tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23735245.post4383054733219526041..comments2024-02-23T20:49:09.057-08:00Comments on obsessivegiantscompulsive: Your 2012 Giants: Game 4 of the NLCSobsessivegiantscompulsivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11362706004246875823noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23735245.post-17657907266695443642012-10-19T11:04:52.384-07:002012-10-19T11:04:52.384-07:00Good points, Shankbone!
Yeah, I thought he was to...Good points, Shankbone!<br /><br />Yeah, I thought he was too slow to yank both Bumgarner and Lincecum too. <br /><br />Yeah, I agree that if the Giants can somehow pull off a Game 5 victory, it's a whole new ballgame with Vogelsong and Cain starting. And probably Lincecum and Bumgarner in the bullpen. <br /><br />It is exciting and there is some hope, but yeah, this is a HUMONGOUS hole they have dug, and no sermonizing will get them out, they need to find religion in pitching, fielding, and hitting.<br /><br />And yeah, this series, heck, both series, showed off our weaknesses pretty well. But I think it showed off some of the Cards, having to start Lynn twice, losing Beltran, plus their starting pitching hasn't been that great until the last two games, they had been struggling throughout the playoffs until the last two games. <br /><br />Yeah, I think that they will go down fighting, and that Zito can put up some semblance of a stopper, enough for us to win. But will all the parts of the machine work to get that victory?<br /><br />Yes, you were acidic and downright dismissive of what he could do. He ended up being even better than the Zito of 2009-10, he was never really that good, nor really that bad, but mostly good enough, and that was good enough most of the time for us. We need that once again.<br /><br />He HAS come up big for us before, just that, really, it all seems like a flip of Two-Faces Janus coin most of the time. Definitely the biggest start of his career, and if he can deliver, I can forgive a large chunk of the money he got over what he provided to us, much like when Renteria hit his homer. If he can will us this victory, much like that Colarado start to prevent us from going 0-4, moreover, he threw a complete game shutout, first in ages, I think I could almost wipe the slate clean (almost...).<br /><br />I was conflicted on Timmy, but yeah, I guess ultimately, I wasn't sure but wanted to milk the golden goose for more, getting greedy. <br /><br />On the other hand, the Cards have beat LHP like a rug during the season and RHP have shut them down enough that they are .500 against them. So that logic made sense as well.<br /><br />Speaking of thinking differently, here's an idea that popped up while I was reading your comment. I love him coming out of the bullpen too. Good body for it, good mental makeup for it as well, liking to gun down people FTW. What if he were a multi-inning closer?<br /><br />Top closers make maybe 65-75 appearances altogether, only about 1 IP per outing. Tim has a rubber arm plus he's been a starter and could keep his body toned that way too, only that he is capable of pitching, 1-3 innings, as necessary, to close out games. That would give him 150 IP, roughly. Less pitches seasonally and less stress on his arm, but we still get a lot of work out of him, and in high leverage situations earlier in the game, depending on when we need that, like against another division leader or one of our NL West contenders, else we go to Romo or Lopez or whoever we have as setup guys.<br /><br />Speaking of which, we only got Romo for two more years before free agency, and he grew up a D-ger fan, and I don't want to see him moving to them doing the same thing. I hope the Giants sign him to a 3 year plus option deal, give him his money now, maybe: $2.5, $3.0, $3.5M plus $4.5M or $1.0M buyout. That guarantees him $10.0M to buy out one year of free agency, while protecting the Giants too. obsessivegiantscompulsivehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11362706004246875823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23735245.post-25384375489134423092012-10-18T21:10:28.363-07:002012-10-18T21:10:28.363-07:00Well that simplifies everything. Win or go home. ...Well that simplifies everything. Win or go home. Win AND go home. Barry Zito. Stopper?<br /><br />I have a quick rant. Let me preface it by saying I am not a Bochy hater. I think he is in the upper one-third of managers in the majors. He has strengths and weaknesses, but in general has done a very steady job, cranking it up in crucial situations and the postseason.