Earlier this morning, David Schoenfield, ESPN’s Sweetspot blog overlord, handed out grades on the Giants’ offseason. Dave looked at two areas — position players and pitchers — graded both, and then assigned a final overall grade. You can read the full post here, but the takeaway is this: Overall Grade – B+ If Lincecum bounces back from his subpar 2012,… Read more →
Jon Heyman’s twitter: Personally, I’m kind of glad the Giants didn’t go the multi-year route with Pence. He’s coming off a pretty disappointing half-season with the Giants — as a Giant he batted .219/.287/.384 — and while his defense is adequate in RF, he’s certainly not a plus-defender there. And he’ll turn 30 this April. I’m not sure I want… Read more →
Tonight, the Giants capped off an amazing comeback run in the NLCS by defeating the Cardinals 9-0. The Cardinals, who’ve got to be kicking themselves right now after failing to capitalize on a 3-1 lead in the series, never were really in tonight’s game. The Giants tacked on runs in the 1st and 2nd innings before exploding for five runs… Read more →
Watching Hunter Pence go down swinging on one knee, hacking at a slider in the dirt, in a crucial at-bat in the 7th inning of yesterday’s Game Three against Mitchell Boggs was a painful sight. Pence, acquired at the trading deadline to bolster the outfield depth and add offensive firepower to the lineup, has struggled with the Giants and is… Read more →
Per Alex Pavolvic’s Twitter feed: And “reasons” for Belt sitting this one out: There are few other tweets from other beat guys, but the point, re: Belt, comes down to the “not swinging the bat well, let’s trying something else” mindset. Look, I think Bruce Bochy is a pretty good manager most of the time. He’s a decent handler of… Read more →
Playoff baseball is really awesome until it doesn’t go your way. Feel free to steal that one. After the first loss of the NLDS, I could honestly shrug my shoulders and say, “Welp. That’s baseball.” Because the loss that ensued after Game One was an easy loss to digest. You take away a hanging Cain curveball and maybe add a… Read more →
There’s something about playing the Astros that always turns my stomach just a little. Maybe it’s the fact that the Giants, in 2011, somehow went 3-4 against a team that ended up losing 106 games. Or maybe it’s the fact that I don’t know any of these Astros … like, I literally don’t know any of these guys, and the… Read more →
Coming into today’s game against the Colorado Rockies, Hunter Pence was batting a puny (AVG/OBP/SLG) triple-slash of .149/.163/.234 over his first 49 Giant plate appearances. In the back of my mind, I know it’s just 49 PAs. That, in baseball terms, it’s the equivalent of the blink of an eye, a millisecond of seasonal data. That things can change quickly… Read more →
One of the concerns about adding any hitter to AT&T Park is how that player’s power will translate and now that the Giants have traded for Hunter Pence, I think that’s a question that’s on everyone’s mind. So, with that question in mind, let’s look at a few numbers. First, let’s take a look at some park factors. According to… Read more →
In a move that’s been bubbling away since Monday, the Giants have officially traded for Hunter Pence. First, what the Giants gave up in Tommy Joseph, Nate Schierholtz, and Seth Rosin. In my trade value post a few days ago, I wrote the following about Tommy Joseph: Joseph is still a young catcher – he just turned 21 – that’s… Read more →