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

07.08.2007
Halfsies

First-Half MVP: Barry Bonds. He’s his own man, he tells us with a dismissive wave of the hand. I wasn’t going to watch the Home Run Derby either way, but I understand a lot of people enjoy it. They’re disappointed, and Bonds didn’t win himself any Cub Scout Friendliness patches with the predictable blow-off. Bottom line: If sitting it out the Derby helps him put up a .295 / .512 / .589 line in the second half, too, so be it. Runner-up: Ryan Klesko.

First-Half Cy Young: Noah Lowry has more wins (irrelevant in my book) and a lower ERA, Matt Cain has a smidge lower ERA, but I’m picking Matt Morris. Lowry should probably win it, but Lowry seems to win on smoke and mirrors (and a frustrating amount of walks), while Morris has thrown together a lot of dominant games. His ERA is tainted by the stinker in Boston. Runner-Up: Lowry.

Rookie of the Half-Year: Obviously it comes down to two: Fred Lewis and Tim Lincecum. Lincecum has been spectacular at times, but for four starts he was spectacularly bad. Lewis in 107 ABs has been the Giants’ third-best hitter behind Bonds and Klesko. Gotta love a rookie who gets on base a lot and has some pop. Lewis is hitting the way Randy Winn should. Slight nod to Lewis.

Disappointment of the Half-Year: I’m looking at you, Rockstar. If you don’t like the pressure of the largest pitching contract in baseball history, give some of the money back and make it the sixth or tenth largest contract.

What’s really galling about Zito’s first half — 4.90 ERA, 104 IP, 100 H, 52 (!) BB, 66 K, 11 (!!) HR — is that when he signed, we said “OK, we know he’s not really an ace, but at least he’ll give the Giants lots of innings and sell a lot of merch.” He’s completed at least seven innings in only six out of 18 starts. And if he finishes the year with an ERA around 4, people will say, “See, he’s a second-half pitcher!” Runner-Up: Most of the rest of the starting lineup, but especially Ray Durham.



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[July 9, 2007 12:04 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Mikefo said

No kudo's to Bengie?

Yeah, Barry's slugging and on-base make Molina's look sickly but Bengie seems to come through in the clutch a LOT this season!

[July 9, 2007 12:51 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Cyrus said

I'm just hoping this team doesn't get hot in the next 20 days so Sabean will be forced to sell. The worst thing that could happen is a 8 game streak after the all-star break, then a week of treading water to make management think, hey, if we could just get back a pretty good bat for Sanchez and Lowry...

[July 9, 2007 1:30 AM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

I just saw that the White Sox gave Mark Buehrle a 4-yr contract extension. That makes Matt Morris the most coveted SP on the trade market. Pray that he has a couple good starts right after the break.

[July 9, 2007 6:42 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ogc said

I agree with your picks, ELM. Particularly Morris, he won after a loss so many times that it was ridiculous how bad we would be without him.

About Zito, we were saying the same things last season about Morris. There's still time for him to do well enough to give us some hope about the contract.

Durham and Roberts would tie for disappointment for the offense, for me. If either were hitting what they are capable of, we would be in the mix for 3rd/4th place, instead of mired in the basement.