<br /><br />Where was he? Where was his strength, the quick pull of pitchers who didn't have it? Both MadBum starts this year (one of which I was present for, hearing the loud contact in person), he stuck with his guy way too long, and the bill came due big time. Tonight, when it was obvious Timmy was getting hit hard, he stuck through it, hoping to will Timmy through. Well, that didn't work out either. Personally I would have yanked him the moment that Beltran-sub Carpenter wacked the ball off the wall. There is only so much help Angel Pagan's hustle can bring to the table.<br /><br />Rant basically over. Bochy will have no choice now. He has an all hands on deck game coming, with Barry Zito to boot! This should be exciting. Let me say this, coming from the optimist camp: The series is over when its over. If the Giants are allowed to force a game 6, its practically a new series. This team has demonstrated the ability to overcome adversity all season long, but this is the biggest hole they've dug for themselves.<br /><br />And on the pessimist front: it sucks to lose on the road big time, to get the home crowd and team loosened up and shooting the ball all over the joint. This game exposed all our weaknesses: our starters who just don't have it, our pen that can't hold in, and our offense that can't scratch it out.<br /><br />Now, back to brass tacks: who cares. The season is either over tomorrow, or it isn't. All hands on deck, time to dig deep. Does this team go out fighting or coast through sleepwalking? I think they'll go down fighting, and I'll take a heartbreaking loss with runners on and fires blazing over another beat down that can be easily rationalized. <br /><br />Barry Zito. Stopper?<br /><br />Kind of ironic the season comes down to this - you and me have had lots of discussions about Zito and I was very acidic in my criticism of him early on. He has been good, and he has been bad. Will the Giants ride this crazy win streak back to California, or will good ol Zito crash like usual. Definitely the biggest start of his career as a Gint.<br /><br />I don't do much monday morning I told you so's on the playoffs, but I really thought it was a mistake to send Timmy out to the bump. He was thriving as a fireman, and I think it was greedy of Bochy to go. To be fair, his choices are very slim right now. But I liked Timmy in the pen this year, something about his mental makeup, a point you get into at times.<br /><br />Anyways, season will be over when its over. We have a good team. I hope they fight good tomorrow. Go Giants!Shankbonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04803824507120403397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23735245.post-70471118190930763712012-10-18T14:35:21.872-07:002012-10-18T14:35:21.872-07:00About Sanchez/Belt, I've pretty much been OK w...About Sanchez/Belt, I've pretty much been OK with taking Belt out of the lineup because most of the season, he hadn't been doing all that well. <br /><br />Until the end of the season, at which point Bochy started using Belt in LF, which I was OK with since Blanco wasn't hitting and Nady was still out.<br /><br />Here, I'm iffy for the defense downgrade, as you noted. And offensively, they are probably around breakeven right now, Sanchez ended the season on a hot streak, and he has done OK in the playoffs. And I think that we need to keep Blanco in the lineup still, as he's been hitting. <br /><br /><br />But I hope that sitting out Belt doesn't get into his head in any way. He started out the series fine, 3 for 8 with a double, and just had a down day yesterday, it happens. 2 K's in 11 AB's is very good for him, if he can keep that up, the hits will fall in at some point.<br /><br />Still, I like this configuration because Sanchez and Belt have bats I like, but as long as Sanchez is on the bench, I assume Bochy avoids using him since he's Posey's replacement. In this game, if there is a key RBI situation, he can go to Belt without worry. obsessivegiantscompulsivehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11362706004246875823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23735245.post-24939920559411426662012-10-18T14:17:56.060-07:002012-10-18T14:17:56.060-07:00You beat me to it, wow, by a lot, but I just saw i...You beat me to it, wow, by a lot, but I just saw it posted, and I thought I was following the links closely...<br /><br />http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2012/10/18/game-4-lineups-posey-hits-third-pence-dropped-beltran-wont-start/<br /><br />Apparently, Hanchez is Lincecum's personal catcher, at least for this season.<br /><br />Well, he liked my idea of Sandoval batting behind Posey, but this works out too, except that our best hitter is batting third now...