Four games in three days and seven hours of rain delays nets the Giants a split in that chamber of horrors otherwise known as Coors Field. Friday night Ryan Vogelsong was in superb form, hurling six shutout frames, and the lineup went ape shit and scored eleven runs. A good thing as the bullpen gave up eight in their three innings. Nonetheless it was that rare of 2015 events, a win against the Rockies. The Giants made it eight straight wins the next day, taking the opener of the doubleheader by a 10-8 score. Again the lineup got the big numbers on the board early but a shaky Chris Heston and the 'pen made it a close affair. After that it was all Colorado. Yusmeiro Petit didn't pitch badly in the late game, but the offense was no help and they lost a close one, 5-3. Today Tim Hudson had nothing and got hammered and the bats didn't create any runs until the last inning. It finished 11-2, the only bright side to 11 runs is that Dodgers gave up 11 today as well and lost to the Padres.
It was a split in Colorado and that is generally a good thing. It's no fun to see the team, fresh off the three shutout wins at home against LA, give up 32 runs in a weekend. The fact that they won two of those games is a bit of good fortune. They scored 21 of their 26 runs in the first two, and that was enough.
It's an afternoon game for Memorial Day tomorrow in Milwaukee, 11:10 a.m. our time.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
11 comments:
Any chance Huddy gets DFAed when Peavy is ready? He's been looking very hittable this season, and he's not striking out as many. He's been surviving on veteran guile, not any good stuff, as he was last season first half.
Hate to see him go like that, and perhaps he won't face such a fate, Heston's poor start could render him logically sent down so that they can avoid DFAing another guy for a while when Peavy returns.
But if Hudson keeps on pitching like this, he could be the odd man out of the playoff rotation if/when that time comes.
I was wondering the same thing. If Peavy is healthy, who sits (or goes)?
I was thinking it would have to be Heston, I expect he has options left--he's still a rookie.
Hudson's had a number of solid starts. Yesterday was an aberration. Coors Field games don't count.
Heston does have options.
I base a lot of my comments on a pitchers PQS performance. Basically a saber quality start measure. Good pitchers have 40% quality starts, 50% if they are great! and the Giants rotation collectively have been over 50%, plus were over 60% in prior years. They basically have to be able to strike out enough batters in order to throw a quality start.
Hudson has 0% for the season! Colorado or not. So he has been struggling to strike out hitters, but has been doing enough in most other metrics to have decent games. While this is a nice performance, it is not one that will help us reach the playoffs or go deep into them. Hence why I wonder, particularly after the surprise move to DFA McGehee, there is a new sheriff in town.
Hudson, despite the good results in several starts this season, has a .780 OPS against, 100 pts higher than his career average. He's looking his age, unfortunately. He has the 12th-worst FIP in baseball and 3rd-worst K/9. He's not getting guys out on his own. I hope he's got something left in the tank. Vogie's numbers are equally ugly, but we are seeing a steady improvement with him since the first few outings. Heston, until his last two starts, was pitching better than both of them!
We'll see when/if Peavy is ready to pitch. Hudson is the 5th-highest paid player on the team at $12M, but we know the Giants will eat salary if they have to. I think that THEY think he's going to give them a consistent stretch at some point, and we know they like his veteran cool and experience and maybe Timmy can learn a thing or two about being a ground-ball machine from him. Seems like Heston would be the logical choice as he can be back in a heartbeat and can keep pitching a refining his technique in the minors.
A bit ahead of ourselves, here, but Peavy is having an AAA start this week, Wednesday, I think. Maybe go with the six-man rotation and move someone out of the 'pen. Machi? He's had a rough go of it so far. Or maybe they do something creative like DL Jeremy Affeldt and give him some rehab time. He's not near his game at all yet. They've used the DL to "rest" a struggling pitcher before.
It's nice to have problems of surplus, not scrambling to fill spots like the old days.
Why not just go for 14 Pitchers? Seriously, though, no way that Hudson gets DFA'd. Send down Strickland, put Affeldt on DL, & get another bat. I know I am old-fashioned & Pitchers are handled differently, but this inflation in the number of roster spots for Pitchers is worse than razor cartridges going from 1 to 2 to 4 to now having 5 blades. The 1972 A's had 9 Pitchers for most of the year & led the ML's in ERA & no one got hurt. Hunter, Holtzman, Blue, Odom, D. Hamilton, Fingers, Locker, Knowles, & Horlen. Bats off the bench are good. Having Position Players to give guys rest is good. Having 3 Catchers, so that Buster can for sure get full days off from Catching is good.
I love those 5-bladed things, so much nicer shave. But I get what you mean, though I never compare now-days to them olden-days. Now-days the Giants are champs. Them olden-days, not so much. And the game evolves--it was different then. It'll be different in another 40 years.
I suppose they could move anyone off the roster if Peavy comes back, I just assumed a starter would get the axe, not a reliever. Maybe someone will get a convenient injury. Giants seem pretty savvy with roster moves overall, they'll figure something out. Curious, though. Fun to ruminate on!
Third catcher would have to be Quiroz, right? Did they DFA Hanchez? Did he go to the minors?
I think Arias is their emergency 3rd catcher, actually.
Ishikawa DFA'd. I think they were going to have to make space on the 40-man to keep him so they had to let him go.
Hanchez is in Sacramento.
Hanchez had one last option, which they used this season. As the commenter noted, he's in AAA.
Ishi was already on the 40-man, but they had no space on the 25-man roster, and he had no more options, so the Giants either had to DFA him or move someone else off the 25-man roster, either DFA or if optionable to AAA (only Duffy among position players are optionable; well, maybe Belt or Crawford might have options, but they are not going down).
Yes, fun to ruminate on what happens to the roster when Peavy returns. I would love a 6-man rotation, the Mets just started one. Would give our pitchers more rest between starts, especially with this B.S. schedule where they get no rest during a long stretch like this.
I would love a 6-man rotation
OCG,
Have you run the regressions on having the sixth starter replace Madison 6 times thru the year?
Seems whatever possible benefit that accrues to the starters' extra rest would be more than offset by the certain disruption to their routines, series match-up problems for Bochy, and having a far inferior pitcher replace a true ace six times.
I'd rather see Petit in there to replace Huddy.
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