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

08.30.2009
8/30: "The Big Swing of 2009"

Giants 9, Rockies 5: The quote above could well describe the entire three games this weekend, or perhaps this entire home stand. From four games back Monday, doubled over and spitting blood after a back-alley mugging in the late-night streets of Denver's LoDo district, to tied with the Rockies for the wild-card lead is indeed a big swing.

But the quotee, Dave Flemming, was describing during the post-game show today Edgar Renteria's seventh-inning grand slam that put the Giants up 6-5, oh so improbably, a lead they thankfully padded the next inning. Watch it here. Improbably, I say, because the Giants earlier whiffed several times on scoring chances -- no really, I know it's hard to believe -- and the last thought on anyone's mind was that Renteria would bring them all the way back and then some. I was praying for a dunk shot over the second baseman's head, to be honest.

Wouldn't it be something if the two guys most maligned for underachievement this year, Zito and Renteria, lead the charge down the stretch? Zito's second-half surge is more than just a nice run; he seems to be on a mission. The back to back games he's now pitched against Colorado have been worth every dollar in his paycheck this week, and that's a lotta dollas, ladies and germs.

Did anyone catch Jeff Kent in his guest spot on the radio Saturday night? He said the key to Zito's resurgence is the few miles per hour he's regained on his fastball, plus a little more snap on the curve. We all tittered (and twittered) at the reports of Zito and Brian Wilson bunking together in L.A. this winter and playing long toss across Laurel Canyon (or was it over Mulholland Falls?). We chalked it up to yet more pre-spring training "best shape of my life" jibber jabber. But how you like them now? Zito is rattling off clutch performances by the speedo-full, and Wilson is able and ready whenever called -- nine times in the last two weeks, with his only meltdown the tough outing against Arizona earlier this week when Sergio Romo had to bail him out.

Let's get to the players of the week. On the mound, I have to go with Zito, who pitched twice and delivered both times. Ignore the ugly walk total from the Coors game; three came after Juan Uribe's error and produced a run. When the Rox made contact, they didn't do much. The stats don't do justice to the quality of his work that night. As for Saturday, I hated Bochy's decision to remove Zito after Hawpe's homer broke up the shutout in the ninth. He deserved to finish.

Among position players I declare a tie between Edgar Renteria (8 for 25, grand slam, double, triple) and Juan Uribe (7 for 24, two homers, two doubles, triple). Not only did they combine for eight extra base hits for the week, they each walked four times. Uribe might not win team MVP this year, but he has saved this team's ass time and again. I give a huge honorable mention to Eli Whiteside, who only went 5 for 22 but was in the thick of several rallies. He also threw out four of five Rockies basestealers this weekend.

As we head into the off day and a week in Philly and Milwaukee, the big question is whether the team truly wants Brad Penny. Outbidding the Marlins shouldn't be tough.



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13 Comments

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Mav25 | August 31, 2009 2:03 AM | Reply

Enjoyed reading this...great series...great read!

bigO | August 31, 2009 10:41 AM | Reply

Yahooooo. Being in Seattle I don't get to see our boys play very often BUT since they were on TV I got to watch the Zito gem. Here's my observations in no particular order.

Zito is INTENSE. You could see it on several plays and pitches.

I noticed early Zito hitting 90mph. I couldn't remember the last time it wasn't 87-88 and once in awhile an 89.

Don't know why but even with all the great Rox hitters, Torrealba still scares me in clutch situations even with his 2hrs and 14 rbi.

How the hell did Winn hit that sac fly? An 8 iron?

Doesn't look like much love lost between Nate and Velez. Couldn't they talk about their near miss? They looked pissed and like they don't like one another. ??

Zito was AWESOME as a 5th infielder. But he looks like he throws a change up to lst base half the time.

The ump behind the plate was perfect for Zito, giving him almost every pitch. An ump with a tight zone would be much harder. Zito hit his spots but I wouldn't want him to have to "come in" more.

Brad Hawpe looks 12 years old.

Rohlinger took some pitches. Good on ya. Felt comfortable with the ball being hit to him too.

Why would a pitcher ever throw Ishi a strike?

Is Whiteside grey?

Whiteside doesn't have a clue at the plate. Hitting 8th, runners on 2nd and 3rd and he swings at terrible pitches. Granted you want to swing the bat with the P on deck but you have to know what their P is trying to do too and not accomodate 'em either. He let the first (and only good pitch, right down the middle) go and then swung at some awful bad pitches.

Kudos to Whitside for making an adjustment and hitting the lst pitch (the same and only strike from the previous bat) fora single (triple) up the middle the next time up AND for the D. I couldn't believe he threw out the runner on the of speed pitch with the bat flailing thru the zone too.

9th inning and I feel MUCH BETTER with a 4 run lead even when the ROX have 2 on when the games at AT&T instead of Coors (I drank 4 coors though during the game).

On Sunday after 2 innings Cain - 42 pitches, Hammel - 14 pitches.

ROX struck out 30 times over the weekend.

HOPE! (again).

PeteVA | August 31, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply

Mr. Renteria, I apologize for every nasty thing I have written for the last 10 months...one at bat can change one's persepctive.

Lefty, we need to give Molina a big honorable mention, but player of the week was Renteria. Not only has he decided it is time to hit, his range in the field, especially in the Arizona series, was downright ala 1997...Brad Penny is needed and we dont have to outbid anyone. He will be a free agent and can go where he wants and I expect he would beg to be in a Giants uniform pitching against the Dodgers in September. Question I have, if Penny is signed by the end of the day, is he post-season eligible?

He would not be a starter, but imagine sticking Penny and Randy Johnson in the bullpen for a playoff series!!!

We would go with four starters: Lincecum-Zito-Cain-Sanchez and I would carry seven bullpen arms and 14 hitters.

