(oops, had wrote this on 4/21, intending for it to publish late that night, but for some reason still had it open and unpublished until now).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.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Thursday, April 21, 2016
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.
Friday, April 15, 2016
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.
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.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
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.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
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.
Saturday, April 09, 2016
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.
Wednesday, April 06, 2016
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.
Tuesday, April 05, 2016
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.
