Who Knew

April 12, 2005: The Giants score 5 runs in the first inning and are up 8-5 going into the 9th inning at Dodger Stadium. As a result of costly errors and Armando Benitez, the Giants lose the game after the Dodgers score 4 runs in the 9th; A game most Giants fans would like to forget in my opinion. Since that horrendous collapse of the Giant's bullpen though, it's been lights out. Since that fateful game, the bullpen's ERA is at an astounding 1.07 mark. They've surrendered just 4 runs in the last 33 2/3 innings. With all the bad press surrounding the Giant's starting rotation and slumping offense, no one seems to have noticed just how good their bullpen has been. Today's game against the Brewers was a shining example of bullpen excellence and to top it all off, Armando Benitez is back. Although physically he didn't go anywhere, his stuff up until today hasn't been there. His splitter has been flat and he hasn't had a lot of control over his 95 plus fastball. Today he was untouchable. His fastball was on the corners with movement, and his splitter made Geoff Jenkins look like he'd never swung a bat before in his life. The only baserunner Benitez allowed in 1 2/3 innings of work was a walk and that never amounted to anything. First pitch strikes are key for Benitez with his recent lack of control, and he threw strike one right out of the blocks to all 6 hitters he faced.

The Giants finally scored some runs for Tomko. In the 6 1/3 innings he pitched, they scored 5 runs. Previous to this start, the Giants have scored 1 run in the 17 1/3 pitched by Brett. Today Tomko took matters into his own hands today with a clutch hit driving in 2 runs. Right off the bat, he had no clue that he had hit it in fair territory. As he hit it, he was looking down the third base line as the ball sailed into right field for an RBI knock.


Torcato Gone, Niekro stays
The Giants sent outfielder Tony Torcato down to Fresno after activating Moises Alou from the disabled list Friday. Due to his recent performances, Lance Niekro has earned himself a spot at the major league level for now. He will definitely be a valuable bat off the bench, and a spot starter for J.T. against lefties and on getaway days. Unbeknownst to many, Snow is 37 and needs days off every once in a while. I still maintain that Niekro has one of the better power swings I've seen, but right now he needs to learn to lay off the high fastball or else that's all he going to be getting a steady diet of in the next month. Now that the pressure's off to replace Alou, Niekro can relax as he doesn't have a pair of shoes to fill.


Fonzie's Leveled Off
Well it was nice while it lasted seeing Edgardo Alfonzo's name atop the major league leaders in batting average. As expected, he's come back down to Earth for the time being. I'm expecting him to level off around .300-.315 by the end of May. He's done more than his part in filling in for Barry's absence during this hot streak of his. Don't get me wrong, Fonzie's still batting .393 but at this point in the season, if you get out once, your average goes down 15 points and vice versa for when you get on base. Edgardo has chosen the right time to return to Earth, just as the pitching staff is beginning to come around. All the Giants need to do now is put all the pieces together and get hot offensively and on the pitching side at the same time. For a team without the best player of all time (Bonds), the Giants have faired very well with various players stepping up and Alfonzo is no exception.


Jerome Williams squares off tomorrow against Gary Glover. I'll be at that game so i'll be able to get into pretty good detail with my next entry. Until then, pray that I haven't jinxed the Giant's bullpen.

Finally

The Giants got it done. Finally, they pulled out a win against someone who wasn't the Rockies. For once, it was done in the style of play expected out of the Giants without Bonds in their lineup: pitching and defense. Schmidt, although he's still not showing the dominating pitcher he was last season, is beginning to show glimpses of his former self. After allowing a 3 run homer to Chad Tracy, Schmidt settled down and managed to shut down the D-Backs and kick it to the bullpen with the Giants in striking distance. Speaking of that bullpen of ours, something woke them up. The bullpen pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings. The one criticism I have for this game, is not about the way the Giants played, but more about the way Felipe Alou managed his bullpen. Alou only left Brower in for 2/3 of an inning. Brower used to be a starter, and has the endurance to go 2, maybe even 3 innings out of the bullpen. Instead of leaving him in, Felipe opted for the lefty-lefty matchup. Brower wasn't really in any sort of jam, and yet Alou yanked him just for the matchup. Another pitcher that could have given more than inning, Matt Herges, was left in for only a third of an inning. Felipe burned through his bullpen like child opening presents on Christmas, and it almost cost him tonight's starter.

