We've been singing this familiar refrain all season long. We looked like All-Stars at the plate today. Penny gave us another strong start, you have to like that. Anything we can get from this guy is gravy--I love reclamation projects! Eugenio Velez gave me an encouraging sign today with TWO walks (as well as a hit). If it ain't a strike, don't swing!** If he can take that to heart he will dramatically increase his value as a player. The Padres, I've no doubt, expected him to flail at crap, but he did not and got on base two more times because of it. He only had 9 walks in 209 plate appearances before today, and a .319 OBP won't cut it at the top of the lineup. That's an out rate of 68.1%, and the ML average is 66.8% (.332). We need a leadoff hitter, or I should say, we need fast guys who can get on base. Hell, we need ANY guys who can get on base. And then we need some real hitters. But that's another familiar refrain in another old song.
The Padres are hurting if Kevin Correia and Clayton Richard are their best pitchers. Richard--today's starter--was acquired in the Peavy deal, and the jury's still out on him, but when the Giants smack you around that does not impress the coaches. We get to play San Diego five more times, maybe we can thump 'em real good five more times.
Juan Uribe launched a couple of bombs today. Un-sung, un-heralded, and un-signed until the Giants gave him a minor league deal this spring. Where would we be without him?
**Ted Williams said his number one piece of hitting advice was "get a good pitch to hit."
UPDATE (0655 Tue): There's a piece about Dan Runzler on Fan Graphs.
2 comments:
I think it might be time to bring back the "OOOH-Ribe!" cheer. What a nice lift when we needed it. You might enjoy reading Gwenn Knapp this morning in the Chron- a good bit on OBA.
Oh, the cheer is back. You could hear it on the TV broadcast.
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