In order to succeed in the MLB playoffs, teams need great pitching.
If teams have good pitching staffs, they always have a chance to win baseball games. History shows that ball clubs with good pitching win World Series rings. Hard-throwing pitchers always contribute, whether starting or coming out of the bullpen.
Here are the top 10 fastballs of the postseason.
For the first time in seven years, postseason baseball has found its way to AT&T Park. In the National League Divisional Series, the newly crowned NL West champion San Francisco Giants (92-70) will meet the Atlanta Braves (91-71), who also squeaked by on the final day of the season. The winner of the five-game series will move on to face either Philadelphia (97-65) or Cincinnati (91-71).
No doubt Giants general manager Brian Sabean is spearheading an extended powwow with manager Bruce Bochy and his staff, as the rules call for the 40-man active roster to be trimmed down to 25 by Thursday’s opener in China Basin.
Although substitutions can be made in each round of the playoffs, it will be interesting to find out the composition of the final list for the NLDS, as it will undoubtedly give clues on how they intend to attack the Braves and advance to their first National League Championship Series since 2002.
All year long, the Giants’ outstanding pitching has defied belief, especially during the final month of the season. San Francisco hurlers held opposing batters to a .182 average in September and conceded three runs or less in 24 out of 26 games, a feat that has occurred only once since 1920.
However, the team’s bats haven’t fared as well, with their own dubious streak defining their offense. In the last 29 games to close the year, Giants hitters scored more than four runs only eight times.
With that said, smallball will the be order of the day in San Francisco, and the signs were evident in last Sunday’s division-clinching win over San Diego. In the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Giants in desperate need of adding an insurance run to a slim 2-0 lead, Eugenio Velez laid down a sacrifice bunt to move 245-pound Pablo Sandoval from first base.
However, the portly former All-Star’s lack of speed was blatantly clear when he was gunned down at second with three strides to spare in what became a waste of an out.
The Giants’ formidable rotation and bullpen have compensated for the toothless offense for most of 2010. Since this pattern will likely continue into the playoffs, the necessity of manufacturing runs will be at a premium in close games, where each win gets the team one step closer to the World Series.
According to the way Sabean and Bochy have handled the season to date, I have broken down the current 40-man roster and given my projections for the final 25 who will take the field for the NLDS. Starters are in bold, cuts will have lines through their names, and shaky picks up for debate will be in italics, with key stats for each player included.
The San Diego Padres were without question the surprise of Major League Baseball. Starting the season with the fourth lowest payroll in baseball, they led the National League West for a good portion of the 2010 season before fading in September. Today, their season was laid to rest.
The San Francisco Giants used six pitchers to combine on a four-hit shutout, sending the San Diego Padres home with a 3-0 loss, ending their magical season and knocking them out of the playoffs.
With the Atlanta Braves beating the Philadelphia Phillies earlier in the afternoon, 8-7, the Padres needed the victory to force a two-day playoff. With the win, they would have played the Giants at home to decide the NL West Division winner, and then the loser of that game would play Atlanta for the right to be the NL Wildcard team.
Padres starting pitcher Mat Latos got into trouble in the bottom of the third.With one out, Giants starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez tripled to right field. After striking out Andres Torres, Latos gave up a single to Freddie Sanchez, scoring J. Sanchez with the game’s first run. Aubrey Huff then doubled to deep center, scoring F. Sanchez to give the Giants a 2-0 lead.
With the way the Giants bullpen has pitched over the last two weeks, those two runs would prove to be more than enough.
The Padres put runners on first and second with no outs in the top of sixth, with an Adrian Gonzalez single and walk to Ryan Ludwick. That was it for Jonathan Sanchez, who surrendered to Santiago Casilla.
Casilla induced a 5-4 double play grounder to Yorbit Torrealba, then got Scott Hairston on a fielder’s choice, Torrealba being forced out at second to get out of the inning.
The Padres threatened again in the seventh, Denorfia singling to right, and David Eckstein reaching on Casilla’s error, putting runners at first and second once again. Giants reliever Ramon Ramirez shut the door this time, getting Miguel Tejada swinging at a nasty slider for the third strike, ending the threat.