Speaking of which, going for the Giants tonight is Kirk Rueter. If Rueter doesn't show me something in his start tonight, I'm calling for Foppert. I'm trying to hold faith in the fact that Woody is a veteran pitcher, who knows when his job is on the line. So far this season Rueter has been less than impressive in his last two starts. In his first start of the season, Woody went 5 innings, gave up 3 hits, and surrendered 2 runs. A good performance, except we need him to 7 innings. If he keeps on showing that he can't be effective after the 5th inning, he would be more valuable in the Giants' bullpen more than he would in the starting rotation. For Rueter to show me something tonight, in my opinion he's going to need to last 6-7 innings and I'll be amply satisfied. Hopefully, Kirk feels Jesse Foppert breathing down his neck and lets that motivate him to show us the Woody that won 16 games in 1998.


Niekro Filling in for Alou and then some
Since he started filling in for an injured J.T. Snow, he's gone 6-16 with 2 homers and 4 RBI's. I mentioned in an earlier post how I liked Lance's swing from the get go in spring training. Last night, he hit a home run off of Russ Ortiz a la Richie Sexson. He drove it out to left using Sexson's trademark bent-arm swing. I'll be sad to see him go back down to the minors. He's made some major contributions so far and he's proven that he can hit Major League pitching. Moises Alou was activated from the disabled list today so the Giant's lineup will be all the more potent with him in there.


Let's see how this game plays out. Rueter needs to rebound, Moises needs to get his first hit as a Giant, and Fonzie needs to stay hot. Buckle your seatbelts, this one's going to be wild...

Can we play the Rockies every day?

Giants linescore: 11 hits, 1 run, 1 error. Diamondbacks linescore: 3 hits, 2 runs, no errors

Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. How a team gets 11 hits and barely manages to scratch out one run confounds me. This game was right up there with the worst played Giants games i've ever been witness to. Mental errors, and no timely hitting resulted in a 2-1 loss. The only bright spot was that our bullpen was lights out and Lowry pitched very well once he found the strike zone. He walked 5 hitters. Lowry gave up 2 hits, and surrendered 2 runs. Those 5 walks burned him, as once again, an error by defensive whiz Omar Vizquel resulted in a key run. In last night's game against the Padres, Vizquel made a crucial "error" that wasn't really scored as an error even though it should have been. How is a team that was supposed to win using pitching and defense going to win if pitching and defense isn't going to perform. Not only that, the offense suddenly can't get runners home. The Diamondbacks scoring inning was started by an unforgiveable sin: walking the pitcher. You can't walk the pitcher. He's supposed to be an automatic out so when you walk him it's just as bad as committing an error. This game just adds to the Giant's frustrations. They aren't hitting, they aren't pitching, and they aren't picking it on defense. My greatest fear is that the Giants will turn into last year's D-Backs: a team full of young players not ready for the majors sweeping the cellar with 100+ losses. I swear to God, everytime the Giants runners in scoring position, there would be 2 outs. No room for error. This game was frustrating from the get-go. First inning, one on, one out, double play. 2nd inning, one on, one out, double play. The reason the Giants record is under .500 is because they're playing sub-.500 baseball. They can't seem to catch a break, and aren't making their own breaks. One thing about the Giant's losses, is that in every loss, there have been opportunities for them to win. The Giants could just as easily be be 14-0, instead they're 6-8. They need to wake up and realize that if they finish April 15 games under .500, it's going to take all of May, June, and July to catch up to the Dodgers assuming they come back down to Earth and start losing again. We can't wait around for the Dodger's to start losing.


I Told You So
I said if Jerome couldn't make it through the 5th inning there would be trouble. Jerome pitches 4 innings; there was trouble. The Giant's had momentum. They were hitting Lawrence hard. Even their outs were line drives. They were winning 2-1, and had momentum going into that 4th inning. Suddenly that momentum shifts back into the Padres dugout as Jerome surrenders the lead due to bad situational pitching, and sub-par defense. Ok I'm going to stop dwelling on Giant's losses before I make a mad rush for the window and swan dive into the pavement.


Sorry for the jumble of random thoughts tonight. All this losing has me incredibly dissheveled. If the Giants don't start winning I might have to bang my head against a wall till I make a hole in it. (do i mean in my head or the wall? maybe both.) Schmidt needs to be a stopper tomorrow otherwise it'll be up to Rueter to win and so far this season I'm eager to see Rueter move to the bullpen.

