Facts and Statisticinos About Tomorrow's Starting Pitcher

Check this out, loyal readers. Madison Bumgarner turned 22 this August, meaning his official age for the 2011 season is 21 (he was 21 on June 30, the halfway point of the season). He is having an historically great season for a pitcher his age, especially in the DIPS department. He's in his first full season, and he already has better command of the strike zone than his teammates Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum right now. Lincecum and Cain already had the "stuff" when they arrived in the majors; they had to add some quality pitches and "learn how to pitch" to become the aces they've been for several years. Bumgarner has a certain amount of "stuff"; he also seems to already have a great idea of "how to pitch". His K/BB ratio is 3rd best all time for a pitcher his age in a single season, and his placement barely changes if you use age 22 as the qualifier instead. Notice that the closest pitcher in recent memory is Brett Anderson, and he's not even that close. The only recent pitchers with K/BB over 3.00 on that list are Anderson and King Felix. Madison Bumgarner right now is doing something pretty unique. Imagine what kind of pitcher he could be in 2 or 3 years. Should we expect a development in either his stuff or his overall pitching ability?

Perhaps not. Every pitcher develops differently, and Bumgarner now could be close to the finished product. Maybe he never has another 2.60 FIP season. He could still be an excellent pitcher. Perhaps the improvement occurs in his ability to prevent weak contact. His .330 BABIP is very high and a product of bad luck and poor defense, but maybe part of it is attributable to his skill or approach. There could be a regression in his home run prevention, or even his strikeouts and walks.

But is that what we should expect? No. It's only fair and normal to think that he will get better in some respect. Which is exciting. And scary.

Random Winter Thoughts: Schilling and Brown, Sabathia and Cain

Last week, I tweeted that if voters plan to cast a Hall of Fame ballot for Curt Schilling when he is eligible, they should do the same for Kevin Brown this year. Thanks to a retweet by the great Keith Law, I got a lot of responses to this. Most of them cited the fact that Schilling had many impressive postseasons, memorably beating the Yankees with both the Diamondbacks and the Red Sox (it seemed to be that not only was his playoff performance stellar, but the fact that it came against the Yankees made it even more so, a sentiment that really makes me cringe). I don't think that postseason performance should factor much into Hall of Fame worthiness. I especially don't think a great pitcher should be penalized because of poor postseason starts. But I can appreciate the position of giving credit to a pitcher for outstanding pitching in the games that matter most. However, this only applies to the Schilling/Brown situation if you believe that Curt Schilling is not already a Hall of Famer, independent of his playoff heroics. I think Schilling is a Hall of Famer just based on his regular season performance, and to my surprise, a lot of the people on Twitter did not. So I forgot about Brown almost immediately, and started thinking about Schilling.

I could understand keeping Curt Schilling out of the Hall of Fame if you believed in the idea of a "Small Hall", where only the most excellent players of all time would be. This concept is attractive, but unrealistic, because the Hall of Fame is what it already is. You can think that certain players don't belong there, but once they are in, the standards have somewhat changed. I don't think because Andre Dawson is in that every player who compares favorably to Andre Dawson should be in as well. But to some extent, the "if ___ is in, then ____ should be" is a valid argument. And there are a number of worse pitchers than Curt Schilling in the Hall of Fame. He had a long career, and a good peak, not as dominant a peak as some peers, but extended enough to make up for that. He was never the best pitcher in baseball, but that was because 4 of the greatest pitchers ever (Clemens, RJ, Maddux, Pedro) were pitching at the same time. Strikeout-to-walk-ratio isn't a perfect statistic at all, but it is still useful, and Schilling has the 2nd best K/BB ratio of all time, 4.38. In the "Big Hall", he's a clear Hall of Famer to me.

I think baseball fans who are continually learning about sabermetrics and advanced statistics forget just how large a large portion of the baseball community still judges a pitcher by his W-L record. And this must be the explanation for fans thinking Schilling may not be a Hall of Famer, because he has "only" 216 career wins. There's no need for me to explain why wins and losses are irrelevent; it's been talked about forever, and you either get it or you're just stubborn and don't care about the objective analysis of baseball. Just looking at one season, wins are quite useless. A career is different: wins and losses won't tell us anything that important, but the length of time in a career pretty much guarantees that a "bad" pitcher won't end up with 300 wins. But does that mean a pitcher with 300 wins is definitively better than one with 216? Absolutely not. But the road to 300 wins is a strange one.

People wonder if we will ever see a 300 win pitcher again. It shouldn't matter, but it would be kinda cool. I think we will, and I think the pitcher currently who has the best shot at it is CC Sabathia. Consider this: Sabathia will be 30 next year, and he already has 157 wins. He will likely be pitching the majority of his remaining career with the Yankees, a team we expect to provide good offense every season. He appears to have a durable body. And he's a great pitcher right now, in his prime. All of those factors demonstrate how CC can get to 300 wins. Most of all, it's that high win total, 157, at 30 years old, very rare for pitchers these days.

From 2001-2005, the start of his career, Sabathia went 69-45, a .605 winning percentage. Yet, he was only an above average to good pitcher. His ERA+ was 107 over that period. By logging many innings, his overall value was good (14.4 rWAR, 17.9 fWAR). But not good enough to post a .605 winning percentage over a 5 year period, at least, not without some very good fortune. Sabathia has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since 2006, but it was his ability to start a career earlier and stock up on many wins at a young age that puts him in position to win 300 games. And it could have been very different. He could have been Matt Cain.

