Your 2012 Giants: Posey Wins MVP, EPIC!

Buster Posey wins the NL MVP award in a landslide (Chron, Merc, CSN).  He had already won the Comeback Player of the Year award, as well as the Silver Slugger award, the prestigious Hank Aaron Award (for offensive excellence), and the Willie Mac Award.  And he won the 2010 Rookie of the Year award already, plus has two World Series rings.  His mantle is getting full.  Pretty good for a player with only one full season under his belt.

He received 27 of the 32 first place votes for a total of 422 points.  Braun was second with 285 points and 3 first place votes.  McCuthchen, who was the favorite at the All-Star break, had 245 points but no first place votes.  And Yadier Molina, who was considered a serious contender to Posey for this award, had 241 points and 2 first place votes (remaining two votes).

CSN has a nice listing of stats on this.  Posey is the 14th time a Giants player won the award (first awarded in 1931, so if one per year - not sure if there were skips - that 72 total awards, Giants won almost 20% of them) and 10th SF Giants MVP. He is one of eight Giants players to win it, joining Barry Bonds, Jeff Kent, Kevin Mitchel, Willie McCovey, Willie Mays, Carl Hubbell, and Larry Doyle.  He is the first catcher to win it since Johnny Bench in 1972 and no Giants catcher has ever won it.  He is the first Giants prospect to win the MVP award for the Giants since Willie Mac joined the team in 1959.

The Giants also won the trifecta, with a Giant winning the All-Star, World Series, and seasonal MVPs (Melky, Pablo, and Buster).  As noted previously, he won the batting title becoming the first NL catcher to win a batting crown since Ernie Lombardi in 1942.

Good quote by Pavlovic, capturing Posey and why he won the MVP:

“Ultimately it’s just a bad decision, and that’s all I’m really going to say about that,” a defiant Buster Posey said hours after Melky Cabrera’s suspension. “We have to approach the rest of the year with a chip on our shoulders.”

Remember, when Melky was suspended, we were tied with the Dodgers for the NL West lead, and was behind by one game at the end of that day.  The Giants ended up winning by eight full games over the D-gers, who added A-Gon and Beckett in a huge trade soon afterward, a move that most thought would turbo boost them to the title, but instead, it was the Giants turbo boosting to their second NL West title in three seasons and second World Championship.

Alex also added that Posey joined Bench and Munson as the only catchers in MLB history to win the Rookie of the Year Award and World Series title, along with the MVP Award.  Another Epic moment to this most Epic of seasons.

Your 2012 Giants: Game 6 of the NLCS

Wow, now that was ALL-TIME EPICNESS!  Barry Zito going 7.2 shutout innings, racking up a 5 PQS DOM start for us, the first in the playoffs for the Giants, and it was Zeets delivering!  That is a huge paydown on what he has owed us from his big contract, and it was so exciting listening to the game.  What an epic start!  I think that was his first 5 PQS start since the 2003 playoffs, almost ten years later.

And Brandon Crawford delivered another key hit for us.  True, it was not the first and winning run, but at that point, a 1-0 lead is nothing against their tough team, but his working the count and getting the pitch he wanted extended the lead to a more sturdy 3-0 and allowed Zito - who had his FIRST EVER bunt single in his career - drive in another run, for a strong 4-0 lead, given how Zito was pitching.  After that, Zito was 3 up and 3 downing them.  Crawford has shown a lot in these playoffs, that is one clear lesson of these playoffs, he's going to be a guy we can rely on in tough situations, offensively as well as defensively.  Thank goodness he had that down Junior year, else another team would have drafted him in the first round, as he was projected to go, instead of back in the 4th round where the Giants got him.

And Sandoval's homer - second in two games - sealed the deal at 5-0.  I can't believe I saw some people want to sit Sandoval down in order to play Arias.

As a contrast in managerial style, a couple of years ago, in the same situation, Bochy told his team not to pack just in case and they won.  In this game, Matheny told his team to pack just in case they needed to get to SF.  That might have subconsciously affected the team - the manager isn't confident that we can beat Zito and the Giants and not have to travel back to SF.  Or maybe not, either way, we WON!!!

EPIC!!! Your 2012 Giants Win the NLDS!!! Makes History!!!

"We will see you tomorrow" Hunter

EPIC!!!

