As we head into the last three weeks or so of the MLB season, it’s pretty clear which players have had the biggest breakout seasons in 2010.
This list consists of guys who weren’t really thought of as being star players prior to this year but really proved it this year.
There are some guys who were past the age where they were expected to break out (Aubrey Huff, Jose Bautista), some who showed potential but delivered on it for the first time this year (Mat Latos, Carlos Gonzalez), and some who weren’t even in the majors until the beginning or middle of this year (Buster Posey).
So, without further ado, here are the most surprising players/best breakout seasons of 2010.
Both Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell had 2009s worth forgetting.
Huff had the worst year of his career, batting .241, hitting only 15 home runs and racking up 85 RBI between Baltimore and Detroit.
Burrell signed a big deal with Tampa Bay after winning a World Series with Philadelphia (against the Rays, coincidentally), but never lived up to the signing, batting only .218 with 16 home runs and 77 RBI over 146 games.
Yet here in 2010, in the heat of a suddenly interesting race for the National League West title, these two 30-somethings, supposed shells of their former dominant selves, have come together in San Francisco to emerge from the ashes and produce.
If the Giants make the playoffs this year, and that is still a big if, there’s no doubting that Aubrey Huff was a huge part of it throughout the season. I think Giants fans realized his presence about halfway through his inside-the-park homer way back on April 14th, and there might still be some fight left in this castoff.
Since then, he’s hit at or around .300 all year long, and is the Giants current leader in hits (145), runs (87), home runs (24), RBI (81), total bases (257), and on-base percentage (.386). That’s almost every offensive category, and this is not the same feeble offense that Bengie Molina lead in the last couple years.
Burrell had a lot to prove, and while a lot of fans were clamoring for a more established hitter (more Prince Fielder rumors, Jayson Werth, Corey Hart), Burrell came on the cheap, and after coming home to San Francisco and reuniting with former teammates Aaron Rowand (Philadelphia) and Huff (University of Miami), he made an immediate impact.
His 15 home runs and 40 RBI since being called up in the first week of June have been a boon to the team. Burrell had a four-game stretch in August, where he homered three times and had 10 RBI, all of which figured in the final score.
He homered in his first at-bat back in Philadelphia. He homered in the four-home run comeback against the Dodgers. His slugging percentage is a team-high .531, and he’s back to being Pat the Bat.
In the dugout (visible) and in the clubhouse (less visible), Burrell and Huff seem to be each other’s fountain of youth. They scream at their teammates, they punch each other in the chest, and are pretty much back in college having a great time.
Yet neither of them is signed for 2011, which brings me to the point of my article.
The Giants and their fans have had nothing but appreciation for the Water Buffalo since they formed their alliance of awesomeness. And if they can produce in 2011 like they have in 2010, I doubt you’d find anyone who would be running for the hills in protest.
But that’s just it. Both these guys are in their 30s, and probably past their primes on the baseball field. Both could probably get a multi-year deal on the open market, and both probably will. Yet there’s something about them being together that is beneficial.
So here’s what the Giants do:
Keep them together.
They love playing together, and that can’t be denied. They’re as much of a gruesome twosome that you can find on this team.
So sit them both down in the front office, and lay it down on the table.
They’ve got to be a package deal.
They might both be able to make more money for another team, but San Francisco is most likely the last place they’ll ever be able to play on the same team. Not many other teams in the league have the luxury (if you can call it that), or the audacity (or luck, or whatever you want to call it) to sign two aging hitters to fill separate holes in their lineup.
It’s also not a given that they can recreate the magic that they did here in San Francisco, and I think that they’ll both take one-year, incentive laden deals (around $5 million each, I’d say) to be given the chance to catch lightning in a bottle twice.
If they do, the Giants will have two veteran presences in their clubhouse again, much different from the days when everyone stayed clear of Barry Bonds and kind of led in their corners. They’ll also be leading the offense, something that other veterans (Rich Aurilia, Randy Winn, Ray Durham) failed to do in their last years in San Francisco.
To have players on your team that can get it done both on and off the field is a boon to younger players like Buster Posey and Tim Lincecum, who can continue to perform but defer to the older players for guidance and leadership.