Whether Matt Cain will ever reach the level Sabathia is at right now remains to be seen. But I think comparing Sabathia and Cain in their first 5 seasons is fascinating (I leave out Cain's 2005 season, because he only pitched 46 innings). Sabathia's first full season was at age 20, Cain at age 21. Here are the stats they put up:

Sabathia: 972.2 IP, 4.10 ERA, 107 ERA+, 14.4 rWAR, 17.9 fWAR, 69-45 (.605%) W-L Record

Cain: 1049.1 IP, 3.50 ERA, 124 ERA+, 15.4 rWAR, 18.7 fWAR, 55-61 (.474%) W-L Record

The WAR numbers are pretty close, but Cain is slightly ahead in both. He also threw more innings. And the adjusted ERA isn't that close, relatively speaking. Yet look at those W-L records.

There's no reason really to compare Cain and Sabathia; all pitchers are different, and whether Sabathia "deserves" all that great fortune early in his career is nullified by his now long held status as one of the best in baseball (he currently has 4 straight seasons of 230 or more IP, and his ERA+ over that period is 142) . Cain has yet to reach those heights, and he might never. I said I wouldn't even go into how pitcher wins are useless, but this side by side comparison says it all. They are very close in performance, and Cain is better. Looking at the W-L records, you'd think think the exact opposite. And you'd be so completely, utterly wrong.

2010 World Series Game 2: SF 9, TEX 0

Big wins are the toughest to write about, and the surreal experience of them coming in the World Series makes it even tougher. But here we go:

The Giants ended up winning by a larger margin tonight than they did in Game 1's slugfest, but until the 8th inning, this was the kind of game San Francisco fans have gotten used to. Edgar Renteria hit a solo HR in the 5th inning to break the 0-0 tie, and Juan Uribe added a run with a bloop single in the 7th inning. The Giants had 2 outs and the bases empty in the Weird Inning, and proceeded to score 7 more runs. A single by Posey. A fistful of walks. A triple by Aaron Rowand. Double by Torres. The Giants batted around for the 2nd straight day against the Rangers. Ron Washington's bullpen managing was atrocious in a close game, and now you have to question the state of the bullpen itself going back to Texas. The Giants did well to let the Rangers pitchers dig themselves into deeper holes, and it allowed for a stress free 9th inning. The Giants defense has also been stellar in the 1st two games, most notably the old men on the left side, Renteria and Uribe.

Oh, and then there was Matt Cain.


Cain went 7.2 innings, giving up only 4 hits and 2 walks to a strong Texas lineup. He now has pitched 21.1 innings in his first postseason without giving up a single earned run. Tonight, he was what all Giants already knew he was: A great pitcher. A pitcher who makes hitters slam the bat down in frustration when they popup a high fastball. There's been a lot of talk this whole postseason among the sabermetric community anytime Cain was pitching, wondering how he does it, because his peripheral numbers just don't match the end results. Yes, Cain has pitched all of his postseason games at AT&T, and there have been flyballs that might have been home runs in other ballparks. But you can forget all that, because the dominance is evident. It's shown by the past 4 years of quality pitching, and his performances in the last 2 months are just a microcosm of that. We saw it tonight, and last week against Philadelphia, and in Game 2 of the NLDS. And we saw it at Coors Field in September, when Cain single-handedly tossed the Rockies out of playoff contention. He has baffled great lineups. He has gone long in games. He has worked with slim leads. He does it all, and he only just turned 26, but has the composure of a 10 year veteran. After Cain's complete game in Denver, I said that he may not be the best pitcher on the Giants. In fact, he certainly isn't. But he's the one I love the most. Because while composure, toughness, and heart can't possibly be measured, they can be recognized, and they are things we can admire and love a player for. Matt Cain has great stuff, and he had the Texas Rangers off balance tonight because of a good fastball and changeup. That's why he pitched so well. But even I like to think that a certain factor in this admirable World Series performance was Cain's own unrelenting, undaunted drive to win.

2010 NLCS Game 3: SF 3, PHI 0

Bruce Bochy did something rather strange for the game today: He completely shuffled the lineup. Suddenly Edgar Renteria was hitting 1st, Posey was up to 3rd, Burrell up to 4th, Ross up to the 5th spot, Huff (against a lefty) got moved down to 6th, and Aaron Rowand replaced Andres Torres in center field. I wasn't sure what to make of this. It felt like a panic move, a very odd thing to suddenly do in the playoffs. And even though the Giants only managed 5 hits and 3 runs off Cole Hamels, the order of the lineup had an effect. By putting the hottest hitter, Cody Ross, in the 5th spot, the Giants ended up in a situation in the 4th inning with 2 runners on and Ross at the plate. And Ross hit a line shot into left field to give the Giants their first run, moving over Pat Burrell, who would score on Aubrey Huff's single in the next at bat. The Giants would score another run in the 5th thanks to Aaron Rowand's double and Chase Utley's misplay on a Freddy Sanchez grounder. But the Ross RBI was all the Giants ever needed, because Matt Cain was on the mound.

Cain was brilliant especially when you consider the lineup he was facing. Utley has always hit him well, and Ryan Howard, contrary to the way he looked in Game 1, is hitting the ball well. Cain ended up walking 3 Phillies, which led to some tense innings with runners on. But he's used to that. He strands runners all the time. Cain was able (hehehe) to get out of those jams because the Phillies simply weren't hitting the ball hard against him. There were a couple line drives to infielders, a few long fly balls, and the long single that Rollins got off the right field wall. The other hit was a bloop single by Ryan Howard. And that was it. Everything else was quiet and easy. He finished 7 shutout innings, with only the 2 hits. Not the greatest performance by Cain at all; he's had better stuff and command on some days. But in another way, the best performance considering that. In a 7 game series tied 1-1, against a good offense and facing a very good pitcher, Cain was money. He showed up, and he got through 7 innings completely unscathed. All you could have asked of him and more.

