Belt and Bumgarner power Giants past Nats

Published by on August 15, 2012 | 4 Responses

This post will feature a two-pronged attack: 1) Madison Bumgarner is good at pitching baseballs and 2) Brandon Belt is starting to hit a little bit and that’s awesome

Madison Bumgarner

Every time I watch Bumgarner pitch, I think to myself “This guy is good. This guy is really, really good.” And then I’ll watch a few more innings, watch Bumgarner bury his slider in on hitters, watch him nip corners with a 92 mile per hour heater, watch him blow a couple of snot rockets, and then I’ll think “Holy crap this guy is great.” Listen, I know you know how good Bumgarner is. I know you know that his combination of age and success is extraordinarily rare. And I know you know that we’re so lucky to have him.

And yet, when I watch him pitch, I feel like Leonard Shelby. Each time is the first time. And I think that’s the mark of an excellent pitcher. Maybe I should just go ahead and crudely tattoo ‘Bumgarner is awesome! #1!!!’ on my inner thigh and get on with things. Throwing a complete game against the fourth best offense in the NL – a day after that same offense dropped 14 runs on you – well, that’s just something Madison Bumgarner does.

Madison Bugmarner: Excellent Pitcher.

Brandon Belt

Even though Henry Schulman would probably like me to throw out the stats from Belt’s latest hot streak – that’s just how you do analysis, folks – it’s worth mentioning that so far in August Belt has been on fire, batting a triple-slash (AVG/OBP/SLG) of .472/.525/.667. Maybe the best thing about Belt’s August is that he’s struck out just two times in 40 plate appearances. There are a couple of warning signs with Belt’s season – his BABIP looks abnormally high – but, I think, in young players you look for the signs that they’ve made some sort of adjustment. And Belt, by my all my straw hattery, looks like he’s driving the ball more lately. He missed two home runs last night by a sum total of four feet, maybe.

Also, welcome to AT&T Park.

Dang.

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ariess
ariess

I look at Bumgarner's stats and they are amazingly similar to both Matt Cain's, and Cole Hamel's. Another young stud, who makes Bumgarner a bit less rare is this dude named Clayton Kershaw.  All of those who predicted that Bumgarner would be the ace of the staff seem to be correct, except for Vogelsong may be the ace this year. 

LeviDavis
LeviDavis

You don't win with stats. Hits, walks, runs...those things are worthless. You win with grit and aggressiveness. Anyone who has ever actually played the game would know that.

Michael
Michael

Less than 4 feet. He was excellent and anyone who's watching can probably tell that this hot streak is vastly different than the one that started a couple months ago against the astros.  That streak was fueled by offspeed pitches that he had no problem catching up to.  I think we can all agree that Belt has had a ton of trouble catching up to basically all fastballs, but this time seems different.  His hits (which are line drives) aren't coming against soft tossers, but guys like Zimmerman who throw 95.  He's hitting with power to all fields.  Obviously I'm not entirely convinced, but good god would I love to be wrong.  How about a lineup against righties of Pagan, Melky, Belt, Posey. Panda, Pence, Crawford, Scutaro? I think sadoval could drive in 100 runs without trying if he was batting behind those guys

Chris Quick
Chris Quick

Just making sure you guys know, but Bumgarner is pretty good.