Swept in Arizona, Giants drop series finale

Published by on April 8, 2012 | 14 Responses

Here’s a new graphic — in its early stages — of something I’m calling Game Flow. The idea is that it’s a simple graph showing the progression of the game from the pitching side of things. I’m still looking for a way to incorporate things like runs, outs, strikeouts, and walks into the graph, but for now this is a rough sketch of what I’m intending to do. I’m not sure it’s particularly useful right now, but feedback is appreciated.

After just three games into the year the Giants are averaging 4.6 runs per game, and yet the team leaves Arizona winless. Go figure, right? Cain, much like Lincecum and Bumgarner, wasn’t exceptionally sharp in today’s loss, but he had moments of looking like the guy we’ve seen for awhile now. Strikeouts, control, and mixing pitches are what Cain generally does for 32 starts each year. Today wasn’t really any different but it was clear that Cain wasn’t on his A-game. The biggest blows against the Giants came in the 6th inning when Ryan Roberts slammed a two-run home run which was followed by a Lyle Overbay solo shot. Playing baseball in Arizona is starting to give me pre-humidor Coors Field vibes. The park was live for all the hitters — except Manny Burriss, who I’m not sure hit a ball out of the infield today.

The Giants wasted quite a few scoring opportunities (each team left seven men on today) and despite Sergio Romo’s ‘Houdini’ impression in the later stages of the game, the bullpen had issues. Affeldt and Casilla had trouble finding the strike zone. Casilla, in particular, looked every bit the part of a pitcher with a career 4.4 walks per nine rate. It’s also going to be really annoying when Affeldt doesn’t pitch well this year, mostly because he’s making $5M to do so. Defensively things weren’t good. Brandon Crawford made a critical error that led to the D-Backs evening the score at 6-6 in the 7th inning. With Javier Lopez in the game to face Miguel Montero with the bases loaded, Crawford bobbled a groundball to short that looked like a sure-fire double play. The result was everyone moved up a base and the game was tied.

The good news for the Giants is that Pablo Sandoval stayed hot and, maybe more importantly, Buster Posey went 2-4 with a two-run home run. The defense still needs to tighten up (Posey made two errors; Crawford made one error) and I have to think once the pitching hits its groove the Giants will be able to win a few games. The best thing to console yourself with at this stage is that the team has played approximately 1.9% of its total games. The season is young. The season is long. Don’t freak out just yet. (If we lose four games in a row, I’m freaking out, man.)

Also, Gregor Blanco was pumped to hit in the ninth. Here’s a .GIF of him air-humping the ground …

He would go on to fly out to center fielder, Chris Young. Baseball.

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ExhortingOne
ExhortingOne

I am wondering why everyone is pushing for Posey to play the corner infield if he comes out from behind the plate.  Our biggest hole is middle infield, where Posey was a college all-american.  Why not keep Sandoval at 3rd, Belt at first, move Posey to short (or second if we can deal Freddy Sanchez).  This will allow us to sit Crawford and give more time to the other Sanchez.  It solves so many problems.

maswift1
maswift1

I like the idea too, I'd particularly like to see pitch count per inning 

Josh
Josh

I like this graph idea.  I'm assuming that runs are being plotted on the y axis.  If you could do it in color, you could have a colored line for each pitcher.  As for Ks or BBs or HRs you could have some kind of shape for each?  And then a big giant key on the side.

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Damon
Damon

#1 most rage-inducing moment of the series:

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20466523&topic_id=&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_20466523&v=3

 

Aside from Crawford blowing the double-play, I had to listen to the D-Bags announcer brag three times that Justin Upton's slide into Manny Burriss "Cleaned His Clock," and launched him "nearly into left field."

 

If you watch the video, you will in reality see Upton slide into Burriss who is still standing there with his back completely turned, which causes him to stumble a little bit and fall over. Talk about stroking your own ego.