A 1st Class Headcase

Brett Tomko. What is there to say about Brett Tomko. What can be said about dear Brett is that he is following the trend of the Giant's pitching staff. Right when there seems to be a ray of hope, suddenly the Giants are down 6-1. Tomko pitches 5 innings of scoreless baseball, then comes a run in the 6th, then before you know it, the Padres drop 5 runs on Tomko like they've been hitting him like that the whole game. The answer to the conundrum that was Tomko's start last night isn't in his mechanics, or the the pitches he threw, etc., but rather it lies in the mind of Brett Tomko himself. He's a headcase. Simple as that. Last year his second-half turnaround was attributed to him going to see a psychologist. That does not bode well at all, seeing as the last thing the Giant's rotation needs right now is another underperforming pitcher. We don't need a pitcher that requires regular visits to a shrink in order to pitch effectively. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not quite as ready to crucify Tomko as I am Woody. In his 3 starts, the Giants have scored a grand total of one run while he was pitching. Average it out and you get less than a run of support per game. The Giants are batting .303 right now as a team. Not being able to score more than one run every 5 days is not the kind of performance you would expect out of a team with the major league leader in Batting Average (who seems to be on the decline with his 0-3 last night), and two guys with 13+ RBI's. The Giants can't afford to go into an offensive slump right now with the pitching staff imploding as we speak.


All They Needed Was The Friendly Confines of Coors Field
Let's face it. The Giant's middle relief corps this year has been less than impressive. Not only that, the so-called anchor to their bullpen, Armando Benitez, has been worse. You know your bullpen's in trouble when you're thinking "Man I hope Felipe goes to Jeff Fassero" when the bases are loaded and the starter is about to be pulled. Tyler Walker, Scott Eyre, Jason Christiansen, Jim Brower, and Matt Herges. Riddle me this Batman: Up until they found the save haven of Coors Field, they weren't getting anything done. Suddenly the Giants go to the Mile High City and the middle relief is lights out in the thin air. One possible explanation could be the fact that the Giants bullpen is built to get to the groundball. Herges, Brower, Christiansen, and Walker all throw a sinker. Bullpen success at Coors stands as yet another unexpected performance this season. Brace yourself Giants fans, because it definitely won't be the last.


See How Long it is Before it Snows on Niekro's Parade
Last night the rain-soaked field caused Snow to slip, and now he's down with a pulled groin for who knows how long. This comes as good news to me, as I would love to see Lance Niekro get some more at-bats before Alou comes back and Lance gets sent back down to the minors. He's got the raw power, the pretty swing, and he's not too shabby on defense either. Look for him to make some contributions as long as he stops trying to swing out of his shoes in RBI situations. One at-bat of his that stands out to me is one a week or so ago. Niekro came up with bases loaded, and went up there trying to hit it to Missouri. He ended up swinging at a pitch up around his forehead and he struck out. With more at-bats in bases-loaded type situations, Niekro could transition from "Rookie trying too hard to be a hero" to a trusted hitter in crucial situations.


A Few Words of "Encouragement" from the Boss and The Yanks Snap Out of It
In the latest temper tantrum pulled by George Steinbrenner, he bemoaned about how the Yankees "...are not playing like true Yankees". With 150 games left in the season, who exactly does Georgy-boy think he is (besides supreme emperor of the universe of course). What continually peeves me about the Yankees is that they do this every year. They start out in the cellar a good 8 games out of first and come September, they've got a stranglehold on first place in the AL East. If Steinbrenner hasn't noticed this trend by now, then I say ship him out to Iceland where we'll never have to hear from him again. Right after George pulled his little hissy fit, the Yanks go out and score 19 runs on the Devil Rays. Wow they're really rolling now. Now that they can be the stuffing out of teams that sweep the cellar every season, maybe next Mariano Rivera will be able to save a game against the Red Sox. But hey, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. The higher ups need to stop being so concerned with September in April. Teams that come out of the gate fast in April don't necessarily make the playoffs, much less finish above .500. For example, 2 seasons ago, the Royals topped the AL Central the first couple months of the season. Since then, we haven't heard much from those good ol` Royals. People were calling the Brewers to make the postseason a week ago. Since then, they've dropped 4 in a row. Point in case, the season isn't decided in April so stop stressing.


I'm off to listen to the Giants/Pads games. Buckle your seatbelts if Jerome can't get through the 5th inning.

