bell hadn't allowed a homer in nearly fifteen months. Incredible. Huff's been a slightly better second-half hitter over his career (though that's partially BABIP-fueled). I think it's safe to say he won't continue to be as bad as he was in the first half, but here's hoping to a legitimately good second half. If he matches that career .293/.354/.497 second-half line, I'll be thrilled.

Split	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BAbip	tOPS+
1st Half	3569	.269	.332	.446	.778	.282	92
2nd Half	2912	.293	.354	.497	.852	.303	110

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/14/2011.

-- Pablo Sandoval extended his hitting streak to 22 games. He seems to have reverted to his earlier hacking tendencies, with just four walks spanning his last 101 plate appearances, and you know what? I don't care. It's working. He's not going to maintain a .350 batting average on balls in play, so he's clearly benefiting from some luck in that respect. But he's not going to maintain a sub-3% walk rate, either. Nice to see a resurgent panda, even if it's not an OBPanda.

-- If the Giants don't trade for Carlos Beltran, here's a radical idea: Designate Aaron Rowand for assignment and call up Brandon Belt. Aaron Rowand has few useful skills, namely his ability to play center, and his ability to hit left-handed pitching. With Pat Burrell and Cody Ross, the Giants have no shortage of guys that can hit LHPs; and with Andres Torres, Cody Ross and Nate Schierholtz (yes, Schierholtz, if need be), they have no shortage of guys that can play centerfield. His contract isn't a reason to keep him around. Sunk. cost. Play Pat Burrell and Cody Ross against left-handed pitchers; play Brandon Belt and Andres Torres against right-handed pitching.

-- Eli Whiteside had a nice little game, only the second three-hit game of his career. In case you haven't noticed, Eli Whiteside's had himself a little hot streak going. Since June 8 (entering tonight's game): .296/.367/.519...I'm becoming more convinced by the day that the Giants won't make a move for a catcher.

Game Recap: Giants 4, Mets 2

And you thought the Giants' starting nine was pathetic? Let's take a look at the Mets' lineup. Andres Torres' evil twin (Angel Pagan) leading off, Carlos "When do I get traded to the Giants?" Beltran batting third, and an overpaid outfielder that makes Aaron Rowand look good (Jason Bay) in the five hole. Nice.

All kidding aside, Matt Cain's results were definitely better than his actual performance today. At the end of the day, he had struck out four and walked three against a feeble lineup that is missing Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Ike Davis. He wasn't all that impressive, especially when you factor in his season high pitch count, but I really shouldn't be complaining about six scoreless frames. The Giants never fell behind, and the game was actually boring compared to other home games this year.

Some random notes...

• Nate Schierholtz raised his average to .293 with a 4 for 4 day in the cleanup spot. He also unleashed a laser throw to the plate, but unfortunately, nobody was running. Ideally, Bruce Bochy will start Nate on a daily basis after the break, even if Cody Ross is fully recovered.
  
  
• Mike Fontenot also had a nice day, going 3 for 5 in his return. I hope to see him penciled in more regularly as well, as his bat is certainly more potent than that of Emmanuel Burriss or Brandon Crawford. It's funny how he was basically an afterthought during the offseason.
  
  
• Pat Burrell did not look good in his lone pinch-hit appearance, and that's an understatement. I know that statistics tell us he can still be a productive hitter, but I'm starting to doubt that. It seems like a fair amount of his at-bats end with him getting called out on strikes.

If you told me before the season that the Giants would be 52-40 going in the All-Star Break, I would take it in a heartbeat. It's definitely not a bad place to be.

Game Recap: Giants 3, Mets 1

Just got off a flight from New York, so I couldn't catch the game.

Anyway, When the Giants Come to Town has the recap.

Game Recap: Mets 5, Giants 2

Ryan Vogelsong's clearly starting to get a little rusty, with what was arguably his worst start of the year. Yes, he pitched out of the jams for the most part, but through seven innings, he managed just two strikeouts, and walked five.

Consider this:
May 8th through June 22nd: nine starts -- 58.1 IP, 9 R, 44 K, 13 BB
June 28th through July 8th: three starts -- 18.2 IP, 11 R, 13 K, 13 BB

The strikeout rate has gone down a little, but the control has gotten a lot worse. Small sample size, yes. And I still think he's going to be a solid pitcher going forward. But going forward, he's pretty clearly no longer the guy he was in that amazing nine-start stretch. Which was obviously inevitable.

Brian Wilson blew it again, but I'm not too worried about him for the time being. His home run rate has been a major part of his success this year, and that was pretty clearly unsustainable. We're just watching regression in progress. But he'll continue to be a great reliever going forward, probably slightly worse than he was in 2009.

I stand by my controversial comment from a week ago, though:

You know what? Sergio Romo is better than Brian Wilson. I'll continue to believe so until I'm given a compelling reason to believe otherwise