Bullpen: Wilson, Affeldt, Romo, Johnson, Penny, Medders and probably Howry. Give Valdez and Miller seats on the bench, but I would not put them on a playoff roster.

Hitters: We would potentially carry one extra bat for the playoffs, but maybe having Rohlinger and a defensive glove at third would be wise. Torres is also a possibility. Where is Torres???

ELM replied to comment from PeteVA | August 31, 2009 1:31 PM | Reply

> if Penny is signed by the end of the day, is he post-season eligible?

Yes.

PeteVA | August 31, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply

and I will be in Philly tomorrow...

johnP | August 31, 2009 1:23 PM | Reply

I assumed we'd lose the game as soon as Bobblehead pulled Schierholtz and put in Molina. But it appears that forces vastly greater than the skipper's veteran-love co-dependency "issue" were in play this fine late-summer Sunday afternoon... MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

ELM | August 31, 2009 1:33 PM | Reply

>Where is Torres???

Still on the DL. He'll come up when rosters expand, but he'll be eligible for post-season b/c he was on the DL. Same with Randy Johnson. I think that's the rule, please correct me if I'm wrong.

marc | August 31, 2009 1:44 PM | Reply

I was very impressed with Zito in his last start - he was pitching, not throwing, and doing a fine job of it. Perhaps (I hope) he's made that transition - seems like the last couple of years he was trying to be the old him. If he can locate like he did the other day, I'm really jazzed.

obsessivegiantscompulsive replied to comment from marc | September 1, 2009 1:16 AM | Reply

I believe that Zito was suffering from what Malcolm Gladwell described as "under conditions of stress ... the explicit system sometimes takes over." When your explicit system takes over you begin thinking about your physical movement again, instead of reacting instinctually. He wrote about it at his website.

Basically, when you are starting out learning some new sport (or really, any physical movement), your explicit system takes over because you are learning it in a very deliberate, mechanical manner. But as you get better and you learn, the implicit system takes over, and your body reacts without thinking. Using muscle memory, to use athletic parlance.

But in the stress of the moment, some athletes find themselves suddenly focused on their every movement, conscious of it, and use their explicit system instead of their implicit system. That is when the catcher suddenly cannot throw the ball back to the pitcher anymore, throwing it instead to 2B, or like Ed Whitson when he was pitching in NY, or a 2B who suddenly can't throw to 1B.

Not that I was any great athlete, but I had that happen to me, so I understand this concept. I was just goofing (illegally) with a bunch of classmates, throwing a hardball around the diamond, and I happened to impress the captain of my lunch league team with my play at 3B. I was pretty flawless and smooth doing that, and it was my big break, as I was not considered that good. But once the crowd of classmates showed up for the lunch league games, my throws all went over the head of the 1B. And I was soon relegated to "left out" field and the pitcher's mound...

So I think that is what happened to Zito for much of his first year and a half with the Giants.

Furthermore, I think he changed some of his routines over the years, routines that had helped him throw for more velocity. Not consciously but somewhere along the way, it fell to the wayside (in this case, it sounds like his practice of long tossing, based on what I've read).

That was already affecting him when he was with the A's, resulting in this falling velocity during his last years with them.

But he started changing his routine - not sure exactly when but for sure by the off-season when he started working out with Brian Wilson and started long-tossing with him - and his velocity returned this season to the level it was - around 87-89 MPH - that it was when he was much more successful with the A's.

He currently has a 1.92 ERA for the second half of the season, continuing the general trend during his career where he improved between the first half and the second half of the season, sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot.

The last time he had such a great difference between the halves and also the last time he was this good in the second half was his Cy Young year of 2002, when he had a 1.92 ERA in the second half in 16 starts. And the only times he had such a large split for the A's was his early good years with them. By his later years, there was little difference or even an increase.

It wasn't until he was with the Giants that this split surfaced again, where he pitched much better in the second half than the first. It appears that he was mentally screwed up but the wearing down of the season got him to the point later where he could throw more naturally, but without the velocity to make it count, he was the later-day A's Zito.

But a new Zito surfaced in the second half of 2008. His velocity was up to much younger levels (upper 80's), and he was striking out hitters at a rate that was not seen since 2001 and 2002 on a consistent basis. He continued that into the first half of this year, but his ERA didn't show it, even if his peripherals did. Then it really showed in the second half, as his BABIP started falling back down to the levels he had experienced before instead of the league mean.

DProfessor | August 31, 2009 2:14 PM | Reply

And to think, not too long ago so many people were saying, "Why is Uribe on the roster? He's redundant, his stats are bad ...waah."

People who don't watch a team or player should withhold judgment. Anybody who had watched the ChiSox would know that Uribe is a tremendous guy off the bench.

Bravo Juan!

Barton | August 31, 2009 2:37 PM | Reply

One thing that has remained unsaid is how much this team has been underestimated. People assume you can't win without an offense--but Sabes (yes, I will defend him here) seems to have consciously set out to build a overwhelming dominance in pitching, even when it's meant weak bats, and the maverick strategy is starting to show dividends. I believe it's true that our top four pitcher's have a combined ERA of less than 3 since the All-Star break--which is just phenomenal.

If Zito--who is a second half pitcher--and Sanchez stay focused the Giant's could be a dangerous team in the playoffs. As ObsessiveGiantCompulsive has noted in studies on his site, the short-series format of the playoffs reward dominant pitching.

Boof | August 31, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply

SI.com's Jon Heyman has reported via Twitter that Brad Penny is a Giant.

obsessivegiantscompulsive | August 31, 2009 7:51 PM | Reply

How do the Giants outbid the Marlins? Neither team can offer more than the other monetarily, so to me it is up to Penny to decide which situation is better, and the Giants bid a three game sweep to get into a tie for the wild card.

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