Charlie Manuel can keep hitting Polanco third; Javier Lopez will just keep getting him, Utley, and Howard out. If the Giants win the World Series, could a huge part of the redemption of Brian Sabean really involve the acquistion a left handed specialist?

I would expect to see Andres Torres back in the lineup tomorrow against Joe Blanton. It will also be interesting to see if Bochy goes to Sandoval in favor of Uribe. I have a feeling he will. The Giants SHOULD have a major edge tomorrow in the matchup between Blanton and Bumgarner, but we'll see what happens.

Oh, and Raul Ibanez looks TERRIBLE at the plate. Just awful.

Should the Giants Make Any Roster Changes for the NLCS?

Actually, the Giants have already made one change.

Today we learned that after Tim Lincecum pitches game 1 of the series, Jonathan Sanchez will be pitching Game 2 and Matt Cain will go for Game 3. Cain is still a better pitcher than Sanchez, but I see the reasoning behind the move. In his only start of the year in Philadelphia, Sanchez was rather brilliant. In 8 innings he allowed just 2 hits and 1 ER with 2 BB and 7 Ks. The Phillies' ballpark is also very small, and Sanchez does give up fewer flyballs than Cain, even though the difference isn't huge. The Phillies lineup has a lot of left-handed hitters too. Ryan Howard, one of Philly's best hitters, is significantly worse facing left-handed pitching and has always had trouble against Sanchez (3-for-14, 7 Ks). However, Sanchez does allow more baserunners and is generally more erratic. I don't really have a problem with the move, but I guess after all of these great starts, I'm waiting for bad Sanchez to come back. Cain is more consistent and I generally have much more confidence in him than Sanchez.

As for the rest of the pitching staff, it doesn't look like anything will change. I will not back down on my stance that Zito should be on the roster, but I realize the fight is over. In a 7 game series a long reliever is even more important and Guillermo Mota wasn't even used in the NLDS. I don't see the harm in having Zito, just in case. But the Giants, like many fans, don't seem to think Zito can effectively pitch out of the bullpen. It's okay, I'm over it.

It is also unlikely that any changes will made for position players even though the offense was atrocious against Atlanta. I guess there's not much they can do besides playing better. When Jose Guillen was originally left off the roster, it seemed like it was because he wasn't healthy, but the situation still seemed a little unclear to me. Would Guillen have made the roster if he was healthy or was it because the Giants wanted someone more versatile on defense? I think a healthy Guillen would have made it. We haven't heard anything about Guillen's health, so I assume he's still hurting. If healthy, I still think he's a better option than Rowand, particularly since Rowand was just used as a pinch-hitter, not a defensive replacement in the NLDS.

So.....I guess this post just told you that Cain and Sanchez switched spots in the rotation, which you probably already knew. Oh well. Keep an eye out for NLCS Pitching and Offense Previews in the next couple of days.

2010 NLDS Game 2: ATL 5, SF 4

That really hurt.

I honestly don't want to re-live this game by writing about it, but I'll do it for all two of you who can't live without our recaps (Just kidding, I know we have thousands of readers. You all just aren't the commenting types). Anyway, if there was one thing that you could complain about from last night's game, it would be the lack of offense. Well tonight, the offense got started early. In the 1st inning, with 2 runners on, Pat Burrell hit another huge home run to give the Giants a 3-0 lead right away. They added another run in the next inning, making the score 4-0. With another good pitching performance, 4 runs should've been enough.

And Matt Cain did pitch well. He wasn't nearly as good as Lincecum, but no one was expecting that. Cain's final line looked like this: 6 2/3 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 Ks. Not a bad outing at all and Cain gave the Giants a great chance to win.

The only thing is, the normally dominant bullpen did not come through at all tonight. In the 8th inning with the score at 4-1, set up man Sergio Romo came in and quickly allowed 2 singles and was taken out. Bruce Bochy decided to bring in Brian Wilson for a 6-out save. Not too many people seemed to disagree with the move at the time. And you know what? It was the right move. After having 5 days off, Wilson had plenty of energy to go for 2 innings and in a pressure situation, you want your best pitcher in the game. Unfortunately, a throwing error from Pablo Sandoval allowed a run to score. 4-2. Then after a sac bunt, leaving runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, Wilson allowed a 2-run double off the bat of Alex Gonzalez. Score tied 4-4. All of a sudden, people were going crazy angry, criticizing Bochy for bringing in Wilson for a 6-out save when he's never done it before. Pretty convenient, huh? Listen, I don't care if closers are supposed to get the save in the 9th inning. That 8th inning situation was the real save situation. Putting in your best pitcher there is the right move. And remember, Pablo Sandoval's throwing error was HUGE. That wasn't Wilson's fault. If they get out of that situation with the lead, more than likely they win that game. Unfortunately, he didn't get it done tonight, but I still trust him more than anyone in the 'pen to get it done on most nights. And we need to mention that this is why it was the right move to let Lincecum finish the game last night. Lincecum is a great pitcher, and while this bullpen is pretty good, bullpens are never a sure thing. Great pitchers usually are.