<br /><br />But I like bunching up the players most likely to get on base, and Pagan, Scutaro, Posey, Sandoval are those players. And I like Hanchez's bat when there are RISP. And hopefully this will get Pence going as well.<br /><br />Yeah, big downgrade on our defense, as Posey is not as good as Belt, and I would think that Posey is better than Sanchez catching.<br /><br />One plus, however, for us, and perhaps that was what was needed yesterday, was a LH bat like Belt on the bench to bring up in key situations where there are RISP. Or another bat, that is, as we had Huff yesterday. <br /><br />Also, no Beltran! Craig, however, is playing RF and Carpenter 1B. That is probably best, and is a great example of David Ricardo's comparative advantage. While Carpenter is worse than Craig at 1B - minus 0.9 win vs. minus 0.5 wins on seasonal basis - Craig is even better (all relative) in RF, as he is "only" minus 2.2 wins while Carpenter is minus 5.0 wins. <br /><br />Meanwhile, Beltran is plus 0.9 wins on defense in RF, bad knee and all. In total, the downgrade from Beltran to Craig, then Craig to Carpenter, would cost the Cards 3.1 wins in RF, 0.4 wins at 1B, for a total of 3.5 wins in a full season. Remember, that would change their 88-74 record to 84.5-77.5, dropping their number of games over .500 by half. And changes a .543 team to a .522 team. Or a wild card team to an also-ran.<br /><br />I would also add that in a low run environment, as that produced by the Giants and Cards good pitching, that boosts up the number of wins lost, perhaps to as much as 4 wins lost via their defense. So while this is not as good as the loss of 6 wins between Beltran and Carpenter defensively in RF (and that doesn't even count the loss of offense), 4 wins lost is nothing to sneeze at either.<br /><br />But, I must also note that the Cards now also has a great bat to come off the bench in key situations. While he owns a lot of our starters - Cain 1.165 OPS, Lincecum 1.579 OPS, Vogelsong 1.563 OPS, Bumgarner 1.667 (Zito only .579) - Affeldt owns him .417 OPS in 12 ABs, Mota even better .167 OPS, 0 for 5 with a walk. Casilla (0 for 1, walk), Lopez (0 for 1 with walk), Mijares (0 for 2), and Romo (0 for 2) have also done well in limited matchups.<br /><br />Looks like we will be getting Affeldt or Lopez as our Beltran killer late in the game, if necessary. Maybe Scutaro can return the favor to the Cards by falling on Beltran's knee should Carlos slide into 2B for any reason.obsessivegiantscompulsivehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11362706004246875823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23735245.post-5954441004024532202012-10-18T13:50:24.765-07:002012-10-18T13:50:24.765-07:00I like consistency a lot too.
And really Bochy li...I like consistency a lot too.<br /><br />And really Bochy likes consistency too, but it is, as you wrote, usually dictated by necessity. Any manager would love to have such good players that you never have to change anything, just write the names into the lineup every day and every fifth day.<br /><br />A lot of the Naysayers don't really care for his changes, but I've rarely had any problems with when he decides to sit down guys and when he decides to give them free rein. obsessivegiantscompulsivehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11362706004246875823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23735245.post-72317933371494651562012-10-18T13:25:48.799-07:002012-10-18T13:25:48.799-07:00And they go with...
Pagan cf, Scutaro 2b, Posey 1b...And they go with...<br />Pagan cf, Scutaro 2b, Posey 1b, Sandoval 3b, Sanchez c, Pence rf, Blanco lf, Crawford ss, Lincecum p <br /><br />Interesting. I'm neutral in the Sanchez/Belt wars. I don't really like downgrading our defense which I think that move does, but offensively I don't think it matters much.Shankbonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04803824507120403397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23735245.post-91996692969402382092012-10-18T13:11:52.466-07:002012-10-18T13:11:52.466-07:00That sounds like a good lineup move to me. I valu...That sounds like a good lineup move to me. I value consistency a ton, I don't like Bochy's mix and match lineups (although they are often dictated by necessity, I'll admit). Players like to know where they are hitting, just like the pen likes assigned roles. Putting Pence in the 3 and Pablo to the 5 seems like the best quick fix, because things do need to be shook at this point in time.Shankbonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04803824507120403397noreply@blogger.com