Timmy and the maligned O get it done, although Brian Wilson's performance made me feel inclined to retract my previous statement about the overall performance of the bullpen.
Wilson's very shaky save yesterday (3 hits, 1 intentional pass, one long 2 run Barmes HR and mere inches from a game-tying homer from Holliday) does nothing to allay fears of his long-term viability as a closer. Two issues continue to rear their ugly head - his inability to put people away (he had Barmes 0-2 and Holliday 1-2) and his control with anything beyond the fastball.
As we saw with the Pat Burrell game-winner a couple of weeks back and Clint Barmes last night, major league hitters will tee off on a fastball, no matter how fast it is, once they can time it.
Is this inability to put people away and ongoing control issues a function of bad coaching?
The answer: an absolute and categorical "duh". In fact, this site was almost firedaverighetti.com. But I digress.
In his place, welcome Travis Denker. You may remember the 22 year old infielder as the PTBNL in the Mark Sweeney to Dodgers deal last year. The guy has shown a little something with the bat but I sincerely hope they intend to give the guy a shot in terms of regular playing time. Not starting for almost two weeks (like Velez) won't cut it.
Although primarily a second baseman, the Giants did try him out at third in spring training, for what it's worth.
Huh - the Giants just sent down a young (albeit maddening) position player with promise and called up an even younger one. What's going on here?
- From within the Velez piece by Schulman, a good blurb on new arrival Alex Hinshaw - hadn't put this together yet myself:
Hinshaw's start: Alex Hinshaw, the 25-year-old left-hander called up to replace the injured Merkin Valdez, has had quite a start to his major-league career. He has struck out four of his first six batters. They include Jim Thome and Todd Helton, two of the best left-handed hitters in the game who deserve to be at least in the conversation about the Hall of Fame.By the way, where the heck are all these young players coming from? Do we have a scouting department somewhere I haven't been aware of?
Hinshaw said the experience "is kind of surreal, because you're facing (possible) Hall of Famers, but you've still got to get ahead and throw strike one. Initially, when you first toe the rubber, it's always a jittery feeling because I only have a limited amount of major-league experience. When it comes down to it, you've still got to make your pitches."
Hinshaw caught Thome looking at a curveball and Helton at a tailing fastball.
- And lastly, something to file in "Too Far Away to Worry About - Yet": Fred Lewis hit a monstrous homer that proved vital in the top of the ninth. He also hit for the cycle there on Mother's Day 2007. In fact, if I'm Fred Lewis, I wouldn't mind setting up camp there once I hit free agency. Check out his numbers at the Silver Bullet.
Amazingly, he actually hits better (in a much smaller sample size, granted) at the other bandbox in Cincy, where he has a 1.625 OPS with a .625 average.
Comment-starter: On a scale of Rickey Henderson to Bill Walsh, how good of a coach is Dave Righetti? Is it fair to blame him for the staff's struggles or is it more of a matter of what he has in terms of talent? Leave your thoughts!
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I've been waiting for someone to start the fire Dave Righetti bandwagon, cuz I'm jumping on. I blame all of our pitching woes on him. We consistently have had young pitchers come up and flame out (even Jason Schmidt and yes, Robbbbb Nen) over the last 7 years. It's maddening, frustrating, and frankly unforgivable. These guys are pitching too many innings, too often, and have never, ever had the ability to adjust while on the mound to trouble situations. Get the guy outta here. Can't Botch bring in someone good, like whomever the A's have had all these years? He made Barry freakin Zito a Cy Young winner...
I think Righetti is too stubborn with his refusal to consider pitch counts, especially with the Giants young arms. It's a little maddening. But I don't know about axing him. He's helped develop some nice talent and I don't think this conversation even exists if the Giants are averaging 2 more runs per ballgame.
C'mon, between Sanch, Lincecum, Cain, Lowry, and maybe Correia, we have one of the best, if not the best, homegrown staff in baseball. And what would Zito be like now if Righetti would've been allowed to alter his mechanics like he tried to last Spring?
No, firing Righetti would be a reactionary move in my opinion.
The Giants had the 3rd worst bullpen in the league last year, and seeing as they did little to nothing to improve upon that performance, it should come as no surprise that they are finally living up to their usual standards of suckdom. I mean, why on earth does Tyler Walker keep ending up in a Giants uniform? Does he come with a complementary bottle of Minwax™ for the whole clubhouse? With the bullpen pitching over their heads for the first month and a half of the season, the Giants were remaining dangerously close to that much-heralded standard of mediocrity (.500 ZOMG). Now, with nothing but two reliable starters (Sanchez just ain't there yet) and a lineup that is worse than slavery, we can fully embrace that 101 loss season we've all been waiting for.
P.S. Mike Piazza voted for Bush in '00 and '04 because cock was not on the ballot.
"Worse than slavery" - nice.
Mr. Lomez - interesting that you would say firing Righetti is reactionary. Does that imply that you think he's done a good job prior to this season?
Not meant to be accusatory but just want to know. There's no denying the fact that some very good pitchers have come up while he's been the coach, so it's a counterexample worth discussing.
I would say that Sanchez may hurt the case more than he helps, mostly because of how inconsistent he is and his general demeanor on the mound. Factors like emotion and consistent release point are ones I would link to poor coaching.
Reactionary, as in, losses start piling up so on whom does the pointed finger fall? Righetti? Why? Is he responsible for the Giants current state? That's arguable, but if we're just gonna start firing people why not start with hitting coach Joe Lefebvre?
"Does that imply that you think he's done a good job prior to this season?"
In short, yes. I would argue that the bullpen issues are a personnel thing, not a coaching thing. The only pro-active move the Giants ever made in regards to the pen was the Benitez signing, which obviously was Sabean's decision. If you look around baseball you see that bullpen's in general are a year-to-year crapshoot. Minus an elite closer no team I can think of, except maybe the Padres, have had any bullpen consistency over multiple seasons. To put the bullpen on Righetti is unreasonable.
And I don't know how you argue against the Giants stable of young, homegrown pitching. Sanchez has less than 150 total MLB IP, that's not even a full season's worth, and he's already coming into his own as a very good, potentially elite SP. Righetti deserves credit for the rapid acceleration of Lincecum, Cain, and Sanchez.
Ultimately, I think there is an inherent problem in evaluating a pitching coach because it's impossible to know for what exactly he is and is not responsible for. But firing him because of a bad bullpen does not seem right to me.
Lastly, I'll concede that maybe a wholesale regime change is in order. Bochy goes, Sabean goes, Righetti goes, Lefebvre goes, and on down the chain. But short of that, I'd say that Righetti is the one guy from the above list that i actually have some confidence in.
Now let's see if Wilson can close out this freaking AWESOME comeback! Humm, Holm. Way to get big son.
Ultimately I think there is an inherent difficulty in
Apologies for the grammar errors. Trying to watch the game and type simultaneously is not recommended.
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