Closer Brian Wilson came on to close it out in the ninth for the Giants, giving him his 48th save of the year, tying the Giants record for saves in a season, held by Rod Beck.
The Giants will now play host to the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS, while the Philadelphia Phillies play host to the Cincinnati Reds in the other NLDS matchup.
The Padres gave a great effort this weekend, needing to win all three games of the series to force a playoff. Sunday’s effort wasn’t enough, and they’ll be watching from the sidelines, wondering to themselves what could have been.
For continuing baseball updates, you follow Doug on Twitter, @Sports_A_Holic.
Doug is featured writer for Examiner.com and Green Celebrity Network.
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In a Bleacher Report Community effort, the top Featured Columnists for MLB’s top teams have come together to give the fans a thorough understanding of what to expect when your ace succumbs to playoff pressure, putting a close game in the hands of your bullpen.
Each Bleacher Report Featured Columnist has been a fan of their team, as have you, for as long as possible.
In speaking with these writers, they understand the history as well as the current state and future prospects for their bullpen.
This has been a learning experience in putting these analyses together and may this be a guidebook to you fans who need to know what your opposition is going to be throwing at you late into a game.
Two last things:
1) In finding the videos for this slideshow I found it comical that every closer either enters the game to Metallica’s, “Enter Sandman,” or at least has a youtube tribute to him set to that song.
2) Make sure to check out Mariano Rivera’s video on how he dominates attached to the first Yankees slide. It’s a must-see.
When the San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night, they guaranteed that the three-game series against the San Francisco Giants to end the year would be meaningful.
Exactly how meaningful remains to be seen, as the Giants continue to play good baseball.
With their own victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the good guys maintained their two-game lead on the Friars in the loss column.
Should the Gents win again on Thursday, they’ll ensure that only a sweep would prevent them from reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2003 regardless of what the Fathers do in their finale with the Lovable Losers.
But, should SF lose and SD win, then the intensity for that final weekend will be unlike anything the City has witnessed around a diamond for almost a decade. Only a game would separate the clubs in that scenario.
Granted, the Atlanta Braves could kill all the suspense because they’re only one game ahead of the Pads in the loss column. The Bravos will face the Philadelphia Phillies while the National League West front-runners are renewing hostilities.
Nevertheless, the eyes of Major League Baseball will be on AT&T Park from Friday until Sunday as one of the two remaining pennants up for grabs gets decided by the two teams fighting over the flag.
What they’ll see is San Francisco charge into the playoffs for these 10 reasons (in no particular order).
And, yes, I’m knocking on wood as I type each paragraph…
The saying goes good pitching beats good hitting. It’s actually more than a saying. It’s a reality. If you have a dominant pitcher on his game, there is not a hitter on the planet that can hit him.
Painting the black. Hitting your spots. Changing speeds.
It is something the Giants pitching staff has done very well for the past 18 games. They have not allowed more than three runs in a game since September 4.
No pitching staff in the modern age has put together a better stretch. In fact only two other teams since 1900 have put together such a stretch, the 1916 New York Giants (19) and the 1917 Chicago White Sox (20).
This means every man from the ace of the staff to the last bullpen guy is getting the job done. Every last pitcher is hitting on all cylinders.
In September, the Giants have a team ERA of 1.44 with a WHIP of 0.82. The starting staff has a combined ERA of 1.85, and the bullpen has given up two runs in 51 innings. That comes out to a 0.35 ERA.
With all of this recent September success, a question remains: Can this continue into the postseason? Can the Giants pitching staff ride this momentum into October and make an impact?
October baseball has always been about strong pitching and clutch hitting. Let’s focus on the pitching.
The type of guys that usually flourish in the postseason are hard-throwing control pitchers. It so happens the Giants have those. Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Jonathan Sanchez provide that in the rotation.
All these guys can get the strikeout if needed and have proven so. Sanchez and Lincecum will have over 200 strikeouts this season. Cain is currently at 165, but as Giants fans have seen, when he needs one, he can get one.
Santiago Casilla, Dan Runzler, and Brian Wilson provide that out of the bullpen. Hard to argue with guys who throw in the mid-to-high 90s.
In fact, if you were to go back through the Giants’ history and look at past pitching staffs, this could be the best pitching staff the San Francisco Giants have ever had.
