One of the by-product by trying to answer people's questions about the players who are not doing well for the Giants is that you get to see a lot of data along different cuts. One that I should have noticed earlier but didn't is this: for some reason this season so far, it is either rags or riches (and that's not Dave or Aurilia) for Giants hitters vs. LHP for the most part. Here is their stats as of before yesterday's game (which was another LHP) for everyone with 10+ AB against LHP:
Hitter - batting line
Alou - .364/.462/.636/1.098
Vizquel - .471/.571/.471/1.042
Bonds - .182/.550/.455/1.005
Durham - .429/.429/.429/.857
Matheny - .286/.412/.429/.840
Finley - .200/.333/.400/.733
Niekro - .200/.250/.400/.650
Vizcaino - .100/.182/.100/.282
Feliz - .059/.111/.059/.170 (second hit yesterday)
Winn - .000/.087/.000/.087 (first hit yesterday)
So we have 3 players who usually hit well (or kills) LHP but are under the Mendoza Line in too many ways to count: Niekro, Feliz, Winn. To contrast, Winn is mashing RHP right now: .349/.407/.482/.889. And that is close to what he was doing last season: .319/.374/.527/.901. In addition, Feliz and Niekro is hitting RHP about as well as they ever did, which is not that well, but at least they are normal there, they just stink vs. LHP right now. But to have two players only have 1 hit between them after one month of hitting, even albeit, only 38 AB total between them, is mind-boggling, particularly since it includes Winn.
Though I guess that is balanced by Vizquel and Matheny hitting LHP better than they normally do. I guess I am just awed by the level of futility that Feliz and Winn has been experiencing against LHP. A poor average like Niekro seems reasonable. But an oh-fer or 1-fer the season is just, wow, ouch.
It is not like the level of hitting Vizquel and Matheny is doing would even come close to making up for that level of bad hitting. That's essentially 3 total black holes in the offense spread across the lineup, depending on the day and lineup, whenever we face LHP, plus the pitcher. That would kill any offense we would try to mount against LHP, as there would be an automatic out coming up after someone gets on base to start a rally. I wonder what the Giants record vs. LHP is right now, they usually kill them historically, as we had a preponderance of hitters who killed LHP, it was the RHP that always gave us trouble. We need all three to start hitting close to what they normally hit vs. LHP to get our offense going.
I guess the good news, the silver lining, is that the Giants are still around .500 when their bullpen has just totally sucked and their offense has been struggling against their usual patsies. If the Giants can just do what they have shown that they are capable of doing in the past, the team should go on a great winning streak and zoom into first. Perhaps once we get Lowry back and pitching like he normally can, plus the bullpen is getting more and more settled (though Munter appears to be punching a ticket for Fresno if he continues like this, he could be Wally Pipp'ed by Brian Wilson when Wilson is ready to get off the DL).
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