You know, I've always been a person who criticizes a lot of Bochy's moves. But after seeing the way some people criticize his moves without any merit, I feel sorry for the guy. Tonight, he was also criticized for taking out Pat Burrell to start the 7th. We all know Burrell isn't great defensively and when you're facing a very bad offense and you have a great pitching staff and a 3-run lead, defense needs to become a bigger priority. It was absolutely the right move to bring in Schierholtz at that point. He was criticized for bringing in Sergio Romo to start the 8th. Damn you Bochy for not using that big ol' head of yours to predict the future! How could you not know that Sergio would allow 2 singles with no outs?? I mean, seriously? Romo has been the 8th inning set up man for the last few months of the season. Bochy managed this game exactly the same way he has all year. Why are the things that have worked all year being criticized today? Because they didn't work? Because a bad defensive player makes a costly error? How is that Bochy's fault? Sometimes the PLAYERS mess up. Sometimes the things that have always gone right, go wrong. It happens. You can't just choose to blame the manager any time you want. Bochy has definitely made a lot of questionable moves and maybe sometimes he gets a little lucky, but he did manage this team to 92 wins and the playoffs this year. This loss was entirely NOT his fault.

Of course, even a bad offense will score if you give them enough chances, and that's what the Braves did. Rick Ankiel hit a ball off Ramon Ramirez into the cove, giving the Braves the 5-4 lead. Even more frustrating, the inning before, with the bases loaded and 1 out, our God, our savior, Buster Posey, grounded into the inning ending double play. Didn't see that coming. Very, very painful. Fuckin' Bochy.

I'm bitter. Rick Ankiel is going on the Hate List, even though I'm not sure he's worthy. But bitterness makes you irrational and I'm okay with that.

SD 6, SF 4: Torture 'Til the End

I hadn't been this excited for a Giants game since probably 2002, when of course the Giants were playing in the World Series and I was an 11 year old kid listening to the game on the radio on my CD player. Remember CD players? Of course the Giants also went to the playoffs in 2003, but it was definitely no 2002 World Series. Anyway, this game felt big and it was exciting. There's a joke in there somewhere. Every single pitch mattered, every single runner on base was crucial. But early on, it was looking like the game was not going to live up to my lofty expectations.

Throughout the month of September, getting great pitching from the Giants was pretty much a given, which is why Matt Cain's bad start tonight came as such a surprise. Cain has pitched in pressure situations before, so it wasn't the pressure getting to him. And I doubt Cain was thinking about the really fun birthday party he was going to have after the game. It was just one of those games and it came at a horrible time. In 4+ IP, Cain gave up 9 hits, 6 ER and 3 home runs, including Adrian Gonzalez' 3-run homer in the 3rd that really opened the game up. The Giants had shown the ability to come back this year, but coming back from being down 6-0 seemed like a tough task.

Right at the beginning of the game though, it seemed like Clayton Richard also didn't have his best stuff. His command wasn't great and the Giants were hitting the ball hard, they just had nothing to show for it. It was only a matter of time before they got a couple of breaks. Freddy Sanchez drove in the Giants' first run, bringing in Cody Ross in the 5th to cut the Padre lead down to 6-1. In the 6th, Aaron Rowand hit a pinch-hit 2-run homer. Boring. Happens all the time. Also in the 6th, with runners on 2nd and 3rd, Andres Torres hit a ball so weak that it scored a run. The Giants were now within 2 runs, down 6-4.

Guillermo Mota pitched perfect 7th and 8th innings to keep the Giants within 2 runs, and Heath Bell was in to pitch for the Padres in the 9th. The first hitter of the inning, Freddy Sanchez, walked. Aubrey Huff then lined a pitch to right field and Freddy Sanchez completely misread it. Normally, the ball by Huff probably would've hit off the wall, but Will Venable was playing the line, and caught the ball. Sanchez was already on his way to 3rd, and the Padres easily completed the double play. It was an awful, unnecessary risk taken by Sanchez at a terrible time. The Giants needed baserunners, and in one play all of their baserunners were out. Buster Posey grounded out to end the game.

This game was on it's way to being extremely depressing, but fortunately the Giants fought back. Coming into the series, it was extremely unlikely that the Padres were going to sweep the Giants at home, and it still is. Still, this game was painful because you have to figure that tonight was the Giants' best chance to win. Matt Cain has been our best starter this year and in the next 2 games the Giants are going with Barry Zito and Jonathan Sanchez, two guys who have struggled with consistency. And the worst part is if the Giants do manage to clinch tomorrow, the game is going to be called by awful FOX announcers who make awkward comments and just don't know what they're talking about. It won't be as exciting as it would be if Kruk and Kuip were calling it. Thinking optimistically, I do have some confidence in Zito. If the pressure affected the Giants in ANY way tonight, it won't affect Zito. He's pitched in more big games in his career than anyone on the staff and the Padres don't exactly have an intimidating offense. The Padres still have to win 3 more games in a row to go to the playoffs. The Giants just need 1.

SF 4, COL 2: Cained

Did you know that Matt Cain is my favorite player on the Giants? That's right. I decided in 2006, his first full season. When I am an old man, still a Giants fan of course, and someone asks me, "Who was your favorite Giants player? Who did you love the most?", the answer will be easy. It was Matt Cain. Matt Cain, the one with great stuff, no doubt, but never the greatest stuff on the team. Matt Cain, who got his share of attention, but never the most. Matt Cain, the one with the most heart, the most grit on the team. Yes, I, the David Eckstein hating, stat-quoting baseball fan, I am talking about heart and grit. Because while the "intangibles" can't truly measure who the best are, they can measure what we love, what we admire. And watching Cain pitch for 5 seasons now, we have seen those intangibles show up again and again, whether its accepting a losing record with stoicism and grace, getting out of jam after jam, or pitching shut down innings like no one else. And then, in the biggest game of the year, of his career, hell, the biggest Giants game since Finley's grand slam in 2004, he almost throws a no hitter, and goes 9 innings to secure the win. Amazing.