 

Between this, Willie Bloomquist stealing signs, and Ryan Roberts's six-shooter cowboy motion, I now officially despite this team.

Chris Quick
Chris Quick

 @Damon The D-Backs announcers are truly awful. Probably bottom five in baseball.

Otis Anderson
Otis Anderson

Things I'm Not Worried About 

 

1. Starters giving up homeruns all over the place:  Fluke. Well,  about 50% live yard with pretty good hitters and about 50% fluke. There's a book on Aaron Hill. Madison Bumgarner just needs to read it.

2. Infield defense: The announcers all say the infield was unusually hard. No reason not to believe them.

3. Aubrey Huff: I'm not sure whether he'll suck or not. I'm pretty sure he won't get much more than April to do it.

4. Angel Pagan: Dude has looked like hot garbage to be sure, but he also has a track record that's not compatible with the type of play we've seen. Something will change there, it's just a matter of when.

 

KennyCupp
KennyCupp

@Otis Anderson I'm sure there's a stat somewhere that shows if you give Matt Cain a 6 run lead, he usually holds on to get the win. So I'm not going to jump off a bridge after yesterday's result either.

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Otis Anderson
Otis Anderson

I think there's a large minority of people that do not think that Crawford belongs as a starting shortsop. 

KennyCupp
KennyCupp

I just checked - the sky is not falling. If you'd have told me before the season that we got swept in the opening set by the D-backs, it wouldn't have surprised me one bit. Numbers and metrics aside, AZ is just a different team in that place and we don't seem to be able to match that intensity. Now, if we were swept by scores of 2-1, 1-0, 3-1, then I'd be concerned. But we scored 4 runs each in games started by Kennedy and Hudson, and we obliterated Collmenter. The bad news is, we've only got 159 games left to make up this deficit.

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TSF
TSF

>The best thing to console yourself with at this stage is that the team has played approximately 1.9% of its total games.

 

Yes, but against the Diamondbacks, who are the Giants primary rival for this year's division championship. This series deserves a bit more weight, since the division could very well be tighter than last year.

 

It's good to see SF score runs, but I am worried if it's phantasmal. The errors don't bother me so much as each starting pitcher giving up two homers - HR suppression was a major weapon for the 2011 staff, and it needs to be rediscovered if SF is going to survive with a league average-ish offense. Six homers in three days doesn't allay any fears.

 

On the graph - I originally mistook it for a circuit diagram, but I think similar notation can represent some of the stats you're looking for. For example, if a pitcher made three consecutive strikeouts, you'd use the same symbol (say a resistor) three times in a row.

Chris Quick
Chris Quick

 @TSF You're very right about these games counting a little more than average, being that it's a divisional rival and all. I have to think over the long run the pitching will even out a little -- mostly because I don't even want to entertain the thought of the pitching having an off year. Nope. Don't want to do that at all.

RogerM
RogerM

@Chris Quick @TSF As is often the case, I think I'd rather model our behavior after this weekend on the Yankees (while Giants fans seem to take more after the Red Sox). Yes, they're 0-3; yes they got swept by probably their best competitor; yes, their HOFer set the tone by blowing a save on Opening Day. So what. In the end we'll have 95 wins a post-season birth.

Good attitude to adopt for the long summer of a baseball season.

AndyG
AndyG

Again, in the minority here, but I do not think Crawford belongs in the majors. How is it the brass has been so waffle-y over Belt and so committed to Crawford. His defense this series was substantially subpar. His error today (not the onlyone of the series) was not that tough of a play--he had to go back on it, yes--but I think he was distracted by the pending double play he was making in such a critical moment of the game. Why is the brass so committed to him? Because we lack SS depth? Would much rather have kept Fontenot. On the plus...14 runs in 3 games. Can't blame the sweep on the offense. Oh and despite 97 pitches Cain should have pitched the 7th. You don't give a guy a hundred mill then take the ball away from him in a tight game.