As the 2010 post-season delves further into October, the San Francisco Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies are the last two National League teams standing.
The National League Championship Series between these two clubs will begin on Saturday, October 16th – in Philadelphia.
The Phillies jumped all over Joey Votto and the Cincinnati Reds, sweeping Dusty Baker and company right out of the playoffs. While it may be tee time in Cincinnati, the Phillies are resting, laying in wait for the Giants.
In San Francisco there lies another brand of baseball. The Giants secured their NLCS ticket in four games, sending Atlanta home for good in 2010. Shipping off Bobby Cox was no easy task, each game being decided by a single run.
On paper and before your eyes, the Phillies have been the team to beat coming into the playoffs. They feature top notch pitching, a fearsome lineup, and oodles of playoff knowledge in the dugout.
One thing is for certain with the Giants, they can pitch. It is the other things like hitting, and oh maybe more hitting that are less certain.
The Giants squeaked by the Braves, getting just enough runs to win by the narrowest of margins. This will not fly against the Phillies. If the Giants want to have a chance against a true juggernaut like Phillie, they will need certain players to step up and deliver big time.
You know that phrase, “It was over before it started?”
Well, that is how I felt when the San Francisco Giants faced off against the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of their crucial four-game series last night in San Diego.
The Giants ripped the Padres 7-3 last night to come within one game of the NL West lead. They took the field as if they owned Petco Park and were the 1927 New York Yankees. They had confidence. They had an extra bounce in their step. They acted as if they were a playoff team.
The Padres looked as if well, they were there 2008 version of the Padres. They looked tentative. They looked as if they weren’t ready for prime time. They had zero energy.
I thought the two pitchers reflected the mindset of both teams. Matt Cain was aggressive and was pounding the strike zone all night with quality fastballs. Jon Garland was tentative and couldn’t put anyone away to save his life.
Garland served up a triple to Andres Torres on the second pitch of the game and the Padres never seemed to recover. That was a body blow and Aubrey Huff‘s two-run moonshot into the sandbox at Petco was the knockout blow.
The Giants ended up hitting three more home runs on the night, but it was Huff’s shot that really put this game away. I also thought the best player on the field last night was Freddy Sanchez.
Sanchez was 3-for-5 with a very well-timed SB, and made a great defensive play on Adrian Gonzalez to rob him of a hit in the fourth. Last night’s game was a microcosm of what Sanchez has been doing for the Giants lately.
Over his last 14 games, Sanchez has a hitting line of .418/.439/.673 with three HR’s and five doubles. He really has turned it on recently.
I am very interested to see how the next three games between these teams plays out. How will the Padres react to losing Game 1 of this series in convincing fashion? Will they be able to recover is the big question I have for the Friars.
It’s time for another ride on the waiver wire roller coaster. I know some of you are searching high and low for any bit of help with all the trade activity and waiver claims that went down. These moves can wreak havoc on a fantasy roster.
My team recently lost the services of Manny Ramirez, who Ihad to replace with Jeff Keppinger (came off DL)…talk about desperation. So if you still have something to play for, check out the players in this week’s edition. You never know who you might uncover…
Cory Leubke, SP, SD—Owned in zero percent of CBS leagues
You may be wondering (out loud or to yourself) how in the world could anyone recommend picking up a pitcher who is owned by NO ONE in all of CBS leagues?? Well, the simple explanation is that the Padres are in desperate need of a fresh arm in their rotation, and Leubke was tearing through the minors.
The issue with the Pads’ rotation start with the inning ceiling for their young pitchers. The 22-year-old phenom Matt Latos has already logged almost 150 innings on the season. Clayton Richard is at his career high of 167 innings. Throw in Wade LeBlanc, also at a career high of 143 innings, and has had a horrific August posting a 3-3 record with an abysmal 6.47 ERA. Lastly, let’s not forget to mention Kevin Correia, who managed to one-up LeBlanc by also going 3-3 in the month of August, but with an ERA of 7.20.
Oh, there’s one more arm in the Pads’ rotation. How could I overlook Jon “The Savior” Garland? With 13 wins (good for eighth in the NL) and a sleek 3.29 ERA, Garland has provided the Padres a solid 164 innings of pitching. He seems to be the only one not wearing down.
[Queue the Superman music]… and flying in to save the rotation, Mr. Leubke. He has the distinct honor of being drafted three times (18th round in ’04—PIT, 22nd round in ’06—TEX, and the first round in ’07—SD). He also threw a near perfect game against Team Canada while pitching for Team USA in the ’09 World Baseball Classic.