Are there individual exceptions? Yes, but there has not been an entire staff that has dealt in the team’s history.
Think about any of the pitching staffs of the 90s and early 2000s…pitching wasn’t that trustworthy.
Think back to the 1989 team. Why did they lose the World Series to the Athletics?
Oh, right. Steroids…I mean lack of pitching.
From beginning to end, it is tough to find a weakness in the pitching staff. In the playoffs, though, it is about matchups.
If the playoffs were to start today, San Francisco would be hosting the Cincinnati Reds.
Playoff experience will be a wash in the series. The Reds have not been to the playoffs since the 1990s, and the Giants not since 2003.
There are key guys who have been there before (i.e. Scott Rolen, Barry Zito, Juan Uribe) but the teams as a whole will be in for a new experience.
The Giants are 4-3 against the Reds this season. They split their first series in Cincinnati and took two out of three in San Francisco.
The series in San Francisco was the worst the pitching staff had looked all season. It was the middle of August and the starting pitching was falling apart. Lincecum could not buy a win. Zito looked like the 2007 version of himself. Hitting off Madison Bumgarner was like hitting off of a tee.
But there was one guy who the Reds could not figure out. That person was Cain. In his two starts, he allowed two runs in 17 innings (two wins).
Tim Lincecum did not face the Reds this season.
In a short series, the Giants arms could neutralize the Reds bats. The difference could be the type of player Joey Votto turns into come October.
Cain might be the person you start twice in this series (if necessary). Recent success should have much to do with that decision.
A four-man rotation seems to make the most sense at this point. Roll with Lincecum, Sanchez, Cain, Zito. They have varying styles and having lefties in the rotation for teams like Philadelphia and Cincinnati is always helpful.
If the Giants pitching can keep up the torrid pace, they will be a team no offense will want to face.
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By the time the San Francisco Giants take the field in Colorado Friday night, there will be nine regular season games left.
I’m not sure there is anything regular about them. In these remaining games, the Giants will face the Colorado Rockies who are very much in the hunt AND the division leading San Diego Padres.
Through today (9/23), the Rockies are 3.0 games out of first place, and dropping three in a row to Los Angeles and Arizona.
The Giants and Rockies clash for three games over the weekend. If you are starting to see a trend here, you nailed it.
When you consider the importance of the final three games against the Padres next weekend, do not under appreciate what is about to happen in Colorado.
A sweep by the Rockies this weekend will leave the Giants all but out of the playoffs for certain.
San Francisco must win this series if they want to keep San Diego in their cross-hairs for next weekend.
In order for that to happen, there are five things the Giants must do….
Perhaps you remember several years ago when rock band Green Day released their hit album American Idiot (I happen to because it was the first one I ever bought). Anyway, one of the songs was titled “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” As the title suggests, the song yearns for the supposedly dreadful month to end and for October to begin.
Well, Billie Joe Armstrong must not be a huge baseball fan, because September on the diamond is epic.
Take this year for instance. Five of baseball’s six divisions are still pretty much up for grabs, as well as both Wild Card slots. This leaves six teams in the AL and seven in the NL which are scrambling for four playoff slots.
The AL West is the only division which I feel will not produce much drama in the final month of the regular season. The Texas Rangers currently are the only team in the division above .500 and hold an eight-game lead over second-place Oakland. Unless the A’s, or possibly Angels, can pull off a miracle, the division belongs to Texas.
The other West, however, is much different.
San Diego still sits atop the division at 76-59, but instead of standing tall, are now wobbling on one leg after losing 10 straight games, seven to teams inside the division. The Giants, meanwhile, are only 5-4 in that span but have managed to pull within a game of the slumping Padres. And don’t forget the Rockies, who have won 10 of their past 14 and are oh so notorious for late season surges (see 2007, 2009). In addition, all three teams still have a shot at the Wild Card as San Francisco and Colorado trail front runner Philadelphia by two- and five-and-a-half games respectively.
Moving east to America’s heartland, the usually weak Central divisions are finally producing some contenders. One of this year’s true feel good stories, the Reds currently own the best record in the National League and lead their division by seven games. However, it is hard to overestimate the Cards’ potent offense, led by perhaps the best hitter in all of baseball, as well as their more than capable pitching. The Cards are also within five-and-a-half of the Phils in the Wild Card race.
