Absolutely nothing. Here’s why… The average batting line in the National League in 2010 was .255/.320/.399 (average/on-base percentage/slugging) for a .719 OPS, the isolated power (ISO) average was .144. But if you look at NL averages this season, you’ll find they’ve fallen to .249/ .315/.383 for a .698 OPS, and the ISO average is just .134. But that’s just the… Read more →
When Barry Zito went down with a foot injury on April 17th against the Arizona Diamondbacks many wondered how the Giants would replace his steady, if not grossly overpaid, production. Mentioning Barry Zito’s name will likely draw a wide range of responses from fans, but the fact remains that Zito, at his core, is essentially a league average starting pitcher… Read more →
If this game didn’t give you a series of mini heart attacks, I don’t know what will. This game had it all: Jonathan Sanchez pitching well, Jeremy Affeldt coughing up the lead in the 7th inning, a Sergio (gasp!) Romo sighting, a pinch hit two-run home run by Nate Schierholtz, and a game winning hit by Emmanuel Burriss. I don’t… Read more →
This will be quick. I just wanted to attempt to alleviate any concerns about Tim Lincecum throwing 133 pitches last night. He was lighting the gun up (at 95 to 96 mph) in the ninth inning, his best readings of the night. Not only that, his velocity was impressive and consistent the whole night long: He’s The Freak.
The Giants’ No. 1 pitching prospect is Zack Wheeler, and there’s really no question about it. He was a high school pitcher plucked out of the first round, much like Madison Bumgarner and Matt Cain, and he possesses a mid-nineties fastball (with sink) that’s swell enough to make even the coolest-minded scouts drool. Despite his pedigree, he’s not the Giants’… Read more →
The Giants and Athletics are set to square off tonight in the first of a three game series in San Francisco. If you haven’t been paying attention, the A’s pitching staff is one of the best in baseball right now. If you examine things by fWAR, A’s starters have already tallied 6.2 wins above replacement. That’s second in the majors… Read more →
In the offseason, I argued hard that the best move the Giants could make with Aubrey Huff would be to simply let him go. They’d received a down-ballot MVP performance from Huff in 2010 for just $3 million, an unbelievable bargain, but whether or not he could sustain that performance for another year seemed somewhat in doubt, for two years… Read more →
I am going to piggyback on Chris’ – and Crazy Crabbers’ – earlier post on Bochy’s confounding bullpen usage. (For now, I’ll leave his perplexingly slow hook during Tim Lincecum’s Monday start alone.) Instead of making Chris’ graph more complex, I’ll make it even simpler. I’m going to focus on four pitchers: Sergio Romo, Dan Runzler, Jeremy Affeldt and Javier… Read more →
(Well, a brief comment. Sorry for the ugly 2003 Excel graphs, but I think the point is clear regardless of ugly graphs.)
When Tim Lincecum fell to the Giants as the No. 10 overall pick in the 2006 draft, it was because the majority of the teams that picked before San Francisco — the (Devil) Rays can be excused for selecting Evan Longoria third, for obvious reasons — felt Lincecum would either flat out crumble under the work load of a major… Read more →