Your 2016 Giants: They're Down, They're Really Down

(oops, had wrote this on 4/21, intending for it to publish late that night, but for some reason still had it open and unpublished until now).

The Giants just lost their fifth straight game, and 8 of the last 9 games, sinking to 7-10.  Giants fans are moaning everywhere.

Bochy on my Mind: His Spectrum of Management

A recent comment about Bochy on Raising Cain got me thinking.  He was compared to Dusty Baker.  And I've added on, as usual.

Your 2016 Giants: Cueto Fatigue

Continuing my series of posts on Cueto.  As I have been finding out, Cueto have splits, both by home vs. road, and first half vs. second half.  And those splits hold even when taking the two splits into account, both home and road gets worse in the second half.  The mysteries are two-fold:  why is he so much better in Cincinnati and why is he that much worse in the second half?

I don't think we can ever answer the former (my best guess is that there is something in the background of the stadium that works well with his deceptive pitching motion; there was an analysis long ago of why San Jose Municipal Stadium has a much higher strikeout rate and Giants hitters (including Bowker), noted that there were mountains in the background in CF that hid the ball in some visual haze plus also the sun would set in CF in the second half of the season and the hitter would be looking into the sun, so there was no hitter's eye, making it harder for the hitters to see the ball) but let's take a look at his monthly stats and see what's there.

Your 2016 Giants: Cueto Home and Road, First Half and Second Half, Splits

I had discussed Cueto's stats regarding first and second half previously.  When he had his first start for us in Milwaukee, much was made about his much better results at home vs. on the road.  So I thought I would look into that as well.

Your 2016 Giants: PQS 1st Rotation Turn

I don't normally cover the first turn of the rotation, but this time, I felt like I should, this turn (this week) feels like it'll be significant.

Your 2016 Giants: Belt Signs Five Year Extension for Total 6 years, $79M

News per Pavlovic (who appears to be the one who broke the news, saw his Tweet first) and Baggarly.

• Extends the $6.2M contract he signed to avoid arbitration this season.  At that time, Giants FO said it was a springboard to a longer term deal.
• Sets 2017 salary at $8.8M, covering his last arbitration year.  $6M gets paid beginning of year as signing bonus (does anyone know what accounting advantage teams get from doing this?)
• Then from 2018 to 2021, four years at $16M each
• Total:  6 years, $79M, just edging his Brandon buddy's $75M 
• Limited no-trade clause specifying 10 teams that he can't be traded to

Covers him to his 33 YO season.  He's says he's happy to be able to stay here with the rest of the core of the team.  Gave the team all the credit for his maturation as a ballplayer, and stated his appreciation for the organization.  

Evans also noted the fan and media speculation of Posey playing at 1B eventually.  He stated that there has not been any internal discussions of that, that Posey is considered the quarterback behind the plate and a major reason why pitchers like pitching for the Giants.  And thus no internal talk about moving Belt to another position.  

Giants RAA Per Statcorner: 2009 to 2015

Statcorner is an online resource that I've been aware of for a while now, but don't always have time to peruse.  Something drew me to it recently, and I discovered their Team RAA report.  It allows you to look at their RAA stats by the various components of baseball performance that could be measured:  batting, fielding-gb, fielding-fb, SP, RP, and Total.  And one can do this by year as well.  I thought I would look at the stats from 2009 to 2015.

2016: Dodger's SP Depth Takes a Hit

Ran across a few articles regarding LA's starting pitching problems:

• Fangraphs:  Dodgers Pitching Depth Begins to Erode  The losses of Anderson and Ryu has left the Dodgers with five starters they can rely on to start the season.  
• LA Times:   Dodgers pick rookie Ross Stripling as No. 5 starter  Then LA reduced by Bolsinger injury to pick from two guys who have some name recognition in Frias and Lee, but makes a left turn to Albuquerque and selects Stripling, who wasn't even considered as a possibility for the rotation this spring.
• Chronicle:  Can Pitching Strapped Dodgers Threaten the Giants   Jenkins basically notes the sudden importance of Kenta Maeda now that Anderson is out with his back issues.
• USA Today: After rash of spring injuries, will Dodgers pay for coupon-clipping winter?   Nightingale notes all the injuries, not just pitchers
• Fangraphs: Grading the Off Seasons for All 30 Teams  But this article by Cameron disagrees and ranked LA's off season as 6th best in the majors, even better than the Giants at 8th. 

Thought I would continue my previous thoughts on the Dodgers.  Was trying to get this out before the season started, so apologies if this post isn't the best, but I just want to get it out.

Your 2016 Giants: Opening Day Roster

As released by the Giants, this is your 2016 Giants on opening day:

Pitchers

#		Name	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
40		Madison Bumgarner	R/L	6'5"	250lbs	8/1/89
18		Matt Cain	R/R	6'3"	230lbs	10/1/84
46		Santiago Casilla	R/R	6'0"	210lbs	7/25/80
47		Johnny Cueto	R/R	5'11"	220lbs	2/15/86
62		Cory Gearrin	R/R	6'3"	200lbs	4/14/86
53		Chris Heston	R/R	6'3"	195lbs	4/10/88
70		George Kontos	R/R	6'3"	215lbs	6/12/85
49		Javier Lopez	L/L	6'4"	220lbs	7/11/77
61		Josh Osich	L/L	6'2"	230lbs	9/3/88
22		Jake Peavy	R/R	6'1"	195lbs	5/31/81
54		Sergio Romo	R/R	5'11"	185lbs	3/4/83
29		Jeff Samardzija	R/R	6'5"	225lbs	1/23/85
60		Hunter Strickland	R/R	6'4"	220lbs	9/24/88

Catchers

#		Name	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
14		Trevor Brown	R/R	6'2"	195lbs	11/15/91
28		Buster Posey	R/R	6'1"	215lbs	3/27/87

Infield

#		Name	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
13		Ehire Adrianza	S/R	6'1"	170lbs	8/21/89
9		Brandon Belt	L/L	6'5"	220lbs	4/20/88
35		Brandon Crawford	L/R	6'2"	215lbs	1/21/87
5		Matt Duffy	R/R	6'2"	170lbs	1/15/91
12		Joe Panik	L/R	6'1"	190lbs	10/30/90
37		Kelby Tomlinson	R/R	6'3"	180lbs	6/16/90

Outfield

#		Name	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
7		Gregor Blanco	L/L	5'11"	175lbs	12/24/83
16		Angel Pagan	S/R	6'2"	200lbs	7/2/81
8		Hunter Pence	R/R	6'4"	220lbs	4/13/83
2		Denard Span	L/L	6'0"	210lbs	2/27/84