>> I can’t wait until the end of this season, when Cain has put up another year similar to the last three (or hopefully a bit better) and won 15 games. All the articles about how he finally has taken THE step forward are going to kill me.

YES.

>> Yeah, any hitter not named Yovanni Gallardo.

;_;

“He’s definitely going to have to layoff that pitch way up in the zone. That’s a tough pitch for almost any hitter.”

Yeah, any hitter not named Yovanni Gallardo.

At least for now. His FB% numbers are something to watch, but until they start regressing horribly (mostly his HR rate) he’ll be an above-average starter in the NL adding 3-4 wins per year most likely.

2006 – 21.92%
2007 – 19.59%
2008 – 19.94%

Those are above-average strike out numbers. And while his control is poor sometimes, he’s generally been ever-so-slightly below average in that department. The average starter tends to post BB%’s of around 8%. Again, Cain over the last three years:

2006 – 10.71%
2007 – 9.50%
2008 – 9.75%

He’s cut about 1% off of his walk numbers.

Yeah, he’s a flyball pitcher, he’s not going to change that and turn into Brandon Webb. What I find interesting is that he’s constantly posted better than average of HR/FB% in his career. For his pitcher-type (lots of flyballs, above-average K’s, near average control) he fits really well into AT&T park. It’s probably the best park he could be pitching in outside of Petco or something really extreme.

My point isn’t that he’s going to win the next CYA or something, but that’s he’s been a damned good pitcher since he put on the Giants uniform and despite his flaws, he’s adding a lot to the Giants and when you consider his win totals with what he’s making — he’s a bargain, too.

Last night his control certainly impressed me and he threw a number of nice curves; however, the Brewers made an awful lot of solid contact off of him. It seemed less like a masterful performance and more like a pitcher getting assisted by environmental factors and fortuitous defensive positioning to me.

Am I being to critical?

Good note on the curveball. I thought it looked that way, too. I haven’t looked at his PFX numbers yet, but I might check them out to see if the data meets our eyes.

RE: Sandoval hacking

I agree, I’m skeptical if he can keep it up. He’s definitely going to have to layoff that pitch way up in the zone. That’s a tough pitch for almost any hitter. We’ll see if he can make the needed adjustments.

Sandoval and “approach” don’t seem to go together, but it is too early to say anything substantive. I’m one of those worriers who thinks the free-swinging hack-meister style will hurt him in the long run. BUT (1) he could still make a career of it, since he seems quite skilled at bad-ball hitting and (2) I’m giving him no credit for growing, learning, getting smarter, etc. I’m going to fight my snap-judgment ways and give Pablo a season to show us his stuff. After all, we hardly know this kid!