If, for some reason, Burrell and Huff do not perform, the Giants will not have locked them in for multiple years (a la Renteria and Rowand), and will have the financial flexibility to make the moves without losing a long-term investment.
This is all speculative, but getting Huff, Burrell, and Brian Sabean in a room and discussing altogether could end up benefiting both sides. Huff already knows what it’s like to lose (a lot). Burrell knows what it takes to win, but also knows the expectations that come from a winner.
We still have a long way to go in 2010, but I would love to see these two both back in Giants uniforms in 2011.
All the talk about 2010 being the “Year of the Pitcher” in Major League Baseball is true.
It has been an excellent year for pitchers.
For whatever reason, there’s been more no-hitters and perfect games than usual, and that’s without counting Jim Joyce’s rob job of Armando Galarraga.
But this year doesn’t only belong to the hurlers, it belongs to the young guns.
At a time when some people argue the fading relevancy of baseball, there has been more great young talent in the game than we can remember.
The amount of quality ballplayers age 26 or younger currently in baseball is staggering.
No, when it comes to TV ratings and big advertising dollars, baseball does not reign supreme. Football is America’s game now, and that’s just the way it is.
But for baseball fans, that’s OK.
As they say, more for you and me.
As the season ticks along in its final month and pennant races take shape, let’s look at some of the most impressive rookies from this year in baseball.
One last note before the show, don’t feel discouraged if your favorite rookie didn’t make the list.
We are keeping it to 10 names for this space, but there certainly have been more than 10 impressive youngsters who merit consideration.
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.
The San Francisco Giants did everything most fans insist that they never do and came away with an important win on Thursday night, beating the Colorado Rockies 2-1, to gain a game on the NL West-leading San Diego Padres.
The Giants dipped all the way down to Double-A Richmond to recall 24-year-old outfielder Darren Ford when rosters expanded Wednesday. Ford only batted .256 with a .680 OPS for the Flying Squirrels, but he stole 37 bases and the club remembered his sparkling effort in spring training.
(For an explanation of OPS visit: http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/4-18-2001-3026.asp)
General manager Brian Sabean OK’d the call to a kid without a single day of big league experience, then field manager Bruce Bochy utilized Ford’s wheels the minute the kid showed up in the dugout.
Sabean thought outside the box. Bochy did the same, and most importantly, put a completely unproven kid in a pressure spot. (Bochy doesn’t typically use young players, remember?)
With the game tied 1-1 in the eighth, Mike Fontenot drew a walk. Fontenot runs fine. Ford, however, might be one of the fastest guys on any big league roster. Ford ran for Fontenot and broke for second, and was standing on the bag, when Colorado‘s Ubaldo Jimenez fielded Tim Lincecum‘s quite average sacrifice bunt.
Bochy wouldn’t bunt-and-run with many Giants, but he was confident that Ford could steal the bag if LIncecum failed and bunted through the ball.
Guys who run like Ford are bold and, boy, can they read pitches in the dirt.
With Andres Torres at bat, Jimenez threw a pitch that bounced six or eight feet to the left of catcher Miguel Olivo and Ford was off for third as soon as he saw the pitch headed for the dirt. Then, he was streaking to the plate when he saw Olivo‘s desperate throw to third base sail into left field.
It’s hard to imagine many Giants who’d have even broken for third on that pitch. Torres, sure, and maybe Nate Schierholtz. but neither would’ve reached third as quickly as Ford did.
Giants 2, Rockies 1. And, the Giants are three games behind the struggling San Diego Padres in the West and just one and a half games back of the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card race.
How stunning was the move to call up Ford, then watch him steal a victory? Well, it overshadowed a sterling, eight-inning outing by Tim Lincecum.
While Giants fans and the media were trying to figure out how Lincecum had slumped so terribly, he quietly struck out nine, walked one and yielded just five hits against a strong Rockies lineup. Only streaking Carlos Gonzalez hit a home run off him to account for the only Colorado run.
Lincecum might be back in the groove, but the story in Wednesday’s game was Darren Ford and the fact that the generally conservative, by-the-book Giants used his incredible speed in a way they’ve never used a player like him before.
