Friday Spitballin’

Published by on June 19, 2009 | 8 Responses

It’s Friday. The Giants are playing tonight. I’m fully caffeinated. The weekend is almost here.

Here’s some random Giants-related thoughts:

  • Did you know that Pablo Sandoval has the 16th highest wOBA in the National League right now? His wOBA of .386 ranks him ahead of such players like Ryan Zimmerman, Matt Kemp, Carlos Lee, and Lance Berkman. I’m not sure if he’ll finish the year with a wOBA in the .380′s but he’s been on a fantastic hitting streak lately. I still worry about his plate discipline, but he’s been the Giants’ best hitter by far. Which is saying something considering Rowand was on a tear at the start of this month.

  • For the most part, the bullpen has preformed decently but beware Justin Miller. On the surface his 2.40 ERA looks snappy. But, beneath the ERA it’s not a pretty sight. His K/9 of 6 is nearly two full strikeouts beneath what he was doing in Florida for the last couple of years, his BB/9 is at 4.20, and his LOB% is an unsustainable 92.6%. I was rooting for Miller to make the bullpen out of ST, so I still like him to an extent but if any reliever on the team is due for a large correction, it’s Miller — his 4.97 FIP indicates that. It’s not all negative, ZiPS’ rest-of-season projections has Miller producing a 3.98 FIP from here on out if he can move closer to his career averages. We will see.

  • The Giants have some hackers. You already knew this. But, did you know that among all hitters in baseball with at least 50 PA’s, the Giants have 3 hitters in the Top-10 for swinging outside of the strike zone? Bengie Molina (#2 – 48.8%), Pablo Sandoval (#4 – 46.2%), and Nate Schierholtz (#8 – 40.3%) all finish near the top for free-swinging hitters that go outside of the strikezone. Overall by teams, the Giants are #1 for swinging outside of the strike zone with a 31.7% team average. I’ve seen quite a few 8-pitch or less innings by the Giants offense this year. It’s hard to watch at times.

  • Aaron Rowand can’t hit the slider. This is starting to feel like a Fangraph’s post, but the site just has so much cool information. With their new pitch-type linear values, you can see how good or bad a player does against a certain pitch type. It’s based in runs and it’s compared to the league average for that pitch-type. For example: Among all qualified hitters in the MLB, Aaron Rowand has the 5th worst performance against sliders. His wSL/C — or how many runs above average Rowand is, as a hitter against the slider, per 100 pitches — is currently at -4.04 runs. Rowand’s posted a wFB/C of 1.51 runs indicating that he can handle the fastball, but not the slider. It’s always cool when stats jive with our eyes. I’ve seen Rowand swing over quite a few down and away sliders. Pitchers would do well to throw Rowand a lot of sliders.

  • Rich Aurilia should retire.

There you have it. Random thoughts (and stats) re: the Giants.

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marcello
marcello

"Just have him stuffed and mounted." I would support this.

daveinexile
daveinexile

A ball player named Gus? Please tell me he wears his stirrups high and will be sporting strong facial hair as well. Niel: I hope they leave Bowker down (at least tell call up time) or until the club sorts out some of mess they already have going in the Out Fielders on the 25 man. Last thing he needs is bench rot.

Giantsfan4life
Giantsfan4life

To me, one of the more interesting of the Giants' draft picks this year was a kid named Karl Benusa, mostly because he was our 8th round pick--pretty high--and because I couldn't find out anything about him. HS CF from Pennsylvania, scholarship offer from Duquesne; that was basically it. I've learned some more: he's from Riverview HS in western Pennsylvania. His HS coach is a bird dog scout for Tampa Bay, and told people he had a 5 tool kid in his program--twenty teams scouted him, we got lucky. His HS stats are nuts: he batted .638, with power. He doesn't go by Karl--he's known as Gus Benusa. Kids from northern states don't go as high as kids from southern states, because they haven't played as many games, but we may have a real gamer here. He's signed--he's in Arizona now.

zetsuboushita
zetsuboushita

YOU KNOW WHO ELSE NEEDS TO GTFO THIS TEAM? JUAN URIBE.

Giantsfan4life
Giantsfan4life

Could Richie be persuaded to become a coach? But it's over. And Marcello should be ashamed. We don't want to whack one of the great Giants warriors. Just have him stuffed and mounted.

marcello
marcello

Someone needs to take the initiative and Tonya Harding Aurilia.

NielHbrand
NielHbrand

It's extremely difficult to admit, but I agree 100% that Richie should retire. He would not be playing on any other team that did not have a sentimental tie to the guy. It would almost make sense for the Giants to waive Richie, eat the contract, and bring up Bowker. Thoughts?

Giantsfan4life
Giantsfan4life

I would think Justin Miller would be the first candidate to go down if the Giants really do send Sanchez to the bullpen. They'd need to bring up another starter, and they can't send Sanchez down--he's out of options. Great post on Miller's numbers--I hadn't realized his FIP was so high. If they do send Sanchez to the 'pen--and something does need to happen there--I hope it's Pucetas they bring up, though he's not on the 40. (The Giants' 40 man is weird anyway--only two catchers? Brian Bocock's still there? You seriously don't think Bocock could clear waivers? Or care?) Sadler's another candidate, if healthy; I sense a reluctance to bring up Alderson or Sosa quite yet, probably a good thing.