Sunday, May 13, 2012

Giants even things up

Charlie Culberson replaced Conor Gillaspie in the Giants continuing infielder-go-round saga, and he was a lucky charm as the team played one of its best games of the young season. Lots of hits, a big bomb off a lefty by Brett Pill, a phat QS from Barry-Z, what's to complain about? Melky Cabrera likes the desert--after his four hits today he has 49, good for third, and a .348 average, good for fourth in the league. We don't often see Giants crack the .900 OPS barrier, but the Milkman is sitting on that very figure in the 16th spot in the NL, right behind Pablo Sandoval (.912). He's been a nice addition to the club. Here's a look at his full-time seasonal WAR (Baseball-Reference) numbers:

                              
Year   Age  Tm Lg   G  PA  WAR
2006    21 NYY AL 130 524  2.7
2007    22 NYY AL 150 612  1.3
2008    23 NYY AL 129 453  0.2
2009    24 NYY AL 154 540  0.9
2010    25 ATL NL 147 509 -0.5
2011    26 KCR AL 155 706  4.1
2012    27 SFG NL  33 149  1.5

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/13/2012.



I like the way this is trending. Melky doesn't walk a lot, and doesn't really look to walk, but he does try to get a good pitch to hit and he tries to hit it hard. He seems to square up a lot of balls and gets hits with grounders as well as line drives. He has stretches of bad luck where those balls don't drop for hits, but his approach seems really consistent and he gets a lot of good swings. Let's hope he keeps that up all season long. And speaking of that, let's hope Barry Zito keeps this thing going on all season as well. It ain't pretty, and it is damn agonizing to watch, but outs are outs and the lefty seems to get them with more frequency these days. Ah, .500, it's a good place to be.

GO GIANTS! 

--M.C.
 

2 comments:

Brother Bob said...

The main thing I look for when I check the box score is who got multiple hits. That's the easiest way to know who had a good game. I still like old-school stats and I think one that no one can argue with is 200 total hits per season is a fine accomplishment.
At his current pace Melky will get 233 hits. The SF Giant record is 208 by Mays in '58.

nomisnala said...

In 58 Mays did it in a season that was 154 games. I would be happy if Melky would beat it, and beat it by a wide margin. It is unlikely however. Zito still looks on the verge of getting bombed at any time. Like Lincecum, he can have a guy with two strikes and fail to make a good pitch. Then the next batter comes up and the first pitch is a beauty. It suggests to me that both guys have mental issues when the pitch, and cannot execute the pitch they need to throw when the need to throw it. I think part of Zito's success is coming from the same success the few lefty soft tossing curve balling vets are exhibiting. I think part of their success is because there are fewer of them around for batters to see.