Leubke has only logged a combined 114 innings on the season through two levels of the minor leagues. He’s posted an impressive 10-1 record in 17 starts with a 2.68 ERA/.982 WHIP. While not a dominating strike-out pitcher, Leubke managed to post a very solid 3:1 K:BB ratio. There is enough upside here to take a chance, especially since SD couldn’t be more in the thick of the playoff race.
For the entirety of the San Francisco Giants 2010 season, there has been an air of inconsistency that can only be described as Duane Kuiper has: torture.
The team itself had a real good April (.591) followed by a .500 May, a sub-par June (.481), a torrid July (.714), and a dismal August (.464).
This is the team that scored one run in three games against Oakland in May and then scored 11 runs in three straight games against the Reds in August.
After having one of the top defensive teams in the country over the first portion of the season, San Francisco has made 23 errors in their last 30 games.
They have had stellar starting pitching. In their best two months (April and July), the starters had ERAs of 2.64 and 3.29, respectively. The starters pitched 80% of the innings, keeping the bullpen fresh and sharp.
But in their worst two months, it was a different story. In May they maintained a respectable ERA of 3.80, but in August it ballooned to 4.55, and it showed in other places as well. In August, the runs allowed jumped 20 runs from July, and the batting average against leapt up 40 points.
The starters only pitched 67% of the innings, meaning a lot of long relief and bullpen games, which can be both physically and emotionally draining for the team and the fans.
But if you’re going to have a bad month followed by a good month, there’s no better time to have a spike in performance than September. We’re seeing that from the Padres right now: if you perform well all season and drop off in the last month of the season, nobody cares about the first five.
On Wednesday Tim Lincecum followed up an abysmal August (0-5, 7.82 ERA) with a dominant start to September, hurling eight innings of one-run, five-hit ball and striking out nine batters for the first time since July 30.
Hopefully Barry Zito can emulate that against the Dodgers. Usually a strong second half pitcher, Zeets had an equally rough August (0-4, 7.76 ERA) that included three losses in one week (one in emergency relief). But his career line in September (27-14, 3.65) is encouraging, to say the least.
Many were ready to write off Pablo Sandoval as a one-season wonder. His first-half line was unimpressive (.267/.322/.382) compared to 2009’s production. But then August came around, and even though the Giants didn’t have a great month on the pitching side, Sandoval suddenly rediscovered his stroke.
After hitting a low point on August 1 of .263, the Panda’s August average of .321 has raised his average significantly and is certainly encouraging to this Giants team. He also pounded six homers in August, matching the amount of dingers he hit in the entire season up to that point.
In the middle of August, Freddy Sanchez had significantly cooled off from his torrid return from the disabled list, hitting a low point of .255 on August 11. Since then, he’s raised his average 40 points in 17 games, including back-to-back 4-hit games against Cincinnati. This comes at a good time for San Francisco, as Juan Uribe’s stats have dropped every month so far this year.
Baseball is a streaky game, and the Giants have been playing well lately. If not for the “Broken Bat Heard ‘Round the West” on Monday, they could have swept the Rockies (how often does that happen?).
And even though there’s been our fair share of fan heartbreak in 2010, there have been just as many games that the Giants have proved worthy of praise. This 2010 team can come back from the dead (10-1 against the Reds to 12-11), can make things exciting (any time Brian Wilson comes in), and can win when they need to most (Darren Ford flying home against Ubaldo Jimenez).
Now they’re entering the final month of the season in the heat of a pennant race. There are still four head-to-head games with San Diego, and six games against the Dodgers.
And if we base this final month on the season as a whole, I can promise you that the rest of the way will be about as far from boring as possible.
It marks the Show’s midway point even though most teams have played 88 contests, which is seven past the actual hump in the 162-game slate.
Regardless, the breather in the figurative middle of the season means it’s time for every club to take stock of the first half and decide what the modified plan of attack will be for the last three months.
More specifically, it’s about time to decide whether you’re a buyer or a seller.
To be or not to be…a contender.
For some, that’s easier said than done.
For the San Francisco Giants, it’s an especially tenuous time because the squad is obviously a contender in the National League West and the Wild Card.
As flawed as the team may be, nobody else in either race can claim to be running on all cylinders.
