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

08.07.2007
Post-Game 8/6: Oh The Places You'll Go

Giants 3, Nats 2, 11 innings. I just got back from the yard. The most remarkable thing about tonight’s game was Tim Lincecum’s pitch count. He threw 116 pitches in seven innings, and he didn’t have great command. Five walks and several other batters with deep counts bloated his pitch total, and it’s not like the Nationals were putting together gritty, hang-in-there at-bats. He simply wasn’t throwing enough strikes. He walked D’Angelo Jimenez, hitting .190, twice.

In the men’s room under the bleachers about half way through the game, I heard Dave Flemming on the radio say that Lincecum hadn’t thrown his curve for a strike all night. That seemed a bit of an exaggeration, but imagine if Timmah had his good stuff and better control. He might have gone 10 innings and struck out 14 or 15.

Timmah 013

The kid was fun to watch.

PLODAG: Randy Winn, four hits including the game-winner, plus a walk. Runner-up: Rajai Davis, on base three times and a couple nice plays in the outfield. gdog asked in the last comment thread why I was excited about Davis; I like his plate approach, I like his raw speed, I like his hustle, I like his arm. If he can get on base more than 35% of the time and play above-average defense (he’ll be two steps ahead of Juan Pierre), the Giants have a keeper.

SMALL PRINT UPDATE: Scott Atchison up to bolster the battered bullpen. He did a nice job tonight despite the Dmitri Young home run. Fred Lewis was sent down.



Also on the Network:



[August 7, 2007 8:34 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Anonymous said

From the TV angle Timmy threw alot of strikes with his curve, they just weren't getting called. I'm not sure what home plate blue wanted, but some of those were carving up the zone.

[August 7, 2007 11:50 AM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

Yeah, Davis's prototype is Pierre: loads of speed/steals, good contact (i.e. low k-rate), high BA, low BB-rate, low power.

People note his arm, but the comment in my prospect book notes "shows solid range in CF and makes up for fringe-average arm strength by getting rid of the ball quickly and showing accuracy." So is this accurate, or do you really view his arm as strong?

The main question is whether his good bat control skill in the low minors can be brought up to the majors, as it looks like he can keep his BA OK with his good contact. In AA and AAA the previous two seasons, he was challenged and unable to do it, resulting in sub-par OBP. However, this year was a breakout year for him in AAA, but was it a real breakout, a learning of the league, or just him being so much older than the rest of the players? The key for him having above-average OBP (over .350) is being able to take walks like he used to. Thus far in the majors this year, he has been great taking walks and avoiding the K, but over his head doing so, hopefully taking walks is the normal skill, not avoiding the strikeout.

[August 7, 2007 11:52 AM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

Why did the formatting paragraphs get excised?

Makes the text all one big blob.

[August 7, 2007 11:53 AM]  |  link  |  reply
bigO said

Davis' attempts at bunting were pitiful. He attempted to bunt the first two pitches which were both balls. We lucked out there but that could have been the turning point of the game and he looked like he had no idea what the strikezone was or how to approach laying one down. I'm somewhat optimistic about the guy but during that AB he looked really really BAD.

[August 7, 2007 12:03 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

Formatting problems fixed. We're switching to new back-end software, so definitely let me know about glitches you find.

On the good side, you'll notice that there's no more long delay when posting a comment.

[August 7, 2007 12:06 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

Re. Davis: His arm seems strong. I'm not a scout so take my observations with all necessary caveats.

And yes, bunting doesn't seem to be his strong suit. Perhaps Dave Roberts will help him, just as Maury Wills helped Dave Roberts.

[August 7, 2007 1:04 PM]  |  link  |  reply
amoose said

From the TV it looked like both pitchers were getting squeezed.

Also, on at least one strike out the gun on TV showed Timmy hitting 101. Anyone have any idea if this was anywhere close to true?

[August 7, 2007 1:42 PM]  |  link  |  reply
BawLa said

I too like Davis. I was hoping he and Lewis would get more playing time and could compete and make each other better...oh well. Davis has some very nice tools and is a real prospect. Maybe not an all-star caliber prospect, but a prospect nonetheless.

It is kinda fun watching Davis and knowing that on an infield hit, if the fielder doesn't make a perfectly clean play, he has a single. If Roberts and Vizquel can teach him some drag bunting skills, we have ourselves a gamer.

[August 7, 2007 1:52 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

>Timmy hitting 101

the highest I saw on the park radar was 97, but I didn't look after every pitch.

[August 7, 2007 1:58 PM]  |  link  |  reply
trilljester said

amoose: I that 101 show up on his K of Zimmerman, I think it was? I immediately blamed it on the Fox gun. I think he was close to 100, maybe 98 or 99. That pitch was nasty.

ELM: Atchison did look good tonight. Young went down and got that curveball and used his considerable girth to knock it out. Tip your hat and go on. Atchison came in and challenged EVERY batter, and got most of them in a 2 strike hole and then finished them off with that low 90's fastball which has some nice movement. Also, thanks for the links to those 2 sites for minor leaguer stats, it helps a lot!