When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

04.23.2007
Pitching and Defense and Very Little Offense

What? Me? Cassandra? Just when you thought it was safe to enjoy a five-game win streak, here I come with my “yeah but.”

As in, yeah, but the offense other than Barry Bonds right now stinks. The rotation is carrying this team and simultaneously has solved the bullpen problem—let those bullpen guys pitch as little as possible.

I’ll honor my own previous forwardlookingness, however, and acknowledge that the Giants just swept a team I considered unsweepable a few days ago. If the rotation can hold the D-Backs young talent in check, I’m impressed. Though the eternal skeptic in me says the weekend shows more about the D-Backs: Chad Tracy and Carlos Quentin in the cleanup spot. Not quite ready for prime time.

But Matt Cain will make anyone look like a forgotten member of the 1983 Saturday Night Live crew. Wait — I’m getting signals. Skeptic Brain…says…four walks….four strikeouts…kinda lame.

Oh bosh, enough of you, Skeptic Brain! Nine-and-eight! Nine-and-eight! All of a sudden, the Giants rotation matches up with anyone. Morris/Lowe; Lowry/Wolf; Ortiz/Penny. Maybe not quite for the upcoming Dodger series, at least on paper.

But the stronger the rotation gets, the more the Giants can deal from strength if they decide to upgrade the offense or bullpen with a trade. And as great as it was holding the talented young D-Backs offense to three runs this weekend, I can’t help worry why the Giants could only score 7 against the dregs of the Arizona rotation. 

*****

SMALL PRINT UPDATE: I gave up on Absurdistan. Perhaps I’ve lost my sense of humor, or perhaps the rolling gag of an obese, U.S.-educated Russian who loves rap music and gobbles anti-anxiety pills ran out of steam two-thirds of the way through. Now reading The Billion-Dollar Molecule, an inside look at the origins of a pharmaceutical company.



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[April 23, 2007 12:28 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Brian said

Welcome to Blogs By Fans, Lefty.

If your starting pitching works, the rest of the team is much easier to fix. Working in the other direction is much harder, just ask Brian Cashman.

[April 23, 2007 4:32 PM]  |  link  |  reply
pantalones said

Congrats on the news digs, Lefty. Love what you've done with the place.

I'm sure that someday soon that Arizona lineup will be scary, but for now it's a bunch of Randy Winns in a severe hitters' park. This team slugged .388 on the road last year, and is slugging .334 on the road this year. Neither Jackson, Drew, Young or Tracy slugged .400 on the road last year.

And, yeah, those Dodger pitching matchups aren't the greatest, since they don't include Zito-Hendrickson and Cain-Tomko. The good news? We'll miss Brandon Webb again next weekend... I'm confident that the Giants will finally start hitting by the time they get to Arizona. (Apologies to Sister Souljah.)

[April 23, 2007 4:45 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

No Webb next weekend, but The Big Unit on Sunday, I think. That should be fun.

[April 23, 2007 5:10 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Brian said

The Unit is basically Mark Hendrickson at this point of his career.

[April 23, 2007 5:24 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Jefferson said

I'm looking forward to see The Unit in his natural state again -- that is to say, in a big greasy mullet.

[April 23, 2007 5:32 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

I thought you meant in a trailer park.

[April 23, 2007 5:59 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Reeky said

Nice blog site, but it's slow...maybe all us slackers are checking out the blogs at 3:00 at work. So why did you switch? Lower costs, higher bene's?

[April 23, 2007 6:10 PM]  |  link  |  reply
bpfastball said

I like the new digs almost as much as I like the Giants being over .500 for the first time this year.

Would 2 out of 3 against the Dodgers be too much to ask?

[April 23, 2007 6:34 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

Thanks for the feedback -- how is it slow? You mean to load and refresh?

[April 23, 2007 9:37 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Dan from NM said

May the Internet bring you fame and fortune. Or at least interesting spam.

[April 23, 2007 10:50 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Chris said

Congrats on the new home Lefty. Just updated you on my page.

Nice logo too!

[April 23, 2007 11:46 PM]  |  link  |  reply
bigO said

Looks a little WinnShea to me. You may still have to move around the furniture a bit. 9-8 after a 1-6 start? I'll take it. Now just 2 of 3 from the dodgers (I met Tony Gwynn in Vegas and gave him my line: "The Giants are my favorite team and my second favorite is whoever is playing the Dodgers. He had never heard that before and had a good laugh. I also told him I was a BIG Barry Bonds fan and he said he was too and that everything "will be OK.")

[April 24, 2007 12:11 AM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

WinnShea? what? God bless you, BigO, but you are the most inscrutable Malo commenter ever.

[April 24, 2007 12:21 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Josh from Hollywood said

Nice new spread, dude. I especially dig the logo.

And tell Skeptic Brain that 4 walks and 4 strikeouts is kinda lame, but being able to fret about stuff like that, and the potency of the opposing lineup, after a 3-hit, CG win is a very nice luxury to have. When a guy allows 2 runs on 6 hits over 23 innings, there's no such thing as bad peripherals.

[April 24, 2007 12:28 AM]  |  link  |  reply
tk said

I don't know what he meant either but "Looks a little WinnShea" is going to be my generic new comment on things when I want people to wonder WTF fresh hell I'm talking about this time. And I won't tell them, because I don't know.

[April 24, 2007 12:47 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Giants00 said

Dont give up on absurdistan!!! that is like giving up on giants after 8 games. oh wait,we did that.

[April 24, 2007 1:00 AM]  |  link  |  reply
bigO said

New digs, move around the furniture- you know - Fengshui