Irresistible Force, Meet Immovable Object
Posted by Chris - 07/08/08 at 09:08 amIf you’ve seen one game this year of Giants baseball you know that this team doesn’t hit for power. Not hitting for power means not hitting for home runs. El Lefty Malo recently touched on this conundrum. The Giants, as a team, aren’t projected to eclipse the century mark for home runs this year. They would be the first team since the 1993 Marlins to not hit at least 100 home runs in a full season of baseball.
In yesterday’s post, we learned that the Giants steak of 12 consecutive games without a HR was the largest streak for any team in the major leagues this year. When your team is composed of hitters such as: Omar Vizquel, Randy Winn, Jose Castillo, and Dave Roberts, who all get significant playing time, you don’t figure to hit a lot of home runs.
Entering yesterdays game, the Giants did not have a singe player to have double digit home runs. Enter Braves pitcher Chuck James:
Click to enlarge
That’s a HR/9 graph from Chuck James’ FanGraphs page. In 29.2 innings pitched this year, James has given up 10 home runs. He’s given up at least one home run in all of his seven starts this year. Is HR/FB is 20%, meaning that 20 percent of his batted flyballs are leaving the park. That’s an incredible statistic when you consider that the league average HR/FB is between 10-12%.
In the bottom of the 1st Aaron Rowand steps to the plate with a runner on and this happens. Rowand hits a deep flyball to LF to become the first Giant to hit double digits for home runs. 118 hitters in the majors have hit more home runs than our top home run hitter. Currently the Giants have 63 home runs as a team.
Tim Lincecum had another very, very solid performance. Lincecum’s final line was:
8 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 SO
Tim lowered his ERA to 2.68 and raised his ERA+ to 160. Among all major league pitchers with at least 140 innings pitched and ranked by ERA+, Tim is currently 4th. Only Cliff Lee, Danny Haren, and Carlos Zambrano have had better years. If the season ended right now, Linecum’s ERA+ would be good enough to place him 5th all-time since 1956 for Giants starters. Think about how amazing that is. Those four guys in front of him?
Cnt Player **ERA+** IP Year Age +----+-----------+------+-----+----+---+ 1 Jason Schmidt 179 207.2 2003 30 2 Juan Marichal 169 295.1 1965 27 3 Juan Marichal 168 299.2 1969 31 4 Juan Marichal 167 307.1 1966 28
If you ranked Giants pitchers since 1956 by ERA+ who were 24-years-old or younger and who threw at least 140 innings.
Cnt Player **ERA+** IP Year Age +----+------------+------+-----+----+---+ 1 Tim Lincecum 160 157.2 2008 24 2 Bob Knepper 131 260 1978 24 3 Shawn Estes 130 201 1997 24 4 Mike McCormick 129 253 1960 21 5 Jim Barr 123 179 1972 24
Since 1956, Tim Lincecum is having the best season of any young Giants pitcher, ever. Bob Knepper went 17-11 in 1978. We’ve got a Shawn Estes sighting for his 1997 All-Star season. Mike McCormick and Jim Barr are also well known Giants pitchers. Let’s increase our range and go from 1876-2008 and look at the Giants franchise. Same parameters of innings pitched, age, and ranked by ERA+
Cnt Player **ERA+** IP Year Age +----+------------+------+-----+----+---+ 1 Christy Mathewson 230 338.2 1905 24 2 Amos Rusie 189 444 1894 23 3 Johnny Antonelli 177 258.2 1954 24 4 Jeff Tesreau 173 243 1912 24 5 Tim Lincecum 160 157.2 2008 24 6 Hal Schumacher 148 258.2 1933 22 7 Christy Mathewson 147 366.1 1903 22 8 Amos Rusie 144 482 1893 22 9 Christy Mathewson 138 336 1901 20 10 Rube Marquard 134 277.2 1911 24
Christy Mathewson, greatest young Giants pitcher, ever? Lincecum’s having a good year, but I don’t think he’s going to catch Mathewson’s 230 ERA+ 1905 season. In fact, Mathewson makes this list 3 times. He’s also the youngest player in our top-10 of young greats. At the tender age of 20 Mathewson went 20-17 with a 2.41 ERA. Johnny Antonelli is an interesting player. He debuted in 1948 as an 18-year-old with the Boston Braves. In 1954, he was traded from the Milwaukee Braves along with Billy Klaus, Don Liddle, Ebba St. Claire — great baseball name — and cash to the New York Giants for Bobby Thompson and Sam Calderone. In that ‘54 season Antonelli went 21-7 with a 2.30 ERA. For those looking for Matt Cain, his 2007 season at age 22 places him 26th on this list.
Our list is rounded out with Amos Rusie, Jeff Tesreau, Hal Schumacher, and Rube Marquard (another great baseball name). Regardless of where Lincecum ends up in Giants history, it’s amazing how well he’s done in such a short time. I wonder how many teams are kicking themselves for not drafting Lincecum?
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Edit: I forgot to include this the first time around, but it’s official, the Giants have come to terms with supplemental draft pick 3B Conor Gillapsie. There had been some rumors percolating over the past couple of days that the deal was done, but nothing definite until now.
From SFGiants.com:
San Francisco now has signed 14 of its first 19 selections, though Gillaspie is the only signee among the club’s top four picks. Director of player personnel Bobby Evans wouldn’t disclose the terms of the deal, per team policy, but he said the signing process was “typical” and had been “ongoing since the day we chose him.”
On Monday, a Wichita, Kan.-based NBC news affiliate reported Gillaspie had agreed to a pro contract with the Giants that included a $975,000 signing bonus and other incentives.
Buster Posey, Roger Kieschnick, and Brandon Crawford are still unsigned. Posey should go down to the wire, as might Crawford, but I think Kieschnick might be the next to ink a deal. Let’s hope the Giants can get all three of these players signed.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
#6 in the majors in THT win shares