I missed the previous week’s Players of the Week selections, so let’s get down to two weeks’ worth with just a bit of further ado: a quote from the Baseball Prospectus resident grumpy old man Joe Sheehan, who concludes his All-Star comments today with this sentence: “Gun at my head, give me Pablo Sandoval, who’s just kind of fun to watch.”
When was the last time a member of the national press called a Giants’ position player “fun to watch”? The Freak and the Panda, winning over the Giant-hating media one scribe at a time.
Week of June 22–28
Nate Schierholtz had a week to remember: 12–for-24 with a double and two homers. But Kung-Fu Panda couldn’t be stopped. His 8–for-22 included three doubles, three homers, and three walks for good measure. Among pitchers, Randy Johnson threw a great game against Oakland, and Ryan Sadowski made a terrific debut with six shutout innings, but Tim Lincecum’s complete-game gem in Oakland wins the day.
Week of June 29–July 5
Hitter of the week is a tough choice. Randy Winn finally heated up with 10 hits, five for extra bases; Sandoval had a triple, a homer, six ribbies and four walks. Both could win this, and Rowand, Ishikawa and Schierholtz had good weeks, too. But I’ll give the nod to Edgar Renteria, who hasn’t gotten many friendly nods this year. He quietly went 9–for-21 with two doubles and six RBI. As for pitchers, it’s Lincecum again, with two scoreless starts. Dig: He allowed 7 baserunners in 16 innings and struck out 17. Next up are the punchless Padres on Friday night.
Half year MVPs
Starting pitcher: Lincecum by a good length over Matt Cain. Cain’s been very good, but Lincecum is starting to look like turn-of-the-millennium Pedro Martinez. Un-freakin’-believable.
Bullpenner: As the closer, Brian Wilson’s foibles will always be magnified, so a particularly bad week for Wilson will leave a long, lingering bad taste disproportionate to his actual performance. But the plain fact is he’s had several bad outings, and Jeremy Affeldt has not. All those ground-ball double plays might make Affeldt a wee bit lucky, and indeed his FIP (fielding-independent performance) is higher than Wilson’s, but my naked eye tells me Affeldt’s been the best in the pen this year.
Hitter: The Panda Man Can.
Fielder: Sandoval gets props for erasing the massive question mark about his glove at 3B going into the season. Ishikawa hasn’t let his first-half struggles with the bat affect his smooth leather work. But I’m going in an unexpected direction: Nate Schierholtz. He’s only played 40 games in right field, 15 fewer than Randy Winn, but by one oft-cited measurement — Fangraphs’ UZR — Schierholtz is already the team’s best outfield glove.