ESPN Commentators Are Idiots

The Idiots of ESPN. Catchy isn't it? It's a title that, starting now, will describe the likes of Chris Berman, John Kruk, and Joe Morgan. Chris Berman seems to think he is timelessly clever. He can't say the name of a baseball player without doing the following: "And now coming up to hit, [Player's First Name] [insert moronic nickname] [Player's last name]". John Kruk basically will jump on the bandwagon. Using last season as an example, he would say something at the start of the season such as "The Red Sox don't have a chance this year". Then when the Red Sox go to the World Series, he'll say "I was supporting the Sox the whole season." But, the main factor that keeps me from taking this shmuck seriously is his opinion on Jeff Kent. He "loves Kent's attitude". Kent's attitude was a plague upon the Giant's clubhouse for the time he was a Giant. Jeff's redeeming qualities (if any) are few. Proceeding to the next of the three stooges, Joe Morgan loves stating the obvious, doesn't know squat about the nuances of baseball, and needs to be banned from announcing. Example: "And Wagner strikes him out with the fastball. That one was way outside, not even close to the strike zone. Let's take a look at K-Zone. [K-Zone shows that the pitch hit the inside corner]". As a testament to the idiocy of ESPN commentators as a whole, the geniuses on Baseball tonight were already calling the Mets to not make the playoffs after starting 0-5. Sadly, I'm not exaggerating this in the least, so be afraid...be very afraid; because with the start of the baseball season comes the Idiots of ESPN which makes some of us fans want to scream, "Godzilla!!!"

Giant's Pitching Staff...or lack thereof

Let's talk about the starting rotation. It was supposed to be our strong point. We were supposed to have 5 pitchers who could go 7-9 innings any given start. Jason Schmidt has the best stuff in the National League. Right now all I see across the board is underachieving, but so far tonight is a ray of hope for the Giant's rotation; Brett Tomko is pitching 2 hit scoreless baseball through 5 innings.

Jason Schmidt: Sure he's 2-1. Sure he pitched well against the Rockies. But come on now...they're the Rockies. Nuff said. His velocity just isn't there right now. I've been to games and seen Schmidt hitting 98 on the radar gun consistently. What makes him a dominating pitcher is the transition of speed from 98 mph fastball, to a 90 mph changeup with movement. His "blazing" fastball is currently topping the radar gun at 91. On top of that, he doesn't have a lot of command with it either. Schmidt is being forced to throw his changeup 90 percent of the time; major league hitters notice those sort of things.

Kirk Rueter: Put him out of his misery and move him to the bullpen. Pretty soon there will be resounding calls throughout SBC park on a night when Rueter gives up 8 runs through 2 innings entreating "We want Foppert!". In his start yesterday, he was giving up hits. When he wasn't giving up hits, he was giving up outs that were smacked hard enough to be hits. My girlfriend's mom summed it up perfectly. "Rueter is a pitcher who gives up hits. That how he works". Although there was a certain positive connotation to that, that's not what we need out of Woody right now. We need him to be a pitcher who "gets people out". I say give him one or two more starts and if he doesn't show any promise then we yank him and let Foppert start a few games.

Brett Tomko: Up until now I haven't been all that impressed with Tomko, although his win-loss record is not entirely his fault considering the Giants have yet to score a run in his starts this year. That's right you heard me. His average run support in this young season is 0.0 runs per game. Some of his woes so far though can be attributed to Tomko's pitching performance. He's given up 2 home runs in 10 innings. 1 home run every 5 innings, almost 2 homers per game which is not good. 15 hits in those 10 innings isn't a very impressive number, along with his 5.91 ERA at the start of the night (his 5 innings of scoreless baseball tonight have got him a 4.32 ERA now). I can see Tomko improving based on tonight's start. Tomko has a reputation for being a very streaky pitcher, and when he gets into a good groove, he's untouchable. Cross your fingers...

Noah Lowry: Lowry has impressed me since his first career start last year when he showed he could hold his own against Major League hitters in his debut against a potent Orioles offense. This year, as expected, in 2 starts he's been a little shaky but it's nothing to panic about. What we need to panic about is the 6 runs he gave up to the Rockies, and the 3 homers he's given up in 11 innings. No need to worry about Noah though. He's already proven that he can be a dominating pitcher last year, and on the brightside but not all that important, he still doesn't have a major league loss. Point in case, Lowry is going to rebound from his start against the Rockies. He's a young pitcher with the composure on the mound of a veteran.

