2 years & 2 days ago to be exact... 'Mando still scares me, but I Like what I'm seeing despite the drama... Special kudos to Special Agent JT and the defense for the DoublePlay that saved both Morris & Hennesy...

¡Viva Los Gigantes!

Lazlo

I agree with your comments, particularly about Benitiez. Thanks for your reason and objectivity. I have to confess I am sooooo tired, to exhaustion, of the constant, out of date, inaccurate carping on Benitez on McCovey Chrons.
Also noteworthy tonight:
Benji's 3 hits
Klesko's O and D
Winn's 2 hits, 2 RBIs
Roberts 2 hits + SB.
I'm looking forward to seeing the lineup Bochy puts forward tomorrow for the LH starter.

Was looking over the top 10 list of top RH starters in baseball under the age of 25. Is it just me, or did they leave out the #1 guy? Or did Matt Cain fudge his birth certificate?

Re. Benitez: I hated his clown act, but I always gave him a tiny bit of slack b/c he suffered a horrific injury and battled hard by all accounts to return from it early. One could argue that with better conditioning he never would have ripped the hamstring from his pelvic bone in the first place, but that's all speculation.

Re. Cain: BP's projection system PECOTA doesn't like Cain very much because of his high walk rate and extreme flyball tendencies -- which, in general, is a rational reason to be skeptical of a young pitcher. I'm not sure if PECOTA was the only basis for the list, but I'm sure it factored in.

Lefty, where do you want me to send the tires, radials I assume:

Pitching coach Dave Righetti pointed to catcher Molina, who joined the Giants this season, as a key factor in the starters' success.

"These guys are pretty good," Righetti said of the starters. "I think Bengie should get a lot of credit. I'm glad he's here."

Zito agreed, saying: "There are so many catchers who are just worried about their hitting. I've always said I'd rather have a catcher who can work a staff. He can do both. What he's done for our staff is bring it together."

Molina shrugged off the praise.

"I told everybody in the spring I couldn't wait until the season started so we could show what we have," he said. "These guys are making great pitches. They're ready to pitch every night. They take the ball -- they take pride in that."

Great post, O. I thought the Giants made a great pick up in Molina for exactly this reason. There were several stories in ST about his having long conversations with different individual pitchers, and their comments about how helpful it was and how knowledgeable he is. And to think some just rag on him becuase of his age.

Re: Armando.. I believe he was throwing splitters to Saenz to get him out. His slider actually has a bit more bite on the hook downwards. I actually wish FSN Bay Area would show a closeup on his release to see if it actually was the split or slider. I'm going with the splitter because it didn't have much hook, but it had a sharp drop as it got to the plate, which is indicative of a good splitter (see: Clemens, Roger).

You guys are whistling in the dark. Take a look at the 1.89 WHIP for Benitez here . Sooner or later putting 2 men on base in the ninth is going to catch up with you!

Hmm, I think those were sliders. Here's why: from the just-slightly-off center-field camera angle, the slider looks like it goes straight down, when in reality it has lateral movement too.

From the CF camera, a splitter would look more like a slower two-seam fastball, with downward plunge and slight lateral movement left to right.

Re. whistling in the dark: I agree that in general putting two guys on in the ninth will eventually come back to bite. But specifically about last night, Mando was on. The two singles could easily have been outs.