The Giants set history by winning the NLDS!!!  First NL team (out of 22) to come back from 0-2 to win a 5 game series!!!  First time any MLB team has come from behind 0-2 in a 5 game series to win three on the road to win the series!!!  The Giants are just the fifth team to come back from 0-2 to win the playoff series!!!


(got gif link from a comment on MCC)

Barry Zito ended up on the good side of history this time, as his A's were the loser in the last two times this situation has come up, losing to the Yankees in 2001, Red Sox in 2003, but now winner with the Giants in 2012.  They survive the gauntlet to see each other for another day, another series.  They will, indeed, see each other tomorrow.

Your 2012 Giants are 94-68: NL West Division Champs, 2 of 3 Years

What an EPIC season!  I've been covering that aspect of the season starting around the time that Matt Cain had the first ever Perfect Game in Giants franchise history.  A simple search of my blog will bring up many of them, so I won't cover them here.

EPIC:  Posey Batting Title

But I will cover recent ones that have happened.  First and most of all was Buster Posey winning the official 2013 NL batting title, with the removal of the extra AB that would have qualified Melky for the title.  Here is coverage from Baggarly, Schulman, and Pavlovic.  He won with a .336 batting average and a strong push in the second half where the batted .385/.456/.646/1.102 (very Bondsian numbers) overall and finished much at the same pace, as since August 31st, his batting line is .382/.434/.527/1.062, which propelled him to the title, while McCutchen faltered and fell a lot and Melky was suspended and asked not to get the benefit of the rule that makes ineligible players eligible for the title.

It was an amazing end to a season where Bochy and the team had been hoping to get 100-110 games out of him IN TOTAL (he ended with 148 games:  111 at catcher, 29 at 1B, 3 at DH) because of his severe injury last season.  Amazing also because this is his first full season as a player, after having last season taken away from him violently and unwarrantedly.

Buster became only the fourth catcher EVER in the NL's 137 seasons to win the batting title and the first NL catcher since Ernie Lombardi (a SF Bay Area native) in 1942.  He is the second catcher in the majors since Lombardi to win it (Mauer has won it twice in the AL).  He is the first Giants player to win the crown since Barry Bonds did it in 2004, here is the list of Giants who have have won the title (from Mercury):

• Roger Connor, 1885 (first Giants career leader in homeruns in the NL; see my article on that here)
• Jack Glasscock, 1890
• Larry Doyle, 1915
• Bill Terry, 1930
• Willie Mays, 1954
• Barry Bonds, 2002
• Barry Bonds, 2004
• Buster Posey, 2012

He is the 7th Giant to win the title, second SF Giants to win, third title for SF Giants.  He is credited in the media for leading the league in OBP (baseball-reference.com is showing Joey Votto as the leader, but with added oh-fer phantom plate appearances; I guess Posey leads for those with actual PAs).  I went through the leaders and the last catcher to lead the league in OBP was Chief Meyers (one of the rare non-whites to play in the majors before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier) in 1912.

And a nice, feel-good moment out of this was that Pence rounded up donations across the team to buy Posey an unspecified gift to commemorate his accomplishment (despite prodding from the media - Baggarly asked if it got good gas mileage -  it was never disclosed what was given).

EPIC:  Pitching Staff

Had we known that the 2012 Giants would have the first Giants staff since 1962 to have four 14-game winners (Vogelsong was one win short of making it four 15-game winners;  he certainly did well enough on Wednesday), it would not have been too big a shock.  That it happened without Lincecum is the big shocker, as it was Cain, Bumgarner, Zito, and Vogelsong who made up that quartet.

EPIC:  Hitting Streaks

As reported by Baggarly, Scutaro's single in the last game of the season gave him a 20-game hit streak, the third such streak by a Giant this season - previously done by Pagan and Sandoval.  This gave the 2012 Giants three players with 20-game hit streaks, the first time in any season in franchise history that such an event has happened (at least back 94 years for which there is full season date, so notes Baggarly).  It was also the first time in the majors since 2003, when the Pirates and Blue Jays had those feats.