Jerome Williams: I'm bewildered to the fact that Jerome has only started one game this season. In his one start, so far he has been the only effective starter the Giants have right now. 7 innings, 5 hit, one run, 5 K's. That was the line from his ONE START. Felipe figured he skip Jerome's start because of a day off. He didn't want Schmidt going on 5-6 days of rest, so he decided, "Hey, how about I skip our only effective starter's turn so that our ace doesn't get too much rest". I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in order for Williams to continue his effectiveness, he can't go on 10 days of rest just so Schmidt doesn't get 5. Expect him to have a solid start tomorrow night vs. the Padres. Especially at Petco Park aka The Pitcher's Paradise. If he gets shelled then feel free to say "I told you so".


That's the Giant's rotation. While I was writing that, the Padres tagged Tomko for 5 runs in an inning and now I just don't know what to say. The umpire has been squeezing him all night and a few close calls killed him. This kind of performance by our dear Brett brings me to my next point: If the Giant's offense is going to carry this team, the starting pitchers need to stop giving up 5+ runs every game.


I'm starting to like Lance Niekro
Ok so Snow pulled his groin and Niekro came in to replace him and so far in 2 AB's I'm liking what I see. I've liked his swing since I saw him go deep in a spring training game. Tonight he's homered and doubled and maybe if Snow stays injured long enough Niekro will see some at-bats. He's definitely got 20-30 homer potential in a year or two. This season will need to be one where he learns how to hit in the Majors. In the meantime, let's can Snow and start Feliz at first when Bonds and Alou get back. Ok so i'm kidding about canning Snow but maybe he should be more of roleplayer/defensive replacement giving Feliz more of an exclusive role at first.


Tomorrow I'll talk about what went/is currently going wrong in the Giants game tonight, and I'll go through our middle-relief corps and analyze their performance the first 2 weeks of the season.

Good First 2 Weeks

This is a blog about the San Francisco Giants and their progress throughout the season and their offseason dealings. For a team without its two best hitters, the Giants offense has been playing solid baseball. Role players young and old have been stepping up in big ways. The aspect of the team that was supposed to carry them through the month without Bonds and Alou is as of now, the Giant's weakness. Edgardo Alfonzo is looking more like the Fonzy that hit went .304-27-108 for the Mets in 1999. All we can do is hope that his hot streak keeps up when we get our sluggers back. What I would like to know is what the Giants are going to do with Pedro Feliz when Bonds gets back. He won't move to third because our third baseman is leading the world in batting average right now. He won't move to first with Snow patrolling the bag as an already established presence. The Giants are running out of things to do with Feliz. He can't be a regular starter because there's no where for him to start and they can't trade him because he's way to valuable to just ship off for minor leaguers.


The Giants are 6-5 right now, and five-sixths of their wins have come against the Rockies. If the Giants are going to stay in the race in April without their 3-4 hitters, they're going to need to start beating teams that are actually going to challenge for first place. Once Bonds and Alou return, the Giants offense should be one of the more potent lineups in the majors. If they are going to win against the Padres in their coming series against them this week, the Giant's starting pitchers are going to have to last more than 4 innings which right now, seems like a lot to ask of them. Once we can get our starters through 7 innings, Herges/Brower/Eyre can pitch the 8th, and once we can get more work for Benitez, all we can do is hope that he becomes at least a shadow of the dominating pitcher he was last season. Right now, Benitez is pitching like a rookie just out of the minors with a cannon for an arm and nothing to back it up (a la David Aardsma). Before today, Tyler Walker has been getting shelled. He's been hanging his slider and his velocity hasn't been there. Today's outing showed the promise that came with Walker pitching 12 scoreless innings from the pen to start last season. His fastball was up around 95 mph and his sinker/slider was biting below the strike zone.


Overall, a good way to wrap up the week for the Giants with an 8-6 win over the Rockies. Tucker felt right at home at Coors but don't expect much more power out of his bat unless a mountain grows under San Diego overnight and lifts it a mile above sea level. I wasn't too pleased with Benitez' outing today but all any good fan can do is hope that he'll find his slider once he gets out of the mile high air.


Next post will cover the Giant's starting rotation and its performance (or lack thereof) in the early stages of the 2005 season. Until then, it's Bye Bye Baby