NL West Showdown: Giants' Looking Forward... Maybe.

Oh, boyohboyohboyohboyohboy....

As the regular season dwindles down to its final moth, many division races are just now starting to heat up. Probably the most exciting one is the N.L. West.

With San Diego leading the pack for almost the entire season (somehow), it appears that their first place spot is quickly running from the palm their hand. The Giants have been hot enough to climb back to only 2 games behind the Padres and they don't look to be slowing down.

While the Padres are recovering from a recent 10-game losing streak, the Giants have won 7 of their last 10 games, with all of those wins against division rivals: the Rockies, Dodgers and Diamondbacks.

The Giants next series will be their biggest of the season so far, as they prepare to play in San Diego against the hated Padres for a four-game series. Oh, joy.

Before you start bouncing off the walls due to the joy of having potential joy in the fact the giants can take first place this weekend, lets look at some dreaded statistics:

The Giants are 2-9 against the Padres this season. Think that's bad? The Giants are 1-4 against the Padres at Petco Park. 

Ouch.

What's worse is that they have only scored 12 total runs in those 5 games, that's only 2.4 runs/game. So now we can't produce any runs at Petco Park, let alone against the Padres pitching staff. 

Great, that makes this series look awful, but should we look at it as a losing series?

Absolutely not. The Giants have won more games lately by scoring more runs and putting up great pitchers on the mound, while the Padres have been losing to teams like Arizona, Colorado and Philadelphia. Two of those teams are well out of a playoff spot. 

Obviously these next four days will be the ultimate test for the Giants, as they are forced to face their fears and play the Padres... gulp, at Petco Park. 

May they pitch diligently, swing a mighty stick, and dash around the bases hopefully landing on that sacred home base many, many times, for it may be the Giants only hope for playoff pandemonium.

Buckle up, strap in, and hold on tight, folks; it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Go Giants.

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet

There are 5 main tools a baseball player can use in a game: pitching, fielding, hitting for power, hitting for average and speed.

The giants have one of the best pitching staffs in the league, along with one of the top defensive corps in the national league. This season they added power and average with Huff, Burrell, Torres and Buster Posey, but their speed was lacking.

Before we list what type of speed the Giants had, lets start off with importance of a speedy baseball team.

Obviously speed affects base running and steals, which in turn increases the amount of runners in scoring position, thus creating more runs. Bottom line: speed produces more runs. Another factor influenced by speed is fielding.

Look at Andres Torres, he is a great fielder due to his quick jumps and long ranges, all of that relies on his speed. The quicker your fielders the more doubles caught or blooper singles taken away, which prevents the opposing team from scoring more runs.

So not only does speed affect the amount of runs scored in a game, it can affect the number of runs allowed, thus having a major role in the outcome in games.

Last night we witnessed the giants newest weapon of speed: Darren Ford. The 24-year-old was brought up in the middle of last nights game and was used as a pinch runner in the 8th inning. Why would they pinch run him? Well his stats show he is deadly on the basepaths.

In 2006 to start of his first professional season, he stole 18 bases in only 61 games, not too bad. The next year he played in 125 games and stole 69 bases. He was 2nd in all the minor leagues in stolen bases. In 2007 he stole 67 bases, and in 2008 he took 62. But thats not all, in 2009 he was a starter for the San Jose Giants hitting .300, 9 home runs, 50 RBI's and 35 stolen bases. This season, in AA Richmond, he already has 37 stolen bases.

So its clear he can run around the bases pretty well, and he has helped drive the SJ Giants to a very successful season with his speed. His fielding has also been very decent, he gets to balls sooner and commits less errors than slower players.

Last night it was obvious that Ford's speed helped the Giants get a win. In fact, if Ford wasn't so fast, that game could have turned out very different for the Giants.

Let's hope Ford can run loose for the Giants in the playoffs, where every base and runner in scoring position matters.

Go Giants.