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 →
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 →
Oh, Eugenio. Everything was going so well, too. The Giants haven’t played their best baseball against the Dodgers. Stop the presses. Thus far in the series, the Giants have only scored 3 runs while our pitching has given up 13 runs. Not what you would call a winning formula for baseball. Our hitting has made the combination of Kuroda and… Read more →
Yesterday we talked about Lincecum’s changeup being worth +2 wins by FanGraphs’ linear weights for pitch-types. I thought it would be helpful to show some of the other top pitches in the game by their pitch-type values. The following table illustrates the pitches, and the pitchers who throw them, that are worth at least 15 runs above average — or… Read more →
aka “What the h%ll does that mean?” Below you’ll find a list of definitions for frequently used acronyms, stats, and other lingo on the site. If you see a term that you’re unfamiliar with and you think should be added to the glossary, email me and I’ll make the appropriate update. — BABIP – Batting average on Balls in Play… Read more →
Tim Lincecum pitched another extraordinary game last night against the Phillies. Against a packed lineup that seems to have a solid hitter at each position in the batting order, Lincecum tossed 8 innings of shutout baseball. He struck out 8 hitters, walked 1, and wiggled out of a few jams in the mid-innings of the game. Joe Blaton also pitched… Read more →
This is the post you’ve all been waiting for. Please, hold your excitement because I’m about to use PFX to look at Ryan Sadowski’s first major league start. Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson he’s not, but let’s check out what the 26-year-old was throwing in his first major league win. The Stuff Pitch # mph pfx_x pfx_z spin_dir FA (Fastball)… Read more →
In yesterday’s game, a wet and rain-soaked affair, the Giants were shut down by a complete game Jason Marquis start. Marquis has never been a dominant starter, but over the past few years he’s been above replacement level and occasionally a useful rotation piece. Since 2004 he’s posted win values of: 1.9, 0.7, -0.6, 1.7, and 1.6 wins. He’ll give… Read more →
I’ve been a big fan of Joe Martinez over the last few years. He’s not an exciting prospect, but he’s pitched well at each level he’s played at. He gets groundballs and doesn’t walk hitters — be still my heart. So, you can imagine my reaction when I heard he’s the favorite for the long relief spot on the Giants…. Read more →
For the last 6 months or so, FanGraphs has really be on a roll by providing new features on it’s site. Today, David Appleman, announced that FanGraphs has updated it’s leaderboards section of the site. You can now search the leaderboards by career instead of just yearly chunks. This new career leaderboard function applies to things like batted ball data,… Read more →