Pre Game Nuggets 5/5/10

Happy Cinco De Mayo Everyone! Without much further ado, here is todays starting lineup!

CF Rowand
RF Torres
3B Sandoval
C Molina
1B Huff
SS Uribe
LF DeRosa
2B Downs
P Zito

Note: Bochy is trying Torres in the 2 hole now, with Renteria day to day the 2 hole has been a revolving door, for the majority of the season. I really wish they would commit to Bowker and leave him there.

Zito tries to prove his hot start is legitimate with each start.

Pre Game Nuggets 4/2/10

Notes:

Rowand’s back, to claim his lead off spot and occupy center field.

Bowker is being moved in front of Sandoval to try and jump start his bat.

Huff returns to his cleanup spot after hitting a splash hit yesterday.

Whiteside get the start as Sanchez is on the mound today.

Rowand CF
Bowker LF
Sandoval 3B
Huff 1B
Uribe SS
Schierholtz RF
Whiteside C
Downs 2B
Sanchez SP

Pre Game Nuggets

Lefty Jamie Moyer is on the mound for the Phils’

Roy Halladay is one of four teams he hasn’t beaten in his career.

Todd Wellmeyer could be in hot water if he doesn’t have a particularly good outing.

Schierholtz gets the start vs the lefty Moyer, it’s starting to get maddening that Bochy called John Bowker the starting right fielder, but doesn’t get any at bats against lefties?

CF Torres
SS Renteria
3B Sandoval
1B Huff
LF DeRosa
C Molina
2B Downs
RF Schierholtz
P Wellemeyer

Barry Zito’s sizzling start!

As we all know by now Giants lefty Barry Zito is scorching. After his first ten strikeout performance since July 5th of 2008 it got me thinking, what’s going on?  First things first, I will say for the most part the majority of Zito’s components suggest he will come down to Earth, at the same time there’s also reason to expect Zito to have the best season he’s had as a Giant. The only problem about Zito’s performance to date is, the fact that he hasn’t given up a home run. Now this sounds shocking and even absurd but he hasn’t up a home run in 27 innings. The problem with this is Zito averages about .93 home runs per nine innings. Now this isn’t the worst thing in the world but his low era and even fip for that matter (Field independent performance, another tool to try and more accurately determine a pitchers performance) would be much more reliable indicators going forward if Zito had given up at least a home run. The truth of the matter is Zito doesn’t strikeout enough batters to get away with his traditionally high home run rate. It’s not all bad, there are some great things Zito is doing to ensure a successful season. On one hand he is walking only 2.63 batters per nine innings which is absolutely fantastic. This is well below his career average of 3.7 batters over the same time frame. Is this sustainable? This is a much harder question to answer because Zito’s walk rates tend to fluctuate more than home run rates. And finally the one thing that has been absolutely integral for Zito’s success so far this season is……his line drive rate! The more line drives you give up, the less successful you will be. Zito only has a line drive rate of 13.7 which is well below his career rate of 19.9. This is great, as a pitcher that doesn’t strikeout a ton of batters you want to give your defense a chance to turn balls put into play as outs. Out of any type of ball put into play, groundballs, flyballs, line drives the least likely to result in an out is a line drive. He also has a 43.8 ground ball rate compared to his career average of 37.8, this is great news. There are clearly some great indicators that Zito can take another step forward in his Giants career. Before everyone starts jumping up in down, I must remind everyone this is only 27 innings of baseball were talking about. With that being said, I like what I see out of Zito thus far and it’s reasonable to expect Zito to improve upon his strong 2009 season.

Pre Game Nuggets 4/25/10

Before I post the lineup a few notes.

Giants go for the first sweep of St. Louis at home since 2001.

Juan Uribe scratched from the lineup but still listed as a reserve.

Travis Ishikawa gets his first start of the year.

This also marks the first time former Giant Brad Penny has come back to San Francisco

LF Velez
SS Renteria
3B Sandoval
C Molina
2B DeRosa
1B Ishikawa
RF Schierholtz
CF Torres
P Cain

Post Game Nips 4/24/10

Note: I’m sorry I didn’t post any pre game nips as I was tending to some things that needed to be done. On that note …..onto the show!

I’m starting to get used to saying “Barry Zito Pitched his heart out.” And you know what, I like it! Right now the first four starters in the rotation are absolutely on. I’m pleased to announce the Cardinals have only scored one run in 18 innings against the Giants so far. We have already won the series and go for the sweep tomorrow with none other than Matt Cain on the bump. Slowly but surely the heartache meter is starting to slow down, and day by day I need smaller doses pepto bismal than the day before. But I must remind everyone, we are living dangerously, very dangerously. Winning game by a score of 2-0 or 3-2 gets old really fast. Don’t get me wrong a win is a win but it would be nice to have a win where Kruk and Kuip don’t have to stress us out until the twenty seventh win. It makes for dramatic theatre but it’s also easy to get your heart end up in your throat. Zito’s off to a great start but can he sustain it? That and much more on tomorrow’s blog. Until then, sleep easy.

Pre Game Nuggets 4/23/10

I won’t be able to post today’s lineup because I’ll be at the game! I’ll post pictures, insights ect tomorrow. Today’s matchup features Tim Lincecum going up against Jaime Garcia of the Cardinals. Normally the odds would be stacked in the Giants favor, this however is not the case this go around. With Rowand on the DL and Derosa supposedly day to day the lineup is chalk full of matchups that potentially favor the Cards’. With Velez and Torres o Velez and Shierholtz as the likely replacements for the two right handed hitters, the Cardinals will be able to exploit the weakness of the Giants to hit quality left handed pitching. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but with Rowand on the DL for at least the rest of April and Derosa’s timetable not certain it becomes a problem. The easiest way to solve this problem would be to call up Boster Posey from Frenso. In Fresno the catcher is hitting .373 and a ridiculous .455 against left handed pitching. Posey has the versatility to play 1st and catch, which again is great given Aubrey Huff’s struggles against lefties. While it’s true if he were called up now he would almost certainly achieve super two status. Which is really a technical way of saying he would go through arbitration four times, as opposed to three. The Giants are in a tough place, they must decided whether Posey’s impact could vault them potentially vault them into the playoffs in a tough NL West race or, decided if that extra year of arbitration and most likely millions of dollars is enough of a reason to delay Posey’s Major League career.