Sunday, July 25, 2010

G-Train keeps rollin'

The Giants smoked the lowly Snakes again. Get fat on the minnows, I say! I missed the game last night and didn't get the story about Eugenio Velez until this morning. God, what a horrid injury. We've seen Joe Martinez and Aaron Rowand recover from some seriously scary-looking head trauma, let's hope Velez gets back to full health soon.

Tim Lincecum takes the hill today for the Giants as they look to sweep. This has been a different year for The Freak. He's set such a high bar that any drop-off is very noticeable--like Albert Pujols slugging below .600. This season Tim is allowing more hits, homers, and walks per 9 IP than in his back-to-back Cy Young years. He's also striking out fewer batters. The two best pitchers in the NL right now (sorry, Ubaldo) are Josh Johnson (2.23 FIP, 5.0 WAR) and Roy Halladay (2.87 FIP, 4.8 WAR). Tim is 5th in FIP (3.13) and 5th in WAR (3.3). This will be his 21st start, and there are 64 games remaining, so we should expect another 12 starts, perhaps 13 if they juggle the rotation a bit in September where there are four off-days. Tim looked as out-of-sorts against the Dodgers as I've ever seen him, and more worrisome, his velocity was way down. There's been nothing from Tim or the Giants about health or physical issues. (You always wonder about a ballplayer's off-season conditioning, particularly because there is so much variation, and teams lack any sort of consistent standards about fitness.) Expectations are higher as well--Tim is making big-time bucks for the first time ($9M this year and $14M next) and the fan base isn't going to settle for second-place anymore. The emergence of Buster Posey (.358/.397/.561) has really energized the club, and the great post-Break run has everyone on pins-and-needles, thinking even more seriously everyday that there really is some "magic inside."

Let's hope The Franchise is back to his studly ways today. GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

4 comments:

JC Parsons said...

I've been very surprised by the Tim angst. Sure he's not quite as good as last year, but the drop off is not that huge. Remember a few weeks ago a lot of you guys didn't think he was our ace, but that has faded away. The last bad start was preceeded by two of his best. Another couple hot starts and he is back in the Cy race...after all he stands as the fifth or sixth best right now. Lots of time left. I really am not worried about Tim.
We need a lefty reliever tho. What will we do? Walk Gonzalez every time?

M.C. O'Connor said...

"You guys" ain't me. There's no angst here. When Albert Pujols slugs below .600, you notice. When Tim is 5th and not 1st, you notice. When his ERA+ is 135 (169 and 177 the last two years) and below his career average (149), you notice.

And I could care less about the Cy Young Award. I don't care who wins it. Sure, I'm happy when it is a Giant, but I'd rather have the BEST TEAM, whether Tim wins an award or not.

Brother Bob said...

I'm very impressed by Madbum. He's so tall, with wide shoulders, and he seems so poised. His delivery looks effortless. He doesn't try to overpower hitters and seems to get a lot of ground balls.
How many teams have 3 lefties in their starting rotation?

Brother Bob said...

Live action-- Posey comes through again and the Giants take an early lead once again!!