Giants Sunday Recap

*This week's recap is a summary of the Giants pros, cons or just anything worth mentioning. 

The Giants have had a rough week, and thanks to these guys:

That week got worse.

Both Lincecum and Zito imploded on the mound surrendering run after run to their opponents. With the season close to an end, and the Giants still out of a playoff spot, there is not time for "rough weeks." 

After going 2-4 last week, the Giants are just scraping to get 3-3 this week. They played a hot Cincinnati team and took 2 of 3, but then dropped two games to an inconsistent Arizona team. What makes things worse is that they didn't just "drop" two games against Arizona, they were absolutely crushed by an awful team that is the D-backs.

Series Reviews:

After hitting the ball very well the first two games at home against the Reds, they won without any problems with the scores 11-2 and 16-5. The next game they pulled a miraculous comeback from a 10-1 deficit only to lose 12-11 in extra innings. That series was a great boost for confidence as they gathered up 38 runs and 51 hits as Pablo Sandoval, Juan Uribe, Andres Torres and Freddy Sanchez lit up their bats to produce most of the Giants offense.

The next series was not so fun.

Arizona's Barry Enright out dueled the struggling Tim Lincecum as the diamondbacks shut out the Giants with a score of 6-0. Just a mess. The next day things got worse. The G-men never had a chance as Barry Zito gave up 6 runs in the top of the first and the D-backs never looked back. The final score was 11-3 as the Giants could not find a way to beat them until the next day, where they barely squeezed out a 9-7 victory thanks to brilliant pitching by Matt Cain and Brian Wilson. 

Poll Summary:

Well most of you out there did not vote for who you think this weeks MVP is, but those who did thought Buster Posey was the deserving candidate. Since this poll started last week, Buster has been the front runner all along. He had 12 hits in 43 at-bats with 4 doubles a home run and 6 rbi's. He has missed the past 2 games due to a muscle strain in his left forearm, but he should be back next week. 

The next poll is: What is you're ideal Giants outfield lineup?

The poll will be up until next Sunday, so please vote and I'll write about it in next weeks recap.

*If you have any ideas as to what you would like this Wednesday's Walk-off topic to be about, please E-mail me at russellapreston@gmail.com and I will take any idea under consideration.

  

Walk-Off Wednesday: The New Boys in Town

Pablo Sandoval and Freddy Sanchez born anew, complete the bro-five.

*Time for a new addition to "Walk-Off Wednesday," where we take a close look at a new focal point of the San Francisco Giants:

The Giants are different, they have changed. There is must be something in the water that they are drinking because they have truly changed. The reason?

There are some new boys in town.

They have never hit, fielded nor pitched quite like they do right now. Sure, they added Jose Guillen, Cody Ross, Pat Burrell and Mike Fontenot mid-season to provide depth on the field. Heck, they even brought up Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey in July to help carry the load, but that is not the type of "new addition" that's been drinking the kool-aid the past couple of weeks. 

Nope, instead we will take a glance at the two of the hottest hitters on the team: Pablo Sandoval and Freddy Sanchez.

Okay, So before we start breaking down stats and analyzing stats, we have to accept that their season is way worse than what we had anticipated. Some experts had predicted Pablo to hit 30 home runs, bat over .300 and bring in 90 RBIs, while Sanchez to hit over 10 home runs, while hitting over .300 and 60 RBIs. 

Currently they are hitting 11/.271/56 and 3/.278/32 respectively, but most of those offensive numbers are credited to their performances lately.

The "Panda" Sandoval has been hitting the ball very well over the past couple weeks, like the fact that he is hitting for an average of .333 since August 14th. So what makes him a hot hitter? The other fact that he's hitting like he did all of last season, racking up 3 doubles, 4 home runs and 10 RBIs in the past 10 games. He has been the main force that has been driving this offense, and some believe he is back to his old self once again. 

The other guy swinging a hot bat, Freddy Sanchez, has been raking up all kinds of hits in the past few weeks, let alone the past couple of games. In the past 10 games, he's batting an average of .444, with one home run, 3 RBIs and scoring a total of 8 runs. For a second baseman, that's a very solid, consistent shot in the arm this Giants offense has been dreaming of.  

So, with a team with already reliable and consistent hitters such as Buster Posey, Aubrey Huff and Andres Torres, a couple more offensive producers and run-making machines are extremely timely. 

The Giants have been average in the past 10 games, winning 5 games, and losing the other 5. But what makes them impressive is that they played against the Padres, the Phillies, the Cardinals and the Reds in that span, all of which are serious contenders in the N.L. Six of those ten games were also away from home, playing in contenders ballparks, another uphill challenge.

The Giants have not slowed down against these juggernaut teams, scoring an average of 4.9 runs a game over that stretch. What's surprising, is that 1.3 of those runs were brought in by Sandoval or Sanchez. When two guys on your team are scoring over a fourth of your teams total production, they must be doing something right.

So let's give Freddy and Pablo some props for turning things around at the right time of the season. For they have gotten out of their miserable slumps once again to push the Giants to contention, and hopefully the playoffs.

New Blog Format!