EPIC:  Winning Streak Fluky But Still Interesting

Zito and the Giants had a streak where the team won his start for 11 straight starts, the first since 1992 when Bill Swift did it.  While an oddity like a no-hitter where a confluence of events could lead to it happening for Zito and not one of the other starters, still, given his travails while a Giant, still, it is a nice streak, better than him losing 11 straight, for certain.  And he did pitch well in 7 of those 11 starts, compiling a 3.92 ERA during that streak, so it is not like he didn't pitch well during that streak, he did OK.  Still, 10 of the 11 games, the offense did its job and scored at least 4 runs in support.

Baggarly reported some interesting facts about Zito that I've seen for a while and finally touching on in my blog.  He is now 125-7 in his career with at least four runs of support, including 40-3 as a Giant (means he was 85-4 with the A's).  Unfortunately for Zito, our offense has not been that great for most of his time as a Giant, but it has been pretty good this season, even better in the second half.  As Baggarly noted, Zito was 13-1 in starts with at least 4 runs of support in 2012, 14 games in total:  he only had 37 of these starts over the previous five seasons as a Giant (meaning he was 27-2 previously with the Giants).

Other Tidbits of Info

• The Giants 94 wins match the seventh most wins in the San Francisco era, as they finished eight games ahead of the D-gers.  It is the fifth time the Giants have won the title in Sabean's tenure as Giants GM (16 years) and the eighth time in San Francisco (meaning Sabean is responsible for 62.5% of the divisional titles in the 44 years we have had divisions).  Sabean teams have won at least 90 games in 8 seasons out of 16, Bochy 2 of 6, but more importantly 2 of the last 3, and looking to do this for many more seasons.  The San Francisco Giants have won 90+ games in 18 total seasons.
• Bochy noted, when asked by an LA writer about Posey's athleticism at 1B, "Oh, I believe he could play third base.  He's got good hands with his athleticism, and he's got good awareness."  That was an idea I had earlier this season, which makes more sense than having Posey play 1B, as many have suggested.  For one thing, as well as he has hit this season, Posey is not considered above average as a bat at 1B.  His bat is way above average at catcher, hence a lot of value is created in that way.  He would also be as above average if he could play 2B, but one has to wonder how his severe ankle injury affected his movement plus, more importantly, 2B have been injured in plays before, and we have Panik looking good at coming up and being our starter there.  Corner OF would also be good, as he has a great arm, but we would have to wonder about his mobility there.  However, many a catcher have made the move to 3B OK, given arm and handling of speeding balls coming off bats, and his bat would be way above average there as well.  Most importantly, Sandoval most probably will eat his way over to 1B at some point, and if not that, then it would be better to play Posey at 3B and keep Belt at 1B for his stellar defense there.
• Lastly, I wanted to end by pointing out DrB's great post on Buster Posey.  I was going to write something similar, but more along the lines of how Posey is such a great leader.  But heck yeah, DrB hit the nail on the head, Posey is a special player, and that example he used, of Pence and the team giving him a special gift, is exactly what illustrates this concept.  It is, to borrow DrB's words, remarkable.   I've never heard of this before either, not especially since the batting title winner usually wins some sort of car, so I have to think it was something very personal, as DrB says.  Posey is an EPIC player, and it is most certainly a privilege to watch him and to be able to root for the young man.  That is why I am hoping the Giants sign him to some huge long-term contract buying out a couple of his free agent years, though I'm not hopeful that it'll happen, as Posey is keenly aware of his value and that is why he ended up getting $6M for his bonus even though he was the 5th player selected in the draft.  I just hope the two sides can come together and get it done, something long-term like the one Longoria got from Tampa Bay, but which will probably cost a lot more.

Your 2012 Giants: Epic Again

Wow, they just keep the epicness coming.  Madison Bumgarner throws a one-hitter shutout to beat the offensive-oriented Reds team that had been averaging 5.0 runs per game in June, not a offensively inept team missing their best hitter in the Dodgers and Matt Kemp.