Sabean‘s worst critics must give him credit for going along with recalling Ford when, really, most expected his infusion of speed to be the recall of Eugenio Velez. Even those who want Bochy to be fired have to admit he called on an utterly unproven speed-burner to bunt-and-run and is celebrating a victory as a result.
Sabean and Bochy just did something that makes incredibly good sense, though, and that’s what they are supposed to do.
Ford spent all day in the air and in airports, arrived in the middle of the game—and delivered the victory.
Let’s not forget Lincecum either. If he pitches like that down the stretch, Ford might have more opportunities to steal wins with his wheels.
Ted Sillanpaa is a Northern California sports writer and columnist. Reach Ted at tsillanpaa1956@gmail.com
If the San Francisco Giants do make the 2010 postseason, it will be the result of an honest-to-baseball good team effort.
There have been (and will be) major and minor players in the drama, but the days of Barry Bonds clubbing the opposition into retreat with only minimal contribution from his lilliputian mates have been dead so long, there’s almost nothing left to decompose. We’re well into a new era of ball at AT&T Park and smacks of classical Marxism on cleats.
Of course, a pair of the Commies are probably too young to have any idea what that means.
The 23-year-old Buster Posey did go to college, so he might be familiar with Karl and his buddy Friedrich. But Madison Bumgarner is only 21 and his 22nd year of life still has that new-car smell so he’d probably be left scratching his head.
Hopefully, he’d use his right arm because the million-dollar left one needs all the rest it can get.
Bumgarner Keeps Going and Going
A couple weeks ago, a buddy of mine offered me “MadBum” for Tampa Bay Ray rockstar and fellow first-year player, Jeremy Hellickson, in our fantasy league. I didn’t even hesitate before rejecting the suggestion for one simple reason—innings pitched.
In 2008, the smooth southpaw tossed 141 2/3 innings at Single-A. In 2009, he twirled 141 1/3 frames between High-A, Double-A (the vast majority), and the major-league squad (only 10).
So far in ’10, Bumgarner has thrown 161 2/3 innings with 79 coming in the big leagues (including the six against the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday).
Now, perhaps I should have paused despite these details since a little research might’ve revealed that Hellickson was destined to return to the minor leagues for a transition to the bullpen, but I digress.
The point is that I wanted no part of the San Francisco prospect-turned-reality because the Bay Area has been awaiting the inevitable operation: Shutdown Madison for some time now. Failing a removal to the bullpen, then certainly a sixth-inning cap on the youngster’s starts or some similar cautionary gesture.
Well, we’re still waiting.
Conservation Has Been Key
The native North Carolinian keeps taking the ball every fifth day and he’s showing no signs of relenting. His starts aren’t always gems, but his body of work is pretty fantastic when you remember the backdrop is your MLB-average No. 5 starter.
Madison’s authored the following line—5-4, a 3.76 ERA, a 1.39 WHIP, a .282 BAA, and a 2.45 K:BB in those 79 IP—all while toiling for a contender and too young to rent a car.
It’s no wonder the Giants‘ brass wants him out there, yet the brain-trust isn’t being reckless.
The lefty hasn’t thrown over 100 pitches since July 24th against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He hit the 100 mark on August 9th and got close (97) about 10 days later, but he’s been hooked before No. 95 in the five other starts since his “epic” in the desert.
“MadBum” has simply been able to be effective with those limited bullets. If he keeps it up, he’ll be contributing straight through September, which is dumbfounding. In normal years, he’d be the talk of the city as well as baseball.
But not this year.
Posey’s Hogging the Stage
If the pitching phenom is bummed out (I did) by the absence of limelight, he can blame Gerald Demp the Third.
It’s almost impossible to overstate how much of a revelation the young catcher has been.
Los Gigantes and their faithful are familiar with blue-chip pitching prospects being the Real McCoy, but the sensation is totally foreign when it’s a homegrown hitter. So you can forgive the region if it was a little skeptical in the face of Buster’s legendary prowess with the lumber.
And you can forget that skepticism because the city is full of true-believers now.