The Rockies that were smoking the ball last night looked completely helpless at the plate today, as Cain was throwing strikes with his fastball AND curve. CarGo and Tulo could do nothing against him. After losing the no hitter, on a questionable base hit that Juan Uribe double clutched on, Cain gave up a 2 run homer to Melvin Mora. But he didn't lose his composure one bit, and got out of the inning, then, with 100 pitches, went out to finish the 9th. Props to Bochy for having complete confidence in him. He even ended the game with a "Wainwright to Beltran hook" (all curveballs that strike out the last hitter of the game, looking, remind me of Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS). Cain's final line was 9 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, with a game score of 80. It was his 4th complete game of the season. He had 4 last year as well. Not quite Bob Gibson, but impressive for a 25 year old pitcher these days.

Cain has flirted with no hitters many times before, and I believe, one of these days he will get one. While he isn't quite one of the upper elite pitchers, yet, he is definitely one of the hardest to hit in baseball. His lifetime 7.59 hits per 9 innings is 5th among active pitchers, and 2nd only to Johan Santana among active starters. Yeah, he's that hard to hit. Unfortunately, his no hitter today ended rather strangely. Jay Payton his a groundball up the middle, and Juan Uribe double clutched before throwing to first. Payton was safe. It's very possible that Payton would have been safe even if Uribe hadn't double clutched, but, in my opinion, a double clutch like that constitutes an error on the part of the fielder. Oh well. If you want to care about no hitters, you have to accept the idea of official scorers.

The Giants scored 4 runs today, and it could have been a lot more, because Jorge De La Rosa was not good. He kept missing on the outside corner, and seemed to be upset about it. Too bad for him that Tom Glavine is the only pitcher who'll ever get that call. Freddy Sanchez, much maligned on this blog this summer, hit a 2 run HR in the first inning to give the Giants a quick lead. Well done, Singles Hitter. And Cody Ross just might be starting to heat up.

The Giants off day tomorrow should do them and the fans some good. Arizona is coming to town, and though they are a last place team, remember: they swept the red hot Rockies this past week. I can't think of anything worse than Adam LaRoche hurting us in the last week of the season.

SF 1, CHC 0: Poseyed

So, Carlos Zambrano showed why the Cubs overreacted by sending him to the bullpen earlier in the year and why it was silly to think that the Cubs would ever trade him for Aaron Rowand. Remember that rumor? Zambrano struck out 8 batters tonight and held the Giants to 0 runs, but he also walked 5 guys and threw 116 pitches in 6 innings. It was up to the Chicago bullpen to give up some runs to the Giants.

The bullpen also pitched pretty well for the Cubs, but they still got poseyed. Buster will do that to you. In the 8th inning, Posey hit a solo shot to center field that barely cleared the fence and finally put the Giants on the board. That was all they'd get and all they'd need. Ramon Ramirez, Sergio Romo, and Brian Wilson combined for 3 innings of perfect relief to close out the game.

Matt Cain was fantastic. What else is new? Cain struck out just 2 Cubs, but he only allowed 4 baserunners (2 H, 1 BB, 1 HBP) and 0 runs in 6 innings. He was pulled early after just 82 pitches because Bochy needed some offense yet again. I'm not sure that makes much sense because if the starters can't score what's a bench guy gonna do? Might as well keep your great starting pitcher in the game. Oh well, it didn't matter. Like I said, the bullpen was very good. Did you know that the Giants' pitching staff has allowed 3 runs or fewer in their last 15 games and it's just the 3rd time a team has done that in the live ball era? I'll end the recap with that really cool stat.

SF 2, LA 1: Matt Cain Is Good

Maybe the most important thing I learned tonight is that Dodger fans are even more idiotic than I thought. But I'm not going to go into that right now, it's a story for another time.

The game itself was also pretty important. For most of it, the offense was looking dormant against Giant killer, Chad Billingsley. It really wasn't a surprise because the lineup was terrible. Eugenio Velez, a career .696 OPS player, was hitting leadoff. Yeah, that bad. It's just not going to be the same without Andres. Anyway, despite the poor lineup, the Giants had plenty of chances. In total, they left 17 men on base and were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, with both hits coming after the 6th inning. Fortunately, two runs were all they would need. Mike Fontenot blooped a single to right field in the 7th to give the Giants a 1-0 lead and Aubrey Huff added an insurance run in the 8th by scoring on a fielder's choice.

They only needed 2 runs because Matt Cain was great. His final line of 7 IP, 3 H, 0 BB, and 5 K's looked great, but he could've gone even longer. After 7 innings he had thrown just 91 pitches, but he was lifted in the 7th for a pinch-hitter because the Giants needed to score some runs. Sergio Romo pitched a perfect 8th and even though Brian Wilson allowed an Andre Ethier homer in the 9th, it didn't matter. The idiotic Dodgers fan behind me had nothing to say.

I like winning series. Let's do it tomorrow.

SF 7, SD 3: Giants Win Important Home Game

You wanna know something? It's a little bit easier to write a recap when the Giants lose because it's easier to complain. When the Giants lose I can criticize the players, the manager, anyone. I can vent, I can curse, I can be angry. It's just easier to focus on the negative. So, maybe tonight's recap will be harder to write, but that's okay because everything went well in this game.