That generally means general manager Brian Sabean would be looking for shiny toys to shore up the roster.
Namely, a big bat.
The perception of San Francisco is that it’s all pitch and no hit. In reality, the pitching hasn’t been as good as its reputation, and the hitting hasn’t been as bad.
The arms have still been excellent, but the sharp edge that both the rotation and bullpen began the year with has disappeared. Walks and sloppy innings have replaced it.
Meanwhile, the offense has been anemic, but the emergence of Aubrey Huff (.295/.384/.544 and 17 HR), Buster Posey (.350/.389/.569 and 7 HR in 137 AB), Andres Torres (.281/.378/.483 and 17 SB), and the steadying presence of Freddy Sanchez (.285/.348/.360) have given los Gigantes a solid quartet of contributors.
What’s more, Buster and Franchez didn’t join the lads until late May, whereas Torres spent most of April in a platoon before running away with a regular spot in the lineup.
That putrid smell wafting from the bats should smell a lot sweeter as those three pile up the PT.
Finally, the overdue trade of Bengie Molina to the Texas Rangers has allowed Posey to assume the catcher-of-the-future mantle. Consequently, Gerald Demp the Third no longer needs to jam up the works at first base.
With the kid behind the dish, it’s opened up more playing time for first baseman Travis Ishikawa (.354/.394/.538 and 15 RBI in 65 AB), outfielder Pat Burrell (.286/.365/.484 and 5 HR in 91 AB), and outfielder Nate Schierholtz.
Nate the Great’s been struggling of late at the plate (take that, Dr. Seuss) so his numbers won’t blow your skirt up, but his fleet feet and cannon arm are large assets even when his bat goes limp.
Plus, he hadn’t been seeing regular plate appearances so don’t judge the 26-year-old too harshly.
Ultimately, jettisoning Big Money has created some semblance of consistency in manager Bruce Bochy’s game of musical lineup cards, and the early returns have been promising.
Since the Molina trade on July 1, the Orange and Black has seen its runs-scored per at-bat jump to 0.18—San Francisco had registered a 0.12 R/AB from April through June. That’s about a 50 percent hop.
Granted, the post-trade sample size of 11 games is quite small and eight of the contests came against the Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals (two of the less impressive pitching staffs in the National League).
But it bears mentioning nonetheless, especially because the Gents were matched up with Ubaldo Jimenez (whom they roughed up) and Stephen Strasburg (whom they did not) for two of those 11.
Translation: there’s reason to believe the Giant offense will continue to improve on the season’s back slope, just as there is to believe the pitching will rediscover its April/May rhythm.
Nevertheless, trade rumors are very much driven by public perception.
Names like Prince Fielder and Corey Hart of the Brew Crew have been most frequent, but the Nats’ Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham have surfaced, as have the Kansas City Royals’ David DeJesus and Jose Guillen .
The two Royals could probably be acquired on the cheap, so I wouldn’t necessarily be against either addition.
DeJesus is steady across the board, but not spectacular in any facet; plus, he’s 30. Guillen is one-dimensional and 34—enough said.
So the asking price shouldn’t be prohibitive. The problem is that, while neither would be too expensive, neither would be an emphatic upgrade.
Which begs the question, why insert another body into an already crowded outfield situation?
Depth is fine, but only if it doesn’t cost a genuine prospect.
On the other hand, the remaining blips on the rumor radar—Dunn, Fielder, Hart, and Willingham—would all be considerable improvements. Each one would also cost an arm and a leg.
The snag here comes in two flavors of budgetary inefficiency.
Mr. Sunglasses at Night or Willingham would immediately become the best outfielder in Orange and Black, unless Huff plans to make this a yearlong renaissance. Unfortunately, the brass would be walking right into a nightmare:
—Check the links, both players are having career years, so SF would be buying high on both players. That’s no bueno.
—Hart enjoys the protection of Fielder and another beast in Ryan Braun. Willingham has Dunn and dazzler Ryan Zimmerman to do the heavy-lifting. They’d be moving from third fiddle to first (or very close to it) as a Giant.
—Miller Park is a band box and Nationals Park has to be a better offensive yard than AT&T Park just because of the scalding D.C. summers. The deep alleys of the City’s jewel and the heavy Bay Area air crush all newcomers holding a bat.
To me, that list screams bad ending to a bad beginning.
On the other hand, the two bigger fellas would require the Price-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named and would be short-term solutions.
