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

07.10.2008
7/10/08: Lack of Wood

Mets 7, Giants 3: Unlike the previous two games, the Giants managed to score runs today, but thanks only to the generosity of Mets’ pitcher John Maine, whose wildness — a wild pitch and two walks — led directly to all three scores. 

Otherwise, the result could have mirrored Tuesday and Wednesday: zero runs, three hits. Yes, nine hits over three games is all the Giants mustered. Call it a team effort: The pitchers were either giving up home runs or too many walks, and the defense was shoddy. The lack of offense I can live with; that was expected to be a problem all year. But the walks and defense are painful.

The good news is Giants pitchers lead the majors in strikeouts, which means they can wriggle out of self-induced jams more often. It’s something to build on.

One point I forgot to make a couple days ago: Not only have the Giants have done well to give young players a look at the major-league level, but they’ve been aggressive promoting players more than one level, starting with Brian Bocock. Several others made the jump from single or double-A: Burriss, Romo, Matos, Holm, plus Denker, Bowker and Hinshaw barely cracked AAA before getting called up. The Giants could easily have used veteran minor-league filler (Leone, McClain, Palmer, Messenger, etc) to bide time and give the youngsters more seasoning. Borrrr-ing.

PLODAG: Randy Winn, with two walks and an opposite-field double.

The Upside: John Bowker, with two more hits. Other than his debut home runs in April, he hasn’t done anything spectacular. But little by little, he keeps getting better. Next step is more starts against lefties to see how he fares. Believe it or not, he’s only had 27 at-bats against LHP this year.  

Question: What drives you most nuts? Barry Zito walking the bases loaded, Jack Taschner walking the first batter he faces, or Ray Durham swinging at a 2–0 pitch leading off the 7th inning in a tie game? Discuss.

***

SMALL PRINT UPDATE: Now reading The Third Domain: The Untold Story of Archaea and the Future of Biotechnology, sometimes badly and breathlessly written yet a fascinating account of the microbes no one 30 years ago imagined could exist, such as the ones that thrive in boiling de-oxygenated water on the sea floor. If you’re an extremophilephile — and you know who you are — you’ll want to read this.



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[July 10, 2008 10:39 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Johnny Disaster said

Belated welcome back...
I've been whining all day that I never expected a ton of offense or wins even, but the walks, shoddy defense and poor fundamentals are draining me of life and joy.
I try to remind myself that's what you get with the youngsters, but it ain't just them...
Aarrghh.

[July 11, 2008 7:11 AM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

I wouldn't blame the pitchers for the walks. 8 walks by Giants pitchers, 7 walks by Mets pitchers. Are we to believe that both sides were horribly wild without some help from either the umps or the elements (it was raining yesterday so I would think today was pretty wet too)

I would add Rohlinger plus maybe throw Ishikawa in there too, he ended 2007 in Advanced A, played less than half a season in AA, before rising to AAA finally. Wasn't Velez jumped too?

You could also have mentioned Hennessey and Ochoa for the non-promoteds.

As I've been writing, BP studied the team metrics that are corrolated to playoff success, and overall team K/9 was a key factor towards playoff success. It helps having three starting pitchers among the Top 10 in K's too.

Probably Durham swinging on a 2-0 pitch in a tie game situation when the pitchers have been wild all day. As much as we use him as a RBI guy, that was a lead-off situation and he used to be a good one, he should have worked for a walk instead of swinging, then try to steal.

He's been OK this year I think, both him and Winn particularly, Winn's never been this effective stealing, hats off to the new baserunning coach at 1B from Augusta, Roberto Kelly. Winn was terrible before.

[July 11, 2008 2:34 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Frank said

For me, TAschner, hands down. Because he ALWAYS walks the first hitter he faces and should NEVER do so. I am kind of anesthetized by Zito and I kind of forgive Durham as I have never seen a player get so many bad, bad strike calls against him (umpires must think his knees connect to his ankles - and his "home plate" is 7 1/2 inches wider than any other major leaguer).

[July 11, 2008 6:17 PM]  |  link  |  reply
horace w green said

Taschner, mos' def. The bullie is the single biggest reason why this team is in the tank. I'm surprised that Cain even speaks to those guys, the way they have given away his W's over the past year and a half. If there is anything at all to the rumor that other teams are interested in JT, give him away now and let Hinshaw grow into the setup role.

Zito is in an extended funk, but he doesn't make excuses and he keeps taking the ball. Durham is giving them about what you'd expect for $7.5 mil. Besides, the system is rife with 2Bs so (hopefully) Ray-Ray is being showcased for a deadline deal involving a talented power hitting minor leaguer (Hello, Cubs/Mets/Chisox/Twins/Blue Jays, are you there?).