- Averaging 4.48 runs in May after a 3.21 runs in April. Hard to score when your leadoff hitter is making outs constantly when Roberts was in there. He shouldn't have been playing, he should have went on the DL immediately with the start of the season. It put us in a 0-6 hole immediately that has been hard to climb out of. We have been 21-25 since.
- Run production was also more consistent (well, I guess that is pretty obviously what happens when you push runs scored from 3.2 to 4.5) with 20 games in May out of 23 with at least 3 runs scored versus 16 out of 29 in April (meaning only 3 games in May with 2 or less runs scored versus 13 games in April). Showing how meaningful this stat is, Lincecum is 12-0 in 20 career stats when receiving at least 3 runs of support.
Of course, it helps when you have a good number of highly productive hitters doing well at the same time. Bengie Molina has been so hot that he actually was named the National League player of the week for May 19-25. He hit .652 with 6 doubles and 9 RBIs.
Rowand Good Acquisition
Aaron Rowand, as I had argued during the off-season, has been a very good addition to the lineup, hitting .331/.398/.538/.936 thus far this season. That is very similar to what he did in 2004 and 2007, plus 2006 until his injury, leaving 2005 as the anomalous season:
2004-H1 .298/.339/.524/.863
2004-H2 .319/.377/.559/.936
2007-H1 .310/.385/.478/.863
2007-H2 .307/.361/.554/.915
2006-IN .310/.356/.516/.872
And for those who noted that he played in good offensive parks:
2004-Road .317/.360/.547/.907
2007-Road .299/.368/.475/.843
2007 vs. 2008
Believe it or not, I just read somebody who was looking to trade away Rowand. It's like I've been saying, the team is not that far away from being competitive. With the pitching we got, we can win a lot of games with a middling offense. And it doesn't take a lot of pieces to make a middling offense, last year our offense was actually OK when Bonds was not in the lineup. For some reason Durham froze (or was un-nerved by) batting behind Bonds and his stats batting 5th behind Bonds was horrible or 3rd ahead of Bonds, while he was actually OK batting 4th.
- Durham batting 5th early on mainly: .234/.306/.409/.715
- Durham batting 3rd mainly when trying to get out of funk: .181/.269/.268/.537
- Durham batting 4th when Bonds not in lineup: .275/.344/.413/.757
I think the numbers was 4.0 runs scored with Bonds in lineup, 4.6 runs scored when Bonds not in lineup, 4.2 runs scored overall (from memory from previous Mercury article; I love Baggarly's analysis!). 4.6 runs, while not stupendous, would be great combined with our pitching when it is going well.
To finish up, other hitters who have been helping with the boost in offense include the steady Randy Winn, the adequate production from Ray Durham (probably just enough that we can trade him for a prospect by August), and very nice production from Fred Lewis.
Fred Lewis!
Krukow was very praiseful of Lewis this morning as well as Lincecum. He noted that Lewis has been doing a good job of adjusting to what the pitchers adjust to him so far, and that he is going to be very good.
I have to applaud Fred on his job well done so far. It is far more than I thought, I guess I was a bit jaded hearing about how he was going to be such a good middle-of-lineup hitter while he was rising but then he didn't do so well the previous couple of years until 2007 when he finally busted out. So far this season: .273/.346/.465/.811 with 4 homers in 172 AB (43 AB/HR) and 8 SB in 10 attempts (80% success rate, not too bad). He doesn't have the hype that other young prospect hitters have gotten in the majors, but I'll take .811 OPS anytime.
This team is a good clutch hitter away from being a threat in the division. Lewis is a good leadoff hitter (better than we have seen from the Giants since 1989); the three-headed 1B beast of Aurillia/Ortmeier/Bowker seems to be able to handle the defense and put in some offense; SS is good whether it be Vizquel or Burress; center and right field are also good defensively and productive at the plate.
ReplyDeleteI know that earlier I talked about trading Winn (which I still think is a good idea), I think that there are two areas that the Giants really need to improve their production from: Third Base. That 21-25 could easily be 25-21 had we gotten some better production out of 3B, not to mention some better defense.
It almost makes me wish we kept Feliz, but that would have only yielded better defense. My great fear is that Sabean thinks that Castillo is a good fit.
The other position is 2B. Durham is hitting .285, but his average for hitting with RISP is .189 (before tonights game which I am calling an aberration for now). We need someone who can hit with runners on base. Durham's glove is not so golden as to excuse his inability to get the run home. With runners on 3B, he is hitting .167 with 1 RBI.
If we received better production from one or both of these positions, then this team could be in a much different place.