Thankfully, Adam Dunn seems like a non-starter, because he’s a free agent following 2010.
The Prince would be a slightly longer rental, since he hits the market following 2011, but who really cares?
The Burly Brewer is represented by a coprophagous (which is a fancy way of saying “s***-eating,” so it should be more popular) insect that will DEFINITELY have his young lefty slugger in the free agent waters following the expiration of his current deal.
There’s also this suspicious little home/away split in almost the exact same number of plate appearances: .275/.414/.544 with 12 HR at home vs. .256/.387/.445 with 8 HR on the road.
So the club would have to mortgage the future and part with one of the rotation studs for a guy who isn’t necessarily a lock to solve its offensive woes? And who’s gonna walk after a year and a half?
No, thanks.
The Giants are most definitely contenders as MLB’s second act opens, which means extra bullpen arms and bench help will probably join the roster.
But when it comes to the big-ticket items, San Francisco should walk away.
The offense is currently riding an 11 game streak of scoring three runs or more.
Before we dive in, let us remind you since the departure of Barry Bonds, we have become accustomed to sluggish inconsistent limp offenses.
Like a farm dog with ticks dug into our behind, we came to accept our cursed fate and that the world was generally a cruel place.
What do you expect, we have paws! How were we gonna reach back and pull the ticks out? You think biting helps, it only makes it worse.
At this point, our ticks are actually a source of comfort.
Now you’re back there digging around at the ticks and we have to tell you, don’t tease us. Don’t act like you’re finally going to screw them out, relieve our pain, and actually become a good offense.
Because the only thing worse than getting used to the pain and cruelty, would be thinking it’s finally going away and finding out it’s not.
Think of us as the sensitive girl who has always been a bridesmaid and never a bride. Men have been disappointing us our whole lives and now here you are acting like Mr. Wonderful.
If you let us down: look out! J-Wow’s right hook on The Situation will look like a tender kiss compared to the hell-fire scorn we will unleash on you.
Looking at your lineups recently and your numbers, we’ve been thinking, “What team is this?” And excuse us, but where are the gaping holes we have become accustomed to?
You know, we had gotten really used to cuddling up next to our teddy bear, then we slip into bed one night and find Bradley Cooper. Are we dreaming, are these hard, lean, rippling Runs, RBIs, and HRs really ours?
We call up some 15 year old looking kid from the minors (Posey), then we find some bruised and beaten up old mutt abandoned in an alley (Burrell), and presto, voila – we’re great!
And where do these slum dog cast-offs get off acting princely? Huff, Torres, Uribe…All Star caliber play? And we didn’t even know Sanchez was still alive – we thought compound injuries had killed him!
But come on, this is like a Cinderella story. And Giants fans do not believe in fairy tales.
Please go back to your old ways, so we can all just relax and accept the cruelty of the world.
The San Francisco Giants put left fielder Mark DeRosa on the 15-day disabled list on Monday, and recalled utility man Eugenio Velez from Fresno in the Pacific Coast League.
Meanwhile, former National League batting champion Freddy Sanchez is continuing his injury rehabilitation assignment in the minor leagues with the Triple-A Grizzlies. Fresno played a doubleheader in Oklahoma City on Monday night.
DeRosa’s DL stint was made retroactive to May 9, as he has nerve inflammation in his left wrist. He underwent wrist surgery in 2009, and, apparently, the surgery failed to fix the ailment.
DeRosa is hoping to bounce back sufficiently to play through this season, and have wrist surgery in the offseason.
Velez was batting .186 following an 0-for-17 slide, when he was demoted on May 7. He hit .292 in six games with Fresno. He had one extra-base hit, a double, and one RBI.
The Giants did consider calling on Sanchez to take DeRosa’s spot on the roster. The second baseman entered Monday’s Triple-A doubleheader with two hits in seven Triple-A at-bats.
Sanchez, reportedly, wants more time with Fresno to fine tune his game.
“It’s a case of deciding what’s right for Freddy and the ball club. He’s had a handful of at-bats facing Triple-A pitching,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said as the club prepared to open a two-game set in San Diego. “For his sense of comfort to come up here and be ready, we want him to have the confidence to say, ‘You know what? I’m ready to face major-league pitching.
We talked about Freddy. Could we risk him? Yeah, but where we’re at this point of the season we decided to give him a couple more days, a little bit more if he needs that, to make sure he’s comfortable and feeling he’s ready.”
