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.