Irresistible Force, Meet Immovable Object

If 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?

—

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.