Nats 3 Giants 1
Not many teams would have hit Max Scherzer tonight. He was overpowering and not just because it was the Giants. He really had it going on and tossed a brilliant game, needing only 100 pitches to finish it. Matt Cain did his usual, five competent innings. Giving up a three-run homer in the 1st is not good, but keeping it at that for another four is not bad. I wonder what will happen when MadBum comes back. Ty Blach has been impressive and one would think he'd bump Matty for the fifth spot. I wonder if Cain could turn himself into a super-reliever who could go long, spot start, or be the setup man depending on the situation. Most starters don't do that. I think Tim Lincecum would still be playing if he was willing to be a reliever. I think Cain could do a lot of different things out of the 'pen. What do you guys think?
--M.C.
6 comments:
I hope that I am wrong, but unless something dramatic happens to Cain's career, he will end up being an under 500 win percentage pitcher. The fielding in the first inning led to the 3 runs. Perhaps Zimmerman would have led off the second with a dinger, but Cain should have been out of that inning. Some shabby fielding put Cain in that position. Of course the dinger came, and it was not that bad a pitch, so Zimmerman gets some credit. Giants are back in their no home run mode. Again Posey strikes out for the last out of the game, but I was surprised that first base ump called him out to end the game on that check swing which could have gone either way. Giants are once again moving to the cellar.
It was following Matt Cain that convinced me of the stupidity of "pitcher-wins." A "win" is a team concept. Unless someone strikes out 27 guys and hits a homer to win 1-0 you can't assign a "win" to one person. Even then you'd still need a catcher, he'd have to get some credit for doing his job. Matt Cain is a MUCH better pitcher than Kirk Rueter, for example, but Rueter's teammates scored a hell of a lot of runs and so he was assigned more wins and fewer losses. I consider pitcher W-L records to be obsolete and pointless stats. The pitcher may be the most important player, but it's a team game, and a win is a team win, and those are the only "W's" that matter.
I see the Giants are calling up former Stanford Cardinal Austin Slater. I think they need to let Gorkys Hernandez go to make room. There's talk of demoting Arroyo, but I'd rather see him stay. He's the 3B of the future, I don't care if he hits .200 this year, he needs big-league reps.
Keep Arroyo, he could suddenly get hot again. Gorky's so far is all fielder. Maybe he could hit with a longer change, kind of like when Rajah Davis could not hit, and then he hit fairly ok for some other team. Being that Wins are the most important stat in baseball, it will always be looked at as a key stat, unless you strike out more batters than anyone else ala Nolan Ryan. Sometimes a pitcher has a losing record because he just pitches well enough to lose, whether it be 8-7. 6-5, 5-4 or 1-0. Sometimes that W and L record is unfairly impacted by the bullpen, blowing games the starter leaves while still ahead, or allowing added runs to the team has a tough time tying up a game and getting the pitcher off the hook for a loss. But 20 years down the road when fans look back at Cain's stats, unless he can get a bunch of wins they will always see him as a losing pitcher. I would still love for him to get his old form back.
Ruggiano DFA'd, they keep Hernandez, Slater starts tonight.
Bit surprised on that move. I guess Hernandez can run, and possibly is the better fielder, but Ruggiano, is closer to being a major league hitter.
Ruggiano isn't much closer than Hernandez, and he's a bit more than five years older. But perhaps more to the point, if Slater and Calixte seem to be worth keeping, Hernandez will be a prime candidate to be sent down when Pence comes off the DL, won't he? So it may not matter if Tweedledum precedes or follows Tweedledee, unless of course the Giants do what would at any point have made the most sense to me, which is to disembarrass themselves of Tweedlemorse, who shares an age (35) with Ruggiano and a pathetic performance at the plate with Hernandez.
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