A slash line of .330/.372/.505 with 10 HR, 52 RBI, and 40 R in 303 AB tends to have that persuasive effect on diamond diehards. All the more so when the statistical goodness comes wrapped in a clutch-hitting bow (that sentence was brought to you by his eighth-inning double on Tuesday that plated two much-needed insurance runs).
Yeah, it’s safe to say Posey’s offense is the genuine article.
But Wait, There’s More
However, the biggest shocks have come while the former Florida State Seminole has been wearing the Tools of Ignorance.
Posey’s hitting has been incredible, but it’s also been a relief because it’s come as a partial realization of expectation. Insane expectation, but still within contemplation.
Contrarily, nobody told us he was this good behind the dish. Or maybe someone did, but the comparable whisper was lost in the chorus of voices going wackadoo over Buster’s bat.
Either way, the kid has done a good job with a brutal assignment in the Giants’ starting rotation. There’s nothing easy about handling guys like Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez, and Bumgarner. Even Matt Cain and Barry Zito are no picnic given the heat the former brings and the different breaks the latter can put on that big Uncle Charlie.
As an added little treat, the catcher of the present and future has given the Giant faithful a new favorite thing—the perfect laser from behind the dish that snipes a would-be thief who’s convinced the bag is already stolen.
I’m talking about Eric Young, Jr. on Monday at third base and Carlos Gonzalez on Tuesday at second.
You’ll notice that both men can fly and trust me when I tell you each had an obscene jump on the attempt in question (or watch Young’s for yourself). On both occasions, only an absolute cannon aimed with the aid of crosshairs would record an out and, on both occasions, that’s precisely what Buster did.
A lot of attention has been thrown Jaime Garcia’s way regarding the National League Rookie of the Year and for good reason; he’s been excellent.
But Gerald Demp has been the best rookie and there’s still time for the “experts” to realize it.
The Fat Lady Ain’t Singin’ Yet
With about 30 games left on the schedule, there’s plenty of baseball left to be played.
The lads haven’t won anything yet, but neither has anyone else. With the San Diego Padres suddenly throwing rods and belching smoke, it’s possible even the NL West is still up for grabs.
In other words, the race for the postseason should be a burner.
That means—one way or another—Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey will continue their baptisms by fire; they’ll continue to mature in the heat of the pennant race.
And that can only mean good things for the San Francisco Giants’ horizon.
With the calendar down to the last day of August, Major League Baseball is about to fire the starting gun on its stretch run.
Much to the surprise of everyone outside of the 619, the San Diego Padres have been maintaining a nice cushion in the National League West all year and are serving me large helpings of crow with each day in first place. Let’s not mention the Friars’ record against our San Francisco Giants—I’ll leave that bit of vengeance to a Padre poster, should one stumble into hostile territory.
Even more troubling for the City, the Fathers were threatening to run away with the pennant until getting swept over the weekend by the Philadelphia Phillies. That makes four losses in a row for SD (five including Monday night’s), but the club still has a six-game advantage in the loss column over the lads.
Until this little bump in the road turns into a sincere losing jag for the front-runners, San Francisco’s best shot at the postseason remains to slip through the Wild Card side door.
But the Orange and Black will need a few things to happen, first.
The San Francisco Giants have finally begun to start pulling away from the pack of wolves in the NL West. The Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers are falling behind in the standings, and it is fast becoming a two-horse race between the Giants and the San Diego Padres.
The two teams are very similar thus far: Low ERAs, a great first baseman, but otherwise mostly struggling bats. As a result, the two have nearly identical records, meaning that some players need to step up for both teams. Here are five that need to either turn a mediocre season around for the Giants, or need to take a good season and make it great.
Pablo Sandoval isn’t hitting. What makes things worse is that he’s average at best on defense and has all the speed of a water buffalo. His defense and lack of speed was acceptable because he hit baseballs like they were trying to steal his dinner, but this year he’s sporting an Aaron Rowand-like wOBA of just .303 and an OPS of .701.
Now before you go all Mel Gibson on me and start screaming obscenities that, while hilarious, are also quite disturbing, I’m not saying that the Giants should DFA Sandoval or send him down to Richmond, just that he has ceased to be an everyday player—for this season at least.