You have to love it when your leadoff hitter sets the tone for the offense and Andres Torres did just that, hitting a leadoff triple to start the game. Freddy Sanchez brought him in with an RBI single to give the Giants a 1-0 lead, but the real story of this game was the power display. Aubrey Huff went deep with a 2-run homer in the 3rd. Juan Uribe hit a solo shot in the 4th. Buster Posey hit a 2-run BOMB in the 5th. And Pat Burrell capped it off with another homer in the 6th. Four home runs in Petco Park, probably the hardest place to go deep in the majors. I just hope they saved some runs for the rest of the series.

Matt Cain was also very good. Actually, he was probably even better than his stat line would suggest. He went 8 IP giving up 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB with 8 K's but really, his only 2 mistakes came on 2 pitches. In the 3rd, he gave up a solo home run to Will Venable and a 2-run shot to Ryan Ludwick late in the game when it didn't really matter. All in all, he was very good. It's feels really nice when the offense and pitching produce at the same time.

How sad are Padres fans? There were just as many Giants fans as Padres fans there. You would've thought it was a home game. I get that the Padres are the most boring team in the league, but they're still in a playoff race. Terrible.

It's A Slow Day

It's cold and overcast here and I'm basically using that as an excuse for me not being able to come up with something to write about today. So, I thought I'd throw out a question for you guys.

Barry Zito is starting tonight, and as the rotation has started to heat up in September, Zito is the lone starter who has not found his groove. As a result, there seems to be a lot of negativity and hate surrounding Zito. I'm not saying it's unwarranted hate, he hasn't looked good for over a month now, but a thought came into my mind.

When the Giants make the playoffs, and if they go with a 3-man playoff rotation, who are your 3 guys?

This is NOT if the season ended today. By the end of the season, when the playoffs come around, which 3 guys do you want starting for the Giants? I think it's an interesting question because despite Zito's struggles, both heads of 8thInningWeirdness would go with Lincecum, Cain, and Zito. But I have a feeling that many of you would choose Bumgarner, maybe Sanchez over Zito.

I think Lincecum and Cain are locks for everybody. If you don't have both of them in your lineup, I would really like you to explain yourself. So, the focus is on the 3rd starter. Personally, I go with Zito because of his postseason experience and because I still think he'll be our 3rd best option. Sanchez is the most erratic of all the Giants starters and by the time the playoffs roll around, Bumgarner might be worn out.

Anyway, leave your 3-man rotation in the comments section and explain why you chose those guys.

SF 5, LA 4: ...And Thence We Came Forth To See Again The Stars

Juan Uribe does not get on base that much. He plays a lot of positions in the infield, but he's not great at any of them. But goddamn can he hit one out, and it always seems to happen when it matters most. And that's why even with his surprisingly bad OPS+ of 91, he's one of the more valuable players on this team. Jeez, I sound like some writer I'd mock on FJM Friday. You can get that way after a 5-4 comeback win in LA.

But Uribe's no doubter against Broxton was just the final bomb in a barrage of HRs by the Giants near the end of the game. Matt Cain was looking good to begin the game, but the 4th inning was not kind to him. Thankfully, he was able to recover and go 3 more innings, with a final line of 7 innings, 7 hits, 4 ERs, 1 BB, and 6 K's. Buster Posey's HR in the 7th started the Giants comeback, and it was quite impressive. One of the longest HRs I think I've seen a right handed hitter hit at Dodger Stadium. Then Edgar Renteria started the 8th inning with a ball down the left field line that stayed fair to make the score 4-2. Good by Edgar, but I'd be disappointed if that 1 HR earned him lots more playing time. It probably will.

Pat Burrell then came up, and after falling behind 0-2, he battled and battled before sending a shot into left center to make the score 4-3. The Octavio Dotel trade just keeps looking worse and worse for the Dodgers. So does Jonathan Broxton. What the hell happened to him? I remember the days when he was the best of the 3 NL West California Closers. His stuff was electric, and he was giving up just over 5 hits per 9 innings. Now he's post 2005 Brad Lidge. Can't be counted on at all. Sounds good to me.

We've said a lot after Giants losses that "these are the games bad teams lose." Well, this was the kind of game a good team wins. And the Giants are a good team. Good enough? Maybe. The Padres lost today for the 9th straight time. They are falling apart. Hopefully they don't find a way to put it all together right when the Giants go to Petco next week.

The Good From Last Night

Okay, last night's game was terrible. The Giants blew a lead against a team that is slowly creeping up behind them in the standings and they failed to capitalize on a night when both the Wild Card and division leaders lost. Maybe that flyball was a freak play and every outfielder would have charged in to get it. Fine, I think I can buy that. But Freddy Sanchez's terrible bounce pass to 3rd base gave up the lead, and none of it would've mattered if the Giants scored more than one pathetic run. The game was lost yesterday because of bad defense and bad offense. However, last night's game was a good sign for one reason, though. The pitching. For once, I'm going to be optimistic.

The pitching struggles in August have been well-documented. During this month, they've had a 4.65 ERA, good for 3rd worst in the NL. Pretty surprising that our pitching, and not the offense, is costing us down the stretch. Obviously this team is carried by the pitching staff, so they won't be going anywhere near the playoffs if the staff doesn't get back on track. But yesterday, Jonathan Sanchez, the most erratic of all the Giants' starting pitchers, pitched a gem. And the day before, Matt Cain had a quality start. Two back-to-back quality starts from the staff is an extremely welcome sight. Cain has been pretty great all season, but if guys like Sanchez, Zito and Lincecum can get back to their early season dominance, this team's going to be hard to beat. You can tell all of the starters feed off of each other. If everyone's pitching well, no one wants to be the one to break the streak. Like I said a couple of days ago, it just takes a couple of good starts in a row for the staff to get back on track.

