The bullpen was a major reason why the Giants were able to play better than .500 baseball this past season. When your team collectively fails at the plate, every little bit of run prevention, be it defense or pitching, can be a huge difference between wins and loses. Fortunately for the Giants, their bullpen did an outstanding job of preventing… Read more →
Sitting in the shadow of the Appalachian Mountains this weekend a fleeting thought struck me. I wonder how the Giants are doing right now? It was a brief, inconsequential thought about the team as they played their last few days of regular season baseball. Over the past weekend I celebrated my first wedding anniversary with my lovely wife in a… Read more →
Anyone who’s watched a Pablo Sandoval at-bat should be able to realize within a few pitches that Sandoval likes to swing the stick. According to Fangraph’s O-Swing% statistic (the number of pitches outside of the strike zone that a batter swings at) Sandoval has swung at 41.8% of the pitches he’s seen this year outside of the strike zone. Among… Read more →
You may have noticed for the past couple of weeks I’ve been particularly silent on the topic of Giants baseball. Over the span of the last 14 days I’ve maybe seen 9 innings of total baseball that relates to the Giants. It’s not that I’m super busy on a personal level — I’ve had things to do but free time,… Read more →
Regularly scheduled posting to start again in a couple of days. (Also, nothing against Juan Uribe. But I’m not sure if I can handle any more veteran-packed lineups [Winn, Renteria, and Molina] down the stretch.)
I’m not even going to mention the 10-3 loss last night to the Dodgers. It’s salt in an open wound. Sand in your eye. With the Giants’ odds of winning the Wild Card dwindling all the way down to a 2.7% chance, it seems rather silly to worry about wins and losses right now. It goes without saying that I… Read more →
In a September game against the San Diego Padres, prized Giants’ prospect, Madison Bumgarner, made his major league debut at the age of 20-years-old. After being drafted in the 2007 draft, Bumgarner has made quick work of minor league hitters. In just two years, Bumgarner has thrown 273 innings, struck out 256 batters, and posted a cumulative ERA of 1.65… Read more →
Holy smokes! From Schulman: Madison Bumgarner, the Giants’ best pitching prospect, is being called up to the majors today. If it was a surprise catcher Buster Posey got a September promotion, this is even more of a stunner considering Bumgarner is two years out of high school. He was the 10th overall pick in the 2007 draft. The Giants might… Read more →
Before this season started, I quipped the following when the Giants signed Juan Uribe: If Juan Uribe makes the team, speculation is that he’ll earn about $1M for his services. That contract is paying him like he’s a .25 WAR player, which is about right. I don’t like Juan Uribe as a player but I don’t mind this move. He’ll… Read more →
In today’s post, I’m catching up to a few random thoughts that I’ve had over the past week, but haven’t had the time to get to. Brad Penny’s Velocity Before the Giants signed Brad Penny, one of the positive indicators that he had going for him was that his velocity was still regularly in the mid-90′s. Penny ended up throwing… Read more →