There has already been a lot made of Sandoval’s “slump” or, rather, lack of production since April when he had an OPS of 1.008. Some seem to believe that it’s due to his personal issues, or his eyesight, or even the vaunted sophomore jinx, but it has a whole lot more to do with his appetite than his ability.
This winter, Sandoval was coming off a break-out campaign in which he posted an OPS of .943 with 25 HR’s. However, the Giants rightly identified that the Kung Fu Panda would have a difficult time going all Daniel-san on opposing pitchers with any consistency at his then listed weight of 240 lbs. The Giants instituted “Operation Panda” in which Sandoval, along with his older brother Michael, stayed in San Francisco during the off-season and attended daily workout sessions, while also being educated on proper nutrition and eating habits. At first, “Operation Panda” seemed to be a huge success; Sandoval shed weight and seemed to be on a path to better fitness, health, and hopefully prolonged production.
At the end of “Operation Panda” Sandoval returned home to finish the winter ball season in Venezuela, but ran in to Mom’s cooking and put all the weight he’d lost back on.
Initially, this didn’t seem to effect Sandoval much and he had a great April, even though he struggled a bit from the right side. Since a torrid April Sandoval seems to be imposing a lot more fear in to the hearts of all-you-can-eat buffet owners than opposing pitchers. Instead of getting better, he’s getting worse. His 1.008 OPS in April, was followed by a .617 OPS in May, .645 in June and a .597 OPS in July.
Most of Sandoval’s decline in OPS can be measured in the D.B. Cooper-like disappearance of power that he’s suffered through so far this season. His ISO (Isolated Power or SLG-AVG) decline this year: April – .207, May – .108, June – .106 and July – .063.Just as a frame of reference, the great slugger Brett Butler averaged an ISO of .086 over his career, while Barry Bonds averaged an ISO of .309.
As Andrew Baggerly recently pointed out in his blog, “The Braves’ three-run rally in the second inning began when Brooks Conrad’s poorly hit roller down the third-base line got past Pablo Sandoval for a double. Sandoval wasn’t playing off the line, either—the latest alarming evidence that the 23-year-old is slowing down.” It appears that Sandoval’s weight is slowing him down, and this was before he allowed the weakly hit ground ball off the bat of Alfonso Soriano to turn in to a double yesterday.
The problem is the Giants don’t have a better option, even with Sandoval’s meager production it’s more likely that he’ll suddenly snap out of his slump then for the Giants toget better production from Manny Burriss. However, much of Sandoval’s struggles this year have come from the right side, while he’s posted an OPS of just .604 from the right side, he’s posted a more respectable OPS of .736 from the left side; conversely, Edgar Renteria has a lifetime OPS of .912 against left-handed pitchers and would most likely pick up playing time if Sandoval sat.
While, the only real long-term solution for Sandoval is to call in Jenny Craig and Jillian Michaels of The Biggest Loser fame to tag-team the Kung Fu Panda this off-season and do something to make his body resemble a professional athlete outside of Bowling and Sumo wrestling, the short-term solution is to platoon Sandoval until he either picks it up or forces his way to the bench.
In a lot of ways, the Oakland Athletics have already had a very successful 2010.
The campaign isn’t over by any means—with more than 50 games yet to be played, anything and everything can still happen.
However, the A’s sit nine and a half games off the American League West pace set by the division-leading Texas Rangers. With the Texas in town for the weekend, they have a chance to shave some of that margin and they’d better.
Because they’re even further behind in the AL Wild Card race.
Granted, with the juggernauts out in the AL East, the playoff side door was probably never a realistic option.
Nah–it’s the pennant or bust.
Since the Rangers look to have a pretty firm grasp on the flag, Oakland’s hopes for contention are dwindling with every nine innings.
Nevertheless, the Elephants have shown a lot of pluck and resiliency over the course of the season. They started behind the eight-ball due to a minuscule payroll and then had their plight compounded by Lady Luck, who gave them only two flavors—bad and rotten.
Even so, the Green and Gold are treading water and posted a respectable 14-10 record in July, which was fourth-best in the Junior Circuit.
More importantly, there are plenty of silver linings that should give the franchise and its fanbase hope for the immediate future.