I'm willing to bet that last night's game was an anomaly. Our defense is in a pretty bad spell right now, committing 11 errors in the last 5 games. That is terrible and they are not a terrible defensive team. (Jose Guillen is pretty bad though. Despite last night's misplay, Cody Ross is definitely the best option out there.) They aren't great, having below average guys at 3B, SS, and LF, but they don't make too many errors and they're not 11 errors in 5 games bad. Also, the offense should be able to score more often than not. With Sandoval and Sanchez getting hot the lineup now has Torres, Sanchez, Huff, Burrell, Posey, and Sandoval all hitting well. That's not a bad lineup at all. But the key to winning is still the pitching and if last night was any indication, the pitching could be close to regaining form. Maybe the Giants can finally combine good pitching, good hitting, and better defense at the same time. This team needs a run, a July type streak, to get to the playoffs and if that's going to happen, the starters need to get hot.

SF 9, ARI 7: That's How It Should Be. Kinda.

So, Matt Cain is good. The bullpen? Not so much. That was the story of this game.

Matt Cain is our only starting pitcher that can be trusted right now. I have confidence in no one else, but Matt Cain, he's been very good. He's been a rock. Tonight he went 6 1/3 innings, giving up 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB while striking out 7. It was a pretty good performance considering the garbage the rest of our staff has been throwing throughout the month of August. Now the only issue is getting Cain to channel his thoughts of good pitching to his fellow starters. All they need to do is have 2 good starts in a row and maybe they can get back on track. One can only hope.

The bullpen screwed up though and made this game way closer than it should've been. With the score at 5-2 and having thrown 108 pitches, Bruce Bochy pulled Cain with 1 out in the 7th. When the 7th inning was over, the Diamondbacks had a 6-5 lead. So, obviously the bullpen fell apart. Javier Lopez, Santiago Casilla, and Jeremy Affeldt combined to allow 4 runs, giving up the lead and once again costing Cain a win. Afterwards many people were upset at Bochy for pulling Cain too early, but no matter what, the bullpen needs to perform better. Luckily, the Giants scored a couple of runs in the next half inning and eventually got the win.

The Giants won, but this was still a terrible series. The Diamondbacks are terrible, yet they beat the Giants easily in the first 2 games and came close to sweeping the series. That won't cut it down the stretch. The Rockies come to town on Monday for a HUGE series. They are probably the hottest team in the West right now and if the Giants fall flat against them, they could find themselves in 3rd place come Wednesday. The Rockies are much better than the D'Backs, so the Giants are going to have to step up.

I'm kind of thinking about adding Adam LaRoche to the Hate List. What do you think? Even if he hadn't killed us in this series, everything about him really bothers me.

By the way, Eli Whiteside is really bad. Really, really bad.

SF 11, CIN 2: The Bats Wake Up

Yesterday offense quiet, today offense loud.

Yes, the offense was LOUD tonight early and often. After 4 batters, the Giants had 3 runs and after 8 batters they had 5. They batted around in the inning and life was good. At that point I thought to myself, can they score again? They could and they did. Andres Torres hit a 2-run homer. Aubrey Huff hit a solo shot. He went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI, by the way. Pablo Sandoval hit a 2-run double. He went 3-for-5 with 3 RBI. I'm in a short sentence mood. The end result was 11 runs. Beautiful.

Matt Cain was rather nice tonight. He went 8 IP, allowing 5 H, 2 ER and 1 BB while striking out 7 guys. It was nice to see him pitch well in a big game. He's been the best Giants starter this year with a 3.07 ERA, yet he's just 10-10, Can you say wins don't matter?? But that's an argument for a different time. I wonder if @GIANTHomer is reading. We had a disagreement with him earlier, but it's okay. He got Keith Law to follow us on Twitter, so there's nothing but love for him from us. Anyway...Cain was great. He really is one of the most underrated pitchers in the game.

Cody Ross a hit in his only at bat tonight, which was also nice. Apparently, he's going to get a start tomorrow, but at who's expense? Ross should be starting over Jose Guillen on most nights. His career numbers against lefties are crazy. .945 OPS crazy. And Jose Guillen could just be our power bat off the bench. I know I said Ross could fill that role yesterday, but upon further review, Ross should be starting.

Hey, Freddy Sanchez went 4-for-5 tonight with 3 singles and a double. Even if all of his hits are singles, if he can hit them somewhat consistently, that's a nice hitter to have in the No. 8 hole.

Travis Wood is a rookie lefty with a 2.51 ERA and a .890 WHIP. I'm scared.

Game Recap: PHI 8, SF 2

So, you know the story. The first batter of the game for the Giants, Andres Torres, hit a home run. Buster Posey got a hit, so did Jose Guillen. The offense looked like it might be able to score some runs tonight. Nope. Wrong. We were all duped again. Sure, Pat Burrell added a homer in the 6th inning, but it wasn't nearly enough. It's happened so many times. The Giants love crushing our hopes and dreams. That's a fact.

