Baseball is a funny game. The amount of variations, outcomes, and sheer randomness make almost no two games alike. Enter last night’s game. Roy Halladay’s career doesn’t need much explaining. He’s been a terrific pitcher in the AL for years and he’s off to a white-hot start in the NL. His WAR totals since 2006 – 5.7, 5.6, 7.4, 7.3… Read more →
The Giants, as a team with minimal offense, is the type of club that needs every bit of help that it can get. Pitching and defense are two areas that the Giants will need to excel in if they want to have a chance to contend for a playoff spot this season. I’m not going to repeat myself on the… Read more →
The Giants’ poor luck in San Diego continued yesterday when the Padres beat the Giants 5-2 for the series sweep. Jon Garland pitched 7 innings and was never really challenged at any point during the game. Todd Wellemeyer, on the other hand, didn’t fare as well, throwing 87 pitches in 4 innings while walking 4 batters. Here’s a PFX plot… Read more →
Question: Are the Giants the only team in baseball that can lose a game in which their starter goes 7 innings, strikes out 10 batters, and only allows 1 hit — a non-HR hit, too. I guess it’s supposed to be a rhetorical question. One I would rather not spend any more time thinking about. The Giants dropped to 8-6… Read more →
Looking through the scope of small sample sizes. Things I’ve learned thus far in the season: ~ Tim Lincecum is still really, really, really good. In 20 innings pitched to start the season Tim has quickly put to rest any concerns over his ST performances. A brief check of some of his stats — 10.80 K/9, 1.35 BB/9 — indicate… Read more →
It’s hard to write anything else about Fred Lewis. It’s not because he wouldn’t have helped the Giants, either. If you browsed this website by posts tagged ‘Fred Lewis’ you’ll see the numerous different posts, discussions, and topics on Lewis. He was a weirdly divisive player among Giants fans. You’ll notice I said was. Past tense. The Giants have traded… Read more →
There’s been a lot written about Jonathan Sanchez and what he’ll have to do this year for the Giants to have a shot in the NL West. In yesterday’s start against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Sanchez gave us another glimpse of what he’s capable of when he’s pitching well. Sanchez’s final line on the day was: 8 IP, 3 H, 0… Read more →
I’m a big fan of Dave Allen and his work with PitchF/X. Dave has put out some really cool — and informative — graphs by using PFX data. His post today on FanGraphs and Jason Heyward’s struggles against breaking pitches down in the zone got me thinking — how is Aaron Rowand looking so far this year? Stealing, er, borrowing… Read more →
As fans of baseball, we sometimes like to place a huge (or at least disproportionate) amount of importance on the outcomes of April baseball. If a player is hitting the ball around the field with ease — he’s going to have a great year or he’s completely healed from an injury. If a player is struggling — he’s probably not… Read more →
You might think that fresh off a sweep of the Houston Astros I’m thinking about Matt Cain’s first start of the year? Or maybe, Edgar Renteria’s first 5 hit game since 1910. Nope. Instead, I was amazed by the lineup that the Astros used for most of the series. And not in a good way. With Berkman hurting, the Astros… Read more →