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

09.12.2007
Post-Game 9/11: Tonic Youth

Giants 2, D-Backs 1: Four of the five Giant hits, both RBI and both runs were tallied by players under 27. The relatively young Kevin Correia pitched his fourth straight pretty darn good start, and closer of the future Brian Wilson was tonight’s closer of the present. That’s a tall refreshing glass of yoof.

When you complain about the Giant braintrust having no vision, no creativity, or no adaptability, please note the early success of the Correia Experiment, which sounds like a Robert Ludlum novel. It’s a page turner. As a reliever this year, Correia didn’t do anything in particular to merit another shot at the rotation other than show very occasional flashes of nasty stuff. More often, he would lose command of his fastball at untimely moments. But the Giants saw enough to give him another crack as a starter — perhaps it was his mental maturity, his ability to keep cool and confident after surrendering walk-off homers. And now he has the inside track to a rotation slot next year.

Also heed the Dan Ortmeier Learning Curve, one of my favorite avant-jazz sextets. You got a guy with good power, an excellent athlete, and a crowded outfield. You also have one of the best first-base glovemen as a friendly neighborhood roving instructor; throw in ongoing lessons, and voila — a valuable position change. I’m not convinced Ortmeier will ever hit enough to be a starter, let alone a starting first baseman, but it’s a worthy exercise. At worst, perhaps the guy learns to be a Mark Sweeney type, able to fill in at first or the OF and get timely hits off the bench.

PLODAG: Dan Ortmeier, for turning a misplayed single into a triple and scoring the winning run. He’s big and, wow, he’s fast.



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[September 12, 2007 2:46 AM]  |  link  |  reply
someguynamedg said

I really hope that Giants fans start yelling "Ort! Ort! Ort!" every time Ortmeier does something well.

[September 12, 2007 12:08 PM]  |  link  |  reply
GiantsDwarf said

How old is Pedro Filez? He had the game winning RBI and he is older than 27. I do agree it is nice to see the young player doing so well.

[September 12, 2007 12:40 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

Feliz is 32. OK, so one of the two RBI were from young people. My late-night critical blogging faculties are slipping.