The pitching was shaky again. Matt Cain really wasn't terrible, allowing only 2 ER with 4 K's and 1 BB. But the only reason he was charged with just 2 ER was because after a Mike Fontenot error, 2 runners got on, and Jimmy Rollins belted a 3-run homer. Cain really had no answer for Rollins all night. The bullpen was also bad, especially Guillermo Mota who gave up a HUGE homer to ultra-prospect Domonic Brown. But at that point I wasn't paying too much attention and I'm sure neither were you.

Lastly, I want to apologize for the lack of analytical posts recently. I was on vacation for a week, and I'm just now getting back into the swing of things. Don't worry though, we'll pick things up starting tonight will a special evening post.

Game Recap: SF 8, CHI 7

It's early to say that Pablo Sandoval is back. But the biggest thing I came away with today is how balanced and pretty his swing is looking. Even when he fouls balls off, he looks good. And his 2 huge hits today were vintage 2009 Sandoval. Yes, it's only been a short stretch, but this stretch could be different from the other fake "Panda is back" stretches we've seen in the past few months. For the 1st time in a while, he's hitting the ball FAR. Hopefully he keeps it up. The confidence he'll get from this past series should only help him.

Now for a little negative: if I'm willing to put 1 foot on the Panda bandwagon, I refuse to go near the Freddy Sanchez one. He still shouldn't be hitting 2nd. And Aaron Rowand shouldn't be leading off. By batting him leadoff, Bochy guarantees more at bats for the player who makes more outs than anyone else on the team. I know I repeat that over and over, but it's necessary until some sense is brought to the way a lineup gets configured. Dream lineup for the SD series: Torres, Posey, Huff, Burrell, Sandoval, Uribe, Ishikawa, Sanchez, Pitcher. Burrell is killing the ball right now. Sure his BABIP is kinda high for him, but not drastically so. He's just hitting the ball HARD all the time, and his patience at the plate is as good as it's ever been. How can we account for his amazing turnaround in SF? I don't know.

Matt Cain did not have a great start today. His pitch count went way to high early, a product of Cubs hitters fouling off pitches and then hitting weak singles. But even with his high pitch count, he only walked 1 batter while striking out 9. With just a bit of luck, his line could have looked much better.

The bullpen did not have a good day, and it was mostly Guillermo Mota, who has been pretty good lately. Chris Ray gave up a single run in the 7th. Lopez walked the 1st batter of the 8th and was removed. That's the problem with having a guy who's only safe pitching to lefties. Mota was clearly not on, giving up rockets to the outfield. Sergio Romo came in and successfully limited the damage as best he could, setting up the Giants for their walkoff in the 9th.

Game Recap: SF 2, LA 0

We all know that Matt Cain is one of the most underrated pitchers in the game. Being overshadowed by Tim Lincecum doesn't help, and neither does Cain's quiet, calm personality. He never gets any attention, yet he'd be the ace on a lot of teams. To prove my point, I present to you:

This picture breaks my heart every time I see it. Matt Cain deserves more respect, and hopefully he got some tonight on ESPN. Cain looked close to as good as he's been all year, and that fact that it was on national TV just makes it even sweeter. Tonight he went 7 2/3 IP, gave up just 4 H, 1 BB and struck out 7 Dodgers. It was just a beautiful, beautiful outing from Cain.

There wasn't too much offense, but only one big hit was needed and it came from Edgar Renteria. After the Dodgers walked Aaron Rowand to get to Renteria (why?), there were runners on 1st and 2nd. Renteria made them pay by lining a triple into the left-center gap, scoring both runners.

Sweeping the Dodgers is always delicious, and this was the first time it's happened since 2004. Now the Giants need to take this momentum on the road to Coors Field. That place has never been too friendly to the Giants, so winning at least 2 of 3 would be nice.

Game Recap: SF 6, FLA 4

It's not often these days that Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria are the reason the Giants win. I mean, Uribe did have a grand slam the other day, but still, he has been slumping hard. 8thInningWeirdness was at the game tonight, and what a game it was. Let's dig into the details.

Josh Johnson is the leading contender for the Cy Young at this point, so I wasn't expecting the offense to do much against him tonight. I gave myself low expectations, and as a result I was pleasantly surprised that the Giants were able to score first. In the 3rd Inning, Andres Torres doubled, of course, and Aubrey Huff proceeded to hit a double that would bring him home. The next batter, Buster Posey, blooped a single to score Huff and extended his hitting streak to 20 games. It was nice to see our 3 best hitters this year combine to score against the league's best pitcher.

Matt Cain was solid tonight giving up just 4 H and 3 BB in 7 IP, but he threw 2 pitches that he probably wishes he could take back. A 2-run homer by Cody Ross tied the game in the 5th inning, and after the Giants scored in the bottom of the 5th on a Freddy Sanchez RBI single, Cain gave back the lead again on a solo home run from Dan Uggla in the 7th. Overall, giving up 3 ER in 7 IP isn't bad but the Giants probably weren't going to score many runs against Johnson, so Cain needed to be flawless to get the win, and he wasn't.

The real fun started in the 8th inning. In a 3-3 tie, Juan Uribe belted a deep home run to left center field to give the Giants a 4-3 lead. The atmosphere was exciting and there was a buzz in the ballpark. Like I said when he hit his grand slam, the Giants could use an improved Juan Uribe. A couple of batters later, Edgar Renteria hit a 2-run homer down the left field line to give the Giants some insurance runs and a 6-3 lead. Edgar's game last night was brutal, but I felt good for him after all of the fans in the ballpark booed him before the game today.

Also notable: Andres Torres was 3-for-4 with a BB tonight. He's good, real good.

Really fun, exciting game to be at tonight. Always feels good to win against the best pitcher in the league.