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd inform you all about the new weekly layout I plan on posting for the rest of this season.

 First of all, we will have a weekly poll on the right side bar. I will post a question and its up to you guys to vote. For instance, I have posted a Week MVP poll for this week, vote on who you think the best Giant has been this past week.

I will then write up a Week in Review post every Sunday night to recap the goods/bads in that past week. This will be less of an article, and more of summary points/ key notes of the week.

Then, every Wednesday I will try to run a featured article or story to stir up some conversation, and to top it off I will be posting Press releases or links to any new information on the Giants.

So these are some things to look forward to, and go Giants.

-Rusty

Posey's Odds For Rookie of the Year

"Buster Posey...better than you."

The San Francisco Giants have not won the National League Rookie of the Year award since John Montefusco won it in 1975, 35 years ago. The team has come close  in '89 when, then rookie, Will Clark fueled this team to win the N.L. pennant only to lose to the Oakland A's in the "Bay Bridge Series."

Today we check in on our newest candidate, Buster Posey.

Being brought up much later than other rookies this season, Posey has out performed a number of them already. He currently leads all rookies (who have had more than 220 at-bats) in batting average (.345) and on-base percentage (.382). He ranks 7th in home runs, and 5th in runs batted in despite only playing 64 games this season.

Big name rookies such as Jason Heyward and Stephen Strasburg may be well known, but they pose no huge threat to win the award. Heyward has an batting average of .262, with only 4 more home runs than Buster, and he started his season on opening day as a starter for the Braves. Strasburg is good, but not good enough to be considered the top N.L. rookie. He has an ERA of 3.07 and he only has 8 starts this season, not nearly enough of a sample size to count as a legitimate season.

Other rookies that can take this award from Posey's grasp are Tyler Colvin from the Cubs, Ike Davis of the Mets, or Gaby Sanchez from the Marlins. All, much like Jason Heyward, have high home run and RBI numbers, but have low batting averages and on-base percentages.

The only way Buster can stand out even more from the rest is if he can become the savior of this team, and pull them through a successful playoff bid. That means he has clutch hits, productive at-bats, and he becomes the main force of this teams offense.

The only other rookie on a potential playoff team is Jason Heyward, as he and the Braves sit atop the N.L. East by 2.5 games. By the time September comes around, this could be a flat out sprint between the star Jason Heyward, and our very own Buster Posey.

45 games remain this season. That's 45 gut wrenching, tear jerking, pure exciting games. 45 games on a level of adrenaline San Francisco hasn't experienced since Will "The Thrill" Clark threw champagne around the locker room in 1989.

These next 45 games are for Buster to send a message to the rest of the league: "I'm Buster Posey, and I am better than you."

Giants Sweep Dodgers, Not Far From First Place

The San Francisco Giants got what they deserved: a great series and momentum into August. They have defeated the dodgers three straight games at home to complete the sweep for the first time against L.A. since 2004.

On Friday, the Giants won a thrilling 6-5 victory by flexing their offense and squeezing away with the W. Aubrey Huff stole the game, hitting safely 3 out of four at-bats while driving in 3 runs including a home run. Juan Uribe also contributed a solo homer of his own, and Tim Lincecum pitched a terrific 7 innings allowing 2 earned runs, 7 hits while punching out 9.

The next day, as the Giants front office raced around making phone calls finding a few players to acquire before the trade deadline, the team participated in an exciting 2-1 victory over the Dodgers to win game 2 of the 3-game series.

Pat Burrell hit a clutch 2-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to take a 2-1 lead into the ninth. Barry Zito didn't pitch long enough to earn the win, but he had a great 7-inning outing, allowing just 3 hits and one run as he struck out 6. Guillermo Mota closed the game against his former team due to Brian Wilson sitting out for experiencing back spasms.

Lastly, the Giants won the final game of the series with a final score 2-0 to sweep the dodgers for the first time since 2007. Matt Cain had never earned a win against the hated rivals until today's game. He pitched a gem, lasting 7.2 shutout innings, allowing just 4 hits, one walk and throwing 7 strikeouts.

Edgar Renteria couldn't have a more perfect time to hit his first triple of the season, bringing in Burrell and Rowand to score the only runs of the game. Newly acquired Javier Lopez pitched to one batter in the eighth to make his Giants debut, which resulted in a ground ball back to him to make the easy throw to first.

Brian Wilson made things final in the ninth as he returned from injury striking out 2 batters and flying out Matt Kemp to right for the final out. He now has 31 saves this season, leading all closers.

The Giants had a sold out series for the largest attendance this season with 128,651 tickets sold. Every one of those fans sat on the edge of their seats the entire series as there was plenty of action all weekend long.

The Giants climbed up a game to the Padres, who have been struggling lately much like the Dodgers and Rockies. They are now 1.5 games back and they hope to keep their winning ways going as they play another division opponent next week.

Check out the Giants take on the Rockies for a 2-game series on Tuesday and Wednesday on the road. Pitching match-up on Tuesday will be Jonathan Sanchez (7-6, 3.54) against Aaron Cook(4-7 5.08).