Mark is away, so I thought I would take the opportunity to post something for a change. The Giants just took a 5 - 1 finale in Miami to give them a 5 - 5 road trip. The old maxim about playing .500 on the road applies, but yet......it seems like it could have been a bunch better, like maybe 7 - 3.
They started 2 - 3 in Cincinnati, then took 2 of 3 against the theoretically good team, Philadelphia. Philadelphia is in panic mode, firing their manager, Joe Girardi as soon as Gabe Kapler (their former manager) was out of the dugout, and within a few days of promising that they would stick with him for the season. Winding up with 4 in Miami, the Giants lost the first one and then won #2, got skunked yesterday and won today. The Giants blew one in Philly and the first one in Miami and it seems like they really could have, should have, won those.
This was the 53rd game of the season, the Giants are 29 - 24. Last year is probably not a fair comparison, simply because to win 107 games is damn improbable, but at their 53rd game last year, the team was 33 - 20. The Giants had a RS/RA ratio of 267/196. This year, the ratio is 273 (3rd best in the majors!) scored vs. 243 allowed. And that is a significant difference. Dave Fleming was remarking this weekend on how the Giants have seemed to go inning after inning without scoring (but, clearly, they have scored in quantities), so I don't think scoring is the problem.
Last year at this point, the Giants had chalked up 21 saves. They also had 39 holds. This year, by comparison, they have had 12 saves, and have had 21 holds. Last year, they had, at the 53-game mark, 13 blown saves, this year, they have had, to my surprise, only 8. Keep in mind that you can blow a save and still win the game, so maybe that doesn't tell us much. However, in May, the Giants' bullpen had the worst ERA in the majors, it was over 6 (and June is not much better, so far).
So here we are. I thought I would find a clear difference in the strength of the bullpen last year as compared to this. But it's not so obvious as I thought. The Giants blew saves last year yet still racked up 107 wins. The Giants were playing at a .623 clip at this point, actually a half game behind the first place Padres in the NL West. Now they are third, at .538, yet not out of the hunt. Think of it this way - if the Giants were where they are now last year, we would have been thrilled with the steady improvement. They set the bar high, so it feels a bit disappointing. And still - the bullpen needs to toughen up.
1 comment:
A big difference this year has been the number of bullpen games. Thank goodness Farhan was at least able to Sign Junis. With Desclafani out for a while and Cobb hurt on and off, the team has had to have a bunch of bullpen games and also their starters have not gone as long this year. Rodon has simply thrown too many pitches, and Webb was not dominant last year until the second half. Notice that the giants have not tossed any shutouts so far. Not one. Last year they were among the leaders in shutouts. I have seen it said that one of the reasons that the Padres faded last year was because they over used their bullpen and by late August they were less effective and it really hurt the Pads. I never saw an analysis to see if this was true, but the case was made in an article and it seemed to make sense. This year under new management it seems as if the Padres are not making that mistake, leading the league in quality starts. Maybe this year they will overwork their starters. But compared to a few decades ago, even over worked starters are under worked. Maybe having the roster increased by one is allowing teams to rely more on their pen, assuming that the extra roster spot is being used up by a solid relief option. One other key factor this year, is that we have barely been able to field two thirds of a preferred starting line-up. Giants have been a bit overwhelmed by injuries and still are hanging in there. When guys come back from injury it often takes them some timme to get back into tiptop form. I hope the team can provide us with an excellent homestand.
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