Friday, April 29, 2011

Capitol baseball

While the B-squad took care of the Pirates yesterday, the A-team suits up tonight. Big Time Timmy Jim gets the call against a Nationals squad that's eking out a mere 3.92 rpg. Their .662 team OPS is even worse than the Giants pathetic .684. Pitching is holding things together for them in the early going--the team ERA+ is 106, and the 4.42 rpg is just about league-average (4.35). Tonight's starter Jason Marquis has been a steady perfomer. Another righty who bats left, Marquis has made 248 starts in his 12-year career, all in the NL (Atlanta, St. Louis, Chicago, Colorado, Washington). Mark Gardner is listed as his number one "comp" on his B-R page.

You have to like that much-maligned Aaron Rowand has stepped up and delivered some big performances when the club really needed a boost. The Ryan Vogelsong story is also a good one, winning his first big league game in six years (actually 2,412 days). The Giants are limping along, certainly not firing on all cylinders, yet they are still .500 and only 4-1/2 off the pace. The Rockies were 12-3 when they faced the Giants, they've gone 4-4 since then. When the Giants get everyone healthy and up to full speed I'll expect a few 12-3 stretches--that will put some distance between the contenders and the wannabes.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

1 comment:

Brother Bob said...

I thought Emmanuel Burriss was an ex-Giant. That just shows you how closely I pay attention. Maybe I was thinking of Eugenio Velez. He's gone, right?
Vogelsong looked good. It would be amazing if he can continue to do well. Any scenario which excludes Zito works for me.