• For the first time in Giants franchise history, 130 years, the Giants have shutout the opposition for four straight games.  He faced only two over the minimum.  And we have Perfecto Cain taking the mound tomorrow against the Reds.  This is the 17th time since 1918, last happening in 1995 by the Orioles.
• Plus this is the most straight innings of shutout innings, 36 innings, beating the San Francisco franchise record of 35 innings set in 1960 (heard this on radio).  
• I think this will be epic because it should be the first of many:  this was Madison Bumgarner's first complete game in his career, and thus also his first one-hitter.  He had 8 strikeouts.  Most likely the first of many, and maybe a no-hitter in his future too, he had it going into the 6th inning.
• This is the first month in baseball history (at least Giants history, but I think it was MLB history, I'll try to confirm later, heard it on the radio) where a team got a no-hitter and a one-hitter in the same month (not sure if just June or any month).  And it might be a record, I just realized that the Giants have, this season, one perfect game, one game with only one batter over the minimum (Cain's one-hitter) and one game with only two batters over the minimum (Bumgarner's one-hitter).  Got to at least be something not done in a long time, maybe history.
• And Bumgarner is 5-0 for the month, first time since Lincecum in September 2010, not epic, but still pretty good.
• Also, the Giants now have 6 shutouts this month, two of them complete games, that has to be something that hasn't happen for a while too.

On top of that, the Dodgers lost and thus the Giants are now alone in first place by one game.  Unfortunately, the D-backs won and stays 5 games back.  Can't ever let down against them, but their upward surge has stalled the past few games, thank goodness.  

Go Giants! Go Cain!  Couldn't have a better pitcher up to continue such a streak.  This reminds me a little of September 2010 when the Giants pitching staff totally dominated for 18 games (3 or less ER) plus also 23 games (4 or less ER) and each pitcher felt the competitive pressure and camaraderie to continue the streak.  The funny thing is that the pitching staff just came off 5 games of giving up a lot of runs (4 or more), before shutting down the teams for four straight games.

Your 2012 Giants: Epic Season Unfolding

What a season this has been.  This sweep of the Dodgers with all the games being shutouts is just one of many unique occurrences for the Giants.   Lots of once in a blue moon type of events keep on happening:

• Barry Zito throws his first complete game shutout for the Giants and first since the 2003 season, nearly 9 years apart.  He was only 25 that season.
• Matt Cain pitches the first perfect no-hitter in Giants franchise history (128 years or 130 years, depending on how you want to look at it).
• He also tied for the most strikeouts in a perfect game (with Koufax).
• Gregor Blanco saves the no-hitter with a catch by a right-fielder who normally does not catch any ball in that part of the field, he was the first one over the past three seasons to catch a ball in part of the outfield.  Baseball Info Solutions reported that of the 13 balls hit in AT&T to within 25 feet of that spot and with that approximate hang time, only 2 of them were caught - by the center fielder - and 5 became doubles and 5 became triples.
• Also, Cain is the first pitcher to have a perfect no-hitter and a near perfect no-hitter (his one-hitter earlier in the season where he faced only one batter above the minimum) during the regular season (Halladay was the first to do it in a season, but his one walk one above minimum no-hitter happened in the playoffs).  
• On the bad side of the ledger, and not like it's been that long, but Tim Lincecum has never had either a start of a season like this nor as long a stretch of poor performances as his starts up until this start.  I consider the before and after point to be after he gave up runners to the first six batters, after which he struck out the side.  I would also add that despite the Giants ace performing worse than most team's #5 or #6 starter, the Giants not only were over .500 but challenging for the lead.  Had he even been an average pitcher, the Giants would have a huge lead right now, instead of being tied with LA.
• Not that this was a long time, but Brandon Belt never had a 15 game stretch in his career where his contact rate reached 80% until 7 games ago.  And he almost reached it for a 20 game stretch 5 games ago.
• And if you want to stretch it, what Ryan Vogelsong has done for us the past two seasons has to be one of the rarest events ever in the history of baseball.  This season, he not only is showing that 2011 was not a fluke, but he's upping his game at the same time.  I hope he's been keeping a lot of notes or maybe a journal/diary, his story would make a great book someday.
• Another stretcher, but Madison Bumgarner finally hit his first homer in a game, after blasting pitch after pitch out in batting practice.  And despite that happening just recently, he got his first homer of the season before Belt did, who has been a relatively prodigious homerun hitter the previous two seasons.
• And, of course, the Giants sweep the Dodgers with a trio of shutouts, the first time in the history of their rivalry where the Giants did that, the first time that any San Francisco Giants team did that in a series (last Giants team did it to Phillies in 1954).  

I'm sure that there were other odd-ball facts about this season that I cannot recall (I'm fighting a slight case of the stomach flu right now), so please add any you can think of in the comments section.  Of course, this has no meaning for whether the Giants make the playoffs, let alone win the World Series, but I thought it was an interesting flavor to this season.