In the AL, the Twins currently hold a three-and-a-half game lead over the White Sox, who trail in the Wild Card race by seven games. Both teams have won eight out of their past 10.
Back East, the Braves and Phillies appear destined for a shootout as Atlanta currently hold the division by one game over Philadelphia, who in turn is leading the Wild Card. It will be interesting to see how this race turns out.
Finally, baseball’s most infamous division has three teams vying for it, with one of those teams having a much better shot at the Wild Card. As you may have guessed, the perennial contenders in the Big Apple are winning their division once again.
However, their New England rivals aren’t the ones chasing them this time. Instead, the Rays are the ones who own the league’s second-best record, trailing the Yanks by two-and-a-half games, and leading the Wild Card by a whopping seven games. Theoretically, Boston could still climb back in the race, but a 10-game division deficit to one team in the division and a seven-and-a-half game WC deficit to another is difficult to overcome at this point in the season.
With one month left in the season, virtually anything could happen. The Yanks could tumble, or a team that has been quiet all season like the Marlins could start winning like crazy and make the playoffs on the last day. If you ask me, the Yanks and Rays seem destined to make the postseason. Minnesota will probably hold off the streaking Sox in that race, which leaves the National League.
San Francisco has one of the best closers in baseball, solid starting pitching, and a lineup that has been better than expected the past few months. I see them overtaking the Pads pretty soon and holding them off the rest of the season to take their first NL West crown in seven years. The Reds should hold on in the NL Central, and just to shake things up, I am going with the Phils in the division and either Atlanta or Colorado for the Wild Card.
However, what’s great about baseball is that you don’t have to listen to my picks because there is a good chance they will not happen. And that is the beauty of baseball.
Wake me up when September ends? Sorry Green Day, but I don’t think so. If anything, wake me up when September starts because that is when you are prone to see the best ball of the season.
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Brian Wilson leads the National League in saves at 39. He has been one of the most consistent closers in all of baseball.
Consistent you ask?
Well Brian’s version of closing in consistent in a different way than you think.
Giants fans are witnesses to this.
Almost every time he is asked to save a game, he starts off by putting men on base. Whether he walks them, or gives up a hit, he is always making Giants fans nervous.
He has a 94 to 99 MPH fastball, along with a cutter and a slider. These pitches are effective enough for him, as his success shows.
But what if he added another pitch? With the speed he has on his fastball, adding a simple change-up with make him a dynamic big-game pitcher. His strikeout rate would go up and he would get more ground ball double plays if men did get on base against him.
It seems that sometimes he gets bored out there on the mound, even if it is a close game, and decides he better walk someone. Maybe this amuses him. Who knows.
What we do know is that every time Brian Wilson closes, there is going to be drama. Every Giant fan is sitting on the edge of his or her seat. Usually Brian gets it done, though, and closes out the game safely and soundly.
But wouldn’t it be nice if Brian retired the side in order more than once in a while?
Imagine if he had a pitch that was in the back of batters’ minds when they started getting strikes on them. They might want to swing earlier in the count and this would let Wilson take full control of the game.
Batters know that most of the pitches that Wilson throws are over 90 MPH. His slider is effective at changing speeds but it is not a major difference.
If he added a change-up that was 82 to 85 MPH, it would drive hitters crazy. Just a thought for Brian, because it would be appreciated by us Giants fans and Bruce Bochy, who can be seem pacing nervously around the dugout during many of Wilson’s appearances.
If Wilson added a change-up he would not only be more effective at getting saves, but he would also keep Giants fans from any possibility of having a heart attack.
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The New York Giants were established in 1883. In 1958 the club moved out west, becoming who they are today – the San Francisco Giants.
Along the way, there have been many fun players, many great players. Some players we hated, and loved to boo and heckle. Many players stuck around for a season or two at best, while others played their entire career for the Giants.
Who is your favorite Giants player?
Giants’ fans everywhere have their own opinion about how they would rank their favorite players.
Who is number one? What about number 2? 3? This list can go on. How do you rank these players?
When you think of the all time great Giants, are you including the New York Giants?
In the pages to come we will discuss my list of The Top 100 Giants of All Time.